The Smarmy Carny

Google is giving away $10 Million through Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced as "Project 10 to the 100th"). The money will go to fund between one and five ideas that will help humanity in a great way.

The guidelines are extremely loose for this project: They would prefer submissions in one of the following eight categories: Community, Opportunity, Energy, Environment, Health, Education, Shelter, and "Everything Else" . . . So even if your idea doesn't fit into the seven extremely vague categories, they are still willing to accept it.

Sure, those very basic guidelines are great and leave it open to your own creativity, but what sort of idea are they really looking for? The example Google offers to us is the Hippo Water Roller, which essentially looks like one of those heavy rollers used to even out landscaping, but filled with healthy drinking water. This allows people who have to transport their water supply to easily roll 24 gallons of water at a time, compared with a 5 gallon bucket of water on top of the head.

You can upload an ancillary video to YouTube to help you express or display your idea, but the meat of the presentation must be filled out via the web form. Google has put out a video presentation for their project:

How many people could your idea help?

All you need to do is submit your idea via the website before October 20, 2008. The submissions are reviewed and on January 27, 2008, 100 ideas will be voted on by the general public/Webosphere. The top 20 submissions will then pass to an advisory board, who will choose between one and five ideas, which will split the $10 Million prize equally.

For those looking to get rich from their ideas, you might want to look elsewhere. As the site's FAQ says:

Q: What do I get if my idea is chosen?
A: You get good karma and the satisfaction of knowing that your idea might truly help a lot of people.

The $10 Million is not going to the people who come up with these ideas. The money is going toward the development of these ideas to help make them a reality.

If coming up with a great idea to help the world just isn't your "thing", you can always try to win the $30 Million Lunar X Prize that Google has also posted. For that prize, you'll have to do a lot more than come up with ideas, though. $30 Million goes to the first team to send a robot to the moon, have that robot travel 500 meters along the moon's surface, and receive back video, image, and data transmissions here on Earth. You might want to hurry on that offer, though: 13 of the teams have been working on this since September 13, 2007, so you've got some catch-up to do!

There was another bit of Spanish in this week's episode of My Name Is Earl, Frank's Girl. Throughout the episode, Joy and Catalina get into a war over . . . pooing themselves, of all things.

After Joy exacts her revenge on Catalina and takes a picture of the result, Catalina pops her head outside of the women's bathroom door and shouts:

Esperamos que no te daba asco este cuento, nosotros pensabamos que era chistoso!

The "unilingual" viewer assumes that Catalina is yelling at Joy and is possibly promising her own revenge. What Catalina is actually yelling at Joy, however, is:

We hope that this tale doesn't disgust you. We thought it was funny.

At least the writers of Earl know when they may be close to crossing the line on their humor.

My Name Is Earl has done it again. Previously, we have seen several Spanish-language jokes that break the fourth wall, and now they're expanding their efforts to Japanese.

In this week's episode, The Frank Factor, we see the origins of the various characters before they all end up together. As Catalina has freshly landed in the United States, she is walking along the side of the road just as Darnell (a.k.a. Crab Man, f.k.a Harry Monroe) is dropped off by FBI agents. She walks up to him and starts speaking Spanish to him in a concerned tone. She says:

¿Disculpe, disculpe — señor? Mira, yo sé que ésto no tiene sentido con este programa porque como hemos visto yo vine después de "Y2K", pero en realidad quién quién pone atención a esos tipos de cosas?

The viewer is left to believe that the new arrival is concerned about finding a place to live, to eat, or may just be concerned with what to do now that she has finally reached the United States. What Catalina has actually said is this:

Excuse me, excuse me — sir? Look, I know that this doesn't make any sense with this show because we have seen that I came after [in the episode] "Y2K", but in reality who — who pays attention to those types of things?

Catalina is talking about the fact that in the Y2K episode, she is seen starting her journey to the United States while Earl and the gang are meeting Darnell at the Crab Shack for the first time. In this episode, the timeline/canon is broken because Darnell has just been dropped off by the FBI van and certainly has not started working yet, however Catalina has already arrived in Camden County. The writers have skewed the show's timeline to have the origin stories line up better for this episode, and they wanted us to know that they are aware that we viewers notice these sorts of things. My wife also translated the phrase as "I2K", and I have to assume this is a mispronunciation of the Y2K flashback episode. Another blog has also verified this mispronunciation.

The episode also has two Japanese lines spoken by Patty's Japanese "client". He speaks only Japanese in the scene, and none of the characters are aware of what he is saying. Randy keeps cracking up about him speaking "gibberish".

Update: I was finally able to get a partial translation of the Japanese. After Patty introduces Yoshi to Earl and Randy, the Yoshi character says a phrase in Japanese, and right before they exit the scene, he speaks again. Here are the two lines in Japanese:

tenkeiteki na nihonjin no yaru ga kirai da. demo agent ga kore wa yaru no hou ga ii to itta

kare wa dokyun ga kare wa zenbu nandemo shite wo wakan nai no. ikou!

Though this seems to be poor grammar according to the people translating, the two lines are roughly translated as:

I really hate doing Japanese stereotypes, but my agent said I should do it.

