A Greenpeace action today exposed electronics giant Hewlett-Packard for backtracking on its public commitment to eliminate key toxic chemicals in its products by the end of this year (1). In Palo Alto, Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of HP's global headquarters and painted the message "Hazardous Products" in big, bold letters on the roof. The message, applied using non toxic children's finger-paint, covered over 11,500 square ft., or the size of two and half basketball courts.

This protest follows similar demonstrations against HP at its offices in China and Holland. HP employees were also greeted today by an automated phone calls from actor William Shatner, calling upon the company to phase out the toxic chemicals.

Finger paints? Shatner? That sounds like a nursery school art class being taught by Captain Kirk.

Greenpeace: Hewlett-Packard = Hazardous Products

Action at global headquarters highlights company's broken promises on hazardous chemical elimination

SAN FRANCISCO – A Greenpeace action today exposed electronics giant Hewlett-Packard for backtracking on its public commitment to eliminate key toxic chemicals in its products by the end of this year (1). In Palo Alto, Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of HP's global headquarters and painted the message "Hazardous Products" in big, bold letters on the roof. The message, applied using non toxic children's finger-paint, covered over 11,500 square ft., or the size of two and half basketball courts.

This protest follows similar demonstrations against HP at its offices in China and Holland. HP employees were also greeted today by an automated phone calls from actor William Shatner, calling upon the company to phase out the toxic chemicals.

"HP continues to put hazardous products on the market despite promises made years ago to phase out these toxic compounds," said Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner Casey Harrell. "Apple has led the sector in phasing out of these toxic chemicals. HP should be following Apple's lead, instead of breaking its commitment and delaying action."

Earlier this year, HP postponed its 2007 commitment to phase out of dangerous substances such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics (2) from its computing products. Its delay shifts compliance up to two years from 2009 to 2011.

Apple's new computer lines, virtually free of PVC and completely BFR free (3) demonstrate the technical feasibility and supply chain readiness of producing alternatives to these hazardous substances. Competitors Dell, Lenovo and Acer have stayed ahead of HP by putting models on the market that are free of or at least significantly reduced in the use of PVC and BFRs. HP currently stands in 14th place in the quarterly Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics (4) having been penalized in the previous ranking for its backtracking on PVC/BFR phase out.

"Greenpeace will not stand idly by while companies that commit to environmentally responsible action backtrack on commitments," Harrell said. "As the number one seller of PCs worldwide (5), HP has both the responsibility and the ability to make sure the company no longer deserves the moniker ‘Hazardous Products'."

PVC and BFRs are highly toxic, and can release dioxin, a known carcinogen, when burned. With the growing tsunami of electronic waste being shipped to developing countries for open burning, workers who deal with e-waste are at the most significant risk for health impacts. Eliminating these substances will decrease exposure to workers and consumers and will increase the recyclability and reusability of electronic products.

[Image via Flickr]

The second clip, which you can watch here, shows a tense little situation on board a departing ship. And here I thought "blood boiling" was just a colorful phrase. [Yahoo, MTV]

According to Adam, he would have needed to apply a force of 3,900 Newtons with his fingers to stop from falling. His calculations, however, don't take into account the friction of his body, as some of the comments in his article point out. But then again, he gave Kirk a 4m/s liftoff speed on his jump—which is quite high.

In any case, we stand by our answer: Who gives a vulcan ass about this. [PopSci]

The song is "Dead" by the Pixies, from the album "Pixies at the BBC". Go get it. It rocks.

It's too bad this thing isn't Picard's chair, which is way more comfortable and also has cupholders and the leftover scent of Counselor Troi. And despite what Buchanan thinks, Star Trek rules, and is way cooler than Star Wars. Yeah, I said it. Who wants Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader's chair? You'd be afraid to catch a major case of whininess and teen angst, respectively. [Trek Movie via Retro Thing]

We suppose it would have been pretty impossible for ANYONE to predict 40 years ago that we'd have hand warmers and seat coolers that plug into USB ports. – Jason Chen

Captain Kirk says mobiles are better than Star Trek communicators [The Inquirer]