Over the last week, I have been testing the very latest PHILIPS 60-Watt-Equivalent LED bulb.  It’s fantastic.   It looks great.  The light is excellent.  It uses just 11 watts.  And it delivers 830 lumens — 30 more lumens than my previously reviewed PHILIPS LED bulb and EcoSmart LED bulb.  And, unlike the prior PHILIPS bulb, this one is dimmable!  The light is a very pleasing white, 2700 Kelvin (“K”).  Life expectancy, based on three hours per day, is an amazing 22.8 years.   According to recent reports, the bulb is 17% more efficient than its previous generation and uses 12% less power.  The icing on the cake:  Home Depot recently dropped the price ten bucks — from $24.95 to $14.95.  At this new price point, this is a superb bulb.   In fact, it may have just become my favorite LED bulb in the 60-watt-equivalent LED category.

Below is a picture of the new bulb in its well-designed packaging…

As part of my ongoing LED light bulb reviews, the following is my real-world testing of the PHILIPS 10.5-watt (60-watt-equivalent) LED bulb.   As my regular readers know, I have really liked the EcoSmart 60-watt LED.  (Click here for my review of the EcoSmart LED.)   I’ve recently been trying out the PHILIPS 60-watt-equivalent LED bulb.  The PHILIPS bulb delivers the same number of lumens — 800 lumens — with 10.5 watts.  The EcoSmart consumes 13 watts.  So the PHILIPS saves an extra 2.5 watts.  The light “appearance” are both 3000 Kelvin (“K”), which is a pleasant bright white. Cosmetically, the PHILIPS bulb is even closer in design to an old-style Edison bulb — rounded top with no side heat-sink flanges.   And the price per bulb is about the same.  Home Depot carries both bulbs, and they regularly run special-pricing between $9.95 and $14 per bulb.   HOWEVER, the PHILIPS does not work with dimmers.   Also, the PHILIPS bulb is not recommended for use in recessed down-lights.   Bottom line:  The light (color and brightness) from both LED bulbs is about the same.  The PHILIPS bulb saves a little more power — but is a little less versatile.   Both are high-quality bulbs that should serve you well.

As part of my ongoing LED light bulb reviews, the following is my real-world testing of the EcoSmart 13-watt (60-watt-equivalent) LED bulb.  In case you haven’t noticed, traditional 100w & 75w incandescent bulbs have been phased out (all manufacturing in the U.S. has ceased). Why? Because although America has just 5% of the world’s population, we use 26% of the world’s energy. And lighting is a major culprit. I have been testing all sorts of replacement bulbs — so you don’t have to. Skip the compact fluorescents and head straight to the new generation of LEDs. They’re “instant on,” dimmable (most of them), and light a room just as good — or even better — than traditional bulbs.  The best bulb I’ve found so far is the “EcoSmart” 60-watt-equivalent “bright white” LED. Although packaged as a 60-watt replacement, it has nearly the same number of “lumens” (amount of visible light) as a 75-watt incandescent. It will last 25x longer than an incandescent bulb — up to 23 years! And only uses 13 watts of power. The color of the light is pleasing, too — a very natural, bright white. Bottom line: It will save you up to $161 vs. a regular 75-watt bulb. And it will keep working for a quarter century. It’s $9.95 at Home Depot — a great deal. I’ve included a photo so you can spot it quickly in the aisle. Suggestion: Buy one and try it. I bet you’ll like it! Let me know…

(Bloomberg)  Samsung Electronics Co. fired the first of three smartphone salvos this year aimed at hurting Apple Inc in its home market, releasing a bigger and faster Galaxy S4 that reviewers said may only glance its target.  The device announced yesterday at New York’s Radio City Music Hall is lighter than predecessor S3 and has software to track movement of the eyes and waves of the hands. The Galaxy S4 will be able to take photos in two directions, monitor sleeping habits and translate commands into different languages as the South Korean company tries to lure customers in a slowing global smartphone market.  The handset, with a 5-inch screen and 13-megapixel camera, goes on sale in the U.S. on April 26 with carriers including AT&T Inc (T)., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. The Galaxy S4 is among three high-end smartphones Samsung is releasing this year after being overtaken in the U.S. by the iPhone 5 in the fourth quarter.  For the complete article, click here.   Image courtesy of Bloomberg

