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Comment by PhantomGremlin | Hacker News Reader

Sadly, the article didn't mention one big problem that will become worse and worse going forward: incandescent bulbs are on the way out.

I have a lava lamp that uses a 40 W "appliance light bulb" as a light and heat source. I haven't been able to buy a "frosted" appliance bulb in a number of years. I was able to buy a "clear" bulb a while ago, but the light isn't quite as pleasant from it. And in a few years I'm sure all incandescent bulbs will go the way of the Dodo bird.

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Awaiting the redesign that uses a heating coil combined with LED lights that can be tuned to any color.

This was my immediate thought a few paragraphs in. In my head, I was thinking, "That wastes a lot of energy, and you have to pick your color at purchase time." Why not formulate a combination of fluids that requires less heat to operate, and use a multicolor LED for infinite colors?

http://www.amazon.com/APPLIANCE-LIGHT-FROSTED-INCANDESCENT-V...

Thanks for the pointer. I see that the bulborama website (the actual seller on Amazon) has lots of obscure bulbs. I love LED lightbulbs, e.g. the Philips 60 W equivalents I've been buying. But for some applications the older incandescents and halogens are better.

I've had a rough design for something like this in my notes for a while now, under the heading "what do to when you can't buy incandescent bulbs anymore?" It's a serious concern for me as my collection of 30 or so Lava Lamps (from the 70s through modern ones) are far less interesting when they're cold.

Thanks for the reminder that I should pickup a few spares for my lava lamps while it's still at least somewhat possible to do so!

That is the fault of the EU, they banned sales of incandesent lightbulbs in order to be green. Meanwhile the retards move back and fourth between two cities every 6 months and fly all over Europe.

Is the word "retard" really a necessary or useful addition to this sentence? It is roughly the equivalent of calling someone "nigger" or "faggot" as an insult. When used in this way it is demeaning to the developmentally disabled.

I understand that this is somewhat common usage on the Internet at large, but I believe we'd all like to see Hacker News be better than the Internet at large. And, I'm sure you don't intend harm or insult anyway (other than the "people who move back and fourth between two cities"); but, the harm is there, whether intended or not.

Unless you are developmentally challenged you should not comment on whether things are offensive. Lets not turn HN into tumblr.

So, I can't call out racism when I see it? Can't call out misogyny in a conversation with only men in it? Can't call out oppressive language in any circumstance unless I am directly effected by it? No, I don't think that's the way it works, and it's not the way it should work. I hit the privilege lottery: I'm white, male, able-bodied, middle class, American. If I'm unwilling to call oppression what it is, I'm empowering the oppressive behavior.

I believe my request was polite and stated without malice or (much) judgment. I would ask you to consider where your desire to argue with that request comes from.

Given that Mathmos is in the UK, which is still part of the EU, at least last time I checked, how would they still be in business if bulbs suitable for lava-lamps were banned?

http://www.mathmos.com/astro-lava-lamp-bulb.html

There was an EU law on incandescent bulbs, but it only applies to general purpose lighting bulbs without reflectors, not special purpose bulbs, heat lamps, industrial or automotive.

I just realised something. The company name "Mathmos", according to the article, dates from 1992 or so.

Lava lamp blobs were a pretty big backdrop item in Barbarella [0], released 1968. The place where the seething blobs were prominent? "Matmos."

There has to be joke hidden in plain sight with the company name choice.

[0]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062711/

That's the fault of the French. Insert Monty Python joke here.

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