IDEA ICON

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When a cartoon character get's an idea sometimes they get a little light bulb over there head. I haven't seen this iconography used in a while. I'm wondering if it were used in a modern cartoon, game, or etc. would the incandescent bulb be replaced with a fluorescent bulb or do you think the old icon will stay the same? Personally, I think it should change with the times.
Why should it when it's still recognisable? It's like the answer icon on a lot of phones are still the old phone icon. Nobody questions it because it's become more than just 'that thing'. It's now a symbol synonymous with 'phone' in general. Besides, don't know about you but I still have normal light bulbs. They ain't exactly gone yet, dude.
author=Liberty
Why should it when it's still recognisable? It's like the answer icon on a lot of phones are still the old phone icon. Nobody questions it because it's become more than just 'that thing'. It's now a symbol synonymous with 'phone' in general. Besides, don't know about you but I still have normal light bulbs. They ain't exactly gone yet, dude.


Well I like the old phone icon and don't have a problem with that staying. But, basically my reason for wanting to see the new light bulb instead of the old one is because the new ones are better for the environment. And it could be a subtle way of showing that people should be more concerned with environmental protection.

But, here's perhaps a more direct reason for switching the light bulb idea icon. By using the fluorescent bulb's imagery it shows an idea that's better and new. Whereas using the incandescent bulb icon nowadays might feel like what ever idea that character is having might not be a good idea.

I realize some people still have the old bulbs but they are being phased out around the world for good reason.

Anyway, despite all this I do see where you are coming from though cause at the end of the day you can say that the old bulb is more of just a symbol now that is synonymous with having an idea.
...you do realise that there are versions of the new, enviro-friendly light-bulb that look exactly the same as the old one, right? I doubt they're ever gonna go out of 'fashion', so to speak. Again, it has succeeded beyond being a 'thing' and become a symbol instead. Thus, I doubt it will ever be changed. I mean, we still have floppy disc symbols, still call movies 'videos' and still call pdf book files 'books' so...
author=Liberty
...you do realise that there are versions of the new, enviro-friendly light-bulb that look exactly the same as the old one, right?


Can't say I've ever seen a fluorescent bulb that has that shape or are you talking about LED or some other type?
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32388
Dude, anything that contains mercury is NOT environmentally friendly. Maybe as a humorist commentary on modernization someone could do a modern lightbulb over a modern cartoon character.
author=pianotm
Dude, anything that contains mercury is NOT environmentally friendly. Maybe as a humorist commentary on modernization someone could do a modern lightbulb over a modern cartoon character.

"Using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is an effective way to reduce energy consumption and prevent greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change.

CFLs use up to 75 percent less energy than traditional incandescent light bulbs, last up to ten times longer and can save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

The use of less electricity, in turn, puts less demand on power plants, thus reducing the amount of greenhouse gases, mercury, and other pollutants released into the air. Each CFL can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its operating life.

Using CFLs can also help to reduce cooling costs in your home. They emit about 75 percent less heat than traditional bulbs. About 90 percent of the energy emitted by incandescent bulbs is heat, compared with the 30 percent released by CFLs.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a CFL, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, reduce more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of more than 800,000 cars."

That's a qoute from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency


They look basically the same, except not see-through. Why change the icon again?
Alright, Liberty fair enough you win. I really didn't know that they could make fluorescent bulbs that look like the old ones so I guess that works.
-Insert icon of lightbulb being smashed to bits-
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32388
author=RedMask
author=pianotm
Dude, anything that contains mercury is NOT environmentally friendly. Maybe as a humorist commentary on modernization someone could do a modern lightbulb over a modern cartoon character.
"Using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is an effective way to reduce energy consumption and prevent greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change.

CFLs use up to 75 percent less energy than traditional incandescent light bulbs, last up to ten times longer and can save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

The use of less electricity, in turn, puts less demand on power plants, thus reducing the amount of greenhouse gases, mercury, and other pollutants released into the air. Each CFL can prevent more than 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its operating life.

Using CFLs can also help to reduce cooling costs in your home. They emit about 75 percent less heat than traditional bulbs. About 90 percent of the energy emitted by incandescent bulbs is heat, compared with the 30 percent released by CFLs.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a CFL, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, reduce more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of more than 800,000 cars."

That's a qoute from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency


Smdh. Can't you come up with an original thought of your own without having to resort to a bureaucratic agency totally beholden to lobbyists, has a profound record of turning a blind eye to environmental violations? Typical. Instead of demonstrating an education, you copy and paste bullshit from an office that is famous for their lying bullshit. (Yes, you've insulted me.)