(CNN)  “MakerBot [has] unveiled a desktop device that can scan small three-dimensional objects. Called a MakerBot Digitizer, it’s meant to complement the company’s Replicator printer by letting customers scan objects, then feed the resulting digital files to the Replicator to be printed. The Digitizer uses two lasers and a webcam to scan objects up to about 8 inches in diameter…. The process takes less than three minutes.  Once the digital scan is completed, an object can be printed right away. It’s easier and faster than using software to design a digital printing model from scratch.”  For the complete report, visit this link.  Image courtesy MakerBot

Results:  Over the 4-year study period, there were 121,084 firearm fatalities. The average state-based firearm fatality rates varied from a high of 17.9 (Louisiana) to a low of 2.9 (Hawaii) per 100,000 individuals per year. Annual firearm legislative strength scores ranged from 0 (Utah) to 24 (Massachusetts) of 28 possible points. States in the highest quartile of legislative strength (scores of >9) had a lower overall firearm fatality rate than those in the lowest quartile (scores of <2) (absolute rate difference, 6.64 deaths/100,000/y; age-adjusted incident rate ratio [IRR], 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.92). Compared with the quartile of states with the fewest laws, the quartile with the most laws had a lower firearm suicide rate (absolute rate difference, 6.25 deaths/100,000/y; IRR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.83) and a lower firearm homicide rate (absolute rate difference, 0.40 deaths/100,000/y; IRR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.38-0.95).

Conclusions and Relevance:  A higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in the state, overall and for suicides and homicides individually. As our study could not determine cause-and-effect relationships, further studies are necessary to define the nature of this association.

Full report:   http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1661390

Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH; Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH; Michael C. Monuteaux, ScD; David Hemenway, PhD; Rebekah Mannix, MD, MPH

JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-9. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1286.

Published online March 6, 2013

A Ukrainian-Russian rocket carrying a US-made telecommunications satellite has plunged into the Pacific Ocean shortly after launch.

The Zenit-3SL rocket, which was being operated from a floating pad south of the Hawaiian islands, failed 40 seconds after the lift-off at 06:56 GMT.

Officials say no-one was hurt as a result of the incident.

Intelsat-27, which weighed some 6.2 tonnes at launch, was to have provided direct-to-home TV services and mobile broadband connections.

Steve Case, founder of AOL, venture capitalist, and current chairman of Startup America Partnership, says entrepreneurs are the true American heroes.

“Entrepreneurship is how America became great,” Case said.  “The good news is that we’re still the most entrepreneurial nation in the world. The bad news is that all the other countries are trying to catch us.”

Case was speaking in Detroit at Techonomy on Entrepreneurship and American Relevance.There are two types of founders, Case said:  those who create an interesting product or service but have modest ambitions…and those who are trying to change the world, who are swinging for the fences.

Those who are swinging for the fences are continuing the grand American tradition of entrepreneurship, he suggested, continuing the legacy of legendary Detroit founders and leaders such as Henry Ford.

Case sees what’s happening now as the next revolution in technology. After the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the initial stages of the digital revolution, we’re now seeing perhaps the most important part of the digital revolution: the impact of digital technology on all aspects of the economy.

Even heroes, of course, need loyal sidekicks. That’s why Case accepted the role of chairman of the Startup America Partnership, which is focused on building up all the regions of the U.S.

Not just social media companies — not just Facebooks and Instagrams — but also companies that use technology intelligently in transportation, in manufacturing, in all aspects of the economy.

“In some ways, every company is now a technology company,” Case said. The most important thing for entrepreneurial heroes, according to Case?“They really have to have passion.”

Image credits: Blastr, John Koetsier

via Steve Case: Entrepreneurs are American heroes | VentureBeat.

In data prepared for USA TODAY, Vonage, an Internet phone company, says the number of voice-mail messages left on user accounts was down 8% in July from a year ago.

Checking one’s voice mail seems to be considered an even a bigger chore than leaving a voice message. Retrieved voice mail fell 14% among Vonage users in the same period.

“They hate the whole voice-mail introduction, prompts, having to listen to them in chronological order,” says Michael Tempora, senior vice president of product management at Vonage. One response by the company to the trend is a new voice-mail transcription service that converts voice messages for delivery as e-mail or text.

The service also e-mails a direct link to the voice-mail audio file, letting users bypass several steps to listen to it. “Voice transcription isn’t perfect,” Tempora says. “But they understand who called and what the message is about.”

