With you or without you, your baby will be learning from the moment she is born and starts to take in her new surroundings. Every sight and sound will be a part of her learning process; she will obser.........    View all

 
The Civil Administration responds: "The Civil Administration has been working for a long time to eradicate this phenomenon. The head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Yoav M.........    View all

By Lucy Bartlett Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out as from a dustbin upset in a high wind is a quotation by William G Golding, winner of Nobel Prize for literature. Definition of g.........    View all

An acquaintance shared an interesting little tidbit of useful information today, especially considering my current waste disposal situation.
The trash passes twice a week, on Mondays and on Thursdays. A guy with a cowbell runs several blocks ahead of the trash
truck letting people know that now is the time to take out their plastic bags, cardboard boxes and trash bins. Now or never. So people stream out of their houses, bags in tow, to leave them in the designated area.
We used to have a bright yellow garbage bin. It was in pretty bad shape, but it at least kept the trash contained. Then, when the bellboy would pass by, I would hoist my baby into his carrier, grab hold of the remaining handle on the bin and hike it out to the designated garbage area.
Then someone stole our crusty, grimy garbage bin. The trash men? The vengeful neighbor? We’ll never know what happened, but life is a lot more complicated… and a lot messier.
So now, at least until we get another bin for them to steal, the trash accumulates out back until trash day comes around. Blessed be the bellboy. I’m afraid to think of all the animals that these bags could attract- flies are the least of my worries.
But, I now have a secret weapon to use against these malignant flies. A small bag of water. That’s it. No chemicals. No insecticides. No potential poisonings. All I have to do is fill a Ziplock bag with water and hang it where the trash bags quickly accumulate.
Apparently, the light that reflects off the surface serves as a great repellent. This may come in handy at your next picnic, barbecue or any other outdoor event. So I thought I’d share.

 

The site opened in March 2006. But on August 3 of that year a big bulldozer from the Civil Administration came and tore up the road and installed seven barriers of large boulders and mounds of dirt. W.........    View all

The driver says that he used to dump waste at the Qibiya site, but stopped "because there they burn [the waste] and you choke. I won't go there because of the smell. Here it's a pleasure. I don't thin.........    View all

 Here is a short summary of some of my findings after 3 weeks working on environmental issues in Yerevan for KASA, a swiss-Armenian NGO.
Many local environmental NGOs want to do awareness .........    View all

When a truck unloads its garbage, it sounds like a battle is going on in the wadi," says Umm-Ahmed
Musalah. And she knows whereof she speaks: Her house is located right at the entrance to a dump i.........    View all

Mr. Davies said the inquiry will examine the roles of the Vancouver Police Department, the B.C. Ambulance Service, the B.C. Coroner's Service, the B.C. Police Complaint Commission and the Crim.........    View all

Who knew the way in which garbage is hauled in a city could be such a hot-button issue?
Recently, the Coon Rapids City Council had considered adopting an organized system that would have picked one.........    View all

My city is tossing around the idea of introducing a one bag of garbage per household bylaw. So, every week on garbage pick-up day, put out one bag. One. Un. I'm a fan of this, naturally. I'm all for recycling, composting, green carting, what have you. So I think it's fantastic that this could happen as early as March 2008.

Lots of people, though, aren't nearly as happy as I. They claim they can't possibly reduce down to one bag per week. I've read letters in the paper where large families - with small children in diapers - try hard to divert their waste, but insist they would not be able to stick to the one bag limit. While I do feel for them, I still maintain that it's a possibility that should be given some thought. We're a family of 4. Each week we put out (maybe) one and a half small grocery sized bags of trash. Some weeks we don't put out any. We don't use a bin or a green/black garbage bin, we have no need for that. So, I'm thinking, even a family of say 6 would probably go about a half a large bag or garbage bin. Family of 8? 10? You get the picture. It's doable.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A stolen painting found in a pile of Manhattan garbage bin sold for $1 million at Sotheby's in New York yesterday, hitting its top estimate with fees and enriching its rightful owners.

Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's ``Tres Personajes,'' an abstract 1970 image of three people, was bought by a U.S. collector bidding on the telephone, Sotheby's said in a statement yesterday. The painting was stolen 20 years ago, then dumped on New York's West 72nd Street in 2003 and was found by Upper West Side resident Elizabeth Gibson, who traced its owner.

Paintings with a story often do better than other works. Christie's International this week sold two Tamayos below their top estimates. A third Tamayo, a picture of a guitarist valued at as much as $3 million, was pulled from the Christie's International sale after a court barred Randolph College from selling it. Christie's hopes to sell it later, said spokesman Toby Usnik.

