This season my favorite TV show is developing an environmental sensibility. The critically acclaimed drama 24? Puh-lease. I'm talking about America's Next Top Model. Last night on the ninth cycle of Tyra Banks's reality show for wacky model wannabes, photo director Jay Manuel told the girls Top Model is going green. So far, the only evidence of this is that, instead of the Hummer limos of past seasons, the girls will be riding around L.A. in a bus that says "100% Biodiesel" on the side. Don't worry, they haven't sacrificed all luxury: the inside is still swanky. "I'm pretty supportive of the environmental kick," said Mila, although her support was rewarded by making her the first girl booted from the show.

No word yet on whether the house, built in the Reality Show Mansion architectural style, has green features, too. It certainly has a swimming pool, a fashion runway, and a lot of giant pictures of last season's winner, Jaslene. But I can report that this season's Tyra Mail, the messages from the show's host, is being printed on green-colored paper with a bamboo motif - no word on whether the paper is recycled - and a little placard next to the tub advised the contestants that they could save water by keeping showers under ten minutes. Indeed, the EPA says a five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons of water, compared to about 70 gallons for a tub bath. But it's more efficient if all the girls get in the tub at once, like they did last night, right?

Also, we Top Model fans at National Geographic were delighted and honored to be mentioned in Television Without Pity's hilarious recap of the first episode. Here's Potes, the recapper, on one of the contestants: "She does a crazy walk as she goes out and yells, 'Africa! Africa!' I have not seen one person in National Geographic or on that Oprah special wearing denim leg warmers, I'll tell you that much." We're checking the photo archives and we haven't found any denim leg warmers yet, either - but we'll let you know if something turns up.

How do you think Top Model could go green? Hair weaves made of bamboo? Global warming-themed photo shoots?

— Helen Fields

Okay. I will admit, I like Chuck, the new weird and funny NBC series about a nerdly guy (in fact, the head nerd of the Nerd Herd, employed by Buy More to help its electronics-befuddled customers) who suddenly becomes a superspy. But I was wondering about the plot conceit: Chuck gets an e-mail from his old college roommate that contains all the secrets of American spydom, and as the images and content of the e-mail unfold, all of that information is imprinted in Chuck’s brain, like, forever! So a random sight can trigger a flood of Very Secret and Important Memories.

To find out whether such a thing could happen, I called Alex Martin, Chief of the Cognitive Neuropsychology Section, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, at the National Institutes of Health. His job title is so impressive that I do not understand it all.  I asked: Could you really download memories into a human brain? “No way,” Martin said. “There’s no way to pour knowledge into your head. It always takes work. A cup of coffee will help.” So now I’m developing my own series: Joe, about a guy who swills Starbucks and becomes a supergenius. 

-Marc Silver

Whilst randomly perusing the offerings on television last evening, we happened upon a social experiment that proves, alas, that when it comes to geography, many American young adults have indeed been left behind in Stupidville.

The so-called social experiment is the CW's TV program "Beauty and the Geek," which airs on Tuesday nights this fall. In one segment, the Beauties (as the attractive but admittedly dim-witted women in the cast are known) are asked to name countries of the world, beginning with the letter "a" and working their way through the alphabet. For a, they suggested "Alabama" and "Arkansas." Oh, and Asia. A bronze star to that Beauty, because at least Asia is not a state. For B: "Boston." For C: "The Caribbeans." And then the inevitable question that has dogged schoolchildren for so many years: "Is Europe a country?"

Sigh. No, Europe is NOT A COUNTRY!!!!

As for the Geeky Guys, we do not know if they have mastered geography. They do seem to know a lot about computers and comic books. And they are very lame when it comes to kissing a mannequin.

After the show, we tried to think of a country for every letter of the alphabet. We did really well until "J" came up. (Okay, it was late and our brain was tired.) But later: Jakarta! And then: No, it's a city. D'Oh. As for Q and X ... any suggestions from our Pop Omnivore geography buffs?

— Marc Silver

    So as soon as the Emmy telecast ended, I began looking for a leafblower powered by Al Gore’s tears, just like that cool one that Stephen Colbert was using. Sadly, no such piece of equipment exists. Colbert, your truthiness has given way to fibbiness! But I did find out a few things about leafblowers.
    First, the earth does not like them. Emissions from a gas-powered leaf-blower in one hour are said to equal the tailpipe emissions of a car driving 350 miles, according to the green group New American Dream. And who's breathing them in? You are. "It's never good to be at the tail end of an engine," says Kathryn Phillips, an air pollution control advocate for Environmental Defense.
    Second, there is an alternative. It is called a rake. Skip the health club and give it a whirl: It burns calories at the rate of 100 to 200 per half hour. If you do not have time to rake, hire neighborhood children. And if you still feel compelled to blow, electric models are a bit kinder to the environment than their gassy brethren. As for me, I’m planning to let my leaves pile up until someone develops a tear-powered model.
    (P.S. Did you catch the ad during the Emmy broadcast about paint that is kind to the environment? Turns out there is such a thing! Check greenseal.org for a list of paints that have fewer nasty ingredients, like volatile organic compounds, and no odor.)

— Marc Silver

Madeleine L'Engle died yesterday in Connecticut. She was 88 years old. Madeleine L'Engle's books were some of my favorites in childhood. Her books weave stories that include science, but never make you feel as if you're being taught something. A Wrinkle In Time is based in part on Einstein's ideas about space and time. In A Wind in the Door, Meg travels her brother's mitochondria (the tiny powerhouses of the cells) to cure him of a mysterious disease. Limb regeneration plays a major part in The Arm of the Starfish.

The books were wildly successful, and they certainly resonated with me - to live in a big old house like Meg's, with lots of siblings and brilliant scientist parents, eating dinners cooked on bunsen burners, was my romantic ideal of childhood. Now cooking on bunsen burners just seems like a bad idea - lab chemicals and food preparation belong in separate rooms. But the interest in unknown worlds sparked by the books lived on, for me and many other readers. I still reread A Wind in the Door every few years - maybe now it's time to pick it up again.

— Helen Fields

Summer is (almost) over and so all you’ve got is memories of your glorious vacation. One way to relive it is to listen to the new CD by Erik Friedlander, a solo cello homage to all the road trips he took as a boy. Now I know that sounds crazy: Cello? Solo? Road trips? But watch the "taking trips to America" video on his web site. Friedlander plucks and caresses those strings as if the cello were a ginormous guitar, creating a wistful mood that makes you feel as if you’re in the back seat of a vintage Chevy, watching endless stretches of road whiz by and catching a glimpse of a rock shaped like a rutabaga, a herd of bison, a Burma Shave billboard. Friedlander’s compositions draw from the classics, jazz, and roots music, but sound like nothing you’ve heard before because really, how much solo cello does anyone listen to? Friedlander’s eloquent and surprising CD is called Block Ice & Propane—the two things that keep a road tripper cool and hot.