The transcription tools make skimming through messages easier for on-the-go users such as Dmitri Leonov, an executive at SaneBox, a maker of e-mail inbox management software. “E-mail (etiquette) says to respect your friends’ time,” says Leonov, who rarely listens to messages. “And I should stop leaving voice mail, as well. Practice what you preach.”

via With the rise of texting and chat apps, voice-mail use is waning. – USATODAY.com.

Dropbox is rolling out stronger security to protect data stored in the cloud. Following in Google’s footsteps, Dropbox is enhancing account security with optional two-factor authentication.

Dropbox is a popular cloud storage service used by millions of users. Dropbox has had some issues regarding data security, though, and passwords alone have also proven to be an Achilles heel when it comes to protecting online data.

Phishing attacks and many malware variants are designed to trick users into sharing sensitive information like passwords, or surreptitiously capturing them without the user’s knowledge. You should have a cross-device security platform in place to detect and block such attacks, but two-factor authentication provides even stronger security that can be so easily compromised.

via Protect Your Dropbox Data with Two-Factor Authentication | PCWorld.

Satellites, like the people who make them, come in all shapes and sizes. Their parts do as well. And while some thrusters are large and impressive, some satellites need smaller ones. So Paulo Lozano at MIT decided to build a rocket thruster the size of a penny.

The thruster, which looks like anything but, is similar in shape and size to a computer chip. It’s “covered with 500 microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions. Together, the array of spiky tips creates a small puff of charged particles that can help propel a shoebox-sized satellite forward,” according to Lozano.

The size allows for several thrusters to be put on a single satellite, which could allow it to change orbit and even roll. Though it may not sound it, this is exciting in the world of satellites. Nanosatellites have had trouble with traditional propulsion systems, which allow little space on the them for electronics and communications equipment.

But the microthruster barely adds any weight, allowing for fully-loaded nanosatellites to not only be launched into orbit but to be able to navigate once there.

On Earth, these thrusters are essentially useless. But zero-gravity space presents a very different story. And with the size and flexibility of these thrusters, this could open a new range of possibilities for satellite technology.

via A penny-sized rocket thruster invented at MIT | DVICE.

The non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation has prepared a superb summary of the Affordable Care Act.  No hype.  No political spin.  No mis-information.

Read about:   The individual mandate.  Employer requirements.  Prevention and wellness programs.  How public programs are expanded.  Premiums.  Cost-sharing subsidies.  Related tax changes.  Health insurance exchanges.  Impacts on private insurance.  State role.  Cost containment.  Improving quality and health care system performance.  Nutritional information required to be disclosed by restaurant chains.  Long-term care.  Coverage and financing.

Here’s the link to the KFF summary of health care reform as provided by the Affordable Care Act:  http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf

F.Y.I., regarding “coverage and financing,” the KFF summary reports:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the new health reform law will provide coverage to an additional 32 million when fully implemented in 2019 through a combination of the newly created Exchanges and the Medicaid expansion.

CBO estimates the cost of the coverage components of the new law to be $938 billion over ten years. These costs are financed through a combination of savings from Medicare and Medicaid and new taxes and fees, including an excise tax on high-cost insurance, which CBO estimates will raise $32 billion over ten years.  CBO also estimates that the health reform law will reduce the deficit by $124 billion over ten years.

Washington legislators may have finally lost their minds. Two bills winding their way through Congress — the House’s “Stop Online Piracy Act” (aka, SOPA) and the Senate’s “Protect IP Act of 2011″ (aka, Protect IP) — could gut the very foundation of the Internet.

But don’t just take my word for it. The same conclusion is represented by three distinguished law professors from Stanford, Elon, and Temple universities in their jointly published essay, “Don’t Break the Internet.”

Here are a couple of snippets from the authors’ essay:

“The procedures outlined in both bills fail [a] fundamental constitutional test. Websites can be ‘completely removed from circulation’ — rendered unreachable by, and invisible to, Internet users in the United States and abroad — immediately upon application by the government, without any reasonable opportunity for the owner or operator of the website in question to be heard or to present evidence on his or her own behalf. This falls far short of what the Constitution requires before speech can be eliminated from public circulation.”

“As serious as these infirmities are, SOPA, the House’s bill, builds upon them, enlarges them, and makes them worse. Under SOPA, IP rights holders can proceed vigilante-style against allegedly offending sites, without any court hearing or any judicial intervention or oversight whatsoever.”

