Newsweek - July 14, 2008

A Life In Movies: Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II

My Five Most Important Movies
1. Los Olvidados
2. The Bride of Frankenstein
3. Greed
4. The Gold Rush
5. La Chienne

Film revisited with disappointment: Crime and Punishment

Films parents should share with kids: A Little Princess and The Iron Giant

Perspectives (Quotes)

"Yeah, I don't do cowering." Barack Obama, when asked by Rolling Stone about how past nominess from his party seemed to "cower" in the face of Republican attacks.

"I don't like her outfit... It was one of the motivations to beat her." Russian tennis player Alla Kudryatseva, who upset 3rd-seeded Maria Sharapova in Wimbledon's second-round, on the sheer, tuxedo-style get-up that Sharapova wore during the match.

Defining Moments: Darwin and Lincoln

Charles Darwin
-2/12/1809, born in Shrewsbury, England
-1831, graduated from Cambridge and began a five-year scientific expedition on the HMS Beagle
-1839, married Emma Wedgwood
-1859, "The Origin of Species" was published
-1860, defended his theory at the Oxford evolutionary debate
-1882, died in Downe, England. Buried in Westminster Abbey.

Abraham Lincoln
-2/12/1809, born in Hardin County, Kentucky
-1842, married Mary Todd
-1858, debated Stephen A Douglas seven times in failed Senate campaign
-1860, elected 16th US president
-1863, issued Emancipation Proclamation and delivered Gettysburg Address
-1865, assasinated by John Wilkes Booth. Buried in Springfield, Illinois.

Also in 1809:
-Napoleon and Josephine divorce after she fails to give birth to a son
-James Madison is inaugurated the 4th president and his wife, Dolley, becomes noted for her parties
-John Stevens' Phoenix becomes the first steamship to navigate the ocean, sailing from Philadelphia to New York
-Elizabeth Seton founds the Sisters of Charity, later becomes the first US-born person to be made a saint.

The Don't Bother States (fivethirtyeight.com)

Red States:
-Alabama, 99% chance of McCain winning
-Kentucky, 97%
-Idaho, 98%
-Oklahoma, 99%
-Utah, 100%
-Wyoming, 98%

Blue States:
-Washington, DC, 100% of Obama winning
-California, 97%
-Massachusetts, 97%
-New York, 98%
-Rhode Island, 97%
-Vermont, 99%

Boning Up the Body Politic
There are many ways to predict who'll win the White House in November. The most fun? Physical appearance. A feature-by-feature face-off:

Height
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the shorter candidate has actually won 4 of the last 9 elections. But at 5'7", McCain is 6.5 inches shorter than Obama. The last time anyone overcame such a huge height gap was i 1952. We haven't elected a shorter-than-average president since Ben Harrison. Advantage: Obama.

Eye color
Of our 43 presidents, 38 have had blue, gray or hazel eyes. Two exceptions: disgraced Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon. Sure, light eyes used to be more common. But even as the general incidence fell from 50 to 16% over the last century, our presidential peepers stayed 89% non-brown. Advantage: McCain.

Handedness
Only two POTUSes before 1974 were known to be lefthanded - Garfield and Truman. But since then, a full 66% (Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton) were born southpaws, compared with only 10% of the general population. And either Obama or McCain would continue the trend. How gauche. Advantage: None.

Baldness
The US has elected only 5 hairless presidents, and only 4 of them won the White House before 1880, when voters weren't forced to endure the sight of their shiny, uncovered craniums on TV. Ike beat a bald guy (Adlai Stevenson). Ford wasn't elected. And Dick Cheney wasn't technically president. Advantage: Obama.

Melanin
An exclusive Newsweek analysis has determined that precisely 100% of our presidents have been white. Advantage: McCain.

The Final Score
A tie. Maybe there's something to that whole "waiting until Nov. 4 for the actual results" thing after all.

The Elitism Index
Ivory Tower
-McCain: nearly last in his class at the Naval Academy
-Obama: proud son of Columbia and Harvard

Old-school ties
-McCain: "old boy" of Virginia's Episcopal High School
-Obama: Hawaii's dreamy private school Punahou

Home/Homes
-McCain: Phoenix, Sedona, Arlington, and California
-Obama: Victorian in Hyde Park, apartment in DC

Hollywood Pals
-McCain: Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lorne Michaels
-Obama: Oprah, David Geffen, Scarlett Johansson

Top CO2 Emitting Regions
1. China - coal plants are a big culprit
2. USA - still the most per capita
3. EU-15 - transport emissions rising
4. India - a booming car culture
5. Russia - not limited by Kyoto

Top Ecofriendly Countries
1. Switzerland - size of forests increasing
2. Sweden - carbon tax since 1991
3. Norway - hydropower pioneer
4. Finland - state promotes strong environmental policies
5. Costa Rica - 23.4% is protected land

The Cost of Learning
$414.42: public elementary or high school; average annual cost (school supplies and lunch)
$16,440: private day school; median annual tuition
$35,087: private boarding school; median annual tuition, room and board
$13,589: public four-year college; average tuition, room and board
$32,307: private four-year college; average tuition, room and board

Highest Annual Births per 1,000 people
1. Guinea-Bissau: 50
2. Liberia: 50
3. DR Congo: 50
4. Angola: 49
5. Uganda: 48
6. Mali: 48
7. Niger: 48
8. Sierra Leone: 48
9. Chad: 47
10. Afghanistan: 47

US: 14

Highest Annual Deaths
1. Swaziland: 29
2. Botswana: 27
3. Lesotho: 25
4. Sierra Leone: 23
5. Zambia: 22
6. Angola: 22
7. Zimbabwe: 21
8. Afghanistan: 21
9. Mozambique: 20
10. Guinea-Bissau: 19

US: 8

Single Parents Traveling With Kids
-singleparenttravel.net
-breezes.com
-beaches.com
-offshore-sailing.com

Read: The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat, by Eric Roston