I do not believe that an endless military, economic and political commitment to Iraq makes sense. It only makes sense if we are determined to occupy the Middle East indefinitely to secure oil supplies. But the rational response to oil dependence is not to entrench it, but to try and move away from it.
Republican presidential rivals called Wednesday for deep cuts in federal spending, and said the reductions need not require painful sacrifice by the millions of Americans who receive government services. (AP)
A big fan of Amazon, I strayed to Barnes & Noble this morning because the former did not have a book in stock. I discovered two things I didn't know before:
Given that "holiday" ads start up Thanksgiving weekend, you might have a hard time tracking when it actually is Christmas. Here is a helpful website:
isitchristmas.com
According to a new study, diesel tops hybrids and ethanol isn't even really in the game. Researchers at the Rand Corporation did a cost-benefit analysis of the top near-term alternatives to standard gasoline power-trains that looked at fuel savings, technology costs and performance. They also factored in societal costs in the form of noxious pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and energy security costs.
In Eugene Jarecki's documentary film Why We Fight, about the U.S. military-industrial complex, U.S. foreign policy critic Chalmers Johnson states: "I guarantee you when war becomes that profitable, you are going to see more of it." Similarly, as mental illness has become extremely profitable, we are seeing more of it.
On September 4, 2007, the New York Times reported, "The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003 ... Drug makers and company-sponsored psychiatrists have been encouraging doctors to look for the disorder."
Not too long ago, a child who was irritable, moody, and distractible and who at times sounded grandiose or acted without regard for consequences was considered a "handful." In the U.S. by the 1980s, that child was labeled with a "behavioral disorder" and today that child is being diagnosed as "bipolar" and "psychotic" -- and prescribed expensive antipsychotic drugs. Bloomberg News, also on September 4, 2007, reported, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs."
Jay Carson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said Mr. Clinton’s point was that his wife had the mettle to deal with tough challenges.
“President Clinton knows that she can handle and win any fight,” Mr. Carson said. (NY Times)
I've said the evangelical uncomfortable with adulterers has an out (Romney). But it appears this evangelical has no problem!
I find this a curious endorsement. Thinking back to his 1988 run for the presidency, I don't know if he emphasized his anti-abortion views or not. If he did, what's changed since then? If anti-terrorism is his most important issue of the day, is he now saying that our lives are more important than the unborn's? Or does Robertson trust that Giuliani will appoint pro-life judges despite the latter's pro-choice views?
In her Web 2.0 Summit speech unveiling some of the projects Google Health has in the works, Marissa Mayer launched her presentation with a few jokes. Her tongue-in-cheek top 10 list of things you might see from Google Health (abridged):
- Google's cookie expiration is now based on your expiration date.
- An "I'm Feeling Yucky" button.
- Viagra spam only goes to users who actually need it.
- Typing in symptoms returns "Did you mean estate planning?"
- Google paternity search.
Why begin marketing a holiday store in early October, seven weeks before the official start of the season and 12 weeks before Christmas?
“Everyone can use a little Christmas right now, after a summer of toy recalls,” Ms. Waugh said. “It’s time to remember what toys are all about.”
In the ongoing story of credit reporting agencies and protecting your credit history,
Credit bureau Experian has joined rival TransUnion in allowing people in all 50 states to freeze their credit reports. The third major credit agency, Equifax, says it will soon join as well.
[...]
But don’t start applauding yet.
Credit bureaus don’t release the number of security freezes in place, but have said that it is low. It’s not surprising: the process of freezing and unfreezing your credit is complicated and aggravating. (NY Times)
Everybody in the Firefly crew – and that includes the ones who died in the movie – are excited about the prospect of doing another.
Embracing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories does not seem the most effective way for atheists to expand their influence, at least not in America. Besides, to what end exactly does Dawkins seek to expand atheists' influence? Does he want to create a homeland for atheists, à la Israel? But there already was one -- it was called the Soviet Union -- and we all remember how well that worked out.
