Bill to make incandescent light bulbs illegal

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Australia has already banned incandescent lightbulbs (not sure when the law goes into effect, though). In the end, the move from incandescent to fluorescent is an important one, and it's not as if people will be buying incandescent lightbulbs on the black market or something.

actually, I'll be stocking up on incandescent if they're outlawed.  Fluorescent bulbs put out too much RF for me to use in my planned observatory.

What about LED's.  Frankly, if their cost continues to come down, they, not CFL's will be what people will be using.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

True, but even short-term contact is unhealthy

Not terribly.  A brief exposure to a small amount of mercury isn't going to hurt much.  If you ensure that no further exposure occurs, your body is perfectly capable of purging itself of the mercury it absorbed.

When I was  a kid a friend of mine had a small bottle filled with mercury. We used to play with the stuff. We would pour it out of the bottle and push it around with out fingers. It hasn't hurt me any... well aside from that third eye. (Just kidding.)   I don't think it has caused any harm.

Yes it has harmed you.  How else do you explain being a libertarian?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Plus, I don't think I've seen a three-way CFL come on the market yet.  It's either "all" or "nothing," which really is a negative.

I have a three-way CFL right in the room I'm working in.  What you won't see is a CFL that works with a dimmer switch for the same reason as ordinary fluorescents.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Thanks Ernest.  I'll have to keep an eye out for one and see how it looks.

The one I have has a single coil like a regular CFL, but a much fatter base than a regular CFL.  It also was more expensive, but then so are incandescent 3-ways.  I'm guessing they have two or three ballasts instead of the usual one.  (Depending on whether it is feasible to use two ballasts in the same tube at the same time.)