Brunnhilde

I too remember playing with the mercury from broken thermometers - it was a wonderful toy and gave me hours of amusement. Being ignorant, what harm have I acquired over seventy or so years of subsequent life? [and I have lots of amalgam tooth fillings too]. I think I am only averagely ga-ga for my age!

Normal

I like Brunnhilde's scientific terminology! Think I'll sign up for the averagely ga-ga 70-somethings too. Head full of amalgam, hands x-rayed for dermatitis, feet under the fun thing at the shoe store. Who know what all else?

Brunnhilde

... Oh Normal, I'd forgotten those machines that showed all the bones in your feet! And we were allowed to play in the "bomb damage" - bombed houses just at the end of our little road: one even had an old underground tunnel we used to explore! And ice-skating on ponds in Epping Forest, which itself was an amazing playground where we explored for hours on our own .... and cycling up and down the road with no clothes on ... those wartime years must have been some of the safest for children

marius

Inked, thanks for letting us know about mercury being in powder form! Even though they say the amount of mercury in CFL's is tiny, it bothers me and I had to really search to find why CFL's contribute *less* in greenhouse emissions than incandescent bulbs.

Here's an explanation (from http://www.beaconlighting.com.au/energy_faqs_answers.php) ...
"Do incandescent light bulbs contain mercury?
Incandescent light bulbs do not contain mercury however their use ultimately releases much more mercury into the environment throughout each bulb’s lifetime when compared to CFLs. This is because the biggest source of mercury pollution is coal-fired power plants.

Burning coal to illuminate incandescent lamps releases about five times the mercury into the environment compared to burning the same coal to illuminate CFLs. This is significantly more than the mercury contained in the CFL.
Ultimately, the net benefit of using a low energy CFL is positive, particularly if the mercury in lamp is recycled and kept out of landfills."

That change to CFL's sounds good in theory but recycling is an option in Missouri and most people opt not to do it.

And, Q! LOVE those water-lights. Unfortunately, marius does not like overhead lighting. Picky, picky, picky. Re your savings, maybe it makes a difference when ALL lights are CFL? Think we only have three. : )

As for the rest of you playing with mercury ... lol. And, Brunnhilde, very much enjoyed your stories of childhood. Cycling without clothes? Is that like skinny dipping in the air? Sounds great but we never tried it. Thanks for the smile.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Martellus Bennett, Carrie Underwood, Robin Thicke, Timbaland, Edie Brickell, Rod Woodson, Prince Edward, Neneh Cherry, Jasmine Guy, Laurel Clark, Sharon Stone, Dean Torrence, Chuck Norris, Alfredo Zitarossa, Harry Bertoia, Richard Haydn, Bix Biederbecke!!, Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Alexander III of Russia and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Dragon

That story about the water bottle lights was neat. It makes me wonder, do they simply reflect the light from outside? If so what happens on cloudy days or at night?

It's funny that we've been talking about CFL lights here because I had a scary experience with them yesterday. It was a dangerous situation but it wasn't the lights themselves which were the danger.
At work we have dropped ceilings with Flourescent lighting in them and we were changing the dead bulbs out. Now it doesn't help that we're all quite short and we don't have a proper ladder, just a step stool which is barely sufficient to get us up to the ceiling. My co-worker was up on the stool trying to get the cover off the light, this is the big, rectangular, hard plastic cover that are always such a pain to get out. Just as she was pulling it out I moved in to try to help her from below when it slipped out of her hand and the corner hit me right in the eye. Well, needless to say I dropped to my knees and snapped my hands up to my eye. I believe I made some sort of a squaky sound too, but I'll have to check with my co-workers to confirm that. I was very fortunate in that the plastic hit my lower eyelid and not the eyeball itself, though I do have some pretty nasty looking broken blood vessels on the sclera which make it look much worse than it actually is.
Well, we flushed my eye out with saline to make sure there was no dust and junk in there and the Vet had a look at it. He didn't think there was any real damage to the eye itself but I opted to go to the optometrist anyway. He confirmed there was no damage except to my eyelid, so big sigh of relief there. He also told me how lucky I was that it wasn't worse, but I was already feeling pretty darn fortunate.
So now I've got eye ointment and drops to use for the next month, just to be sure nothing bacterial sets up a home in there. I look like I've been in a fight too, so I'm explaining to everyone that comes in, No my fiancee doesn't beat me, it was that darn light fixture!
So be careful when changing those lights, you never know what could happen.

