What is a LED Tube Light?

Odd-looking, energy-saving, more expensive light bulbs probably are here to stay — even if they're not yet mandatory.

The new light bulbs were to be phased in starting Jan. 1 and continuing through 2014, but the government standards mandating production of the more efficient bulbs have been shelved at least until October.

The new bulbs have been available for quite some time and consumers are using them, according to Chuck White, field divisional merchandise manager for Home Depot, who said people understand that the move to more energy-efficient lighting will come one way or another.

"The LED bulbs are fairly expensive," White said. "We thought it would take a little longer for them to be accepted, but last year consumers really wanted them and were willing to pay the price. Manufacturers couldn't supply the demand."

LED bulbs offer the most energy savings — 75 to 80 percent — over traditional incandescent bulbs and can last up to 25 times longer. They also are much more expensive. Other less expensive choices include CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) and energy-saving incandescents that don't look much different from traditional light bulbs.

Are the standards and the energy-saving bulbs a good idea?

"Whatever we philosophically believe, (the change) will happen," said Marty Adams, president of Adams Electric. "It does save electricity and it saves money. It is a reality."

Adams said his company does lighting design and lighting retrofits and has customers who are upgrading to LEDs and other energy-savers such as T5/HOs, which are high-output linear fluorescent bulbs. Educating them about the various lighting options, how much energy they will save and what the payback will be is part of the job.

"The simplest application is a CFL, but it's not the only one," Adams said. "There are other considerations like the life of the lamp (bulb), the payback over the life of the lamp, the low front-end cost — what exactly the person is looking for.

"In my opinion, when you're talking residential, most people want to be as economical as possible up front. In a commercial setting, there are more options available — there's a different type of payback."

Adams said many homeowners are switching to CFLs, "though there are a limited number of people who don't do well under CFL, people who can see a strobe effect that most people can't see. This is real and it bothers them to be working under those conditions. For a few people, fluorescent lighting brings on migraine headaches. I'm not a doctor, I'm not an ophthalmologist, I've heard this through experience."

Adams said he doesn't think the general public is aware of the changes that have been called for and the ones already taking place.

White, however, said many shoppers have read up on the energy-efficient light bulbs and don't have that many questions about where to use what type of bulb. They do ask if the bulbs can be dimmed — they can, but it requires a particular type of dimmer; and they wonder what the bulbs' light looks like — "They think it's like the old-style fluorescent tubes with cool blue light, but there are different spectrums," White said.

Consumers also want to know if the LEDs are as good as claimed. "Yes," White said, "they are that good."

The fact that CFLs contain mercury worries some people but, according to the Department of Energy, the new bulbs contain much less than the 4-foot fluorescent tube lights that have been used in homes and offices for decades and about 100 times less than an old thermometer.

Due to the higher cost of the new bulbs, White said it makes sense to gradually replace traditional incandescent bulbs with energy-saving ones, starting in locations where home residents use the most light.

Nationwide, lighting accounts for about 10 percent of home electricity use. Much of the energy used by traditional incandescent bulbs to produce light is wasted as heat.

The government energy-saving lighting standards, which were signed into law but not implemented due to lack of funding, affect conventional pear-shaped, medium-size, screw-in light bulbs and some reflector bulbs used in traditional lighting fixtures. Specialty bulbs are exempt, including appliance bulbs, heavy-duty bulbs, colored lights and three-way bulbs.

Residents voted at a special town meeting Monday night to allocate $7,500 to repair faulty exterior lighting at the Paris Fire Station.

The money had been in an account to pay for the fire station's heating system. Voters agreed to move $7,500 for fire station lighting, which has been failing for years, causing expensive bulbs to blow.

During its regular meeting Monday, the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to award a contract to A.D.S. Electric Inc. of Norway to replace the lights.

Town Manager Phil Tarr said the company's bid $6,779 was the lowest of the three submitted.

Selectmen voted to have A.D.S. do the work for up to the $7,500 allotted, in order to allow for possible contingencies. Tarr said if the work went over the amount selectmen approved, another meeting would be necessary.

