Stories below the fold

Best quote of the day from BelmontClub:

Nearly a hundred years ago today, another Englishman, contemplating a familiar Londons scene, had similarly grim thoughts. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, looked out of his palatial, imperial London office and said, “the lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time”.
Grey was more prescient than he thought. How could he imagine that just when the West had won the Cold War, the top priority of its exalted leaders would include the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs?  First all over the EU and then the United States?
There is in that obsession with the trivial — pursued relentlessly in the midst of the collapse of demographic, economic and military strength — something of the moral of the age.  A civilization completely consumed by political correctness, which required counseling for the merest shock, which believed it would preside over the End of History, is now bankrupt, unable to defend itself and without a single darned light bulb in the hardware store. What lesson was it?

sigh.

To make things worse, did any of these "green" folks wonder what would happen when the light bulbs were tossed away?

All CFLs contain mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause kidney and brain damage.
The amount is tiny — about 5 milligrams, or barely enough to cover the tip of a pen — but that is enough to contaminate up to 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, extrapolated from Stanford University research on mercury. Even the latest lamps promoted as “low-mercury” can contaminate more than 1,000 gallons of water beyond safe levels.

how bad is the problem?

MANILA, Philippines — The Makati City government and private developers of Zuellig Building have collected 1.58 tons of light bulbs and batteries, which are considered hazardous waste, during the first month of their public awareness campaign to make the city “Hg-free” (Mercury-free).

and to make things worse, the light bulbs don't last as long as they were supposed to, and cost three times as much as ordinary light bulbs.