So you’ve been thinking about exchanging those hot incandescent lightbulbs for lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps but there’s one nagging thought you worry about: Mercury. Yes, it’s true that there is between 4-6mg of mercury per cfl. You worry, what happens if the lamp breaks? How do I recycle them post usage? Well, the good folks at Energy Trust published an informative article about these issues recently. The chart below is from their article, showing that even with the mercury in the bulb, over a 5 year burn, the CFL still results in less mercury than an incandescent bulb.

In another case of look at the deeds, not at the words it is revealed that the present Administration, with the support of Congress, is the largest spender of public funds and has overseen the largest expansion of government in the past 40 years. From the McClatchy Washington Bureau:

George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he’s arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

“He’s a big government guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group.

The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group.

“He’s a big spender,” Keating said. “No question about it.”

Take almost any yardstick and Bush generally exceeds the spending of his predecessors.

When adjusted for inflation, discretionary spending — or budget items that Congress and the president can control, including defense and domestic programs, but not entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare — shot up at an average annual rate of 5.3 percent during Bush’s first six years, Slivinski calculates.

That tops the 4.6 percent annual rate Johnson logged during his 1963-69 presidency. By these standards, Ronald Reagan was a tightwad; discretionary spending grew by only 1.9 percent a year on his watch.

Discretionary spending went up in Bush’s first term by 48.5 percent, not adjusted for inflation, more than twice as much as Bill Clinton did (21.6 percent) in two full terms, Slivinski reports.

Read more…

STOP – This data has been updated for the entire season in this entry. Enjoy.

Well, this has proven to be a popular feature, so I’ll write a short update (here’s the initial entry on Which Conference is Weakest and the follow-up on Conference Strength.) The college football season has now completed its 9th week and the debate rages on about which major Conference is strongest and weakest. In fact, given the oddities of the season, the fact that the pre-season Top 10 all have at least one loss, and the I-AA upsets, it’s not all surprising.

Some changes to announce this week:

• While Notre Dame is miserable this year, it’s a mistake not to include them in the OOC as they are part of the BCS. And hey, they have managed one win…
• Terminology on win rates: out-of-conference win rate is OOC; out-of-conference win rate less division I-AA teams is No Patsy; and out-of-conference vs. BCS competition is Big Boy.
• I’ll update this feature each week through the end of the season, and then one last time after the bowl play is completed.

So, on to the current results as of games completed Sunday, October 21. Here’s the table with Notre Dame results included:

Comments on each conference follow, in alphabetical order:

• ACC – Continues its relative recovery from being an outlier in prior reports. Benefits to the tune of 2-0 vs. Notre Dame improving their Big Boy win rate dramatically.
• Big East – Won a couple of OOC games improving all but the Big Boy win rate.
• Big 10 – Benefits the most from Notre Dame inclusion going 4-0. A 5-4 Big Boy record without the Domers, close to the other conferences. Another loss to a I-AA team over the weekend mitigates the high win rate percentages across the columns.
• Big 12 – No change.
• Pac 10 – Adding Notre Dame changes the OOC Big Boy record to 6-4 from 5-3. The Pac 10 has only played 2 division I-AA teams.
• SEC – A pedestrian .500 Big Boy record does nothing to indicate that this conference is significantly stronger than any other. The high OOC and No Patsy percentages does demonstrate the league dominates against lesser competition (as all BCS leagues should.) 14 of the conferences 30 OOC wins against I-AA and Sun Belt teams…

And now, based on performance to date, I believe the conference pecking order should be:

1. Pac 10
2. SEC
3. Big 10
4. Big 12
5. Big East
6. ACC

Come back next Wednesday for an update of the Conference Strength Report.

Looking for 2008 Ohio State/Penn St Preview, Check out the Buckeye View.