At the Feb. 13 meeting, Tarr said that 11 of the 16 exterior lights at the station weren't working. He said the town should replace them with energy-efficient LED lights, which are eligible for a rebate from the state.

Tarr told selectmen he expected between $1,800 and $1,900 in rebates. The LED lights would use 52 watts while putting out more light than the current 150- to 200-watt lights in place.

"It's fantastic the way LED technology is working," Tarr said.

In addition to the A.D.S. bid, Flanders Electric of Norway bid $7,150 and Vermont-based Optimal Energy bid $8,474.

Nearly two years after two South Kingstown pharmacies installed LED signs along the Kingstown Road corridor, the town is still grappling with a decision of whether to regulate the technology or ban it outright. On Monday night the Town Council will decide whether or not it will extend a moratorium — pending further study — for a sixth time since August 2010.

The Planning Board, council, residents and downtown business owners have weighed in; some have hired lawyers; and last week, residents met again with representatives from the council and Planning Board. This time the town brought in a representative from LED sign manufacturer Daktronics, Inc., and  local electrical engineer Joseph Hultquist.

Daktronics representative Robert Messier testified that LED bulbs are more energy efficient and can cut down on light pollution because the bulbs are dimmer and directional — unlike the fluorescent or incandescent bulbs typically used to light outdoor signs.

"LEDs are substantially less bright at night," said Messier as he explained the technicalities of the self-adjusting electronic messaging board. "From 100 percent on a bright sunny day, it goes down to about 3 percent at night."

Hultquist questioned Messier's theory that LED-lit signs could save energy or money for businesses.

"There is no doubt that LEDs are a more efficient light source than fluorescent or incandescent or any other light source, but I would say if [businesses] are using these on the inside too, that is where most of their savings are coming from," said Hultquist. He explained that although LED lighting is more energy efficient, LED signs need to be lit throughout the day — even more so than at night — in order to be visible to the naked eye.

"Just because something is more efficient by itself doesn't mean the overall picture is going to save you money," he added.

Although light spillage and saving energy is a hot button for some, most residents who spoke last Wednesday were most concerned with aesthetics and safety.

"Our problem as a town is that we could have a really raggedy and ugly bunch of things happen there because we don't have a way to control the signs," said Andrea Sarrasin, resident.

Nearly three dozen residents were in attendance for the work session where Daktronics representative Robert Messier brought out a 4-foot by 7-foot-6-inch LED sign to help residents envision how they could be regulated to suit the town's character.

"I think we would have to keep it small but we could end up with something that looks better than what we have out there now," said Carol Hagan McEntee, council vice president, after the work session.

Originally, the Planning Board moved to ban the technology outright, but in a past meeting, merchants in the commercial business district hired a lawyer to encourage the board to study how the technology could be regulated and used. The town's sign ordinance has not been updated in 35 years and the present moratorium was introduced after LED signs were erected at CVS Pharmacy and Wakefield Prescription.

"It's not that they are going to go out and buy it immediately, but there is interest," said Larry Fish, chairman of the town Economic Development Committee, who represents a swathe of South Kingstown business who want to see the signs regulated properly and allowed downtown.

"I think it should be looked at as just a new technology," said Fish at the Feb. 15 work session about the signs that can cost from $15,000 to $30,000. "It's just a new technology that needs to be controlled and that's all. It's not a big deal.

The Planning Board will recommend the council extend the moratorium until August so that residents' and businesses' interests can be thoroughly explored.

Flashing LED-type signs are not allowed in the historic Main Street district and if an ordinance is approved, that would not change. It would only apply to businesses in the commercial highway district, which extends down Old Tower Hill Road west from Route 1 through the intersection with Kingstown Road to the Citizens Bank on Main Street. The district also encompasses the area of Kingstown road from Benny’s south to the Narragansett town line. The three existing LED signs — at CVS on Main Street, Wakefield Prescription on Kingstown Road and near Route 138 at the Ryan Center — would be grandfathered in.

One resident, Ed White, hopes to stop the deliberations on Monday. With a petition drafted via Change.org yesterday, White hopes to gain 500 signatures to block the council from considering any changes to the sign ordinance that would allow for LED technology.

