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THE FUTURE OF CFLs….A couple of years ago I went on a binge and replaced a whole bunch of incandescent bulbs in our house with CFLs. Unfortunately, I discovered that their burnout rate was surprisingly high. Out of 20 bulbs or so, I think I had to replace four or five within 18 months. CFL expert Michael Siminovitch confirms that my experience wasn’t just a fluke:

Consumers have an expectation that compact fluorescents will last a very long time — significantly longer than the incandescents that they’re replacing. This is technically achievable. Compact fluorescents can last a very long time. Unfortunately, I think we’ve compromised greatly on quality with many compact fluorescents and these things are not lasting quite as long as consumers have been led to believe. This is an issue.

He says that color and dimming issues with CFLs (which I was aware of before I bought mine) can also be addressed, but only with tighter standards and higher prices. If we got serious about it, though, economies of scale would drive down the price of high-quality bulbs fairly quickly. More here.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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