Scientists confirmed the other day what most of us instinctively knew - that we humans are to blame for global warming. The United Nations panel of 2500 scientists representing 130 countries said there is a 90% certainty that our use of fossil fuels since the start of the industrial revolution in 1750 is contributing to climate change.

The problem seems so immense that it is hard to see how any one individual can make a difference. But there is a way... and it starts with the humble lightbulb.

Energy Saving Lightbulbs (or Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs as they are known in the USA) last 8-10 times longer than regular bulbs, use about 75% less energy, and produce 90% less heat while delivering more light per Watt. For example, a 25 Watt Energy Saving Lightbulb provides the same amount of light as a 100 Watt regular bulb.

Their lower energy requirements means that they reduce the amount of electricity used, which in turn reduces the amount of coal and oil burnt in power stations around the world, and therefore the amount of greenhouse gas (and mercury) pumped into the atmosphere.

Oh, and did we mention that they work out cheaper over the long run too? Around £35 ($66) savings per bulb over their lifetime!

As one influential US blogger pointed out, "If we switched all our bulbs, we could stop importing oil altogether. Without giving up one Hummer."

And yet, only 6% of Americans have even one Energy Saving lightbulb in their homes...

So what has this got to do with 6 degrees of separation and friendship networks? Nothing. Except that it is exactly these types of networks which can pass this kind of idea around the globe in days. And it is a subject that we feel pretty stongly about. And yes, our home has Energy Saving lightbulbs in pretty much every room, and has done for the last 5 years - in fact, we are still using most of our original lightbulbs!.

So please, if you are a blogger - blog about this. Or maybe send a link to this page to everyone you know so they can read about it. Or feel free to copy the text and make your own email. Just please - spread the word!

And change your lightbulbs to save the world.

Today is Rememberance Day, where we remember all those who sacrificed their lives during the two World Wars and other conflicts. The day, originally known as Armistice day, originally marked the signing of the Armistice at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, which signalled the end of World War One in 1918.

It is also the most popular day so far for birthdays - 6 people share this birthday out of the people 338 listed so far - which is almost 6 times the average expected. Perhaps people born today have a natural tendency to want to find their six degrees of separation...!

Happy Birthday and a peaceful rememberance day to all.

We made a minor site update over the weekend, adding shortcut/accessibility keys to the main navigation. These work like windows shortcut keys, so that if you press ALT and the underlined letter in the menu item, you will be taken to that page. On a Mac, you hold down CTRL and the key.

So, for example, if you want to visit the homepage, you can press ALT-o (or CTRL-o on a Mac).

We passed the 200 profile milestone this week, and welcomed profiles from Italy and India.

Came across this fascinating image the other day, from the Internet Mapping Project. It shows all the major Internet Service Providers and how they are connected - sort of a six degrees of separation for the internet itself!

The Internet Mapping Project was started at Bell Labs in the summer of 1998, and it's goal is to acquire and save Internet topological data over a long period of time. This data has been used in the study of routing problems and changes, DDoS attacks, and graph theory.

The image is how I would imagine the people of the world being connected together - some well connected people linking lots of smaller groups of people together. When you contact your friends and ask them to check out your profile - and hopefully add their own - you are making the connections come alive. Who knows - perhaps you are one of the 'major ISPs' of the human population and will end up being our number one ranked person! Add a profile and find out!

For those in the world who do not already know (where have you been?), last night in Namibia, Africa, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcomed their daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to the world. The name Shiloh, means 'peaceful' in Hebrew.

It was reported that the first picture of the baby would fetch up to $3 million (£1.6m), with the proceeds being given to Unicef, for whom Jolie acts as an ambassador, and other projects in Africa.

Congratulations to both, and good for them using the media interest to help such worthy causes.

Closer to home, we welcomed our first Chinese profile on the site this weekend, and also a new advertising partner, AdBrite.

With AdBrite, you can now book your advert on our pages online, and pay a flat rate for either a day, week or the month. Sponsored Links are shown full time across all free profile pages in prime area directly beneath the profile itself, as well as above the fold in the "Cool Sites" section of the Blog, and at the bottom of the photo display grid.

To mark this auspicious weekend, we have set special low introductory rates. For maximum exposure, only 4 advertisers are allowed at any one time, so first come, first served. Book your ad now.

