Last week I drove from Rochester to Atlantic City NJ for a conference. For those not on the right coast, that’s about 800 miles round trip. My Honda Accord LX got amazing mileage- around 35 MPG which is actually higher than the rated higway mileage for a Hybrid Accord, in part because they’re selling the hybrid as a high powered car rather than a gas efficient car (it has a 250HP engine) which seems crazy to me. I know I’m not going to pay a hefty $5,000. premium for a hybrid that gets worse mileage than a conventional model.

But I digress. During my travels I observed a few things that interested me. First, wind farms. I saw three in the 400 mile one way trip. To me this indicates that we’re seeing a lot bigger uptake for these things. Then I saw these emergency notification signs that have solar panels mounted above them. I guess its a lot easier to install a sign that doesn’t require grid connections out there in the boonies of Pennsylvania.

Finally I was over at my parent’s house after returning and mentioned I was switching to flourescent bulbs. It turns out my father has already made the switch and I didn’t even notice any difference in the quality of light. One odd thing though- Dad said he thought the bulbs were getting brighter the longer they were in use. Weird.