In the noise of all of the other political gyrations in Washington, legislation that could undermine the foundation of the Internet could squeak through. I urge you to review the entire legal analysis at this link.  If you’re equally concerned, you may want to consider contacting your Congressional representatives.

Image courtesy Stanford Law Review.

How would you like to raise up to $2 million for your startup business?  And do it by letting investors “point-n-click” the cash your way via the Web?  It may soon be nearly that simple, thanks to the “Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act” (more commonly known as the “Crowdfunding Act”) that passed the House in an overwhelming (and bi-partisan!) 407 to 17 vote.  President Obama is another driving force behind the legislation, which is designed to dramatically streamline fund-raising for entrepreneurs.

After the bill passes the Senate (and all indications are that it will), and President Obama signs the legislation into law, entrepreneurs will be able to turn on a grassroots method to raise capital — equity sales online — with greatly reduced SEC restrictions.  The freer flow of money would be rocket fuel for startups, which are an essential engine for a robust economy and job creation.

“Crowdfunding” — a way for masses of people (“the crowd”) to feed ventures with capital via the Web — has blossomed in recent years thanks to sites like Kickstarter.com.  But SEC “red tape” (primarily the Securities Act of 1933) has prohibited these sites from directly offering investment shares in the enterprises.  The new Crowdfunding Act will remove this barrier.  No longer will equity sales be restricted to accredited investors.  And the power of public-supported funding will be unleashed.

Entrepreneurial endeavors will be able to sell up to $2 million in ownership shares to an unlimited number of investors.  And individuals will be able to invest up to $10,000 or up to 10% of his or her annual income, whichever is less.

If a company seeks the maximum $2 million in funding, it must supply “the crowd” with audited financial statements.  A company can choose to bypass the audited-financial-statement requirement — but then the maximum capital it can raise is $1 million.  (That’s nothing to sneeze at!)

When the President signs the legislation into law, it will be a great day for all entrepreneurs.  Just as important for America, the ensuing new businesses will provide a shot of adrenaline for the economy and help rev up the job-creation engine.  Everyone will win.

“Carrier IQ is a piece of software installed on millions of mobile phones that logs everything their users do, from what websites they browse to what their text messages say.

“No, it’s not part of some great Orwellian plot; it’s a diagnostic tool that carriers say plays a crucial role in helping them assess and troubleshoot their networks. But the recording app, which flew under the radar for years until security researchers drew attention to it recently, is setting off red-alert privacy and security alarms.

“It’s also spotlighting how little customers — and, sometimes, the carriers and manufacturers themselves — know about what goes on under the hood of their data-stuffed mobile devices.”

For the full article, including a link to an insightful YouTube video, visit http://cnnmon.ie/ruPxSh

Image courtesy John F. Coughlin / CNNMoney

Chime.in, a just-launched social-media site, claims it will pay all content posters 50% of the advertising revenue generated on their profile pages.  This in stark contrast to Facebook, which has built a $65 billion empire by leveraging members’ content to attract advertisers and amass revenue.

To provide a first-hand report, I created Chime.in account (very simple to do), and explored the site.  Although the site is still in beta, I must say the user interface is well thought out.  Since the site has just turned on, you probably have a good shot to get your personal name as your user name.  Hey, it’s free.  Go for it.  www.Chime.in

The following is a snippet of a Huffington Post article about Chime.In:

“While Facebook has earned billions of dollars selling ads next to the content uploaded by their 800 million members, users haven’t seen a dime from their posts.

Share with Chime.in and Chime.in will share with you. The site, which allows individuals to post photos, links, videos and text in two thousand character ‘chimes,’ will give users 50 percent of the revenue it earns from selling advertising on their profile pages.

‘This is a firing shot in social media,’ [Bill Gross, the founder] told The Huffington Post. ‘Finally, the interests of the content creators are aligned with the interests of the publisher because they get something for their hard work.”

For the complete article, visit http://huff.to/ogyFGi

Image courtesy The Huffington Post and Getty Images.

I came across this inspiring two-minute video on YouTube about entrepreneurs.  They formed the fabric of our country — and could (and should) be our engine to the future.  Start your day off with this video.  It will lift your spirits.  Then take that rush of adrenaline and dose free spirit — and go for it.  Change the world.

