Last year, China produced 3.85 billion incandescent light bulbs. ALL JUNK!!! DEPRESSING FORM OF LIGHT!
Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you…this Chinese Empress needs to help break up the Phoebus/Lightbulb cartel.
CONCLUSION
I can feel the Chinese begging for Requiem/Rest…emphathy power of Clark Kent
One of the lightbulbs on Lorde’s lamp is burned out. Are you sick of changing lightbulbs? I am. The lightbulb conspiracy is one of the longest running conspiracies in history. It’s possible to build lightbulbs that last forever, but then who would buy lightbulbs? Here is a rundown on the conspiracy:
The Light Bulb Conspiracy, a 2010 documentary by Spanish filmmaker Cosima Dannoritzer, is screening this month in several U.S. cities, including Miami, New York and Albuquerque. The film explores the issue of planned obsolescence, and argues that the lightbulb is the first case of a product being designed to have a deliberately short lifespan.
The story begins in Livermore, California, home of the world’s longest-burning lightbulb. The filament-style bulb, which hangs in the Livermore fire station, has been glowing continuously since 1901. The secret to its longevity apparently died with its inventor, a French immigrant professor named Adolf Chaillet.
The Light Bulb Conspiracy goes on to show how many early incandescent lightbulbs lasted upwards of 2,500 hours. But then the leading manufacturers of the time formed an international cartel whose ostensible goal was to standardize the lightbulb. Its real intent, however, at least as the conspiracy theory goes, was to shorten the lifespan of all lightbulbs. By the 1940s, bulbs were burning for 1,000 hours, which is their expected lifespan today.
From lightbulbs, the film suggests other examples of planned obsolescence, including computers, printers and iPods. It then looks at ways consumers are pushing back and challenging manufacturers to develop more resilient products. Where lightbulbs are concerned, planned obsolescence (if you support the theory) is already on the way out, thanks to the emergence of LEDs, which are part of Consumer Reports’ lightbulb Ratings, and which manufacturers claim could last up to 50,000 hours. That’s well short of the 100,000 hours that at least one early incandescent lightbulb supposedly managed, or the one million hours that the Livermore bulb is closing in on. But it’s a step in the right direction.
Watch more of The Light Bulb Conspiracy at Top Documentary Films.
—Daniel DiClerico
Lorde is bright like a lightbulb. I bet she’s seen this movie.
Planned Obsolescence is the deliberate shortening of product life spans to guarantee consumer demand.
As a magazine for advertisers succinctly puts it: The article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business – and a tragedy for the modern growth society which relies on an ever-accelerating cycle of production, consumption and throwing away.
The Light Bulb Conspiracy combines investigative research and rare archive footage to trace the untold story of Planned Obsolescence, from its beginnings in the 1920s with a secret cartel, set up expressly to limit the life span of light bulbs, to present-day stories involving cutting edge electronics (such as the iPod) and the growing spirit of resistance amongst ordinary consumers.
This film travels to France, Germany, Spain and the US to find witnesses of a business practice which has become the basis of the modern economy, and brings back disquieting pictures from Africa where discarded electronics are piling up in huge cemeteries for electronic waste.