It’s Wednesday, it’s game preview time! Yay! This weekend, the Ohio State Buckeyes travel to State College, Pennsylvania to battle the Penn State Nittany Lions in Beaver Stadium at 5pm PT (broadcast on ABC.) The present spread lists the Buckeyes as 3.5 point favorites. The good folks at Bucknuts have posted their game data segment with a complete breakdown of the depth charts, facts, and history of the rivalry, check it out.

At the beginning of the season, I thought there were going to be 6 troublesome games for the Buckeyes: Washington, Purdue, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. Well, we know that in the prior night, away games vs. Washington and Purdue that the Bucks rose to the challenge and took care of business in convincing wins. You’ll notice that the next 4 games represent challenges that were identified at the beginning of the year, while everyone around has lost and the Bucks have ascended in the polls to an unexpected level, I still think that the team will do well to emerge from this stretch 2-2, will have done very well to emerge 3-1, and will completely surpass expectations to emerge 4-0.

Despite the ranking, this is still a rebuilding team. The defense is nasty, I’ll grant you that. But the offense is still finding its way and you’ve seen what mistakes can do to the texture of a game (see 7 point win after absolute domination – 56 seconds and 6 plays changed the complexion of the game.) The offense is still growing and this week, it will face the best defense (other than what they see in practice) this year. Yes, I know PSU gave up 31 points on the road to Indiana last week. But the week before in Happy Valley it held a very good Wisconsin offense to 7. Which PSU team do you think will show up this week? I’m guessing the Wisconsin flavor but hoping for the Indiana flavor…

Thinking about this preview, I’m really of two minds. The first is, this is a mismatch and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Buckeyes blow out the Lions. But I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see. If you like defense, then you’ll love this game. It’s possible that this game will feature the best linebackers in the country present on both teams: James Laurinaitis, Dan Connor, Sean Lee, Marcus Freeman, and Larry Grant. It’s hard to imagine that Penn State is going to consistently move the ball on the Buckeyes. I just don’t see it, their offense has been, shall we say, inconsistent throughout the year and prone to mistakes. All the Lion offense needs to do is eat up clock and not turn the ball over. The Buckeye offense has been productive and consistent, but has not faced a defense like they’ll see this week – you think Michigan State had success with the blitz? Wait until Saturday. The Buckeye offense has proven vulnerable to pressure and the play of the offensive line and QB Boeckman’s poise under pressure will tell the tale.

What will happen: The Buckeyes will experience success in the first half driving for 3 scoring opportunities, however, they will only gather 9 points being unable to punch the ball into the endzone. Penn State will be shutout in the first half. In the third quarter the Bucks will put up another field goal and the Lions will answer, score 12-3. Late in the second half, a bizarre play will result in either a safety or defensive touchdown against the Bucks, resulting in a score of either 12-5 or 12-10. Let’s assume it was a defensive/special teams touchdown rather than a safety, Penn State drives for a field goal going up 13-12. The OSU offense pushes for the late score and turns over the ball. Penn State wins 13-12. OSU dominates the stats lines and still loses the game due to a) turnovers and b) inability to punch the ball into the endzone.

Now, make no mistake, I want to be wrong about this prediction. But I think this game is much closer than it appears on paper. Bear in mind, these teams are 11-11 all time, they tend to play very close games (with a periodic blowout), and the talent levels are similar. It’s at Penn State and that’s a tough environment, especially at night. All this being said, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a blowout, and that could be the result. I’m simply not expecting it. As always, we’ll check back after the game to see just how wrong this preview was (and trust me, I hope I’m wrong on the outcome…)

Ormat, the largest “pure play” geothermal company in the US, yesterday announced that it would place 3 million shares on the public market. This will increase Ormat’s outstanding shares to 41.13M and effectively dilutes current shareholders by 7.8%. Unsurprisingly, the stock price dropped yesterday nearly that same percentage and seems to be creeping up incrementally today. This move should raise over $140M (less underwriter’s fees) to be used for general corporate purposes including paying down debt levels, exploration, and new geothermal plant development.