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Build a Better Bulb for a $10 Million Prize – NYTimes.com
he ubiquitous but highly inefficient 60-watt light bulb badly needs a makeover. And it could be worth millions in government prize money — and more in government contracts — to the first company that figures out how to do it.
Right now, that company could be Philips, the Dutch electronics giant. The company announced on Thursday that it had submitted the first entry for the L Prize, an Energy Department contest that will award up to $10 million to the first person or group to create a new energy-sipping version of the most popular type of light bulb used in America.
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Chemical Time Bomb in Ukraine Endangers 7 Million People
The health of at least 7 million inhabitants in Moldavia and Ukraine is seriously threatened by a single stock of old pesticides.
This has been reported by the International HCH and Pesticides Association (IHPA). According to the organization the EU must act as fast as possible to disarm this ‘biggest chemical time bomb of Europe’.
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Commerce Secretary Unveils Plan for Smart Grid Interoperability
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today unveiled an accelerated plan for developing standards to transform the U.S. power distribution system into a secure, more efficient and environmentally friendly Smart Grid and create clean-energy jobs.
The draft of the report is available at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_interoperability.pdf.
Produced by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the approximately 90-page document identifies about 80 initial standards that will enable the vast number of interconnected devices and systems that will make up the nationwide Smart Grid to communicate and work with each other. These standards will support interoperability of all the various pieces of the system—ranging from large utility companies down to individual homes and electronic devices. The report also lists a set of 14 “priority action plans” that address the most important gaps in the initial standard set.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.