Simpsons to parody Iraq invasion

From Animation Magazine:

The annual “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episode of FOX’s The Simpsons will parody the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq... Titled “The Day the Earth Was Stupid,” the segment recalls the panic caused by Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, only this time aliens Kang and Kodos capitalize on the confusion by invading Springfield. At one point, Kang says, "Well, the Earthlings continue to resent our presence. You said we'd be greeted as liberators!" Kodos replies, "Don't worry, we still have the people's hearts and minds." He then holds up a brain and a heart.

November 5. Don't miss it.

Slate Green Challenge

Slate.com and blog Treehugger.com are teaming up to educate people about their carbon emissions and to encourage them to pledge to reduce their carbon output by 20% over 8 weeks. Check it out at the Slate Green Challenge.

I signed up for the challenge. I was directed to a page where I first signed in and then took a quiz to establish my carbon emissions baseline. I answered questions about how much I drive, where I buy my food (paper or plastic?), how long my showers are, and where my electricity comes from. I submitted my quiz prompting a new screen to load, which bluntly informed me: "Your annual carbon emissions are 34,144 lbs." That's equivalent to 3.35 cars or 78 Kenyans. The average American emits 44.312 lbs of CO2. With my baseline established, I was ready to reduce my emissions.

To find out how I could reduce my emissions, I took the Week 1 Action Quiz, which focused on transportation. The quiz introduced me to 9 actions I could take to reduce my CO2 emissions and asked me if I would pledge to do them. I had easy options, such as pledging to check the air in my tires monthly, and not so easy options, such as pledging to buy a Toyota Prius. In the end, I pledged to check the air in my tires monthly, check my air filter monthly, carpool twice a week, and buy carbon offsets from TerraPass to "neutralize" my car's carbon emissions. Those simple pledges amount to taking .27 cars/year off the road. Now I feel all green and fuzzy inside.

Next week I will answer questions about home heating. I'm envisioning pledges involving wool sweaters and jumping jacks. Stay tuned... and JOIN THE CHALLENGE. It's fun and you could win a free organic cotton t-shirt.

Social mobility - US v. Europe

Thanks to my friend Ariel for sending me this article.

It comes from the Economist, May 25th 2006 (yeah, it's a little old). Unfortunately, the article is only available in the print version (or online with a subscription), so here's a synopsis:

Citing a couple of new studies, the author points out that people in European countries - especially those in Scandinavia - have more social mobility than their counterparts in the US. The studies compared the earnings of men in their mid 40s to that of their fathers and found that, compared to Americans, fewer men in Europe stayed in the same income quintile as their fathers (although the article doesn't say if their earnings were higher or lower). Social mobility is roughly the same for those in the middle class regardless of country, but, significantly, for men born in the poorest category (where the only way to go is up), about three quarters of the Scandinavians studied had moved up the economic ladder compared to only half of Americans.

It was generally assumed that economic flexibility - characterized by low taxes, liberal labor policies, and fewer government interventions - meant more social mobility, but it appears that the opposite is true: Europe is economically inflexible but socially mobile. "Whence this strange combination?" asks the Economist. Part of the explanation appears be obvious: European countries' redistributive tax and welfare policies aim to help children of the poor do better than their parents. The other part of the explanation seems to lie in educational quality. In general countries with better schools have more social mobility. Though the schools in Germany and Italy aren't as good as those in Sweden, they are better than ours here in the US, hence more mobility.

The Economist sums up: "For Europe, the secrets of greater social mobility are, first, tough redistribution policies that particularly benefit those at the bottom; and, especially in Nordic countries, a more supple and less class-ridden education system, running from top to bottom. America could learn something from that."

Zing.

I'd be interested in extending this study back a couple hundred years to see if social mobility in the US has changed over time.

Blurb

I came across Blurb today - its another step toward the democratization of media.

Blurb allows you to create your own book with software you download from their website. Upload your book to your Blurb account and you can publish as many books as you want whenever you want. A cool addition to the concept is that every book they publish is available for purchase on their website. I guess this is their answer to the publisher's duty to market the books they print.

Mostly this just seems like a lot of fun to me, but it could potentially have some interesting applications. It doesn't seem like the best way to become well-known, but for people (bloggers, photographers, My-Spacers, &c) who already have online audiences, this looks like another great form of self-promotion.

Check it out here.