Swcamborne said: “The bags that consumers use represent less than 10% of the total packaging that end up in landfills. ”
T replied:  “Plastic bags make up 25% of the litter stream in the City of Pasadena!”

bag of trash more than 5 pounds

T took issue with my opposition to regulating plastic bags in Pasadena.  In my reply I focused on a clearly factual error he made either deliberately, because he was misinformed or by deviously conflating “landfill” and “litter stream.”  I assume it was said to heighten the sense of urgency since the rest of the reply is about the horror of a future with plastic.

Ralph’s Grocery bag 1/8 oz

There in no way that plastic bags are 25% of the waste stream

and it is a checkable fact.

Trash can liner bag 5/8 oz

Do the math:

• Plastic grocery bags weigh an 1/8 of an ounce.  (bags in trash are mostly these or smaller)
• Plastic trash bags weigh just over a half of an ounce.  (This hold the trash)
• Lets estimate that on the high end plastic bags average weight is 1/4 ounce.
• so there are 4 bags in an ounce
• 16 ounces in a pound=64 bags in a pound
• round down to 5o (margin for error)
• a five pound bag of trash x 25% = 1.25 pounds of bags
• 50bags/pound x 1.25 pounds=62 bags
• which means more than 60 plastic bags would have to be in a small bag of trash to meet “T’s” assertion.
• Conclusion “use common sense to test facts before passing them along”

BTW I read somewhere that the people who would benefit most from a plastic bag ban would be the pulp and paper industry.  Makes sense to me.  You are fighting a commercial battle with the passion of a true believer.

Other Nanny News on SwCamborne

A beautiful garden is an evolving work of art.

This season the fountain pond is filled with flowering Water Hyacinths.

“All the problems we face today are
there because the people who work
for a living are outnumbered by those
who vote for a living.”

Anonymous

I’m posting this not because I think it is true but because I know people who think it is true and I know people who think it is false.  I think it has a hint of truth but it is in fact mostly false.  I’d reword it to say:

“Some of the problems we face today are

there because the people who work

for a living are at the same time

trying to vote themselves a deal.”

Follow this link to an amazing display showing  of quality of digital imagery today.

GigaPixel

It is both scary and optimistic.  As with most new technology it has applications for good and for bad.

“I believe in a balanced budget”

John F Kennedy

During the first Nixon-Kennedy Debate 1960

Often called “The Nazi Olympics” had their opening ceremonies 75 years ago today.  The most told story about these games was how Jesse Owens victories mocked the Nazis and their idea of racial superiority.  A little told story is of US culpability and enabling of the Nazis growing antisemitism.  The US 4 by 100 relay team included two Jewish Americans.  At the last moment they were removed from the team to keep the Nazis from having to recognize Jews on the victory pedestal.  You can read the entire story here at the Holocaust Memorial Museum site.

I heard the story on NPR this morning.  This is the germane quote: “Worse, near the end of the track competition, two Jewish-American sprinters, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, were kept out of the relay finals by our own team’s decision, so that our anti-Semitic hosts would not be upset.”

A new photo of the tadpoles in the pond shows a dramatic growth in their size and an equal and opposite decrease in their numbers.

July 24, 2011

July 20, 2011

To be fair some of the number decrease might be the result of dispersion.  You can use the jar impression to judge the growth of the Tadpoles.

Semantic aside:  Tadpoles and Polliwogs are two names for the frog phase between spawn and frog.  Tadpole is more commonly used in the USA and polliwog is more common in the UK.  The Spanish word in Mexico is renacuajo.

“A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.”

Henri Frederic Amiel

Swiss Philosopher 1821 – 1881

Simon’s Garden 2011

When President Obama said during the debt limit negotiations recently that it was time to “Eat Your Peas.”  I thought “there is a good idea for a website.”  This morning when I started to research it for this post I found that not only does the site exist but Eat Your Peas is a book series like Chicken Soup for the Soul. Inspiration and encouragement.  I sometimes like the genre and sometimes I find it too smarmy.

So EatYourPeas.com was another good idea a little to late.

Actually my idea was to gently mock the President for suggesting “Eat Your Peas” after raising federal spending 30% in two years.  It really is too bad the stimulus didn’t work.  What do we try next?  Maybe Chicken and Pea Soup or Pea Soup for the Soul? I did a search, so you don’t have to, and  it turns out Pea Soup for the Cynics Soul already exists and is quite wonderful if you are a cynic or want to become one.

Life is Good.  Odd but Good.

During my “hippie carpenter” days I drove a shingled Ford Econoline van with an impeach Nixon bumper sticker.

Then I moved to California.

Life is Good!