Celebrity neighbors Begley, Nye carry eco-grudge The good-natured competition between actor Ed Begley Jr. and Bill Nye, the host of the educational series "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" began when Nye moved into the neighborhood two years ago. Since then the two moderately famous and slightly geeky environmentalists have matched wits over whose home can leave a smaller carbon footprint.
Problem is that Ed Begley continues to shill for things like a vertical axis wind turbine that has never been built and the multi-level marketing scheme CitizenRe. I don't think he is part of the scam, but he is either to much of a pie in the sky believer so that he shills for them without doing his home work, or maybe he is a bit thick! Icarus Bill Nye's pretty cool however! Ever see him cook with liquid nitrogen! Way cool!
Didn't I see a vertical axis wind turbine on the roof of Jay Leno's garage? I don't know as Ed shills so much as he says what he uses and what he's researched and plans on using. While I never consider Ed a rocket scientist, he *was* reducing his footprint and going green decades before it was "fashionable". I am impressed of the size of his home. It's only about 300 sq ft bigger than mine. But he's done a lot more. I'll never go the solar oven or bicycle toaster bit, but I would like to do gutters and rainbarrels eventually as my next step.
'Keeping down with the Joneses' is the sort of competition we need to see more of, instead of ostentatious displays of wealth and consumption.
Keeping up with the Begleys and Nyes. Or Keeping down with the Joneses (I kinda like that). A rash of nempimania would be nice too.
