I hadn't seen this urban legend until I read about it in Sierra Club's online newsletter.

Some wonderful urban legends have sprung up about the Prius and its battery, the most colorful being this claim about the hybrid being less ecofriendly than a Hummer. Some of the more thrilling chapters originated in one study done by a marketing company that was not peer-reviewed but, unfortunately, was widely quoted in the media. Writer George Will, who is syndicated in 450 papers, penned an April column on the topic, headlined "Use a Hummer to Crush a Prius." The story was also pumped into the Internet-disinformation pipeline by gleeful bullies for whom size is apparently quite important, and before long the Prius had morphed into a sort of traveling toxic-waste dump trailing clouds of diabolical fossil-fuel exhaust.

For the full text (and math) that shows how ludicrous this concept is, go to Mr. Green's mailbag (here).

What I really find fascinating is that people would actually believe something like this could be true. It's an interesting take on cynicism about what is perceived as corporations such as Toyota "taking advantage" of the green trend. That phenomenon is certainly happening in some places. And as the Sierra club columnist points out --

As previously reported here, I've driven another Toyota, the Corolla, and gotten 42 miles per gallon, a mile more than its official EPA rating. That's pretty competitive with the Prius, especially when you consider that the Corolla costs about $7,000 less. So that regular car may be a sensible alternative to the Prius, but not because the Prius is environmentally worse than the Hummer.

I guess it just bugs me that people feel they have to take something to the extreme and fudge the truth (e.g. claiming that a Hummer is more eco-friendly than a Prius) in order for their point (e.g. there are other eco-friendly options besides a hybrid car that might be more economical) to be shared. At the end of the day, twisting the point this much doesn't do anyone any good.

I've started watching Project Runway on Bravo this week. Fortunately for me, Bravo airs past episodes ad inifinitum, so there really isn't much of a chance of missing an episode. I've even caught up on the last 3 seasons. (Really. I had never seen this show before). One thing that really struck me watching this is how useful it is to know the industry when you are watching one of these shows. I think I have been taking it for granted that I know so much about cooking and the restaurant industry when I watch Top Chef, because I'm watching PR and for the life of me, I can't understand why some of the things that the contestants do are such a big deal. I mean... Elisa spitmarking for example. It's a little weird, I guess, but it's not like she spit in your food, Sweet P.

Take what's-his-name from season 1 of Top Chef who got eliminated first for sticking his finger into the sauce to taste it instead of using a spoon. (Note: that's actually not all that uncommon in a restaurant assuming he doesn't stick his finger back into the sauce after licking it. And even then, that's a particular hangup for US health departments, I doubt there is as much hand-wringing about that sort of thing in the rest of the world. It was the fact that he did it on TV and exposed non-industry people to the dirty secrets of the kitchen that got him eliminated.)

 There are other things too, that are much less obvious if you don't know much about fashion and/or garment construction. I mean, it's totally obvious to me why Betsy's soups were way too chunky because she didn't strain them through a chinoise, but it's less clear to me why a certain fabric or cut is such a no-no. So know I realize that my enthusiasm for Top Chef might have been a little annoying to anyone who isn't a kitchen geek like me.

There are some redeeming qualities to PR that I enjoy. First of all, Tim Gunn is really a supporting role to the designers not a combination of spy/judge that Tom Colicchio apparently is. I hate it when Tom C. uses his knowledge of what was going on in the kitchen during his checks in the ultimate judging. Partly because it's not really fair, the contestants should be judged on the final result, not what they tried to do that didn't work out. But also partly because he's kind of a dick about it. Tim G. is much more supportive and kind about telling people that they might have problems with their project.

I had dinner with a friend from high school a few days ago and the subject of politics came up. He was saying that he's a democrat/liberal now. Which threw me a bit since he used to be a republican/conservative. This phenomenon has also happened to several of my friends who were pretty die hard conservatives when we were young, but who have become more liberal as they have gotten older.

Or have they?