Word of mouth is the best type of advertising; its free, and a great idea, service or product can quickly reach millions of people when friends tell friends about it.

But it can also be one of the most difficult to achieve. We all have our networks of friends, but often they don't often want to be 'sold' our new product or business idea, regardless of how soft the sell. And how many will then tell their friends?

Enter the Million People Page. Instead of telling all your friends about your new website and just hoping they will find it exciting enough to pass on, why not add a profile, then invite them all to join in too - so you can all discover your six degrees of separation.

That way, not only will you get a great ranking on our site, but you also piggy back your favourite website onto a great viral one! One which your friends friends are much more likely to pass on. After all, giving your friends the opportunity to find out their six degrees of separation means there is something in it for them too...

And if you don't have a website to promote, you can just enjoy the fun of joining in and seeing how you are connected to the world!

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We welcomed our first Danish profile on the site this week, and the canny Scots are moving up the rankings as the word spreads in Edinburgh. We have an amazing 9 degrees of separation on the site already, and growing each day.

I have also recently added a visitor map to the site, so people can see where all our visitors are coming from.

We reached our first milestone yesterday - 100 people on the site, from 6 countries. These 100 people represent 100,000 of the worlds internet users, and 650,000 of the people in the world, and we have at least one example of '6 degrees of separation', so we are on track so far!

Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the world so far - there are still 1 billion more internet users out there who have not yet visited the site, so please continue to tell your friends!

To better distinguish between US profiles and UK profiles, I have changed the colour associated with the UK. This is because with over 1/3 of internet users coming from these countries, the homepage needed some more variation. If you want to see more colours on the site - then tell your friends in other countries!

First Spanish profile added yesterday - viva espana!

Our first German profile added today, adding a splash of purple to the picture board. Not sure what he is holding in his hand... answers on a postcard please. Looking forward to seeing more purple on the page soon, as well as some of the other European countries.

Erklären Sie bitte Ihren Freunden über die Million Leute-Seite.
(Please tell your friends about the Million People Page)

At least I hope thats what it says...

For all you ranking junkies out there, I have added a new page on the site which shows the The Million People Page's biggest movers (up and down) on the site. This page will be updated when the rankings are recalculated each day.

Your change in ranking is also now shown on your profile page, so you can see how much you have moved up or down since the last ranking update.

Remember, your ranking on the site depends on the number of visitors to your profile, so by telling lots of people you are on the site you could be one of the movers and shakers too!

I have added an enhancement so that when it is someones birthday, their name shows up on the homepage. Also, when you view their profile, a Happy Birthday message is displayed.

As luck would have it, it is someones birthday today

If all one million people add their birthday, then by the laws of averages, there will be approximately 2740 birthdays every day. Wow...

But even more surprising is that according to Mathtrek it only takes 23 people in a group for there to be a 50/50 chance that two or more people share a birthday!

As of today (with 67 people on the site) there are already THREE people with the same birthday (1st November). I'll leave it you to find them...

We had our first Irish visitor add a pixel profile today, and the picture was of the lady in question's gorgeous dog (in case you wonder why I am not linking individual profiles in this blog, it is to avoid any bias in rankings). The favourite website - The Million Dog Wall Project deserves a special mention however, as it is a not-for-profit pixel type site raising awareness for Animal Rights. I'm more of a cat person myself, but some of those pooches look very lovable.

I have also noticed a couple of Million People Page wannabes popping up in the last month (it was bound to happen). Most are not as featured as the original though and one of them is asking $5 per picture (with no profile)!

One other pixel site I came across worthy of mention is Million Dollar London. I love the twist on the original pixel advertising format with all the moving buses, taxis and tube trains. The homepage takes a fair bit of time to load, but it is worth it to hear the 'mind the gap'.

Reminds me of all the years I used to commute to the 'big smoke'...

Well, this week the Americans seem to have overcome their shyness and have started joining the site - 6 joining today alone - although for some reason many of them seem to be a little camera shy... This week also saw our first Kiwi, so it seems there is some life downunder after all (and the Kiwis are beating the Aussies so far )!

After drifting a little in the week, traffic has started spiking again - over 350 unique visitors and 1000 page views today alone - so perhaps some of our newer signups have been busy telling their friends. It is always exciting to login and see the new signups and how many people have been on the site, and we have been getting lots of positive feedback on the site, so thank you.