Fun with Electricity. And Australians.

So, I heard about Australians plans of prohibiting light bulbs. I admit, the picture forming in my mind of twenty million people sitting in the dark and waiting for the attack of the man-eating kangaroos amuses me mightily. Ooh, maybe they hang candles on their hats instead of corks then to fight the darkness. Although even a light breeze should disabuse them of the notion, what with the hot wax in their eyes and the burn scars and all. (This stereotype-Ass-tical rambling has been sponsored by Inappropriate Inc. :"If you're not offended, our job isn't done.")

Okay, okay. So they only want to ban the non-energy-saving light bulbs in an effort to combat Global Warming. This new policy would be nice. And it would save a little energy, I guess. And since Mr Turnbull can't get his mates to finally ratifying that damn Kyoto thing, like every other industrialized nation has done(except for them steenky Americans, but harping on the Bush administration will have to wait until another blog post. Or, more likely, at least a dozen.), it's nice to see he's at least doing something.

But:
Have you ever wondered how many energy you save when you turn off the light in unused rooms? Well, on a sixty Watts bulb, you'll save 60 Watt. Duh. No, actually, I mean in regards of the total energy your household uses. Lookit these two pictures (click to enlarge) :

The left one assumes an average household, as in: Somewhere between Alaska and Mexico. The right one is applicaple if you're living in a part of the world where it snows in winter and there's rarely need for air conditioning in summer (like my little corner).

Even though the two diagrams I googled differ, we see a trend: the most energy goes out the window to prevent our toes and fingers from freezing off. And the second largest part is needed so we won't catch pneunomia in our morning shower. (And annoy our neighbors with the constant screaming.)

Notice the "lighting" part? It's rather small, in both pictures. So even if we reduce the energy used there to one fifth (and that's assuming all Australians are trashing all their still-functioning light bulbs, replacing them immediately, and won't buy any extra lamps or other appliances again, ever), you'll probably save 4 % of the energy used, if you're generous.
For reference: you'll save the same amount of energy in your household if you just don't put your stove right next to your refrigerator (6 per cent if you're stupid enough to put your stove right next to your freezer).
Or: You'll save another six per cent if you turn down your heating in winter, just by one degree Celsius.
Or: All Australians abandon their driers and hang their clothes in the eucalyptus trees to dry: 5% less.
Or: you don't pre-heat your oven when baking apple pie. Every non-pre-heated pie saves 20 % of your stoves energy used.
Or: Y'all shearers grab your machines, shave your koala and kangaroo population nekkid, and glue them around your houses for insulation(the furs, not the naked animals, you perverts.): a whopping 20 per cent less heating in winter, and around 10 per cent less air-conditioning in summer.

So, don't get me wrong, Mr. Turnbull. Saving 4 per cent energy is good, and I support that. But if this is your only strategy to combat Global Warming? Then consider yourself a good-ol'-fashioned idiot.

Hey, Baby. Wanna cure cancer with me?

I hate wasted resources. But I also hate turning my computer on and off when I'm only gone for, like half an hour. Solution? Easy. I donate my body to science. Or rather, my CPU. Same difference.

I'm talking about distributed computing. Basically, you install a little software client, which uses the idle times on your computer to calculate stuff. The stuff you're calculating isn't much, like "how would a protein look if it had these contents" or "is there anything unusual in this radio signal", and any pc which can run Windows can run these.
But the algorithms need time. And if you are a scientist who wants to know the looks of all the three gazillion proteins found yet, and it will take two hours on a fast pc to calculate the looks of one, even a very very fast pc won't cut it.

But one million average pc's make a difference. Here's where you come in. Yes, I want something from you. But since it's not money nor time wasted for you (except maybe for two minutes of setup), it's not like that big a deal. Hell, you don't even have to lift your lazy ass out of your chair for it.

Here's a list of many distributed computing projects currently active (you have to scroll down the page to see the list). You can choose any of those as you like it, just remember that installing more than one at a time is probably counter-productive.
Personally, I've chosen Folding@Home , because it's one of the largest projects, has already published interesting results, and its goal is to cure illnesses. Plus, it has a point system, so whenever you submit a work unit, you'll climb up the rank ladder. It doesn't mean anything of course, except you can feel mighty cancer-cure-y for a day or whatever.

I also set up a team number (53899) over there, which means we could combine our powers, and be just like those damn Benetton Kids summoning Captain Planet. Only cooler. So, whaddaya say, people?