RicodJour wrote:

... As with incandescent bulbs, turning them on and off is what
shortens the life.

Not much with incandescents. CFs lose about 6 minutes with each start.

Incandescent bulbs primarily fail due to the power surge at startup.
Turning them off and on definitely shortens the life.

Not much. Don Klipstein might have something to say about this.

... The article calculated that if you were going to be back in the room in a
half hour it made more sense to just leave the light on.

Sounds wrong, at 10 cents/kWh and $2 for a 6-7K hour bulb.

You edited out this part of what I wrote: "(please note all of my
numbers are either right or wrong or somewhere in between, but
the gist of it is correct)"

I was certain that would have stopped the bean counters from counting
beans. My error.

Your gist is WRONG! Try the numbers, for a 14 W CF.

Nick