NASA has introduced a plan to pay private aerospace companies $1.6 billion to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS).  A variety of new commercial aerospace companies are expected to compete for the job of providing “turnkey” launch, flight, return, maintenance, and ground-support operations.

The commercialization of space will be an exciting era.  The retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet may provide a short-term space-transportation gap, but — in the long run — the opportunities and new doors that will open will be amazing.

ISS graphic courtesy of NASA

The America Invents Act is the most significant overhaul of U.S. patent law since 1952.  Through this Act, American inventors can hope to see a breakthrough in the logjam of patent applications that hold up applications for years at a time.  (At last count, there are over 700,000 backlogged patent applications — slowing countless product and business innovaions from seeing the light of day.)

The bill also gets the U.S. on the same patent footing as the rest of the world, by changing our system from a “first-to-invent” standard to a “first-to-file” standard.  This one change, alone, is designed to eliminate the myriad of court cases that try to resolve which inventor came up with an idea first.

Additional information can be read at the following AP report: http://bit.ly/pWOQR0

Photo courtesy of the AP.

Call me crazy, but I think it’s ridiculous that Microsoft charges $499.99 for its Office Professional 2010; that’s more than what I paid for the laptop that I’m using to write this post.

If you’re content with all of the features of your current version of Microsoft Office, but would like to open and edit those new .DOCX (for Word), .PPTX (for PowerPoint), and .XLSX (for Excel), just download the 100% free “compatibility pack” from Microsoft.  Here’s the link:  http://bit.ly/rb0Ifl.  The installation will take you less than a minute.

And if you’re totally fed up with Microsoft, just download and use Oracle’s 100% free OpenOffice suite.  As described at OpenOffice.org:  “OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.”

As mentioned above, OpenOffice lets you read and edit Microsoft Office files (like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).  So you can remain fully compatible with Microsoft files you’ve previously created, or files you share with clients and colleagues.

To give OpenOffice a whirl, just visit www.OpenOffice.org.

Perhaps a little competition will nudge Microsoft towards more reasonable pricing for its products.  I’m all for it.

Amazon’s Android-based Kindle tablet is about to send shock waves through the tablet PC marketplace.  The device is still so top secret, no photos have yet leaked out (but you can bet they will over the next few days).  Here’s what we do know:

*  Full-color 7″ screen
*  Two-finger multi-touch screen interface
*  Runs a specially customized version of Android 2.2
*  $250 — about half the cost of Apple’s base iPad

Amazon has a huge, loyal customer base and almost unlimited content. Its release of what will be an impressive full-color tablet PC, running the popular Android operating system, will be a game changer.  No, it won’t knock Apple off its roll with the iPad.  But it will make a serious dent.  As for the other tablet makers?  They’re in deep doo-doo.

Over the last couple of months I’ve seen a flurry of doom ‘n’ gloom scenarios based on the nearing peak (in mid 2013) of the 11-year solar cycle.  For instance, a little over a week ago I read in the International Business Times, “Severe Solar Storm to Create Global Chaos and Complete Darkness” followed a week later by “Severe Solar Storms Could Disrupt Earth This Decade.”

I’m not picking on the IB Times.  I’ve seen similar reports in Popular Science, such as the June 30th article entitled, “Are We Prepared for a Catastrophic Solar Storm?”

So are we all toast?

Here’s the reality:

It’s true that with the near total dependence on computers for every aspect of our lives, we’ve never been more vulnerable to solar activity.  I described in a previous article a recent near-miss of a CME (corona mass ejection) — essentially a ball of plasma ejected by the sun.  If a large CME hits our planet, power could certainly go down for an extended period of time.

One of the biggest concerns of scientists is the “Fukushima Effect” in which the backup generators and battery systems at nuclear power plants run out power.  Such a circumstance could cascade to the point where water-cooling systems would become inoperable — and result in Fukushima-like catastrophes around the world.  The actual chances?  Hard to predict precisely.  But, by legitimate estimates, pretty low.

More likely to occur:  Gas pumps at your local service station would stop working.  (They’re essentially computerized pumps; the credit-card processing network would also likely go down.)   “Telecommuting” would not be possible, as phone and Internet would be flicked off like a switch.  Cell phone service would also go down as soon as the backup generators and / or batteries at the cell towers run out of juice.  (You won’t be able to charge your cell phones, anyway.)