Several Jewish organizations criticized John McCain on Monday after the Republican candidate said he would prefer a Christian president over someone of a different faith.
[...]
The American Jewish Committee, an international think tank and advocacy organization based in New York, issued a statement criticizing the Arizona senator, arguing that McCain should know that the United States is a democratic society without a religious test for public office.
More on whether "Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life":
The Time article sets up the case for John Paul II’s alleged hypocrisy with this statement: “Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life.”
This is false. It’s good for the story, but it’s not true. Time magazine will never find such a pronouncement in any official teaching of the Catholic Church. On the contrary. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commissioned and approved by Pope John Paul II, clarifies that our moral obligation to preserve life in its last stages does not include applying extraordinary or disproportional means:
Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. (#2278)
Gateway is releasing an all-in-one PC called "One".
In its official press release Thursday, Gateway said it plans ship the One series in late October with two retail models and a single online-only version. Pricing for the retail line is slated to start at $1,300 for a model that includes a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, and Intel X3100 graphics. A high-end model ($1800) will boost the processor speed to 2GHz, memory to 3GB, hard disk space to 500GB, and add a Mobility Radeon HD 2600 dedicated video card.
The online model ($1,500) sits in between the two store models with the same hardware as the base PC save for a 400GB hard drive and Radeon HD 2600 chipset. (AppleInsider)
Apple's new aluminum iMac line starts at $1200 for a 20-inch model with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory. For the same $1500 as Gateway's online One model, Apple also offers an iMac with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 320GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory.
Jumping up to the $1800 price point, Apple buyers get an addition 5-inch of screen real-estate (24-inchs) compared to Gateway's high-end One model, which remains at just 19-inches.
It's a fairly common belief among the left, I find, that big business is conservative. It's a total myth -- if by "conservative" you're talking about moral and cultural issues. A reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog writes in to talk about how big business in Indiana got behind a successful move to defeat a state gay marriage ban. This is not surprising in the least. Corporations are quite progressive, in general, on issues related to race, ethnicity, gender and homosexuality. They conclude that doing so is good for business, which is ultimately their bottom line.
OK, here's something cool included in the latest OpenOffice release (2.3): Extentions (aka "plug-ins").
Some cool sounding ones:
Volkswagen of America, Inc. is launching the Dieselution Tour, a mobile marketing exhibit, to educate the media and the public on advances in clean diesel technology and alternative fuels.
[...]
The Dieselution Tour will also feature the 2009 Jetta TDI, Volkswagen’s new, 50-state clean diesel offering. The vehicle is scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. in spring of 2008. Also on display, a 3.0-liter V6 TDI Touareg, the Polo Blue Motion and the oldest Volkswagen diesel in America, a 1977 Rabbit. (VW Vortex)
Signifying Volkswagen’s environmental concern, the Dieselution Tour will be certified as CarbonFree by Carbonfund.org. Volkswagen and Carbonfund.org recently announced a partnership to offset one year of carbon emission from each new Volkswagen sold in the U.S. from September, 2007 through January 2, 2008. In return, Volkswagen is working with Carbonfund.org to reforest land in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) in northern Louisiana, a wetland ecosystem that had been largely converted to farmland.
Perhaps the most interesting edition is the Home and Student version, which includes all the apps of the standard edition, but lacks the ability to connect to Exchange Servers, as well as some bundled Automator actions. The Home and Student edition will retail for the (relative) bargain price of $150, which leads to the inevitable question — does Microsoft really think Exchange Server access is worth $250? (Wired Compiler)
In an article about speculation that Pope John Paul II was euthanized, Jeff Israely says, "Catholics are enjoined to pursue all means to prolong life."
Surely this is not true in all cases. I can think of a number of exceptions. Like when an abortion is required to save the life of the mother. Or when treatment requires embryonic stem cells or other unethical actions or research.
