1.06.2010

Six In The Morning

1 TILLMAN'S GOTTA GO So says the Leader-Post, although they're pretty darn polite about about it. If it wasn't a winning Rider GM who pressed his boner into his babysitter's butt, would they be all like "to his credit, he said he was rilly rilly sorry?" What if it was a panhandler?

2 AT LEAST SOMEONE'S WORKING IN OTTAWA Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page will release three reports during the ongoing government lockout, sorry, prorogue. One of them, which could come as soon as next week, will look at Canada's structural deficit. What's a "structural deficit"? That's the permanent cash shortfall you get when you don't collect enough taxes to pay for the services Canadians depend on. (Globe And Mail)

3 LET'S ALL SHIP OUR GARBAGE TO GHANA Sketchy private "recyclers" are dumping old electronics in third-world countries, says an e-waste watchdog. Their advice: take your old TVs and computer monitors to municipal recycling depots. (CBC)

4 NO BODY SCANS FOR KIDS AND TEENS Probably a good idea, since nude images of actual children are problematic, but still, this also shows how airport security paranoia is a joke--how can you search some people but not others and call it security? (Toronto Star) In semi-related news I'm still pissed off that Cuba is on the United State's new "watch list" (USA Today) along with Iran and Syria. Give me a break, Cuba just wants to be a tourist haven.

And it also bugs me that Iran has such a shitty, evil governement, because Iranians seem pretty cool. Okay, I'll stop rambling now.

5 YOU CAN CAN'T BOMB WHAT'S BURIED Speaking of Iran, they've apparently made their nuclear program attack-proof by hiding it under mountains. (New York Times)

6 SPIDER-MAN STALLED BY STUPID STUDIO Spider-Man was decent. Spider-Man 2 was decent. Sony interefered heavily with Spider-Man 3, and it sucked. Now they're messing around with the planned Spider-Man 4--and director Sam Raimi's apparently put his foot down. Good for him. I can't believe how stupid the blockbuster movie power-brokers are. (Dark Horizons)

2 comments:

Saskboy said...

Duplicating my CBC response here (and later at my blog with more details and proof):

There is no "municipal" recycler of e-waste in Regina. We have SWEEP at SARCAN (Provincially funded), or private recyclers, one of whom is at risk of going out of business because the Premier of the province lied to him and expanded the SWEEP program at SARCAN without consulting private recyclers. Now private recyclers' market is damaged, and they also gets none of the SWEEP money that only SARCAN gets.

Where before private recyclers like Second Time Office Equipment were getting 5¢/lb for plastic waste, now they PAY 25¢/lb to get rid of it ethically, because of a political decision at SERM. Contrary to this story, STOEquipment is one of the good guys, with an audited rating as good (but in reality better) than SARCAN's.

SWEEP destroys every item that comes into them, meaning a working TV given to SWEEP is never used again, where at STOE it'd find a new home if it still has market value. Reusing "waste" is much more environmentally friendly than melting it down so a new device can be purchased.

Industry led programs suffer from influence of companies that would rather their products break regularly, and be "recycled" regularly, so they have a steady income from sales. "Reusing" is not on their corporate mind at all.

Stephen Whitworth said...

Thanks Saskboy, you are a hero worthy of your super-sounding nickname. Readers will appreciate the important point you raise.