Lizzi

I'm glad you're OK, Dragon. I think this is a wake-up call for your boss...Get an adequate step-ladder and keep at in the clinic. There's no reason for that to happen again.

marius

Oh Dragon, so happy you are okay! We have a light like that in our kitchen. One time the cover fell and broke, and that was with someone 6'4" changing the lights! So, being tall isn't enough to adequately deal with those fixtures. My vote? Toss out the nasty lights and get something new. (But, since I don't ever change our lights, we'll probably keep them until spouse gets *really* fed up.) Anyway, take care and here's my word of wisdom: when you are refinishing two bookshelves and are tired, stop sanding! It is not fun to accidentally sandpaper the tip of your thumb. Tee hee.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to faithfool, Thora Birch, Lee Evans, Christopher Rice, Shawn Springs, Eric the Midget, Johnny Knoxville, Jesse Jackson Jr., Nina Hartley, Lady Chablis, Curtis Brown, Nina Hagen, Douglas Adams, Jerry Zucker, Bobby McFerrin, Antonin Scalia, Sam Donaldson, Rupert Murdoch, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Harold Wilson, Lawrence Welk!!!, Dorothy Gish and Umegatani Totaro II.

Dragon

Hmmm, Lizzi, I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to bring that up to him. We used to have a proper ladder but it mysteriously dissapeared right about the time our old boss retired. I have a sneaking suspiscion as to where it may have gone. We do have a real ladder in the far back area of the clinic but it's a full length one of about 15 or 20 feet tall (which is appropriate in that area) but I don't think we could get it through the door to the front area and even if we could we certainly couldn't set it up there.

Marius, sympathies on sanding your thumb, been there. It's not fun.

Dragon

Dragon is excited about doing a little more wedding dress shopping today. I think I've got my choice picked out, now I just have to ask the seamstress if she can add a little colour to it. If so, it will be perfect!

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Kenta Kobayashi, Shaun Rogers, Nidia Guenard, James Maritato, Tony Eveready, Darryl Strawberry, Marlon Jackson, Ron Jeremy, John Provost, James Taylor, Mitt Romney, Liza Minelli, Al Jarreau, Barbara Feldon!, Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas, Edward Albee, Harry Harrison, Mae Young, Wally Schirra!!, Jack Kerouac, Gordon MacRae, Elaine de Kooning, Googie Withers, Julia Lennon, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Gemma Galgani, Charles Boycott and Clement Studebaker.

matthew

Dragon... Surely a virgin bride such as yourself shouldn't have color added...

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Austin Scott, Kenny Watson, Akira Nogomi, Scatman John, Neil Sedaka, Al Jaffee, L. Ron Hubbard, Sammy Kaye, Home Run Baker, Percival Lowell, Daniel Lambert, Earl Grey and Pope Innocent XII.

Baldur

Every please remember to keep the victims of the tragedy in Japan in your prayers.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Sasha Grey, Ariel Rebel, Brianna Love, Eva Angelina, Taylor Hanson, George Wilson, Anthony Carelli, Johan Paulik, Jerry Greenfield, Rick Dees, Billy Crystal, Michael Martin Murphey, Eugene Cernan, Quincy Jones, Frank Borman, Diane Arbus, S. Truett Cathy, Hank Ketcham, Les Brown, Doris Eaton Travis, Albert Einstein, Casey Jones, King Umberto I of Italy and Johann Strauss Sr.

Dragon

Matthew, the dress is still white. Lol at "Virgin Bride" though.

Hazer

Yes Baldur. Praying for those reactors to stabilize although it seems that a melt down is inevitable. There is so MUCH to pray for. I am praying too that there will be some sort of closure for those still waiting to hear the fate of loved ones. Not knowing is so hard.

Login

There has been an unusually high surge in natural disasters and political upheaval in recent months, but the latest disaster in Japan is horrific ... and not over yet. Every nation with the ability to help them must do so.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Siobhan Magnus, Kevin Youkilis, Will.i.am!, Eva Longoria, Mark McGrath, Rockwell, Brett Michaels, Terence Trent D'Arby, Clay Matthews, Dee Snider, Ry Cooder, Sly Stone, Mike Love, Phil Lesh, Jimmy Swaggart, Judd Hirsch, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alan Bean, Norm Van Brocklin, Lawrence Tierney, Harry James, Macdonald Carey, Lightnin' Hopkins, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Jim Lightbody, Eduard Strauss, Lord Melbourne, Andrew Jackson and Emperor Shunzhi of China.