There are definitely points where a "pro-life" stance can be perverted into sin in the eyes of the Church. Like when a couple creates and destroys (or freezes) nine embryos in the hope of giving birth to one. In this case, a couple can "love" children too much. "Love" that is willing to kill nine children is something entirely different. It is selfishness and a rebellion against God's will.
"Life" here on earth is not the end-all be-all. The point is not to "pursue all means to prolong life" or have that big family -- it is to involve God in the decision. Yes, that means not ending a life where it can continue and allowing children to join the family. But at some stage it also means acknowledging that God may have something in mind different from what you assumed. He may not want that couple to have children. He may calling that person home and we should let them go.
“There are even those in my community who come to Shabbat worship each week who don’t believe in God,” said Rabbi Frishman, who leads the Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, N.J. “How do we help them resonate with the language of prayer, which is very God-centric and evokes a personal God, a God that talks to you in a sense?"
"Owning a hybrid is all about saying 'Look at what I'm doing for the world,'" says auto analyst John Wolkonowicz of Global Insight. "If you can't say that, the whole purchase is a waste of time."
Put simply, the United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as allowing states broad leeway in regulating minors' access to sexually explicit material. That is why it is illegal around the country to sell pornography to children. Courts have not, however, said that states have a similar right to regulate media based on violence. (NY Times)
Here's hoping they purchased carbon offsets for all the fuel it took to get 600 people to the site.
Volkswagen of America, Inc. announced that, as part of its diesel heritage search, it has located the oldest operating Volkswagen diesel vehicle in America, a 1977 Rabbit owned by Clint Wilson of Tehachapi, Calif.
[...]
In recognition [...], Volkswagen has provided Wilson with a new Touareg V10 TDI to drive for six-months. (VW Vortex)
So AppleWorks is officially dead. Good riddance. I've never liked its interface, ever since I got my first Mac in 2000 with OS 9. It got left further in the dust with the migration to OS X.
I like a word processor that gets out of the way. I want to be able to turn most everything off, including the rulers, how the text is going to lay out against the margins on the printed page, everything. I just want to see the text with minimal interruption. AW didn't let you do that.
I've picked up a copy of the latest Pages. Here's hoping it lets you do something like that in its word processor mode.
So has anyone actually seen one of these coins? It's been six months since the release of the Washington coin and I haven't. The Madison coin was released in May. The Jefferson coin will be released tomorrow.
By having a rotating design on the new dollar coins, the Mint is hoping to keep interest high and avoid the famous flops of two previous dollar coins - the Susan B. Anthony, introduced in 1979, and the Sacagawea, introduced in 2000.
Gotta love this article title: "New Worm Attacks Mac OS X".
The first sentence of the piece? "An anonymous hacker claims to have created a worm that targets Intel versions of Mac OS X."
Anyone else see a disconnect?
the number of customers considering buying a hybrid has declined over the past year, partly due to a realization of the actual mileage that hybrid cars are likely to achieve. [...] J.D. Power also attributes the drop in hybrid interest to an increase in the number of clean diesel vehicles; the study found that the number of new car buyers considering a diesel had nearly doubled over the past year.
With fleets of new diesel cars bound for the U.S. over the next few years and the demise of some hybrid models, is this the beginning of a gear-change in the alternative-fuel economy? (Crave)
There's something wrong with an eco contest that has an SUV as the prize.
I don't care if it's a hybrid. SUVs still pollute more than autos. Which pollute more than a bus.
Dell on Tuesday became the first big computer maker to try to address customer frustration and anger over “trialware” – the often superfluous and frequently unwanted software that comes pre-installed on most PCs. (Financial Times)
Speaking as a Christian, they are not our enemies. God loves the world. And in my new book, Secret Believers, we propose the question, "Have you prayed for bin Laden today?" That question should shock a lot of Christians. Of course we haven't! That is why he is what he is. We have an evangelical black list of people we don't want to see in heaven and put bin Laden on top. Saddam Hussein is probably second.
[...]