This is the lazy argument. What you're doing here is what people do when they don't want to have to think for themselves. I am confident that I can accurately call you a sheep. First, I'm not an idiot. I know these figures, so don't treat me like one. I'm not your child. I'm not developmentally disabled. I'm not your bitch.

Now, time to educate you:

Let's look at the hybrid Prius. It gets 50 miles to the gallon, owing to the fact that it combines battery power with with gas power. This should already be raising a red flag. The most fuel efficient standard cars have always generally gotten 35 to 40 miles to the gallon. 50 is a very small jump. It also has no storage space. Why? Because it needs that space for the huge fucking battery. Couples comparing between the Pontiac Sunfire (even smaller than the Prius) and the Toyota Prius note that moving from one apartment to the next takes two to three times as many trips for loading and unloading in the Toyota Prius. Seems like quite a waste of fuel. Perhaps they should have just rented a UHaul. Ah, but that would defeat the purpose of buying a hybrid. And what about that big honking battery? There is this lovely marketing campaign that tells you that you can recycle your battery and get that much off on your replacement (they have to be replaced every five years).

author=E-How
The NiCD battery is not as environmentally hazardous as it's electrolyte counterpart.


Sadly, Greenpeace (my least favorite environmental group: I'm a Sea Shepherd supporter) disagrees. The production of the battery uses Nickel-Cadmium, and alloy that when smelted produces devastating acid rains.

author=Greenpeace
"The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside."


The argument is that Prius has only been around since 1997 and the plant in question has been around for over a hundred years. Again, lazy argument. Don't make excuses. If a company really intends to be environmentally friendly then it is incumbent upon them to seek environmentally friendly sources.

author=http://www.leftlanenews.com/study-prius-production-harmful-to-environment.html
But the car that has many other automakers green with envy may not be quite so green after all, at least not if you consider the full life cycle of the car, according to Toyota's recently released 2009 North America Environmental Report, as reported by Automotive News.


If you only look at the immediate use of the product, you're not green, you're just joining a trend. You're protecting the environment because it's fashionable to do so; not because you actually care.

Now let's look at your lightbulb.

author=http://talkingaboutgreen.com/cfls-%E2%80%93-great-for-you-bad-for-the-environment/
And, like any other glass bulb, they can break. If a bulb breaks in someone’s home, then there is a risk of mercury poisoning. If a CFL bulb breaks in the outside area, the environment is in danger.

Statistics show that only two percent of people dispose of these bulbs correctly. That means there are a lot of bulbs going into the trash. With all this mercury being just thrown away, it is harmful for our environment. Many people truly do not know that the spent CFL light bulbs need to be disposed of in a specified manner.


You see, I can quote statistics, too.

author=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23694819/ns/us_news-environment/t/shining-light-hazards-fluorescent-bulbs/
Since then, the bulbs — known as CFLs — have been revamped, and strict government guidelines have alleviated most of those problems. But while the bulbs are extremely energy-efficient, one problem hasn’t gone away: All CFLs contain mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause kidney and brain damage.

The amount is tiny — about 5 milligrams, or barely enough to cover the tip of a pen — but that is enough to contaminate up to 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, extrapolated from Stanford University research on mercury. Even the latest lamps promoted as “low-mercury” can contaminate more than 1,000 gallons of water beyond safe levels.


Here's your reality. Face it. Be a real environmentalist and stop depending on people's statistics. With respect to Penn and Teller, the marketing says it's green, but the reality says "BULLSHIT!"
I didn't come to this forum to make enemies so please don't insult me pianotm. I was not attempting to hurt your feelings I was just trying to explain things.
I would like to think we could argue this stuff and still be friendly I think of Liberty as a friend despite our disagreement and I don't see why we can't be friends either pianotm.

Anyway, not sure why that car was mentioned since I didn't bring that up. I see why you are concerned about people disposing of CFL's improperly but I would think that we could try to educate people on how to properly dispose of them. Perhaps, I'm being to optimistic?
Of course the light bulb thing is only a small step toward environment protection. Whats more important is switching to Solar and Wind power. So that we can stop using fossil fuels and reduce the CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

Again, I'm not trying to hate on anyone's argument. When I first came to this forum people were very friendly so I'm not interested in making enemies. I was just trying to have a friendly debate about whether a cartoon icon should be changed.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32388
No problem, I prefer to be friends; just remember, when someone makes an offhand comment, coming back with "That is a direct quote from the Illinois Evironmental Protection Agency," is usually going to met one of two ways: either the poster you're addressing won't bother, or he'll take your bait.

The the painful fact is that almost all of what we are exposed to is mass marketing. Companies selling "green" products aren't doing it to protect the environment: they're doing it to cash in on a trend in the consumer and there is almost nothing green about what they are selling. I mention hybrid cars, Prius specifically, because these are the literal poster child for "green" products that are anything but.

