No one can accuse the Times Square Alliance of dropping the ball on energy efficiency; when the clock strikes midnight tonight, a brand-new New Year’s Eve ball will light up Times Square and give the world a dazzling display of kaleidoscopic, cutting-edge LED technology. A hundred years ago, the first-ever Times Square New Year’s Eve ball—a 5-foot-diameter iron and wood contraption lit with 100 25W light bulbs—was dropped down a flagpole. The ball has been upgraded five times since then, most recently in 1999, when a Waterford crystal ball was created to commemorate the millennium.Tonight, we’re getting a New Year’s Eve ball that’s truly suited to this energy-challenged century; it’s still made of Waterford crystal, but the halogen lights have been replaced by LEDs that are twice as bright but use only a fraction as much energ–equivalent to 10 toasters, according to the AP. What’s next, solar panels on the White House roof? Oh, wait! Jimmy Carter already tried that, like, thirty years ago. Too bad Ronald Reagan took ‘em down. Talk about a dim bulb.