We in the West are following or believing in the God of revenge as much as every Muslim does. So there's no need for us to sit on a pedestal. We have to come down to the foot of the Cross and learn from Jesus. He came to forgive, and he came to die. I have seen this attitude in many Christians in Gaza. It gives me hope for the future.
Would domestic partner benefits matter so much to people if health care wasn't so expensive? I'm inclined to think not. If it didn't cost so much to shoulder health care costs on one's own, who cares whether the government (or your employer) considers your relationship legit?
"I was shocked to see all of the attention devoted to the amount of time I would spend in jail for what I had done -- by the media, public and city officials," [Paris Hilton] said.
"I would hope going forward that the public and the media will focus on more important things like the men and women serving our country in Iraq and other places around the world." (AFP)
Ann Coulter does some research in Nexis, finding pre-Falwell references to gay Tinky Winky:
Beginning in early 1998, the news was bristling with stories about a children's cartoon PBS was importing from Britain that featured a gay cartoon character, Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie with a male voice and a red handbag.
People magazine gleefully reported that Teletubbies was "aimed at Telebabies as young as 1 year. But teenage club kids love the products' kitsch value, and gay men have made the purse-toting Tinky Winky a camp icon."
In the Nexis archives for 1998 alone, there are dozens and dozens of mentions of Tinky Winky being gay — in periodicals such as Newsweek, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post (twice!), The New York Times and Time magazine (also twice).
In its Jan. 8, 1999, issue, USA Today accused The Washington Post of "outing" Tinky Winky, with a "recent Washington Post In/Out list putting T.W. opposite Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, essentially 'outing' the kids' show character."
Michael Musto of The Village Voice boasted that Tinky Winky was "out and proud," noting that it was "a great message to kids — not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well accessorized."
All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky.
After one year of the mainstream media laughing at having put one over on stupid bourgeois Americans by promoting a gay cartoon character in a TV show for children, when Falwell criticized the cartoon in February 1999, that same mainstream media howled with derision that Falwell thought a cartoon character could be gay. (Jewish World Review)
If you read a story that said 25% of younger and 13% of all US Muslims think suicide bombings are justified in some circumstances and that 5% have a favorable view of al-Qaida, what headline would you pick?
Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings (AP) *
a significant number of Muslims -- 19 percent of 18-29s, 29 percent of over 30s -- declined to answer that question one way or the other; if you held an unfavorable opinion of al-Qaeda, why wouldn't you say so? (Rod Dreher)
What am I reminded of today, the day Jerry Falwell died? His unfairly being "ridiculed for pointing out what is common knowledge in the gay community".
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who has been ridiculed by some in the establishment press for saying one of the "Teletubbies" is meant to depict a homosexual toddler, appears to have found some unlikely corroborators among the gay media.
Falwell caught his share of flack for suggesting that Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby who carries a purse and has a triangle protruding from his head, is homosexual.
In telling his supporters about his concerns regarding the Teletubbies, Falwell warned that Tinky Winky promoted homosexual messages, making note of the triangle – a common gay-pride symbol – and the purse the character carries.
However, in a number of media outlets, there is no doubt about the "gayness" of Tinky Winky, one of four fuzzy Teletubbies in a TV show for toddlers. "Tinky Winky is the unofficial gay Teletubby, in the opinion of myself and many others," reads the Gay Teletubby page on the Internet web site LesBiGay, Etc, a web site that calls itself "the place for youth-friendly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight sexual orientation information and resources."
A record 77 million taxpayers have filed their tax returns electronically this year, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.
Can someone tell me why anyone does this? If it's free (through your tax preparer, because your income qualifies, etc.), sure. But why does everyone else have to pay $15 or $20 for the privilege of saving the IRS money?
Two items about VW's next generation of the Lupo: a rendering of what the 2010 model might look like and the rumor that
the new entry level car VW is working on may be more like the original Beetle than the Lupo that it was supposed to replace. The baby VeeDub could turn out to have it's engine sitting on top of the rear axle much like the Smart ForTwo and come in Beetle-esque and sedan body styles.