The lightbulbs are another issue. Congress pushed so hard to get these lightbulbs exclusively that they literally demolished part of the U. S. economy to do it (factories weren't converted, they were closed down and are now left moldering. The jobs didn't transfer over either. That action is the very image of waste.). There was certainly no concern for the environmental impact abandoning buildings and building new ones would have. The auto industry gets a crocheted shit pot for doing "green" business this way, too.

Now, educating people on how to properly dispose of these bulbs is a good idea, except that you can't make them care. Do you know how many recycling centers that deal with these lightbulbs are in South Florida? There is one in Miami-Dade County, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut. They only accept unbroken bulbs. There are some stores that will take them, too. Again, unbroken. What do you do with broken bulbs? Through them in the trash. So much for preserving the environment. Too far to drive (It's about an hour and a half for me, and I haven't found any stores that will take them...all that methane from driving spewing in the air...)? You have to set up recycle bins. Who picks them up? Florida Power and Light's own waste disposable services. Where do they take recyclables? To the landfill. How do I know? I asked the driver. All pickups whether from a regular garbage truck or a recycling truck go to the landfill. In blighted areas, they don't even provide recycling services. (Oh, they provide the bins and the trucks, but the trucks just pick up whichever bin is out there.) What do I do with my bulbs when they go out? So far, I've been storing the dead bulbs. When I'm in the area on drop off days, I'll bring them with me.

Bottom line: never trust what a talking head says. Throw all of that crap out. They're only trying to sell something. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions. So far, the greenest way I've found to light my house is by making my own candles. They don't take energy from the city grid, they are made from entirely nontoxic materials that have no impact on the environment, (unlike many commercially made candles). I've also been researching methods of turning my vehicle into an HHO hybrid. (Corn oil can also fuel a vehicle. There's a lot of ways to do this.)

Relying on corporate and government interests to help protect the environment is an exercise in futility. Going to Home Depot and buying light bulbs is not an act of conservation, no matter how much they say it is. Corporations don't care about your health. They don't care about the environment. They don't care about making your life better, and really, they have no intention of doing so. They only care about getting your dime, and they'll soar to any heights and sink to any low to do it.
Thanks for talking some sense, pianotm. As a side-note .. as someone who suffers from chronical poisoning, you do not want to have mercury in your homes. Ever.
Fun fact: there exists a lightbulb that has been burning for years. The wire is too thin by default in order to make it break sometimes. People will buy cheap stuff all over again, and it means more money longterm.

And by no means take it personal, Redmask. What we forget in these discussions is that it is not about the person behind it - but that many views are thrown about way too often for no good reason. And being unreasonable can be quite maddening.
It's not you, it's just the train of thought.

Also, while I agree that we need an energy shift, wind energy is by far the worst solution (except for fossil fules, perhaps), when it comes to emissions.
Don't go with "but it produces none", do not forget that they need to be built and maintained. As such, you need to produce large quantities of metal. Plus regular, expensive maintanance. They also have already reached their efficiency-cap. (I can't find the article in English.. but I honestly don't care enough to dig it up now). If I'm not mistaken they produce all in all more than other renewable energies.
And when it comes to CO2 alone .. nuclear is best. Ironically.
Acid rain is not coming from nuclear power plants, either .. They use water to cool their stuff down, that's what's coming out of their chimneys. It's coal and other fossile energies, but they form the the term power plants as well? I think.
It's only reasonable to be against power plants, but not for those reasons.

.. I digress. Sorry.

I agree that an icon can stay just the same as it has the same meaning and impact. Not to mention that the difference isn't that great anyway

I don't know much about cars. Never owned one although I'm thinking I should try to soon. Wouldn't a solar powered car work well assuming it can store the energy it gets during the day for use at night. I'm pretty sure people have tried developing Solar paneled cars. Of course it would need to be really good at storing energy cause sometimes you won't get much sunlight when you have stormy weather. Another downside would be that you cant use a garage but most homes don't have a garage anyway.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't bio-fuels for cars use up farm land that could be used for making people food.

Again just wanna point out I'm not a car guy I'm just thinking out loud.

I am aware that nuclear energy doesn't produce CO2 but for obvious reasons I wouldn't want more Nuclear plants being made.

Anyway getting back to the light bulb icon. I suppose in time even these current bulbs will also be outdated. So, I guess there's not much point in changing the icon. I've heard that LEDs are the way of the future but from what I read even those contain some harmful materials. Hopefully, some one will develop a safe bulb in the future.
On rare occasion I also use candles but the light they produce is pretty dim by comparison.
It is better to attempt something great and fail
than attempt to do nothing and succeed.
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