The alternate explanation that occurred to me this morning is that their values haven't actually changed. The Republican party has. From my completely unscientific and anecdotal sampling of people I know, many of the people I associate with are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. There really isn't a party for this group any more. It usually comes down to a choice of which party you detest the least. And many of them used to choose the Republicans and now they choose the Democrats as the least loathsome party.

And the differences between my own views and the views of my friends from high school or college aren't all that far apart when put in the context of today's political polarization. For the most part, we are trying to achieve the same goals, we just have a difference of agreement of HOW to do it. What seems to have happened in the meantime in the larger sphere of US politics is a fundamental shift as to WHAT we should be doing. 

I have a ringside seat to the fires raging in San Diego's North County right now . I don't know what it is about my vacations in October. Last October, I was in Honolulu for the earthquakes in Hawaii. I'm thinking maybe I'll have to make it a hat trick and go to Miami in Oct 2008 and hope for a category 5 hurricane.

We're still outside of the evacuation zone, but just barely. Friends only 2 miles away have already been told to evacuate their homes. And the emergency coordinators are telling people in our area to "start packing up, just in case."

The air is filled with ash and soot. People aren't going outside, all the schools are closed, and the people who do go out are wearing dust masks. There was one guy in surfing gear and a dust mask... Now that's dedication to your sport.

At this point, I'm trying to decide if it's better to just go to the airport and try to get an early flight, or if I should stick it out til Thursday, which was my original departure date. 

Apparently, swimming in goo is not any more difficult than water, and for some swimmers it might even be easier. See the CNN coverage of the university of Minnesota research.

And then see photos for a visual storyboard here.

This isn't strictly a fair statement (see below), but I liked the headline anyway. Data comes from the Wikipedia page about Kid Nation . Watching the show, I noticed an inordinate number of kids from Georgia. 

This map is a raw count of kids per state. New Hampshire is a special case because in the first episode, its only representative, Jimmy (8 years old), the youngest of the 40 kids, was the one who was most mature enough to realize that he couldn't handle this crap and left the show. I'm quite proud. :)

As you can see, Georgia is well represented. I'm not sure what this means. Why Georgia?  I wonder if there is something about the labor laws in the states represented. Even though the filming is done in New Mexico, does it matter if the children are residents of another state? It's surprising that there are NO kids from California or New York. Again, is that a labor law issue?

The title of this post isn't fair because this is a raw count of kids per state. I didn't take into account population distribution. (i.e. the population of Florida is 18 million while Washington state is 6.4 million. So Florida would have to have twice as many kids in order to be as well represented per capita as Washingon.) Nevada is the really shocking one. With a population of only 2.5 million, 5 representatives is HUGE. Makes me think that some families "relocated" from California to be eligible to have their kids participate.

Yeah, I watch a lot of television. Ever since I started time-shifting my TV watching, I am watching a lot more programming. I'm also quite grateful to the folks at SciFi, USA and Bravo (well, really NBC Universal) for developing some quality programming and not being slaves to a September through May schedule. That said, I do have my share of reality shows and major networks on my rotation. I've moved from Tivo to the open source PVR software of MythTV (which I totally dig, but more about that in another post...), one of the benefits being that I can record two shows at once (note, requires additional hardware). However, for those of you without that capability, fortunately the networks (at least the aforementioned SciFi, Bravo, and USA, have realized that it's actually a good idea to air the same episode multiple times in a week so we can catch it. (Maybe Bravo realizes it a little too much. It's hard to turn around without seeing another Top Chef episode on that channel).

Lately, every year the last week of September feels like the first month of college. Instead of leafing through the course descriptions, I'm checking out websites, promos, and news stories. There are so many shows to pick from... but here is my weekly schedule, for the fall at least, along with some honorable mentions.

Fall 2007 Lineup on my PVR

 Honorable mentions that didn't fit this time around

Bones - This is the one show that I had to drop because I can't record three at a time. Airs on Tuesday at 8:00pm. I'll probably pick it up after BATG ends. Forensic Anthropology... sort of like another CSI, but deals more with the actual corpse than with DNA evidence.

Bionic Woman - May end up on my schedule after all. David Eick has done a tremendous job with Battlestar Galactica (starting up again in November), and this is another dark, moody take on a classic 70's scifi tv show. It would be interesting to see what he could do with the Star Trek franchise. 

