A few of our coworkers from London, England were here in Austin this past week. Here’s the stack of power adapters  one of them had to lug around to merely charge his iPhone.

Picturing the Past 10 Years

In this Op-Chart for The New York Times created by Phillip Niemeyer called “Picturing the Past 10 Years”, each row is a theme, and each column represents a year.  Shown in each cell are the trends and events that dominated the past decade in icons and buzzwords.

via Picturing the Past 10 Years, December 27, 2009.

What’s Changed This Decade (1999-2009)

In “What’s Changed This Decade (1999-2009)” another perspective is given on how far we’ve come and gone, both good and bad…

Are stone cold numbers your thing?

If so, check out “A plethora of numbers traces a decade of change” – From McClatchy Newspapers and Yahoo! News. This article lists other statistics that trace the changes that took place in the last 10 years. Here’s a sample taken from that article:

Unemployment rate: 4.2 percent (1999); 10 percent ( November 2009 )

Jobless workers: 5.7 million (1999); 15.4 million ( November 2009 )

Unemployed workers not included in jobless number because they haven’t looked for work in the past month: 1.1 million (1999); 2.3 million ( November 2009 )

Median household income: $44,900 (1999); $50,303 (2008)

In 1999 constant dollars: $44,900 (1999); $38,924 (2008)

Median sales price for existing homes: $138,000 (1999); $172,700 (2009)

In constant 1999 dollars:$138,000 (1999); $133,000 (2009)

Median sales price for new homes: $161,000 (1999); $212,000 (2009)

In constant 1999 dollars: $161,000 (1999); $163,265 (2009)

Number of foreclosure proceedings: 450,000 (1999); 2 million (2009, estimate)

Banks seized by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.: 8 (1999); 133 (through Dec. 11, 2009 )

People living below the poverty line: 32.8 million in 1999; 39.8 million in 2008

Poverty line for a family of four: $17,029 (1999); $22,025 (2008)

In constant 1999 dollars: $17,029 (1999); $17,043 (2008)

via A plethora of numbers traces a decade of change – Yahoo! News.

Food for thought.

As I walked through the store this particular day, I took a good look at their lighting display. What I appreciated about the display is how effective it was at showing the benefits of converting standard incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient CFL bulbs.

Incandescent vs CFL Bulbs

Ikea display: Energy consumption, Incandescent vs CFL bulbs

On the left are twelve incandescent bulbs, consuming 720 watts. On the right, twelve energy efficient CFL bulbs consuming 132 watts. Same number of bulbs, same light output. Standing in front of the display, I could feel noticeably more heat being given off by the incandescent bulbs. Below each display is a meter showing the total number of watts consumed. Just as I expected, the numbers on the meter to the left were adding up pretty quickly. Still, it’s a pretty dramatic statement.

Ikea display: CFL light bulbs side-by-side

Over the last few years I’ve been converting my frequently used light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs. After coming home from Ikea, I decided to take inventory of my progress by counting every bulb in my house, those that are frequently used and those that I have replaced with an energy efficient CFL.

Taking inventory of my lighting footprint.

• Total light bulbs: 53
• “Frequently-used” light bulbs: 45
• Number of CFL bulbs: 19

You’ll be amazed how many light bulbs are around when you actually add them up. I started from the back of my house and made my way forward. I counted bulbs in all of these areas:  Lamps, hallways, ceiling fans, patio light fixtures, back yard flood lights, ceiling fans, desk lamps, bedrooms, closets, bathrooms, laundry room, garage, refrigerator, oven, range vent hood…Crazy, isn’t it?

Earth Hour 2009

On March 28th I turned off every light in my home for an hour in support of Earth Hour 2009. This video describes the purpose of the event:

What else can we do?

The World Wildlife Fund has put together a quick and easy list of things we as individuals can do to reduce emissions that affect the climate.

What do you think?

What’s in Locker 13?

YOU tell us…

Open Locker 13 at your own risk.

Lately I’ve become somewhat of a WordPress template whore.  Yes, I know. That sounds pretty dark and seedy.  I admit, it started off innocently enough, with the urge to dress up my blog with a new look.  I visited the WordPress themes site and started browsing.  But browsing was just the beginning.  I mean, there are SO many themes out there.   And they’re all FREE.  Before I knew it, I was downloading and unzipping themes left and right.  Here’s a small sample of some of the faces my blog has worn recently:

None of these were “bad”, but for some reason, they didn’t really turn me on all that much. So I’ve been experimenting with this online theme generator called, creatively enough, the “WordPress Theme Generator“.  The creator said the following on his blog: “It lets you design a complete theme, save it to a .zip file, extract and upload. Easy & Fast.“  Kind of like your mom – OK, I’m getting off track.

Here’s the result:

It’s OK, I suppose.  I created the banner and that blue amoeba-like background using an image manipulation program called GIMP, which I recommend – again, because it’s open-source (and free!).

What’s wrong with this theme?  Well, the “save it to a .zip file” thing didn’t work for me on the Theme Generator page, no matter what browser or computer I was on.  Later, when I tried to make some edits to my first version, it definitely wasn’t “Easy & Fast”.  (Go ahead, enter your own “mom” reference here if you like.) 

So what am I going to do?  It looks like I’m going to be trolling through the thicket of WordPress themes again, searching for flyinggalindo’s perfect fit.  Maybe this time, I’ll get lucky. 

And maybe your mom will too.