Weathering the Broken Links

Do they really think that enumerating all sorts of stupid things you can do with gasoline is a deterrent to its misuse? Can any statisticians speak up as to whether these sorts of lists actually reduce frivolous civil lawsuits?

I rather think that the following list would have been perfectly acceptable and just as complete.

• For use as a motor fuel only…DUH!
• Yep, it’s a known carcinogen.  What, are you going to stop driving!?

I’ve got a few friends and family members who are broken links.  They’re not dumb.  They just think I have some magical powers of computer use that they are incapable of harnessing.   I guess I’ve had a few too many IT tech support requests from them lately.  So I have set up a canned response in my email app to send a copy of this xkcd goodie.

At Walmart today, I remembered I was out of 65W flood light bulbs needed to for the burned out bulb in my kitchen. In the bulbs I spotted two types of candidates: a two pack of CFL bulbs made by Philips for some $9+ or a different brand of 2-pack for upward of $14. I went cheap.

I’ve been a skeptic of CFLs.  I tried some early on and was disappointed with their performance, poor lighting capability and short life.  I hear the newer ones are better, but still am not fond of the potential toxicity of the mercury contained within.

I’m not an expert on environmental pollutants and such, but I felt this was a ripe opportunity to see how long these bulbs last.  The one I was planning to replace had lasted about 2.5 years.  Could this new one last longer?

I proudly broke out the Sharpie and wrote today’s date and the advertised life (7 years with 4 hours per day of use) on the plastic ballast housing.  I climbed up on a stool, removed the old bulb, and immediately realized something was wrong:

Yep, for whatever engineering reason, the bulb was too tall for it to fit flush in the recess lighting housing.  Nor are the lighting cans in the ceiling adjustable to allow the socket to be moved up accordingly.

Sure, I’ve heard about this problem.  But it didn’t occur to me when I bought these newfangled bulbs.  I guess, construction/lighting standards don’t matter.  I guess we don’t have enough to worry about when shopping for new bulbs.  I guess I’ll try to return these (sharpie markings and all), shop somewhere else where good old fashion incandescent are still sold, and hope the CFL manufacturers figure out how to make bulbs that fit my house so I don’t have to dip into the supposed $39-saved-per-lifetime-of-each-bulb to buy new lighting fixtures that fit the new, non-standard sized bulbs.