The New Hotness

A solar yard / walkway light appeared in the far back reaches of the yard while mowing:

Yes, that’s an air bubble in the middle, so you know the light hasn’t been staying in its Happy Place™.

As the djinn in the bottle put it, “Pop the top and let’s get started”:

Those light emitting diodes around the photovoltaic cell in the middle can’t light up any more.

A little more effort with the Designated Prydriver reveals the guts:

That’s an NiMH cell, so the light has been abandoned out there for quite a few years.

The photovoltaic element still worked, but the LEDs were defunct. The corpse will be a guest of honor at the next electronics recycling event down the road from here.

Someday, our great-to-the-nth grandchildren will curse our ways …