November 9, 2006 at 9:16 a.m.
An easy cure for the world's ills
An easy cure for the world's ills
A bunch of your kids have probably been to the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. But, unless you’ve felt the need to embarrass your child by chaperoning on a field trip, You may not have been there. It’s worth the trip.
If you do go and have a choice of times, about 2:30 p.m. on a weekday is a great time. If you time it right, you’ll get there just as the field trip kids are getting back on their busses for a relaxing trip back to school.
Those of you who are baseball fans may have a particular reason to visit the History Center between November 24, 2006 and March 4, 2007.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum traveling exhibition, “Baseball as America” will open at the Minnesota History Center on Nov. 24. This groundbreaking exhibition marks the first time that these Hall of Fame artifacts have left their home in Cooperstown, New York.
Through the exploration of a broad range of themes, including immigration, nationalism, integration, technology and popular culture “Baseball As America” reveals how baseball served as both a reflection of, and catalyst for the evolution of American society.
The exhibition includes approximately 500 of the Museum’s most precious artifacts, dating from baseball’s early roots in the 19th century to today, ranging from uniforms, balls, bats and gloves, to books, recordings, artworks and films, to historic documents and advertising.
The exhibition is packed with stuff of history and legend including a variety of baseball “firsts.” The first ball pitched by Cy Young in the first World Series in 1903. Also included are historic photos and artifacts from Babe Ruth, jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio and many others.
Baseball nostalgia of all kinds and interactive displays will also be there. Visitors will have be able to heft a bat or have the chance to learn how to throw a curve ball.
Looking for an easy way to cut your utility bills?
One of those guys who married one of our daughters recently brought an article in FAST COMPANY magazine to my attention. The article was called, “How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take To Change The World?”
According to the story, the typical American household has between 50 and 100 “sockets.” This didn’t seem possible to me, either. So, one Sunday morning, while the rest of the family was still sleeping, I went around and counted them. I am fairly confident I missed a few, but I counted 63. Of those 63 sockets, Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFL’s) were screwed into 12. As a matter of fact, I have a CFL in the floorlamp I’m using while writing this.
CFL’s are those frosted swirls that resemble a cone full of soft serve ice cream. These new fluorescent bulbs are a big improvement over the earlier versions that seemed to flicker while not providing enough light to read the Press before dinner, now that Daylight Saving Time has left us until March.
The new “swirl” design bulbs come on more quickly, provide more “steady” light and provide more white light and are silent, which wasn’t the case when using the older u-shaped fluorescent bulbs. These bulbs have changed dramatically in recent years. One thing that hasn’t changed is the energy savings when compared to traditional incandescent bulbs. CFL’s emit the same amount of light while using 75 to 80 percent less energy.
The CFL’s usually cost less than $3 each. They not only work, they pay for themselves in about five months in the form of lower electric bills. But, they don’t last five months. Even in heavy use, they typically last five to 10 years.
The author of “How Many Lightbulbs....” outlines some of the other benefits of CFL’s. If every one of the 110 million households replaced one 60-watt incandescent bulb with a CFL, the energy savings would be enough to power a city of about 1.5 million people. That’s enough to electricity to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned or greenhouse gasses not exhausted into the atmosphere, all of us replacing one bulb would have the same effect as taking 1.3 million cars off of our highways.
The savings is really dramatic in commercial applications. For instance, what if Wal-Mart went from incandescents to CFL’s in its ceiling fan displays in all 3230 U.S. stores. A vice president for hardware and paint estimates that the average store has 10 ceiling fans on display. If each fan has an average of four bulbs, that’s 40 bulbs per store. Multiply that by the 3230 stores and the total is 129,200 bulbs. The VP says that change alone will save the retail giant $6 million annually.
That’s just by replacing the bulbs in the ceiling fan displays!
This morning (October 30) I was talking to a guy in a parking lot in North Branch. Cars were stopped on County Road 14 in front of the primary school. It was 30 degrees and I was cold. I looked out and saw a high school boy driving an old Buick with the windows down. He was wearing a baseball cap and no shirt.
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