...as well as all other web sites!
In just about 2 hours, the city of Sydney Australia will turn off its lights for Earth Hour, beginning what will hopefully be a very large ripple effect around the planet of city after city doing the same. (Personally, I'm hoping for a "tidal wave of darkness"!) And let's hope the ripples continue long after the lights come back on.
In a comment on Meteor Blade's front-page post about this, jmorton asked if DailyKos was going to participate in Earth Hour... that is, not just we the participants of DailyKos (and you were going to particpate, right?), but the actual site itself.
We should, you know.
Now, as has been addressed in the discussion of Meteor Blade's post, Earth Hour is mostly symbolic, intended to send a message, for example, to make people contemplate just how much energy we waste and how much carbon we emit in a single hour. Even if you are cynical, this is a no brainer; participating in this can only help. Concern for the environment is one of the top issues that unites our party (and for good reason, as environmental catastrophe on a global scale is one of the most urgent problems we all face). Kossack's have come together to send messages in the past; we can do so again today in grand scale if we so choose.
Hence, I want to echo jmorton's call. It's simple. DailyKos should go dark in honor of Earth Hour, in solidarity with people around the globe who have united around this important issue that faces us all. Indeed, since DailyKos has readers all around the globe, including Australia, I personally think it would be great if it went dark starting at 5:00AM EST and stayed down for 24 hours. (I say this as an admitted DailyKos junky. I know I'm going to have serious withdrawal symptoms.)
Now, whether this happens technically or not -- that is, whether Kos makes the decision to shut down all of his servers and electrical equipment -- is obviously up to Kos. However, I for one am going to honor the spirit of the event and, after posting this diary, log out and not come back until the tidal wave of darkness has subsided. I humbly ask that you do the same, for the sake of all us. (Although you don't necessarily have to do it immediately... you could click on "Recommend" first, if you so choose!)
So, until Sunday.... hope you all enjoy a peaceful, relaxing electricity-free, electronics-free (and even, gasp, computer-free!)... just plain "free" Saturday.