The Times has a story this morning about how various entities — California utlities, midwestern colleges, etc. — are using the competitive instinct to enlist energy savers.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, for example, shows customers how their use ranks versus 100 neighbors who have similar-sized homes and use the same heating fuel. It uses software by the company Positive Energy, which came up with the idea, and has since added utilities in 10 other metropolitan areas as customers.

I was pleased to see the story close with a good chunk on the Energy Smackdown, the creation of the BrainShift Foundation that is pitting family teams in Arlington, Medford, and Cambridge against each other in energy-conservation races.

Thanks to my mom for tipping me off to the story, and to the always-anonymous-but-clever copy editor who wrote the story's headline. The headline above uses her or his idea. Brilliant.