OK, almost to the end of season 1 and I'm still watching Heroes. Here's one reason I know I'll be happy with the season closing episode:
A modern TV creator like Kring can't think about just the next episode. He has to think about a world audience and plan several seasons out. "A big complaint for Lost was that you had to wade through too many shows before something happened," Kring says. He is committed to wrapping up story lines each season instead of sinking too deeply into a meandering mythology. "The apocalyptic event in Heroes will be resolved in season one, and we'll move on to something else in season two." (Wired)
In an interview last night on MSNBC, Mr. Williams said NBC had been concerned about the sensitivities of broadcasting as much of the material as it did.
“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said. (NY Times)
You know, there will always be people who go crazy and kill a couple of people around them. But one reason why a guy like this decides he’s going to go somewhere and kill dozens of people is because he knows that he can then access a national stage, and an international stage. He’s on the front page of newspapers all over the world. And I think in a sense, to make a crazy guy, to upgrade him from kind of small town burlesque to planetary wide superstar, which is what NBC is colluding in here, I think is terrible. I mean, in a sense, they’ve upgraded the show business aspect of the crime, and that is disgraceful. (Mark Steyn)
News about the next generation Scion xB comes from the New York auto show.
At the request of current xB owners, the next generation xB dimensions grow significantly in comparison to the current model. [...] xB owners asked for a more powerful engine. (Autoblog)
With all this talk about Google maps updating its New Orleans imagery, why is the picture of my house more than 5 years old? (It's right there, just to the left of the arrow.)
I stand by what I said earlier: $10 is too much for a downloaded album. I think it's great that iTunes is going to start selling EMI tracks without copy protection. But for 30% more? That'd be what -- $13 an album? What I can pay for an actual hardcopy CD? What's the advantage?
EMI thinks that a majority of buyers are willing to pay the price. Steve Jobs thinks half of iTunes purchases in a year will be without DRM. I dunno, not at those prices.
If you are looking for the most efficient form transportation propelled by an internal combustion engine, you won't find it at a Toyota or Honda dealership. Or any other car dealer for that matter. In a study funded by the American Bus Association, it was found that the most fuel efficient transportation in the United States was by motorcoach. Based on mileage and passengers in 2004, highway buses achieved an average of 148.4 passenger miles per gallon. That's more than double achieved by intercity trains which achieved 74.1 passenger miles per gallon. Airlines managed 40.9 passenger miles per gallon, while cars came in last at 35.4 mpg.
Asked on ABC News on Wednesday if she agreed with General Pace’s view that homosexuality was immoral, Mrs. Clinton said, “Well, I’m going to leave that to others to conclude.”
[...]
A rival of Mrs. Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was asked the same question three times on Wednesday and sidestepped the issue, according to an article in Newsday. (NY Times)
a spokesman for Mr. Obama said last night that the senator disagreed with General Pace’s remarks and believed that homosexuality was not immoral.
[...]
a spokesman released a statement from Mrs. Clinton responding to the question: “I disagree with what he said and do not share his view, plain and simple,” she said. “It is inappropriate to inject such personal views into this public policy matter, especially at a time in which there are young men and women in such grave circumstances in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in other dangerous places around the world.”
Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won't apologize for calling homosexuality immoral — an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored. (Time)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential Republican presidential candidate, will appear on James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio show and describe getting on his knees and seeking God's forgiveness for his moral failures, according to excerpts released Wednesday by the evangelical group.
Gingrich talked to Dobson by phone for a two-part installment to air today and Friday. (Denver Post)
Well, maybe the Republican nominee for president won't be an adulterer and divorcé after all. But that doesn't mean he won't have multiple marriages in his past.
So the evangelical uncomfortable with adulterers has an out -- he can support Mitt Romney. But will he?
