Huh. The Vatican thinks The Simpsons is okely-dokely. I didn't see that one coming.

ditto in NY, although people contantly throw them into the recycling.

Same here. Even though bottles and other containers may have the same number, they have different melting points and chemical compositions. Bottles are blow-molded and have a much more consistent melting point and a much better consistency (gooey) when melted as compared to injection-molded plastic (runny/drippy). That's why bottle recycling is much more common.

There's your recycling information nugget for the day!

There's your recycling information nugget for the day!

That's interesting. I wonder why our recycling is cool with bottles and with butter tubs, as long as they're the same number. Are there different ways to recycle plastics? I mean, at the point of the recycling company?

Now I need to check my recycling flyer. I'd been washing and recycling my stuff like Steph.

Linked to from the Simpsons Papacy page is a list of 15 scandals of the decade. They include what I consider a complete non-event, Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction". But the quoted text on the page caught my eye:

Since 2004, the Super Bowl has stuck to classic rockers like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Prince, who are not likely to have wardrobe malfunctions during a halftime show

Oh, Prince, how far you've come and how much I miss the old you.

Speaking of energy and green issues, our power just went out for a few minutes! Since it happened at 2 pm, several people here at the office took it as a sign to go home. Unfortunately, nobody in my department did so, so I'm stuck until probably around 4:30 or so.

Sigh.

re: the Simpsons and the Vatican, I liked this bit.

"Homer finds in God his last refuge, even though he sometimes gets His name sensationally wrong," L'Osservatore said. "But these are just minor mistakes, after all, the two know each other well."

So, you think Benedict is a fan? Or do the Jesuits have Tivo?

Steph, I'm not so sure they do. [link]

ita, looks like you are good. [link] You have curbside styrofoam recycling! I'm so jealous.

Recycling factoid #2 - just because it disappears from your bin doesn't mean it's getting recycled. When in doubt, call your Solid Waste Mgmt dept. Many contaminents are sorted out at the processing center, or rather *not* sorted out so they end up in the trash pile. However, contaminants make recycling more expensive and cause problems when processing centers sell their materials to markets, so don't just throw whatever in your bin knowing that it will be sorted out.

15 sites that went kaput in 2009 (images)

eta:

SpiralFrog shut its doors on March 19th, but that was far from the end of the drama for the music streaming service. In its three-year run, the company had amassed $9 million in debt, and sent a message to the music industry that ad-supported music was not a viable, long-term money-making solution.

Matters were made worse when it appeared that those inside the company had sold user e-mail addresses to third-party companies, a move that was made just before the company changed hands to creditors. This also went squarely against the site's original terms of service, which assured users that their personal information would be kept confidential.

Other woes included unpaid employees, and music that was left unplayable due to stringent DRM that required visiting the site every 60 days to get it renewed, making this one of the worst site closures of the year.

Music DRM that requires online validation before it will play "your" music is a bad idea, kids.

When I worked at a grocery store, in the bottle return area, they told us that if we put the wrong thing n the wrong barrel, it would cause the whole gaylord (what they called the giant boxes that the barrels were dumped in, I have no idea why) to be discard rather than try to sort through it. I do not know if this is true.

Also, ita, next time you have electronics to recycle check this link: [link] Don't know if it's more convenient than Goodwill, though.

I am always available to answer Buffista's waste management questions. It makes me happy to research this stuff and pass it on.