Let There be (Cold, Flickering, Dim, Toxic) Light

The United States Congress has seen fit to ban Incandescent Light Bulbs. Granted, they didn't call it a ban, since they did it with "Energy Standards", but the result will be the same. No more cheap, safe, bright lights for Americans. You see, light bulbs are inefficient. Like Al Gore's house, they just use too much energy for what they give back. That's because (also like Al Gore) incandescent lightbulbs are all heat but no fire.

While it's true that a typical light bulb may turn 90% of the energy it uses into heat, Compact Florescent simply SUCK. Spot has tried using them to light his meat locker, but they just don't cut it. You see, CFLs don't work when they are cold. That's just one of their problems, though. They also flicker, so they are ill suited for photography (not to mention color temperature problems). They need time to warm up, and if you don't leave them on for at least 15 minutes at a time, their lifespan may be drastically reduced. Oh, and Spot almost forgot -- CFLs contain toxic mercury! Mercury is not only very toxic, it also biomagnifies in the food chain (especially in fish) which worries Spot quite a bit (since he eats a lot of fish). Won't someone think of the environment!

While all this makes Spot very glad that he is only a temporary resident, it also presents a seemingly ideal opportunity for Spot to remind everyone that simply solutions usually aren't.*

*You might have been thinking that this would be an ideal opportunity for Spot to remind everyone that the marketplace is actually quite good at sorting out this type of efficiency problem (what with the high costs of energy and all), but that just seems so obvious.