An AP-Ipsos poll found that three-fourths of people surveyed oppose replacing the dollar bill, featuring George Washington, with a dollar coin. People are split evenly on the idea of having both a dollar bill and a dollar coin.
A new version of the coin, paying tribute to American presidents, goes into general circulation Thursday. Even though doing away with the bill could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year in printing costs, there is no plan to scrap the bill coiin favor of the more durable coin. (AP)
"I really don't see any use for it," Larry Ashbaugh, a retiree from Bristolville, Ohio, said of the dollar coin. "We tried it before. It didn't fly."
It's interesting to review last year's speech, where Bush said America was addicted to oil and set a goal of reducing America's dependence on the Middle East by 75% by 2025.
This year
President Bush called on Tuesday for a huge government-mandated increase in renewable fuels — mainly ethanol — and tougher mileage standards for cars and light trucks.
[...]
The centerpiece of Mr. Bush’s proposal, which he said would cut the projected use of gasoline by 20 percent over the next decade, was a nearly fivefold mandatory increase in the production of ethanol and other alternative fuels for cars and trucks. (NY Times)
Another city may lose a sports team in 2010: New Orleans. The Saints' lease of the Superdome ends in 2010. There's lots of talk of the owner going to greener pastures unless someone (read: government) coughs up a lot of money to stay.
The Saints face formidable obstacles. Not the least is whether local and state governments, with enormous rebuilding priorities, can, or should, help finance a new stadium or let Benson move elsewhere.
[...]
“We hope to sit down with the team and discuss an extension beyond 2010, and that would include inducement payments,” said Larry Roedel, counsel to the Louisiana Sports and Exposition District, a state-appointed commission that oversees the Superdome and other facilities. “I don’t know if they’ll want more than what they’re getting.”
A raspberry goes to Netflix for only offering their streaming view to Windows users. They've been planning on some sort of web delivery forever -- it was part of their original business plan. This sounds like a good way for them to start providing the service, but I hope they don't plan on exluding Mac users forever.
On a related note, kudos to NBC for offering Heroes episodes online, free (and viewable on a Mac). I completely missed the first run and catching up to this Monday's new episode helped pass the time during a recent illness. I'll be following it from now on!
Update MacFixIt reports:
We've now received unconfirmed word that a Mac OS X version of the service is in the works, though we're not sure what DRM scheme will be used. Verification from Netflix officials on these plans is pending.
I am afraid that every Christian is going to be increasingly challenged by violent Islam, in ways that will be harder and harder to tacitly ignore. Ironically, much of what Islam hates about America are things that Christians ought to likewise resist: gluttonous consumption, recreational shopping, celebrity culture, trashing of the environment, the trivializing of sex, the sexualizing of children, the killing of unborn children, artificializing women’s bodies, depriving boys and men of a coherent and worthy identity, jingoism, any belief that being “American” takes precedence over membership in the body of Christ. If we are going to face the threat of death for what we believe (as Christians have been doing for 1300 years in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East), let it truly be for what we believe, and not for Angelina Jolie, the “4th Meal,” and extra cupholders.
we believe that in the case of embryonic stem cell research, being pro-life means that one supports the quest for better treatments and cures for the 100 million Americans who suffer from cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating diseases and disorders for which stem cell research provides great hope. (Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.)
whenever you hear someone griping about cruel the Crusades were to Muslims, remember the 300 years of slave raids in coastal Europe conducted by Muslims
Well, this is a little disappointing. I had been looking forward to the new Apple TV device that would allow me to easily stream videos from my computer to my TV. (Yeah, yeah, I know other devices exist but [a] they're not Mac-friendly and [b] I want something that'll "just work", preferably with iTunes.) I don't have cable and download more shows than I watch over broadcast. But look at one of the requirements:
Widescreen (16:9) enhanced definition or high definition television with an HDMI, DVI, or component video input
Wal-Mart is pushing compact fluorescent bulbs. Why? Because it's good for the environment, big time. Oh, and if that helps its image, who am I to complain?
If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.