On at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, nine people had signed the petition and the goal was cut in half. White was hoping for 250 signatures. By press time on Thursday, that number had grown to 95 and the goal augmented accordingly.

"I don't think a petition could block the council drafting an ordinance, but we're certainly aware of it and it will be added to the public record for consideration," said Vincent Murray, planning director.

As I'm leaving London I'm taking a last look around, reflecting on the last four months and the transition to 2012. There are things I don't want to dwell on -- like the Mitt and Newt Show that dominated U.S. and, sadly, global media for way too long. And the Santorum phenomenon is so bizarre that I can't quite convince myself that this isn't a bad movie featuring conspiratorial aliens. I'm hoping that the Republican primaries frenzy ends up as "much ado about nothing," like the approach and fortuitous demise of the comet formerly known as Elenin. Bill Bryson, in A Short History of Nearly Everything, cheerfully informs us that asteroids crossing our orbit are not all that rare, some coming close enough to be "in cosmic terms, the equivalent of a bullet passing through one's sleeve without touching the arm." Okay, so in that sense we've pretty lucky so far, but how much more crossfire can our democracy withstand?

I experienced three different New Year celebrations during this busy dawn of 2012. Each New Year toast was accompanied by reflections on the passing of the American Century. And what I have been hearing from non-Americans has been a surprisingly heartfelt nostalgia.

My first New Year toast, on good old December the 31st, was up on Stave Hill, a lovely grassy mound hiding a pile of rubble left over from the Dickensenian squalor of this former docking zone, Rotherhithe. My partner Nash and I spent the evening watching Zorba the Greek, so when midnight approached we put boots and overcoats over our pajamas, stuffed champagne glasses in our pockets, grabbed a chilled bottle of bubbly and joined the throngs heading for The Hill. It was crowded and festive with dogs, kids, and everything in between. People were sending off floaty paper-lanterns that would cause fire-hazard hysteria in the U.S., but here in soggy London no one seemed concerned, even when they landed on the crowd. The crowd was pretty soggy, too.

We watched a massive fireworks display blossom around The London Eye, reflect elegantly off The Gherkin, and expose the pretensions of London's newest monument to architectural hubris, The Shard (otherwise known as The Pinworm). The fireworks flaunted "let them eat cake" extravagance in a season of dire cuts to education and public housing, and seemed to celebrate parliamentary reluctance to propose legislation on bonus caps. (The European Parliament "new rules" of 2010 at least prompted some serious discussion about limiting banker's bonuses, if not sustained implementation. On Wall Street, the busy architects of the next wealth-transferring bubble were probably laughing all the way to the bank.)

However, the lavish fireworks also brought V-for-Vendetta to mind, and we'd seen many V masks at Occupy London at St. Paul's when we'd made a pilgrimage there one foggy Saturday. We joined a motley parade of damp musicians circling the tents, watched an animal costume play for children under the splendid cathedral dome, and listened to the mostly inaudible exhortations and comedy routines below the cathedral steps.

Then we watched a tense little scene unfold only a few feet away. A young man wearing a court-jester hat and fluttering Monkey King banners was accosted by several beefy florid men straining the seams of their pinstripe suits. They started shouting at the bewildered kid, telling him to stop playing about and get a ****ing job. Very quickly, a group of older weather-beaten protesters surrounded the men in a ring three deep and began talking with them quietly. The protesters didn't crowd the belligerents, they muffled them in polite but focused attention. Soon after, two orange-vested British Bobbies with their distinctive hats jovially but firmly escorted the suits off the site. This was not long after violent episodes had simultaneously blossomed at several OWS sites around the U.S., giving the authorities a pretext to evict protesters.

My second New Year's Eve was in Belgrade on Jan. 13, the end of the Serbian Orthodox Christmas week. We were with Nash's mother, toasting each other beneath the dignified gaze of an oil painting of his great-grandfather. Nash and his twinkly diminutive 83-year-old mother smoked and chatted in Serbian while I developed an appreciation for apricot rakia. At one point I asked if we were going out to see the fireworks. Nash smiled and shook his head and said, "Those aren't fireworks. Usually they just aim at the sky, but we don't want to be out there."

