Some additional reading December 9th from 11:21 to 19:17:
- Now with the recyling downturn – Disarranging Mine – "As to the recycling situation specifically, the prices paid for waste paper crashed suddenly, and now those who broker the stuff for sale overseas — waste paper is one of our leading exports by weight; it comes back to the States as packaging — can't get rid of it. Out here in California, recycling centers are sitting on mountains of recycling and in some cases are having to rent land to store the stuff or just send it to landfills."
Ru-oh. Our building just started paying our garbage contractor more to pick up recycling too, now what?
- It’s on: Telstra strikes to go ahead | Dileys ONLINE – "Unionised Telstra workers are officially ready to strike for
better pay, with voting results released this afternoon and last week showing the majority of workers recently polled were in favour of industrial action.(Credit: On Strike by swanksalot, CC2.0 )"
- Trib bankruptcy a Zell of a deal :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion – "Zell recently observed that no paper ever made money because of its Pulitzers. I would add that no paper ever made money because of its putzes, which Zell has proven. The lesson here is that journalists create newspapers, and their owners should be in sympathy with that purpose. Sam Zell made his purchase because he wanted to make money.
There are quicker ways to make money than buying newspapers, although for some people, few more satisfying. When I told my mom I wanted to be a newspaperman, she said, “Oh, honey, if that’s what you want to do, I suppose so. But they don’t make any money.” Even she knew that."
- David Byrne 12.05.08: Mattel, Bratz and Creative Rights – "remember reading about the Bratz dolls a year or so ago — the designer tried to get Mattel interested in the line, but with their traditional and long-standing emphasis on the All American Breasts of Barbie, they passed. So, the designer went elsewhere, and despite some initial resistance, the line of dolls caught fire and began to threaten Miss Barbie herself. The Bratz dolls, who look to be of indeterminate ethnic origin — but definitely not Anglo-Saxon — started to crowd out the tall white chick with pointy tits. Do we have a metaphor for immigration attitudes (and policies) here or what?
The designer should have gotten Mattel to sign away their rights after passing on his idea, though I suspect Mattel would not have done so unless they had to. Just like record companies will often pass on an artist’s record and then prohibit anyone else from releasing it, they are scared of both being shown up and possible competition.
- Get This: Apparently George W. Bush Isn't a Creationist – "BUSH: Well, I think you can have both. I think evolution can — you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."
- Unique Transparency Program Uncovers Problems with Voting Software | Threat Level from Wired.com – "a California county uncovered a problem with its voting system software only because the county's registrar of voters had decided to implement an innovative public auditing program.
That program, the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project, was launched by Carolyn Crnich, who has been the county's registrar of voters since 2002. She created the project with help from a dedicated group of volunteers that included former Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, an employee of the Humboldt County district attorney's office named Tom Pinto, and three citizens, Kevin Collins, a commercial fisherman, and Parke Bostrom and Mitch Trachtenberg, two technology experts who had a strong interest in finding a way to ensure the integrity of elections. They've documented their efforts on a web site to help educate groups in other states and counties who may want to replicate the project."
