ponderings

A few years ago, armed with a newfound interest in pursuing a career in Urban Planning, I subscribed to a newsletter from Planetizen - and it continues to be the only e-newsletter that I actually open and read... and I love it. The rest of them go in the trash. Anyways, there were several stories that I opened from last week's e-pub including "Friday Funny: Google Maps for Stinkiness" - there is a site in Japan that geomaps smells: "watermelon smells, ferret odor, old lady stench, gasoline fumes, and curry." Old lady stench? Really?

Another story that caught my attention reminded me of the garbage chute in our building in Yaroslavl - but in a much more progressive and friendly way. (I think.) New buildings in what sounds like a small area of London have been equipped with mixed-use suckers: garbage, recycling and compostable materials all have their separate boxes, and share one sucker tube. (Sounds.... gross.) Anyways... the new system is in full operation as of today, and will eliminate garbage trucks and bins in the area - fantastic. These are my questions: who regulates what is put in each of the chutes? In many places people don't actually care if a little bit (or a lot bit) of oozy garbage gets mixed in with plastics and paper, or if recyclables get recycled at all! (Constanta, Romania.) Next query: Who cleans out the jammed chutes? The Russian garbage chute was always, er, backed up... and I can't really say who was the one to ha! clean the pipes. I like the idea of underground garbage, recycling and composting chutes, but wonder if there is someone on hand to monitor the health and... regularity of the system.

Finally, a story about a report that claims that Wal-Mart has no negative effects on the small business sector also caught my eye, only because some huge numbers had jumped off the page of my Dwell magazine (from October - just reading it now, oops), highlighting the megalithic nature of the biggest-box machine. Some numbers:

2007 revenues for Wal-Mart - $379 billion
2007 GDP for Sweden: $384.1 billion

Number of people in the U.S. who attend religious services every week: 55 million
Number of people in the U.S. who shop at Wal-Mart every week: 136 million

Number of colleges and universities in the U.S.: 4,140
Number of Wal-Mart-owned stores: 4,191

Percentage of eligible Americans who voted in the last presidential election: 60%
Percentage of Americans who will go to a Wal-Mart this year: 90%

So, Wal-Mart rules the roost, no? Save and buy chez nous - so what's this about Wal-Mart not affecting the small business sector? Maybe this is wrong of me, but I couldn't read past the first page of the report. Numbers, statistics, analyses - these things can be bent and twisted, placed in different lights, backdrops, perspectives, with some things in(cluded) and other things out (excluded), but, um, excuse me, what about common sense? Really? I mean, I'm aware that many people lack this attribute but... Anyways, whatever. I can't say that I've never shopped at Wal-Mart so I'll just can it. Lesson: let's try as best we can to be responsible, conscious consumers, because there's no escaping consumerism, even when it comes to beards.

How fabulous is this - handmade beards: Made by and Erin Dollar and available at Etsy.com:
"Buy, Sell and Live Handmade"