This reminded me of a story I'd heard the day before, told by one of Nash's friends as we sat sipping mulled wine in a cozy riverboat café on the Sava (the kind of cafe that was crushed to matchsticks during last week's unprecedented ice on the Danube). Dusko Zivkovic, a self-made historian, told us about the famous Stealth incident. Even though most people hated the nationalists, they couldn't help but enjoy the fact that a Serbian with jerry-rigged antique technology had managed to detect and shoot down the undetectable Nighthawk bomber.

After the plane was downed, the army fanned out through the dark forest to find the pilot and get him out of there before he was found by the locals, then packed him off to Sweden so that he could get back home and enjoy a hero's welcome. Meanwhile, gypsies swiftly dismantled the Nighthawk and sold off the parts. Farmers who bought the pieces to build pigsties later complained that the metal was bad quality, the pigs could get right through it.

Then Dusko turned pensive. (The close proximity of a lively sense of the absurd and a gentle but deep melancholy seems to be a Belgrade characteristic.) He and Nash began to share their dismay at what was happening in American politics. In a kind of fervent duet, they told me what it was like to grow up in the former Yugoslavia. They had somewhat austere but comfortable childhoods; Yugoslavs were free to come and go "West" if they wanted. There were things like jazz records that they longed for, but they got a good public education and enjoyed lazy summers on Croatian beaches. They both said, however, that America had in fact represented to them what Hollywood claims America represents -- an exemplar of democracy and freedom. They had been equally in love with America's smiling long-haired girls in jeans, musicians of all colors and styles, and the right to vote. They both escaped the Balkan wars by the slimmest of chances.

The U.S. ranked number 19 in the Democracy Index for 2011, near the bottom of the list of "full democracies" and heading toward the "flawed democracy" category. Reasons for this falling status include the influence of money in politics and low voter turnout. Back in a pub in London after our Belgrade trip, a Swedish neuroscientist friend lamented, "When we were growing up, the U.S. symbolized what was good and hopeful. For my daughter's generation, it represents the opposite, everything that's wrong with the world. I know we were na?ve, I know there was a lot of bad stuff going on in the shadows. But now they don't even bother to hide it." I know what he means. Maybe all those shiny civil liberties, public assets and public services were never more than a debit on the Cold War credit card, designed to be sold off to the highest bidder (or, as Thatcher did, for a song) when they were no longer needed for propaganda purposes. But still . . . .

My third 2012 toast was for Chinese New Year's Eve, January 22nd, the dawn of the Year of the Water Dragon. Dragons, especially Water Dragons, represent the delicate pivoting of the antithetical but codependent elements that characterize life itself. Dragons are "yang" beings of fire and creative force, but they are at home in watery "yin" depths. We welcomed the Water Dragon with organic wine and the documentary Inside Job, silently absorbing the chillingly well-told tale of thirty years of deepening abuse of public trust adding up to a record-breaking raid on public funds and small nest-eggs.

At the recent Strategies in Light (SIL) conference in Santa Clara, CA, Chung Hoon Lee, CEO and founder of Seoul Semiconductor, provided a keynote address that discussed some of the principle behind the Acrich2 AC-LED modules, which operate directly from AC line voltage. In addition, two of the company's AC-LED modules have been recognized under UL's Component Recognition Program.

Lee described Acrich2 modules as being suitable for many residential and commercial lighting applications where the main source of available power is AC.

Speaking on the complexity of LED lamp design, Lee showed a chart that compared Acrich2 LEDs to DC LED lamps manufactured by five other companies (listed as Company A through E). Holding up the electrolytic converters and other components of the LED lamps, Lee asked "What is this?" His answer, "This is junk," received applause from the audience.

Lee stated that these additional components can cause LED lamp failures. In tests, Seoul Semiconductor determined that many of the other LED lamps reached temperatures of 70C to 82C during operation. The CEO stated that even though companies typically claim lifetimes of 35,000 or 50,000 hours for their lamps, that lifetime can be reduced to 10,000 hours or less due to these operating temperatures. Moreover, tested power factor of the LEDs ranged greatly, from 54% to over 90%.

Lee said the Acrich2 design can provide a better power factor and less total harmonic distortion. "We can reduce the heat sink, protect the environment and provide more design freedom," he said.