Shows that didn't make it this season that really should have. Catch them on DVD if you can.

The Riches. Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as cons/"travellers" who end up inadvertently taking over the identities of a deceased hot shot corporate lawyer and his wife. They and their kids find they like the "buffer" life and have to wrestle with who they are and how to keep the biggest con of their lives from exploding in their faces. Gregg Henry is also great as Izzard's pathological but powerful and wealthy boss.

Jericho. For those of us that grew up in the 1970's and 80's, read Alas Babylon for school, saw "The Day After " (also coincidentally? set in Kansas), and didn't view Sting's song "Russians" as ironic the first time we heard it, the possibility of being survivors of an apocalypse wasn't all that remote. Jericho was originally canceled after season one, however after a lot of angry mail from fans, it looks like they have a reprieve and will get 7 more episodes to be run as a "midseason replacement" .

Dresden Files. Real magician/wizard. Weird, other-worldly stuff happens in Chicago. Harry Dresden helps out the police deal with it without having to admit to themselves that magic really exists.  Terrence Mann as a 16th century ghost assistant is the best character.

Off-Season shows coming back later this year

Psych. Smart ass with highly trained observational skills pretends to be a psychic so he can work as a consultant to the police department solving cases.

Monk. Obsessive compulsive, but brilliant private detective sees things no one else can. And despite his foibles, his friends do have a lot of affection for him and his ways.

Battlestar Galactica. Dark remake of the 1970's classic.

Dead Zone. Real psychic haunted by his gift, but still manages to save lives in every episode

The 4400. Over 4,000 people were abducted by people from the future and given special abilities (healing, telekinesis, etc.) and sent back to our time to change the future. Now they have created a shot that can give these abilities to other people, but there is a 50% chance that you are allergic to the shot and will die if exposed to the chemical neurotransmitter. The future is already starting to change.

I can tell that I'm addicted to Television without Pity because I even read the recaps of the shows I didn't miss. In fact, I find the commentary even better when I know what they are being so snarky about. I was reading the recap from that last episode of Top Chef where Madonna's brother "guest stars" as a "restaurant designer and interior decorator" (who clearly is only getting clients because of his sister's name). He's an ass and TWoP nicknames him The Raging Bitch.

I had to repeat this one section:

He calls The Raging Bitch because he forgot to tell him that they are renaming the restaurant "Quatre." Off the phone, Dale tells the cameraman, "He says no one can read French, and no one will understand, and it's not a pretty word. But, um, well, when he opens his own restaurant he can name it whatever he wants, and that's what we're going to do." You go, Dale! As for The Raging Bitch's critiques: "no one" can read French? I'll bet that's news to France. Also, anyone who has taken a romance language will recognize the "quat" stem to mean four. Also, someone should tell Hubert Keller of Fleur de Lys, Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, Anthony Bourdain of Les Halles, Daniel Patterson of Frisson, and anything with "Brasserie" in the title that they are all doomed to failure.

Oh... and this too...

Tre himself serves the Granny Smith apple bread pudding with dried cherries, and he reaches out to pour a shot glass of cinnamon and brandy anglaise over each portion. I know Ted Allen really likes the tableside service, but I'm not a fan. It makes me nervous, because I don't know when I'm allowed to pick up my fork and start eating. Like, "Are you done pouring? Okay, great, then I'm gonna -- Oh, you need to shave something now? Okay -- oh, and there's something to grind as well? Yeah, well any time I can start eating my cooling food, just tell me. Any time." The other part that niggles is how much it seems that someone is waiting on me hand and foot. Like, I couldn't have poured that broth myself if told to? What's next, you're going to feed me? Finally, there's the feeling of, "You're stupid and you wouldn't know what to do with this cruet of cream, so let me handle it."

To read the whole recap go to Television Without Pity: Top Chef: Second Helping

Other Top Chef related goodies:

Anthony Bourdrain is now a Top Chef blogger on the Bravo site . The man who came up with "Betty Crocker and Charles Manson had a love child and now he's cooking for me" has many more gems for this season. Be sure to check out the "Lost in the Supermarket " post where he absolutely skewers Rocco DiSpirito for the product placement fiasco episode.

