EDITORIAL: Light bulb law probably isn't a bright idea

South Carolina's feisty, anti-federalist streak is once again shining brightly for all to see.

As brightly as a good old-fashioned, energy-sucking incandescent light bulb, in fact.

The source is he inspiringly named "Light Bulb Freedom Act," a piece of legislation currently wending its way through the state house that seeks to illuminate and redress the ills of a recent light bulb bill passed by the U.S. Congress. The federal legislation, turned into law in 2007 by George W. Bush (who was not always thought of as the brightest of bulbs himself) calls for phasing out incandescent lights in the U.S., starting with 100-watt bulbs in 2012 and other, lesser wattages a few years after that. The old bulbs will be replaced by those cute little, curly cues known as compact fluorescent bulbs, of CFLs, or possibly by some other future technology, such as enhanced LED bulbs (which are currently on the market in a limited way but are quite expensive – more than $100 per bulb).

The point of banishing the stone age incandescent light bulb from American sockets is to save energy (and probably money). CFLs use about one seventh as much energy as an incandescent bulb and last thousands of hours longer.

Nobody really thinks saving energy is a bad idea, but some South Carolinians, and most importantly, state representative Bill Sandifer (R-Oconee), think the feds telling us what to do and when to do it is. Sandifer, a conservative (but not, apparently, of energy), is the chief sponsor of the Light Bulb Freedom Act. He told the Greenville News he drafted the legislation because he doesn't like CFL bulbs and because he wanted to stand up for states rights (again).

Sandifer's not a lone light in the light bulb darkness. U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina

is sponsoring a senate bill that would repeal the federal law, and legislators in three others states (Texas, Georgia, Minnesota) are waving the state's right bulb flag as well, having launched state legislation that's akin to Sandifer.

The Light Bulb Freedom Act is a clever bill in that it attacks the foundation of the federal bill, not its upper stories. It proposes to allow the sale of incandescent bulbs in South Carolina to continue – so long as the bulbs are all sold in state. That's a potential winner, legally anyway, because the feds' ability to give us orders stems in large part from the interstate commerce clause in the constitution. If there's no interstate commerce, then the clause is moot.

Whether Sandifer's cleverness is usefully employed is another matter.

There are problems with CFLs. The bulbs run on mercury, which is toxic metal. That makes both handling and disposal more complicated than with a conventional bulb. And CFLs are more expensive to buy, although they will actually save money over their life because of the savings in power useage.

But the savings in energy useage – enough to make a real dent in U.S. power needs – would seem to trump all that. Estimates do vary, but a recent United States Department of Energy report suggested that the almost 400 million CFLs shipped to the U.S. in 2007 would save 111 billion kilowatt hours, which is about what the state of South Carolina uses in a year.



Both patriots and tree huggers can rally round a technology that reduces the need for imported fuels in the country.

Yes, that will mean letting the feds tell us how to screw in a light bulb, or which one to screw in, but if we did otherwise the joke would be on us.

Red Hat alert RHSA-2011:0303-01 (kernel)

1. Summary:

Updated kernel packages that fix three security issues and several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,
which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability
from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390x, x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, noarch, x86_64

3. Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues:

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX
sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a
denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the
number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were
queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote
attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory
condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs()
function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has
the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information
leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and
Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will
be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the
References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical
Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

Red Hat alert RHSA-2011:0303-01 (kernel)

1. Summary:

Updated kernel packages that fix three security issues and several bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,
which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability
from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390x, x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, noarch, x86_64

3. Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues:

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX
sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a
denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the
number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were
queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote
attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory
condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs()
function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has
the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information
leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and
Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will
be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the
References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical
Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

Transphorm Looks To Save Lost AC/DC Energy

It's a fact of physics: There's AC and there's DC. And in the process of converting

electricity from one form to the other - going from the AC power that comes out of the

wall socket to the DC power that runs your laptop, for instance - significant energy is

lost. Maybe as much as 10 percent. How to overcome this waste? Use gallium nitride

instead of silicon in the power conversion modules. That's the solution that Google

Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and other investors are betting $38 million

on, backing a startup called Transphorm.

Transphorm says it has optimized gallium nitride for power electronics and "has

developed novel devices such as transistors, circuits, and complete modules that

include all the components needed to replace conventional systems," according to MIT's

Technology Review.

"The impact is huge - on the grid, on the planet," Tranphorm chief Umesh Mishra said at

an event at Google headquarters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "Whenever

you use electrical energy, you're paying a hidden tax due to the inefficiencies of

power conversion."

The Transphorm technology would also work, of course, in the other direction: energy

stored in battery packs in electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf has to be converted

to AC to run the motor, and solar power systems use inverters to turn DC power into AC

for household use. Gallium nitride would help make those systems 90 percent more

efficient - and lighter and less bulky - Transphorm says. Those brick-like laptop

adapters might finally be a thing of the past.

As good as this all sounds, Grist's Todd Woody notes that long design cycles could mean

that even if everything Transphorm says is true, gallium nitride will arrive slowly in

devices. And as with most new technologies, gallium nitride modules are likely to be

expensive until volume ramps up.