Acrich AC-LED modules use an integrated circuit to provide power conditioning and circuit protection, necessary functions with AC LEDs. In recent weeks, Seoul Semiconductor has made several product announcements in the Acrich2 family including a Linear Module designed as a fluorescent replacement.

The UL recognition is designed to help customers using the modules to more easily obtain UL listing of their replacement lamps and luminaries. For the UL testing, requirements contained in the UL 8750 standard were used. The two modules, SMJEA3011220, an 8W module that produces a minimum of 500 lm, and the SMJEA3012220, a 13W module that produces a minimum of 800 lm at a 120V (shown), are designed for replacement lamps and similar applications.

You think you've seen it all and then a video starts going viral that provides you some shock and awe that you just can't believe. That's exactly what happened when a video produced by Jacob Sutton a film producer and professional film maker caught a new type of trendy snowboarding gear built with LED lights.

Sports enthusiasts and people into winter sports are starting to ask and wonder where they can get the same type of snowboarding gear that glows. The video was filmed in the French Alps of snowboarder William Hughes as he cuts and scrapes through the side of the legendary French Alps.

So what is the mysterious glow going on with Mr. Hughes snowboarding gear? It's an L.E.D. light suit that is combined with all of Williams normal snowboarding jacket, snowboard pants, snowboard and his normal facemask. The LED's blast through the snow in a bright glow that is eery and beautiful as Mr. Hughes carves deep into the snow and out of tight turns.

We've provided the video below that you can watch. The video has racked up nearly 442,000 views and is destined to hit a million soon as it's viral attraction is spreading fast. Some of the top comments on this video are: "Everyone is in bed. The lights are out. I am watching this full screen. I cannot believe the emotional impact this is having on me. The editing, music, the glowing figure in slow motion. Quite simply, beautiful." and "Who the hell would dislike this?"

The video was uploaded on YouTube by tb303meets606 and description of the video provides some insights into how this amazing video was made. The description is as follows:

Fashion photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton swaps the studio for the slopes of Tignes in the Rhone-Alpes region of south-eastern France, with a luminous after hours short starring Artec pro snowboarder William Hughes.

The electrifying film sees Hughes light up the snow-covered French hills in a bespoke L.E.D.-enveloped suit courtesy of designer and electronics whizz John Spatcher. "I was really drawn to the idea of a lone character made of light surfing through darkness," says Sutton of his costume choice. "I've always been excited by unusual ways of lighting things, so it seemed like an exciting idea to make the subject of the film the only light source."

Sutton, who has created work for the likes of Hermes, Burberry and The New York Times, spent three nights on a skidoo with his trusty Red Epic camera at temperatures of -25C to snap Hughes carving effortlessly through the deep snow, even enlisting his own father to help maintain the temperamental suit throughout the demanding shoot.

"Filming in the suit was the most surreal thing I've done in 20 years of snowboarding," says Hughes of the charged salopettes. "Luckily there was plenty of vin rouge to keep me warm, and Jacob's enthusiasm kept everyone going through the cold nights."

Lighting systems in interior design provide one of the highest visual impacts upon entering a space. In the same way that colour impacts the senses and has the ability to create a mental and physical reaction, lighting sets the tone and atmosphere of a space.

Perhaps nowhere more so than in public bars and restaurants. A mood is expected from these spaces, with atmosphere highly impacting on the experience of the space.

One recent interior design development, the Whisky Mist Beirut, located in Beirut at the InterContinental Phoenicia hotel has taken this design principle on board and created a striking, high impact lighting experience for its exclusive clientele.

A custom created ceiling LED lighting system has been created by A.C Special Projects Ltd (ACSP), which has included over 100sqm of Chroma Q Colour Web 250 LED panels in addition to 165 metres of RGB LED strip and 90 metres of warm white LED strip  which all combine with a complete integrated technology control system

The end result is a sight to see. The ceiling of the space almost imitates the night sky, speckled with the colour changing lights, morphing from a soft relaxing blue in key socialising areas, to the vibrant white at the entries, exits and amenities.

