This is a great opportunity to remember how much we rely on a steady stream of electricity, and impact it has on the world. Unlike an unplanned power failure, this gives you a chance to run around the house and turn stuff off, especially computers and the like, and sit in the dark together with your friends and/or family. It is quite fun and eye-opening, literally. I have also simply hit the main breaker for the house at 8:30 and left it off until midnight. (This has the added benefit of resetting any powered clocks to midnight automatically.) I challenge everyone to do this, at least for the one hour. Continue reading →