Plasma bulb the next big thing?

The incandescent light bulb has been banished by congress, so now the jostling begins for the next big light bulb technology. Some are in love with the CFL while many others (myself included) hate it for everyday use. LEDs are making some headway but have a ways to go. So might the plasma bulb win out in the end?

At 140 lumens/watt, these pill-sized plasma light bulbs by Luxim are a pretty awesome contender for "light of the future". They are almost 10 times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, twice as efficient as current high-end LEDs, and they also beat CFLs, most of which are around 50-80 lumens/watt.

I know too little about this technology to make any pronouncements, but I hate CFL's so much (except for certain uses) that I'm willing to hear out any new technology that bury those miserable fluorescent bulbs.

One Billion Mercury Spills

Dennis the Peasant (via Moxie) goes after the One Billion Bulbs project. I have my own project, the One Billion Mercury Spills project. In this project, I'm calling on the world to slip one billion compact fluorescent light bulbs into their garbage bags instead of properly recycling them. The goal of this project is to see how long it takes for people to get up in arms over mercury seeping into the ground water via normal human disregard for recycling. If you toss a CFL in your garbage, make note of it in the comments, anonymously. I don't care enough to actually keep a count, but maybe somebody will tally the comments to see where we're at.

Additionally, I may start a futures market on the appearance of the first doomsday MSM piece on the environmental hazards of CFLs. Or I may not. Again, I probably don't care enough to actually set it up. But we all know that piece is going to happen, it is just a matter of when.