However, cleverly, different sections of the LED system have colour changing abilities to sway the atmosphere of the space according to the client's needs.

In fact, the clever lighting system has the ability to change the actual function of the space, with the inclusion of 40 Chroma-Q LED strobe lights the space can be changed from a laid back chic bar to a high energy club scene. This goes so far as to changing the wallpaper, creating the 'liquid wallpaper' moniker due to the graphics and lighting effects that can be splayed across the venue's walls.

In terms of interior furnishings, the designers have included chic black leather curving booth couches and dark rust affected walls; the space cleverly designed to add a subtle style that doesn't take away from the overall effects of the lighting system.

It cannot be attested to enough, but the power of lighting solutions are extreme in their high impact effect on interiors. Clever designs like this one, can create multi-functional spaces that are ever changing and evolving at an overall cost, both operation and construction, that is a fraction of conventional designs. Having a changing and flexible lighting system allows for constant updates with almost zero design limitations at the switch of a button and the use of LED lights drastically cuts running costs.

For over a year a committee of students, faculty and staff, representing all the university's interests, have been evaluating the need to improve USU recreation facilities. Because USU Administration is committed to responding to student initiatives on this important project, President Stan Albrecht and vice president of Student Services, James Morales, recognized the authority of ASUSU Executive Council to bring this vote to the students.

If the project is approved, students will continue having a voice during the facility's planning and design stages through representation on a working committee.

In the absence of a dedicated student recreation facility, recreational space has been carved out in the current academic facilities — the Fieldhouse, constructed in 1939 and the HPER Building, constructed in 1972. This situation has led Campus Recreation to share space with intercollegiate athletics and academic classes, causing scheduling issues, overcrowding and reduction in services to students.

Concerning structured Campus Recreation programs, this year intramurals will have served about 1,080 less students due to space conflicts and loss of outdoor playing fields.  This is in comparison to the average 5,000 students who were able to participate in intramurals over the three previous years.

These numbers are indicative of the space conflict issues experienced by Campus Recreation's 13 club sport teams, and the hundreds of students that participate in the Fun, Fit, Forever and aquatics programs in Campus Recreation. 

Additionally, Campus Recreation administers the Outdoor Recreation Program. Last year Campus Recreation hired True Blue Public Relations, a student-led public relations team, to identify what USU students know about the ORP, as well as what they want and need from the program. The results demonstrated the ORP's lack of visibility on central campus was the primary reason many USU students did not take advantage of ORP services.

Many of USU's peer institutions have had similar problems related to a lack of centralized indoor and outdoor space for programmed and open recreation. Over the past 15 years, most, if not all, of our peer institutions have addressed these issues by building dedicated student recreation facilities.

The proposed Aggie Recreation Center and Legacy Fields would provide students with facilities comparable to those found at other universities of similar size and character throughout the country. USU's peer institutions reported the new recreation centers "turbo-charge" recruitment, retention and student success at their respective institutions. All indications suggest USU will experience the same benefits.

The proposed Aggie Legacy Fields will replace the existing HPER fields with artificial turf playing fields, and include a lighting system. The key features of the Aggie Legacy Fields will include durable, latest-generation, artificial turf — one collegiate soccer field, two regulation flag football fields, two regulation softball fields, multi-lined fields for lacrosse and ultimate Frisbee, a one-third mile jogging path with water-efficient landscaping, and lights for nighttime use that utilize dark-sky compliant light fixtures.

To support growing global demand, LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA says that its LMH2 module is now available in a 230V version for lighting manufacturers based in Europe and Asia. The LMH2 is designed to speed time-to-market and is claimed to be the only LED module delivering 80 lumens-per-watt system efficacy combined with a color rendering index greater than 90.

"Cree modules let us quickly and easily create high-performance lighting solutions for our customers," comments Miroslav Masar, SSL director at OMS s.r.o. of Dojc, Slovakia. "The LMH2 delivers the perfect combination of efficacy, color consistency and cost management," he adds.

The compact, two-piece module gives lighting manufacturers the flexibility needed for rapid LED luminaire design and development, Cree says. The LMH2 incorporates Cree TrueWhite LED technology for what is claimed to be unrivaled efficacy and CRI, featuring primary optics for superior color uniformity.

