Here is why this 'crap' matters to me and why it should matter to you:

Global Warming Panic Company is a division of Environmentalism Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leftist International Corporation.

Environmentalism Inc., itself an international conglomerate, introduced the cuddly and lovable 'RoHS' which every electronics manufacturer just must have. It is the rage in the EU now and it will soon sweep the world. The marketing for the cute little RoHS fur-ball is helped by its purchase being compulsory. That is just in case not everyone loves it like the good folks at Environmentalism Inc. that manufacture it do.

We try to keep up with the latest fads so we just had to have an RoHS too!

We have always repaired our drives for free if they were repairable. Someone shorts-out a motor or miswires it and we repaired the damaged drive. That used to be over 90% of drives returned for repair when we used the deadly and toxic Sn63Pb37 solder. That's all changed. The repairable rate is now under 40% because that lovable rascal RoHS interferes. Damaged parts that previously could be unsoldered and replaced with ease now cannot. The customer is told the drive is beyond repair.

Rumor is the R&D department of Global Warming Panic Co. (Nasdac symbol GWPC) will be coming out with a whole slew of products that will totally eclipse the famous little RoHS we all love so well. The development is far enough along now that production can begin once the necessary funding is committed. Reports are the marketing arm of GWPC has nearly completed the financials with investors.

I'm looking forward to the woven straw and mud printed circuit boards rumored to be in the works. It will revolutionize electronics!

Mariss

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
Updated 12/7/2006 5:45 PM ET

"...Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed...."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm

hope this is not in violation of anything, but i know a few of the people involved in this particular adventure, so i thought it might be a good place to add in their information. feel free to look around and see if it is worth your time.

http://www.globalwarming101.com/content/view/32/

also if this should not be here, please ask me to remove it or have it removed. i mean no trouble, but i know people on this adventure and would be happy to promote it here.


Thanks.

Charles puts his (carbon) foot in it

"Prince Charles is to fly to New York, booking the entire first-class and business class section of a jumbo jet for his 20-strong entourage - to pick up an award for his work on the environment.

During the trip he plans to emphasise the importance which the British Government places on climate change as a key international priority.....

To underline his commitment to reducing his 'carbon footprint' - the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere during the flight - he is to travel by scheduled flight instead of a chartered or private jet.

But he and his 20-strong party will travel exclusively in the first and club class sections where there are a total of 62 seats.

This means their effective 'carbon footprint' is three times what it would be if every seat was used and the short return trip to New York will result in the emission of 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide.....

...The Prince is to receive the Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School's Centre for Health and the Global Environment, from last year's recipient, former Vice President and Presidential candidate Al Gore and actress Meryl Streep... (who no doubt will be flying in themselves..)

...In December Charles officially announced his plans saying he may cut down on official engagements to live a greener lifestyle...." (but not quite yet!)



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=429694&in_page_id=1770

Here is why this 'crap' matters to me and why it should matter to you:

Snip
'RoHS'
Snip

I understand and I agree with you completely.

The only people who can benefit from this are bureaucrats.

--97T--

I awoke this morning and while I was eating my Microwaved oatmeal I started watching what I thought was going to be a nice history lesson on the eveloution of Ice and how we use it The history channel folowed the begining of using it to preserve food and showed how our father's or grandfather's had to go to the pond and harvest it keep it in a ice house and hope there was enough of it left to make lemmonade on the fourth of july Then when it was getting to the part where we were able to make it with refergation they went into this rant about the icecaps melting and globel warming and how they were studding the amount of CO in the ice they were harvesting in the antartic from hundered's feet down I wish they would put a disclamer on thies shows like the infomercials that air late at night I'm beging to agree it's becoming the dishistory channel Kevin

....... I'm beging to agree it's becoming the dishistory channel Kevin

Like the National GeoPolitical Channel?? They can't help but segue into a moral lesson on how it's all our fault while showing some poor little penguin who doesn't have enough to eat, freezing to death because it isn't cold enough.

PoliScientific American lost my subscription when they succumbed to it too.

The only rag left that is at least partially honest is the Weekly World News.

Scientific American is neither.

They have been openly advocating socialism for many, many years.

--97T--

Scientific American is neither.

They have been openly advocating socialism for many, many years.

--97T--

I didn't renew my subscription for that very reason.

Mariss

The latest news that I've heard is that in the past year the global average temperature (which by the way, nobody can say just what that is) has DROPPED by more than it has increased in the past hundred. Uncle Al Gore did it! The carbon offsets people purchased from him saved the world! Break out the balloons and dancing poodles, we can now abandon the whole global socialism thing, and go about our merry capitalist way!


Yeah right... facts will never get in the way of their agenda.

Well to bad I am not goning to waste any time on the GLOBAL WARMING discussion. I believe its contrived, 20 years ago it was global freezing now its warming. When freak ice storms or heat waves stop being FREAK then maybe. They can not forcast the weather with in a week how am I going to believe they can get it right in 50 or 100 years. Its your site, I for one am turning it off.

RoHS???

Roll-on Hair Spray?

Far deadlier than Roll-on Hair Spray:-) RoHS is the acronym for the EU's mandated 'Reduction of Hazardous Substances'. It is why you cannot find cadmium plated screws, beryllium copper or normal leaded solder anymore. You might eat it and die so you are protected now with inferior substitutes.

We manufacture electronic devices. We used to use normal 63/37 solder (63% tin, 37% lead). It melts at 178C and produces superior solder joints. The RoHS substitute is lead-free solder. It melts at 228C and produces inferior solder joints. Silicon semiconductors (ICs, MOSFETs, diodes, transistors) sustain damage above 245C. We had to buy a new conveyor reflow oven to use RoHS solder. It cost $23K and uses 38kW of electricity while the old oven for normal solder is 10kW.

The new oven precisely controls board temperature at 240C during reflow and the product works. In the past when someone blew a MOSFET and returned a drive for repair, the blown part was replaced. Now usually the drive is thrown away and replaced with a new one. Why? You cannot control temperature within that narrow 17C safety range (245C - 228C) using a hot-air rework station.

Consequences?

1) You pay more. The drives cost a little more than they should because equipment must be amortized and repairs mean it's a new drive when a $0.30 part has failed. Where do the bad drives go? The landfill of course.

2) 38kW vs. 10kW. More energy is used.

3) You can safely eat the drives now without getting lead-poisoning. That must be a good thing.

Mariss

Consider yourself lucky that you live in a lead-free world now!

Lucky too that you can get fluoride in your water, and mercury in your mouth! Ahhhhhhhh.....no more lead in my stereo!!