If the power grid goes down, once your food runs out (or spoils) in your fridge, don’t count on restocking at the supermarket.  The 18 wheelers that are the mainstay of food delivery across the country would also quickly run out of fuel — and, as mentioned above, the services stations would be unable to refill the rigs.

The probability of a sweeping, worldwide catastrophe as outline above is low.  But CMEs can, and have, made direct Earth strikes over the centuries — and caused significant disruptions.  Do a Google search for the “Carrington Event.”  In 1859, during the peak of another solar cycle, a CME knocked out telegraph offices around the globe (and even shocked some of the telegraph operators).  Most scientists agree that — because of entrenched computerization and satellite-based communications — the same magnitude CME today would disrupt society on a widespread basis.

I’m hoping the media doesn’t escalate the risks to an astronomical level.  The last thing we need is a massive wave of hysteria.  But, hey, it can’t hurt to keep an extra candle or two around the house.  And, perhaps, a couple of cans of Spam…

For a reasonably well-proportioned (non-hyped) news report — with an exceptional piece of video from NASA of a CME — check out the following two-minute CNN video:  http://bit.ly/h7GEmn

For reference, the NASA image associated with this article shows the approximate size of the Earth as compared to a solar eruption.  (In reality, the Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun — so a flare would never envelop the Earth as in the NASA comparison.)

Amazon just launched a new service called Kindle “Cloud Reader” that carries on the company’s “buy once, read everywhere” philosophy.   You can read books directly from your Web browser.  And you can pick up where you left off, just like with any other Kindle application.

It looks like the service currently only supports Chrome and Safari browsers.   So, if you’re a fan of say Firefox (like me), you’ll need to download a version of either browser .  But, hey, they’re free — so no big deal.  Check out additional details at https://read.amazon.com.

According to InformationWeek: “Google has purchased more than 1,000 patents from IBM in an effort to build up its intellectual property portfolio, possibly with an eye to fending off the increasing number of IP lawsuits the search giant faces from competitors such as Microsoft.  The 1,030 patents cover a wide range of technologies, including ‘the fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips.’”

It will be interesting to see what Google really has up its sleeves.

For additional information from the InformationWeek report, visit http://bit.ly/ppz9ca

In 2007 President Bush signed into law an energy bill that requires light bulbs to be 30 percent more efficient by 2012.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  Today’s old-fashioned “Edison” bulbs turn only 10% of electricity into light — with the other 90% turned into heat.  But now some “brilliant” lawmakers want to overturn the 2007 law, and they’ve introduced legislation to do so.

Their rationale?  People should have the right to choose how they want to light their homes and businesses, regardless of bulb type or efficiency.  Now, I’m all for a free society and minimal government impact on our lives.  But the reality is that America has five percent of the world’s population, but consumes a whopping 25% of the world’s energy.  Expressed another way:  On average, each one of us consumes five times more energy than an individual in any other country on the planet.  And lighting is one of the heftiest contributors.

Edison bulbs have been around since 1879.  As we all learned in school, Thomas Edison found a way to create light by sending a current through a metal filament, causing it to glow. But this ancient technology, as mentioned above, is a terribly inefficient light source; for most homes, it’s the second-largest energy expense.

Today’s energy-efficient light-bulb alternatives come in all shapes, sizes, and types.

The now-popular “curly” fluorescent light bulbs (a.k.a., compact fluorescent lights, CFLs) are much more energy efficient (20% or more).  But some people don’t like the slight turn-on delay.  And, contrary to recent media reports, they don’t contain life-threatening levels of mercury.  Yes, they contain some mercury — but only about one hundredth (1/100) of the mercury as the medical thermometers we grew up with.

My personal preference is the LED light bulb, based on the same LED technology used in everything from flashlights to TV displays.  They are considerably more expensive — $20 to $40 per bulb.  But, because they are up to 80% efficient (vs. an Edison bulb’s 10% or a CFL’s 20%), they pay back quickly in energy savings — and can save hundreds of dollars per year in operating costs.  And forget about replacing them.  Under typical usage, a single LED bulb can last up to 25 years.

Watch for the costs of LED bulbs to plummet over the next year or two, as demand and production increase.

Companies are springing up, all across America, to manufacture both CFLs and LEDs.  These companies are creating jobs and fostering innovation.  Now if only the light bulb would go on in the heads of our politicians.