LMH2 also features primary thermal management – potentially eliminating the need for costly secondary thermal management systems. Optimized for more than downlights and spots, the LMH2 is designed for many lighting applications, including wall sconces, pendant lights, ceiling fans and many other common luminaires in commercial, retail, museums, residential, hospitality and restaurant environments, says Cree.

"The LMH2 is designed with the needs of the 230V European and Asian lighting markets in mind," says Mike Watson, Cree's senior director marketing, LED components. "One of the major barriers to LED lighting adoption and design remains upfront cost. The new Cree LMH2 modules can reduce initial luminaire cost and accelerate time-to-market for OEMs," he claims.

The LMH2 is available with a CRI of 90 at 850 and 1250 lumens and in color temperatures of 2700K, 3000K, 3500K and 4000K. Designed for 50,000 hours of operation and dimmable to 5%, the LMH2 comes with Cree's new five-year warranty. It is also UL-recognized and complies with multiple international regulatory and safety standards. Luminaire makers seeking ENERGY STAR qualification will have access to specification and performance data, including LM-80 reports, which can speed regulatory approvals.

It looks like Ford is preparing a new LED package for its revamped F-150, complete with LED light bars under the lip of the truck bed, as evidenced by this prototype caught by one of our spy shooters taking a break from a testing run.

The LED package on the F-150 Platinum remained lit for a few minutes, giving them just enough time to grab a few nighttime shots of the illuminated bed. The LED system also includes diode strips on the side mirrors. One word of caution to the Ford guys: Don't go overboard like Audi has been doing recently.

As Chevy prepares for an all-new Silverado for the 2014 model year, Ford's F-150 overhaul program is becoming more important by the day. Thoughtful, new details and updates like this LED truck bed lighting are the types of things that Ford planners can use in a cost-effective way until an all-new F-150 arrives; we're hearing for the 2015 model year.

Moan number one; The Eiffel Tower. A monstrous piece of architecture which appears incomplete and skeletal; the mass of iron bolts, nails and grids make it seem like a supportive framework for a construction which has yet to be built. The similarity to scaffolding is uncanny and only serves to emphasise its profound ugliness.

Furthermore the tower is primarily a marketing tool; a monument to Capitalism which annually seduces foreigners into splurging their hard earned cash. If it's hideous by day then at night it can only be described as tacky. Transformed into a gaudy iron Christmas tree the flashing lights are exhausting and unnecessarily extravagant.

If principal alone isn't enough to dissuade the hardiest of travellers from venturing forth, then consider the ridiculous entrance queues which rival the exodus of animals waiting to board the ark. And that's without having mentioned altitude sickness.

Another niggling annoyance about Paris is the haughty Parisian attitudes to all foreigners, especially those who do not have native-like proficiency in French. Many Naives seem under the illusion that if a tourist attempts to speak a little French, an occasional Bonjour or a Merci, the Parisians will applaud the attempt with graceful smiles.

You are mistaken. You will be given a glower, a quizzical and knowing raise of the brow, or simply a nonchalant shrug. This manner of behaviour also extends to customer service in restaurants, where believe it or not, it takes 17.9 minutes on average to serve the customer a glass of water. What are they doing, filling buckets from the local well? 17.9 minutes is most definitely pushing the acceptable time allocation of water-fetching past the brink of impropriety.

Furthermore the city is infamous for its odour of drainage wafting along every street in the most persistent manner, its overpriced restaurants and cab fares leave your wallet with a Vodka hangover, and the entire Paris ideology is cliched and staler than Stilton.

It has even been medically recognised that 'Paris Syndrome' is a specific Parisian induced depression which grasps hold of unsuspecting tourists and is sustained by the hostility of the French towards any 'outsider' lacking a moustache, excellent wine tasting abilities and a somewhat frog inclined food palate. Symptoms include feelings of persecution, hallucinations, anxiety and psychosomatic manifestations. (Still planning on jumping that jet?)

Come this Valentine's Day I'll be opting for the cosy, and somewhat traditional English Inn. A roaring fire, long walks in the countryside and a Sunday Roast. Au revoir Paris.