The sellers of ``Tres Personajes'' were a Houston couple who bought the picture at Sotheby's in 1977 for $50,000. The FBI and Houston police failed to trace it after it disappeared from a storage facility in Texas.

The top price for Tamayo, who died in 1991, was set by his 1955 ``America (Mural),'' which took $2.59 million at Christie's in New York in 1993.

Gibson had a $15,000 reward from the owner and an undisclosed fee from Sotheby's, and is writing a book about her adventure.

 

Have you ever wondered how genuinely good dog coachers come up with the techniques they use to resolve behaviour evils in dogs such as extreme barking, destructive chewing, toileting in the house .........    View all

introSecondary Garbage Bin - for those who do compost
I started composting last year and I wish to compost everything I can from the kitchen. However, I do not want to walk the composter many times a day and decided I needed a second garbage bin to collect green stuff that's ready for composting.

Here are the characteristics I was looking for:
- Small - not only by lack of room but to make sure I'd be forced to take it outside regurlarly.
- Hidden - fits under the counter, close to the "real" garbage bin.
- Portable - can be moved, either to have it the counter when cooking and having lots of veggie skins or other compostable waste, or to go pour it's content in the "real" composter outside.
- Closed - a lid is a must.

I came up with this simple solution, made out of a plastic box and a few other components.

I made that I while ago so do not have pictures for all intermediate steps, but they are very simple.

 

First on the matter of 3R. This is where Malaysians would have the most role to play, yet the hardest to control and enforce from the point of view of the government. We have no lack of media as w.........    View all

A former Toronto police officer was found guilty today of first-degree murder in the February 2002 death of Linda Mariani, his mistress.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Michelle Fuerst said Wills .........    View all

Today I will talk a little about something which me and my family have been trying to do what little part we could in reducing the amount of waste generated per household as well as reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission. CO2 emission is a big, if not the major, contributor to global warming. I am no expert in knowing all the mechanics of global warming as well as solid waste management, but I believe each one of us should at least be aware that whatever seemingly insignificant decisions we make in our daily lives we could potentially make the already bad situation worse.
The government recently announced that the Housing and Local Government will present the Solid Waste Management Bill to Cabinet, which after it gets approved will be tabled in Parliament for passing. According to Ong Ka Ting, one of the focus of the bill will be the practice of 3R - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - which will go into garbage bin reducing the overall amount of solid waste generated by each household in Malaysia. In what way would the bill enforce garbage bin separation, I have no idea as I am not privy to its details (readers who know better please provide us with details). The other focus of the bill seems to be on the creation of a single corporation that will oversee and manage the current solid waste concessionaires, determining KPIs as well as strategies to be followed by them. Local authorities will play the role of watchdog as well as enforce laws governing waste collection and disposal. There will be a consumer tribunal for complaints as well as a "reasonable" charge which Najib says will depends on "what we (the government) think the public can afford to pay".

If you look around your household today, you would be surprised at the number of things which are either made from recycled materials, or are recycleable. The same goes with the usual things we di.........    View all

VANCOUVER -- Nine years ago Frank Paul, 45, an aboriginal man and a chronic alcoholic, died drunk, cold and alone in an Downtown Eastside alley where he had been dumped by the driver of a police wagon.

He died of hypothermia, freezing to death behind a detox centre in soaking wet clothes.

On Tuesday a full scale public inquiry into Mr. Paul's death began after years of lobbying by aboriginal groups and others in the Downtown Eastside.

Headed by former B.C. Supreme Court justice William Davies, the inquiry will examine all of the government agencies responsible for what happened to Mr. Paul the night he died and those who subsequently decided not to hold any sort of inquiry into his death.

The underlying themes will be whether ingrained racism played a role in what happened to Mr. Paul and the right of the police to investigate themselves when someone dies in custody.

Aboriginal observers say the results of the inquiry will have profound implications for aboriginals across the country who they say suffer from racism in their dealing with police and other government agencies.

The Paul family were originally told that Mr. Paul had died as the result of a hit and run.

A phone call from the former counsel to the B.C. Police Complaint Commission, Dana Urban, two years later alerted them to what had actually happened.

Paul's cousin Peggy Clement told the inquiry Ms. Urban said Mr. Paul had been dumped in the alley "like the garbage bin being put out for the night."

When the family recovered his body for burial they also received a black garbage bin bag containing Mr. Paul's clothes.

"And they were still wet," Ms. Clement said, weeping.