Grub Report (rightly) slams Top Chef for being so unfair to Andrea Strong. They list credentials for every other Tom, Dick, and Tony who guests on the show... even "Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone" and all they say is that she's a "food blogger." 

Bonus Track on Television without Pity. The recapper reviews the Bertoulli pasta dinners that Rocco DiSpirito shills. Thank god. Keckler tries it so we don't have to. I do admit that I picked one of them up in the supermarket after that fateful supermarket episode, but I read the ingredients list and nutritional information and put that thing back in the frozen section faster than I would if it were on fire.

This Bertolli meal serves two people and packs a whopping 710 calories (over half of those calories come from fat) and a scary 1370 mg of sodium. PER SERVING! Sure, you don't know what you're getting in a restaurant, calorie-wise, and chefs do like to pack on the butter and salt for both flavor and mouth appeal, but if I'm going to consume those calories it damn well better be worth it and not leave grainy, watery white puddles on the plate...

 For those of you who haven't seen the Miss Teen USA South Carolina train wreck:

In a nutshell she was asked, "One fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map, why do you think that is?" 

She replied with a train wreck of an answer. Something very much like an unscripted response from President George W. Bush . 

To be fair, I think most education experts would have a hard time answering WHY the state of geographical knowledge is so dismal in what I suspect was a 60 second time limit.

I have been thinking about the real answer to that question. First, I am not sure I believe that that statistic is true. It sounds suspicious. What is more likely to me was that there was a survey done of middle school students and one-fifth of THEM couldn't find the US on a world map. While this is still a surprisingly high number, I doubt it is the 60,500,000 people as suggested by that question.

Secondly, even if we grant that there are that many people with weak geographic knowledge, the simple answer to that question isn't going to be easy to deliver in a politically correct way.

One fifth of Americans can't place the US on a world map because THEY DON'T HAVE TO.

Human beings tend to be self-interested. It is something that perpetuates the species. If there isn't a need to do something, it won't be done.

1. Not that many Americans travel internationally. Just look at the meltdown that has happened at Northeastern US Post Offices this summer when the US government required its citizens to have passports to go to Canada. Millions of people who never needed passports before despite an annual vacation up north had to go get passports. Until this requirement only 34% of the US Population over the age of 18 had passports .

2. Geography as a scientific discipline has been under attack by the American educational system for years. Major American universities no longer even have geography departments or majors, while Oxford, Cambridge, and other elite (non-American) universities do. Geography is not even a separate subject taught in American schools.

Americans treat geography as a spelling bee--trivia to be memorized and repeated on demand with no analytical power. The key question of Why are things where they are? remains unasked. Knowing geographical facts such as that the Himalayas and Andes are the highest mountain chains in the world contributes no understanding of plate tectonics and the resultant effects on climate, and the impact on human settlement for the people who live on opposite sides of these great mountains. The reluctance to incorporate and classify many facts into relevant explanatory factors contributes to the naive and wholly wrong idea that geography cannot be a science because it deals only with "unique" places.

from: Global Politician, 31 Aug 07 

Ultimately, this is not an education problem but a CULTURE problem. It's the same issue as too many Americans (myself included) not being able to speak more than one language. We don't value being citizens of the world. And we don't think that our impact on the world beyond the immediate effects that we feel have any meaning. From the same article quoted above:

Geography is an important antidote to the infantile habit of thinking the world is a laboratory in which we can carry out all kinds of experiments, or a huge rubbish heap where we can get rid of all our trash.

I'm pretty sure that the people who say that global warming is a myth are disproportionately represented in the group that can't place the US on a world map.

Check out the wild blackberries growing in our yard! Yum! 

We have taken to letting a lot of plants grow wild in our yard. I'm sure our neighbors hate it, but we don't like using pesticides and other chemicals, so it makes sense to us to grow the plants that "want" to grow there. Fortunately, blackberries are in that list.