Abraham: The Secret Behind "The Secret"-Esther & Jerry Hicks

           

85 percent of our perceptions come from our eyes

Brightness and Color of Light
How good or poor a given light appears can be described in three basic ways: how much light is present, the quality of the light (is it bright or dull or does it produce glare?) and what its color characteristics are.

Watts and Lumens: How much light?
Light output, measured in lumens, refers to how much light leaves a light source. Because we are so used to incandescent bulbs, we usually describe the amount of light with watts. The number of watts is actually the amount of power the bulb uses. For an incandescent bulb this can be a misleading number because 90 percent of the watts is wasted as heat instead of making light.

To compare brightness between incandescent bulbs and the more efficient compact fluorescents, the quantity of light is expressed in lumens as well as wattage. As with watts, a higher number of lumens means a stronger light. The chart shows lumen levels to look for when replacing a given bulb. Note also the cost and CO2 savings CF bulbs bring.

Incandescent CFL        Lumens  Cost Savings    Cost Savings   CO2 Saving
                                                        ($.10/kWh)   ($.20/kWh)
40W         11-14W >       490        $39-$44        $78-$88         507-572 lbs.
60W         15-19W >       900        $62-$68       $124-$136      806-884 lbs.
75W          20-25W >      1,200     $76-$83       $152-$166      988-1,079 lbs.
100W       26-29W >      1,750      $107-$112    $214-$224      1,391-1,456 lbs
150W       38-42W >      2,600     $163-$169   $326-$338      2,119-2,197 lbs.
Calculations for cost and CO2 savings assume 15,000-hour life for CFL.
If you don't want to print this page out, remember this rule of thumb: CFLs use about a quarter of the wattage to produce the same light. So to replace a traditional 60-watt bulb, look for a CFL that's about 15 watts.

Lumen output deteriorates over time from a number of factors, including the ballast's electronics, variations in supply voltage, dust and dirt.

Color
How does a light render an object's colors, and what color is the light itself? These characteristics are expressed through the Correlated Color temperature (CCT) and Color Rendering Index (CRI).

Correlated color temperature (CCT)
Light has color, whether it emanates from the moon, the sun or your favorite reading light. It might tend toward orange (think of parking lot lights illuminating the night), yellow (most reading lights) or white (daylight).

Imagine heating a piece of metal gradually. As it heats up, it changes color. At first, it appears orange, then yellow and then blue or blue-white. The Correlated Color Temperature indicates how warm or cool light is. For a light color close to incandescent bulbs, look for a CCT range between 2650 and 2800 degrees Kelvin. This range is referred to as warm white. Common CF bulb colors are 2700K, 3000K, 3500K and 4100K. (The Kelvin scale and its units refer to absolute temperature; 0 degrees Kelvin refers to the point at which no heat energy remains in a substance.)

CCT measurements:

2650-3200K – warm white (yellowish-white)
3200-4000K – neutral
Above 4000K– cool (bluish-white), also called "daylight"
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
This is a numeric representation of a light bulb's ability to show colors "realistically," compared to a standard incandescent. The CRI scale ranges from 0 to 100—the higher the number, the closer to what you're used to. For good color quality, look for compact fluorescents with CRIs of 80 or above.

Light Technology Basics
About 85 percent of our perceptions come from our eyes, so lighting is important to what we do whether we're aware of it or not. Light can be produced naturally (like sunlight) or artificially.

To produce artificial light, electrical energy is transformed into light. This generally occurs in one of two ways:

Incandescence, in which current passes through a filament, which heats and then glows, or
Gas discharge, in which current passes through a gas. The atoms glow, giving off ultraviolet light, which reacts with phosphor to produce visible light.
Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs produce light using gas discharge.

Did you know? The average American household has 28 light sockets, and about 10-20 percent of your electricity bill is from lighting.

Sources


"Light Guides" at www.lightsearch.com/resources/lightguides/index.html.

"Light Color Characteristics": www.sylvania.com/LearnLighting/LightAndColor/LightColorCharacteristicf/

"High Color Rendering Bulbs": www.topbulb.com/find/cri.asp

"High Color Temperature ('Daylight') Bulbs": www.topbulb.com/find/colortemp.asp

Pangea Day Success

Dear Pangea Day Friends,


May 10 was truly a moment in history because people like you were interested in seeing the world come together for one day and celebrate our common humanity rather than our differences. We could not be more thrilled with the feedback we've received and cannot thank you all enough for your support over the past few months.

