Most under-reported story of the year is that the lightbulb only has five years left to live. The incandescent bulb has been given notice, you have three years to stockpile.

Fine, better for the earth, I can handle it. But think about the difference between home light and work light. Light is going to change. Fluorescent lights actually turn off-and-on 120 times a minute (so do regular bulbs, but the filament never cools down enough to dim). It won't be long before tomorrow's hipsters are buying old lamps at thrift stores and buying vintage 60 watts on ebay, insisting on the warm, natural, steady tone of filament light. And they will be right. A generation gap will be defined not in terms of MySpace vs Friendster, but pre- and post-fluorescent. Lightbulb jokes will be largely obsolete once non-filament bulbs make changing them largely obsolete.

It won't be better or worse, but it will be different, like if the sun changed color, shifted a little to the violet. A minor change that changes everything touched by light.