lighting

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It Was Like TV for the Stone Age
It Was Like TV
for the Stone Age
new study

It Was Like TV for the Stone Age

Study suggests cave artists used firelight to animate their work around the hearth

(Newser) - A museumgoer who checks out a prehistoric drawing etched on a rock sees only the static image, safely housed under a glass case under controlled light. A new study suggests the people who first looked at the same rock saw something else entirely—a dynamic image that appeared to be...

The Lighting Game Made GE. Now It Says Goodbye

Savant Systems to acquire GE Lighting for a reported $250M

(Newser) - General Electric has sold its lighting business, which originated with Thomas Edison more than 140 years ago. For some, it's "as if Kellogg had jettisoned its cornflakes business or Ford had stopped making cars," reports the New York Times , noting GE floodlights allowed for the first MLB...

Light Pollution Threatens Darkness Almost Everywhere
Darkness Is Endangered
Almost Everywhere
NEW STUDY

Darkness Is Endangered Almost Everywhere

Light pollution is getting steadily worse

(Newser) - The world's nights are getting alarmingly brighter—bad news for all sorts of creatures, humans included. A German-led team of researchers says light pollution is threatening darkness almost everywhere, the AP reports. Satellite observations during five Octobers show Earth's artificially lit outdoor area grew by 2% a year...

Brad, Angelina Forced to Pay $730K to Designer

French appeals court sided with designer in April

(Newser) - Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were ordered to pay $730,000—all because Pitt apparently wanted to light up their French chateau. In an April court case only now being reported, the former couple were ordered to pay $660,000 plus $70,000 in reputation-related damages after allegedly stopping payments...

Fitness Blogger Lifts the Lid on 'Before and After' Photos

Sara Puhto shows how posing and lighting can do wonders

(Newser) - It's not far-fetched for fans of fitness blogger Sara Puhto, who has amassed more than 66,000 followers on Instagram , to think this image is a before-and-after montage. After all, she's done her fair share of such "transformation" photos. But in the recent post, she files a...

GE: Say Goodbye to CFLs, Hello to LEDs

Company is phasing out curly compact fluorescents

(Newser) - Valentine's Day is just a couple of weeks away, but there's a big split making headlines. "GE is breaking up with compact fluorescent lamps" is how General Electric broke the news in a Monday release on its latest development: It will phase out compact fluorescent lights, or...

Need to Get Creative? Dim the Lights


 Need to Get 
 Creative? 
 Dim the Lights 
study says

Need to Get Creative? Dim the Lights

Research suggests it helps stimulate clever thinking

(Newser) - If you're working on a project that demands a burst of inspiration, try turning down the lights. So say German researchers who conclude that "darkness increases freedom from constraints, which in turn promotes creativity," reports Pacific Standard , picking up on a study in the Journal of Environmental...

Half of Detroit's Streetlights May Go Dark

Mayor wants to nudge people to move to better areas

(Newser) - Detroit's population has shrunk 60% since 1950, and officials say it's time to condense the city. They're taking a simple approach: Light the areas where they want folks to live. Mayor Dave Bing wants to cut the number of streetlights nearly in half, from 88,000 to...

Struggling US Cities Turn Off the Lights

Towns nationwide get a little darker

(Newser) - For a number of cities across the US, troubled local economies have led to dark times—literally. From Oregon to Illinois to California, struggling towns have found themselves forced to turn off, and often completely remove, local streetlights. And with winter shortening daylight hours, citizens are none too pleased by...

Why Darkness Breeds Shifty Behavior

Study: People are more devious when lighting is dim

(Newser) - When it comes to the psychology of devious behavior, adults aren't much different from toddlers who cover their eyes with their hands to hide: We think that if we can't see, nobody can see us. So while there's nothing surprising about the fact that most crime occurs in the dark,...

How to Take and Not Take Nude Pics of Yourself

(Newser) - "I don't have any experience in the realm of taking nude photos," admits Sam Greenspan on 11 Points, but he's "looked at millions" of them. Here are his tips for taking pics in the buff:
  • Don't shoot them yourself: Among other terrible things, MySpace has popularized the
...

LED Spells End of Disposable Light Bulbs

Long-lived fixtures could cut energy use in half in 20 years

(Newser) - The rapid advance of light-emitting diode technology is blazing the way to greener lighting, the New York Times reports. LED lighting, once used only in the likes of traffic lights and scoreboards, is now being adopted by a growing number of cities and businesses. Experts say the lights, which last...

LEDs Light Up Europe, As Bulb Makers Switch

An Italian village goes LED, and Philips makes a multi-billion bet

(Newser) - Europe is going low-e with LEDs, presaging a trend about to spread worldwide. The Italian village Torraca, for example, just switched all of its streetlights for light-emitting diode fixtures, and Dutch electronics giant Philips has snapped up an American firm in a plan to push similar changes in the states....

13 Stories