Wednesday 2 March 2011

Karzi kharma

Plan B
San Francisco, the distilled centre of the left-wing universe, prides itself for forcing low-flow toilets on its population in a valiant effort to Save the Planettm.  At least, it used to pride itself.  Now there's some rethinking after discovering that there wasn't enough water going through the drains to flush the poo away, so the city is now suffering from a stench not seen since a hot summer day in London circa 1835.  As a result, they're spending $14 million to flush eight and a half million gallons of bleach down the drains to clean them out.

That's what they call progress in California; a lockstep march into the past.

Update: Not to be outdone, Seattle, having solved all its other problems, makes its abeyance to Blessed Gaia by declaring that takeaway restaurant ware must be "compostable".  That's Greenspeak for "unusable" as in your soup spoon melts.

Oh, and they're made from guess what?  That's right; food.

1 comment:

Sergej said...

Ad linked says the spoons can be washed a few times before even the hippies will notice that they've got holes in them. Sounds like they should be fine for one use, provided they're stored in a dry place, away from gnawing critters. But you Seattle types like paying $8 extra to show off your greennnitude, right? (Else, why would you do it?)

It does seem that the theme this week is reverting to a time before petrochemicals. Problem is, petroleum appears to have a very convenient chemical structure, and replacing it as a raw material would require several inventions and a lot of cleverness. Well, I sometimes like to pretend I'm back in the 80s and write a program in straight K&R C, that will run on a printing terminal. These kinds of ideas are fine when one has a lot of security and wants to play with toys; in the real world, I expect this nonsense will be outcompeted by ideas that are less (what's the proper PC word?) differently-smart. And then I'll rent the biggest gas guzzler I can find, put on a fur hat and coat, and take a drive through town. It will be like one of those photo safaris in a game park, where you have to roll up the windows so the monkeys don't fling something appalling into your car.