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With “The Simpsons Movie” opening on July 27th (and rumored to explore more irreverent faith-focused storylines), the time is ripe for a list of the top ten (plus 1) episodes dealing with religion. It wasn’t easy, but as a repeat viewer and a student of the show, here is my list. Whether you’re a die-hard Homer fan, a subscriber to the Ned Flanders school of faith, or even an Apu enthusiast, there’s something in this gallery for you.

Beliefnet Article

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.” Roberson et al, 2002

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

We believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

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Kameraflage is a technology that takes advantage of their superior vision by printing or projecting messages and images that can only be seen through a digital camera lens.The company calls it technology for the “cameraphone generation” and suggests plenty of uses for their innovation — beyond printing secret messages on models’ T-shirts, as in the picture.

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A few snippits:

• Groening’s younger son, Abe, likes to tell him that The Simpsons is over, the cartoonist says — that Family Guy is the hot show now.”This is how he puts it,” Groening says, channeling Abe’s voice: “‘I wish Seth McFarlane was my dad.'”
• Which is why, for example, The Simpsons has fun with Ned Flanders, but not because of his religious beliefs.

  “The idea of making fun of the uptight Christian neighbor would be too easy,” Groening says.

  Like the similarly iconic Peanuts comic, Groening believes, The Simpsons keeps audiences interested because while it’s simple on the surface, it often grapples with genuinely complicated issues.

  “With Charlie Brown it was about loneliness and isolation. … Half the strip was about who wasn’t there. The parents were never in the picture. The Simpsons is about alienation, and the ambivalence of living with a family who you love, but who drive you completely crazy.”

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