He's a dumba**. He has no idea what he's doing. I'm going!

I'll keep posting updates as I get them.

The blog Spanengrish Ramblings posted the following translation, which varies a bit from what I got:

I really hate doing Japanese stereotypes, but my agent said I should probably do it.

Where is he? He's always doing this to me. Let's go.

Let's hope that My Name Is Earl keeps up the great work and inside jokes to multilingual viewers!

Feeling young and sprightly? If you do and you're well out of college, you may want to review Beloit's annual College Mindset List. Recently released was the Class of 2011 mindset list. It puts into perspective how the world is different for young adults today.

I appreciate this list because it doesn't simply list what happened the year that this group of college freshmen were born. Anyone who has read a "year you were born" list knows that they are essentially useless because you don't remember anything that happened when you were 0 years old. This list shows you what kids may not be aware of and even how they might view things differently than older generations. For instance, what do you think of when you hear "Tiananmen Square"? Most college freshmen think of it only as an upcoming Olympic venue.

Here are 15 selections from this year's 2011 Mindset List. In all, there are 70 items, so check out Beloit's annual College Mindset List for the complete list.

Class of 2011:

• What Berlin wall?
• Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
• They have grown up with bottled water.
• Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
• No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of “liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
• Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.
• Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
• Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
• High definition television has always been available.
• Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
• MTV has never featured music videos.
• Jerry Springer has always been lowering the level of discourse on TV.
• They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
• The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
• Food packaging has always included nutritional labeling.

Here are 15 additional entries for the Class of 2010, in case you're wondering about the current sophomores:

Class of 2010:

• The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
• They have known only two presidents.
• There has always been only one Germany.
• A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents'.
• "Google" has always been a verb.
• Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.
• There has never been a "skyhook" in the NBA.
• Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents' attics.
• Reality shows have always been on television.
• They have no idea why we needed to ask "…can we all get along?"
• They have always known that "In the criminal justice system the people have been represented by two separate yet equally important groups."
• They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.
• They are not aware that "flock of seagulls hair" has nothing to do with birds flying into it.
• Disneyland has always been in Europe and Asia.
• Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.

Craving more? Read about the Class of 2009 Mindset List and a summary of the Mindset Lists for the Classes of 2002 through 2008.

One Economy's The Beehive offers low-income people and families plenty of information on various categories. One of those categories is Money.

Since this is a fairly large section, The Beehive's Money category is split out into a quite a few various subsections:

• Taxes
• Saving & Investing
• Banks & Credit Unions
• Budgeting
• Loans
• Credit & Debt
• 401Ks and Retirement
• Sending Money
• Paying Bills
• Child Support
• Becoming a Homeowner

The Money section of The Beehive will show low-income users how to create a budget, open a checking account, send money to people, pay bills, collect child support, and obtain a credit report. One entire section explains how to make sure you are getting all the credits you qualify for on your taxes and even allows those earning under $40,000 a year to file their taxes online for free. The Beehive will also explain the process of how to buy a home or get a loan.

This section really does cover a wealth of information. (Yes, pun intended.)

How do these tongue twisters stack up? Please, feel free to try saying these tongue twisters right now!

• Cher shot Sharif, the shoddy city sheriff: B Here's one you don't want to mess up in front of grandma!
• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?: F I don't know if this one has ever twisted my tongue.
• I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant pluckers mate and I'm only plucking pheasants 'cause the pheasant plucker's late: B+ This four-line tongue twister is a bit long for my taste, but it's a great one to try out. Though it's not particularly hard if you can read it, it's a doozy when you do mess up!
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers: D- The only hard part about saying this traditional tongue twister is that I always try and figure out what a "peck" is.
• Red rubber baby buggy bumpers: C- This one is a classic tongue twister, though I've never seen a bumper on a baby buggy before.
• She sold six Swiss wristwatches: A I like this tongue twister because it has just five words, but gets me almost every single time.
• Unique New York: A I appreciate this one for its simplicity. When I tell this one to people, they scoff — until they try to say it. I like the deceptiveness hidden here.

Please feel free to leave a comment. What do you agree or disagree with, and why? Which items do you wish were included that I didn't cover here?

Bookmark this now, because One Economy's upcoming site ZipRoad is scheduled to go live by mid-August 2007!

ZipRoad is an education-related website designed to enable parents and caregivers to make informed decisions about their children's education and learning. It localizes information and content based on zip code, informing parents about educational resources in their immediate area. Through technology, these users will have access to content through a virtual network of information compiled in a user-friendly manner, thus ensuring they do not remain isolated from important education information.

ZipRoad content is created and designed for the low-income/low-literacy parent as it is produced at a sixth grade reading level and written in both English and Spanish. Each section provides information about schools, programs, and organizations, as well as support content providing information about how to evaluate and use the data. Parents are able to rate and review all of the content on ZipRoad, allowing users to create an online discussion about resources and further helping them make informed decisions.

ZipRoad is an efficient, scalable way to support students both in and outside of schools. Technology and the Internet can bridge the achievement gap by efficiently delivering information, products and services to students left behind.

Bookmark ZipRoad today and don't forget to check back at the end of August!