As newspapers became better established this pattern of partisanship did not change. When every city had more than one newspaper invariably one would side with one political party and one with the.........    View all

By Jenn | November 1, 2007
In my quest to reduce my plastic-bag use even further, and inspired by Karina’s post on compostable trash bags, I went to buy some compostable bags at the Whole.........    View all

In a highly publicized $100 million lawsuit against her former employers at NewsCorp, Judith Regan has made various seemingly paranoid claims about a conspiracy against her at the publishing giant.........    View all

LYNNWOOD -- Several northbound lanes of Highway 99 near 200th Street were temporarily blocked Monday afternoon when a load of garbage fell into the street.
The people who were riding in the ve.........    View all

Some opponents of the bylaw, while in favour of the reduction of trash worry that people will put their one bag on the curb - and 3 or 4 others in a ditch someplace. I was all "wha'?? People would do that??" Apparently they would. Or, they'd divvy up their trash amongst their neighbours. This I believe, we've had this happen to us before - all of a sudden there are 6 bags of garbage bin on my lawn? Huh? Pisses me off. So there would need to be some policing for sure, I'm really not sure city council has thought this through, but I'm happy there's some buzz about it and some debate happening.

The amount of waste we produce can be reduced. I know a lot of people blame manufacturers for packaging that is wasteful, and I totally get that. But so much of what is sent to landfill has to do with our society's addiction to consumption and overconsumption. Especially at this time of year when we're inundated with ads to buy buy buy! It's all a little sickmaking, and when you multiply our own urge to spend and buy by millions of others? It's almost obscene.

This is why I'm encouraging y'all to participate - or not participate? - in Buy Nothing Day. On Friday, November garbage bin 23rd - the day after US Thanksgiving, and the absolute busiest shopping day of the year in North America - buy nothing. Think you can do it? I'm going to try. If you absolutely have to buy, at least be aware of Buy Nothing Day and be mindful of your purchases. So much of our shopping and buying time is spent zombie-like in malls and shopping centres, so think carefully, know where you're spending your money.

Anyone who decides to take part, please feel free to leave comments as to how you made out!

And yes, I realize I'm talking to maybe two people, but I do like to be optimistic.

The constant obstructions in the Sisdole landfill site have compelled the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to search for alternative places to dump the garbage.

Soon after a row involving a dispute between local people and YCL cadres – which resulted in obstruction in the landfill site for more than ten days during Tihar festival – had resolved, another dispute has emerged leading to non-collection of garbage bin in the capital city since last five days.

"The state does not pay attention, what can a metropolitan alone do?" asked an exasperated KMC chief executive Dinesh Thapaliya. He told Nepal Samacharpatra daily that the KMC was now looking for alternative place to dump the garbage.

The fresh dispute involves local people of Aathmile area who have blocked the route to dumping site demanding teacher recruitment and other helps.

According to KMC environment section chief Rabin Man Shrestha, even garbage heaps nearby the Prime Minister's Office could not be collected. The meeting among government officials and local people ended up inconclusive on Monday. nepalnews.com sd Nov 27 07

A new word has been added to the American English vocabulary. It is Freegan - a play on the word Vegan, meaning vegetarian who avoids animal products, including dairy - and “ free”. It.........    View all

The main goal of every business owner is to have your target clients open your envelopes and read what is inside. It doesn’t pay to have your envelope printing piece stay unopened and get ju.........    View all

For the first time since the start of the debate over Grand Forks' proposed landfill, the city has an all-encompassing plan to deal with its garbage bin and sewage. City Council members tonight will see a set of proposals that include opening a new landfill, finding ways to reduce the city's reliance on that landfill - for example, using cutting-edge technology to all but vaporize waste - shutting down the sewage lagoons near the airport and helping American Crystal in East Grand Forks solve its odor problem. Various elements of the plan have been under discussion for years at the staff and committee level, mostly in the arcane language of engineers. The latest plan weaves those elements together and introduces some new ones. Critics of the landfill efforts have long questioned the city's apparent reluctance to look at other alternatives. City officials have maintained that no technology exist that can eliminate ...

This morning I spotted a woman who was drinking with an old pal of mine: the trash bin. 
Garbage bins are great drinking buddies.  They always take your crap without complaint, and they never suggest that you might have a problem.  They even take the evidence of any such problem out of your hands just as quickly as you can down 500 ml.  Which is quick. 
She is an otherwise normal looking woman who appears to live in this exclusive part of town.  The only item in her hand that's not a homemaking supply is the large sized can of Sapporo.
The legality of drinking in public makes for an interesting dynamic here in Tokyo.  Japan is a country in which alcoholism is every bit a spectator sport.  When we are too embarrassed to drink in front of our family or friends, we drink in front of everyone else instead, alone with the trash.

 

 
In the vacant lot where the first victim was found, yellow police tape sat coiled atop the burned remnants of rubbish. Adjacent to the lot, a building is undergoing renovation, and a massive.........    View all