We're pleased to report that thousands of people attended our live broadcast venues in Cairo, Kigali, Los Angeles, London, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro while millions of people watched the live broadcast, which aired in 150 countries around the world, and the live stream on our website and MSN.

If you missed the program, you can now watch the entire show on our website. And if the films are not translated into your language, you can translate them yourself, as many have begun to do on the DotSub website.

If you are inspired by the films, we encourage you to take part in community-building activities in your local community. Need help? Pangea Day has partnered with nine non-profit organizations from around the world that have listed concrete ways for you to take action. Let us know what action you will take. We'd love to share your story with our global Pangea Day community and inspire others to act. Email us at act@pangeaday.org.

In the coming months we'll be sure to keep you informed about future Pangea Day plans, events or updates. We plan to continue sharing new films that inspire us. If you know of a film that would be perfect to show our global audience, send us an email at info@pangeaday.org with subject line: " film="" suggestion."="" you="" can="" also="" continue="" to="" share="" your="" pictures="" and="" videos="" with="" us="" on="" ovi.="">

Thank you for spending May 10 with us. Please take time to read some of the comments and pictures that came to us from around the world following the program.

All the best,

The Pangea Day Team

Top Ten Hells on Earth

Joe said - "Had a bad vacation? It probably could have been a lot worse, a list of the top 10 hells on earth to
prove how much more dire it could have been. C U in Hell"



1. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Type of hell: Disease

With over 115 new HIV and AIDS cases diagnosed every month, the capital of Papua New Guinea is in trouble. With the population expanding at an uncontrollable rate, unemployment levels have rocketed, income levels plummeted and gang members, known as raskols, have been known to carry out bank robberies with M16 machine guns and hijack cars wielding machetes.

2. Linfen, China

Type of hell: Darkness

Linfen, China, is sooty and dark, located in a 12-mile industrial belt, and affected by the 50 million tons of coal mined each year in the nearby hills of Shanxi. There's no

escaping the smog.

3. Bujumbura, Republic of Burundi

Type of hell: Corruption

With the lowest GDP per capita in the world, Burundi is the poorest country on the planet and is scarred by a history of genocide, mass killing and assassinated political leaders. Not only that, but a pool of 178 countries found that Burundi's people had the poorest satisfaction of life in the world.

4. Pyongyang, North Korea

Type of hell: Oppression

While its modern-day facade may look like any other Western city, underneath it's entirely autocratic. Radios and TVs have only one channel which broadcasts special programs controlled by the government, bicycles are banned as part of a political regime to restrict movement and interaction.

5.Oklahoma City, United States

Type of hell: Natural disasters

Located in the direct path of "Tornado Alley," the worst time to visit would be from March to August. Tather is pretty much expected. The severe weather season makes Dorothy's Kansas look positively calm, with Oklahoma City being the city worst affected by tornadoes in the United States.

6. Chernobyl, Ukraine

Type of hell: Radiation

Famed for a nuclear explosion that tore through the city in 1986 and contaminated most of its living organisms, Chernobyl is certainly not the kind of place you'd like to vacation in. Everything is still largely abandoned and remains as it was 20 years ago, with hundreds of miles of uninhabitable space, deserted buildings and poisoned lakes and rivers.

7. Mogadishu, Somalia

Type of hell: Lawlessness

With the collapse of central government in 1991, Mogadishu is largely lawless, with no structure of real peacekeeping present, despite a failed effort in 1992 by the U.S. marines. Indeed, Mogadishu certainly won't be found in any glossy vacation brochure anytime soon.

8. Yakutsk, Russia

Type of hell: Environmental extreme

Officially the coldest place on earth, temperatures here often drop to a hypothermia-inducing -58°F, and if it drops below this (which it often does), children get the day off school. Another hellish aspect of Yakutsk is its isolation -- a whole six time zones away from Moscow.

9. Dhaka, Bangladesh

Type of hell: Pollution

Despite enduring political instability, military suppression and devastation from war and natural disaster, the capital of Bangladesh faces a new crisis over critically high pollution levels. Rapid industrial development has filled the city with so much smog it is causing environmental damage, with 9.7 million tons of waste dumped in the river by the city each year.

10. Baghdad, Iraq

Type of hell: Conflict

The city has been irreversibly damaged by the Gulf War and years of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, bringing the once vibrant city to its knees. Lootings, robberies, kidnappings, and sexual assaults have been rife, but it is the daily slaughter of troops, journalists and civilians that terrify the most.

-- www.green.worldventures.biz