Ask-Steve.com

More info on telephone directory waste

Lelo in Nopo posted another great comment on my blog, this time on my January 6th entry entitled, Qwest DEX telephone directories: 2,162 pages of waste.

Hey, I just came across this information and thought you'd be interested. It sounds like there's some good effort towards stopping this incredible waste.

Check out the work of the Product Stewardship Institute and the project with King County in Washington:
Product Stewardship Institute > Phone Books

First of all, I have to say that I'm glad my home turf of King County (home to Seattle) is getting some good press. Federal Way, a giant strip mall of a town with a what-were-they-thinking name, situated between Seattle and Tacoma, garnered some rare national attention when a nut-case parent by the name of Frosty Hardison, a father of seven, successfully lobbied the school district to ban the film An Inconvenient Truth. Of course, he had a very sound argument:

"No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation -- the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet -- for global warming," Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is "one of the signs" of Jesus Christ's imminent return for Judgment Day.

(Uh oh, did I digress? Psychopath, delusional fathers of extremely unfortunate (and no doubt equally embarrassed) children will get me going every time... ANYWAY...)

Lelo pointed me to an organization that's doing more than just whine (like yours truly)—they're working "to develop a national solution to the problem of unwanted phone books."

Led by King County (Washington) and the National Waste Prevention Coalition, PSI successfully leveraged funding from over 10 federal, state, and local government agencies and began work on this issue in July 2006... This project is focused primarily on source reduction, and only secondarily on increasing the recycling infrastructure.

The Product Stewardship Institute page on the Phone Book Project has a few links to press coverage—including a video clip about phone book waste from the Far Out Extremist (FOX) right-wing propaganda machine.

Gore Film Sparks Parents' Anger | The Washington Post

Technorati Tags: birth control, evangelical, Federal Way, global warming, media, neoconservatism, overpopulation, politics, religion, science, recycling

Borat star punched repeatedly on New York street

I suppose it was inevitable. When you make a movie (and have a years-long history of making comedy) that is both brilliantly funny and completely offensive, you're going to have the occasional mishap.

From a story on Monsters & Critics entitled, 'Borat whacked, New Yorkers live up to their rep':

The comedian - who created the fake sexist and racist Kazakhstan reporter Borat - approached a man in New York and said: "I like your clothes. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it."

The man didn't find his comments funny and punched Cohen in the face. Cohen cried out for help, but his pleas were ignored and he was repeatedly hit. Hello, he was in New York! Fellow British actor Hugh Laurie finally rushed to Cohen's aid, managing to push the man away and drag the comedian to his feet... Cohen was not seriously injured.

Film bosses are pleading with Cohen, 35, to stop posing as Borat on US streets to avoid further violent attacks.

Other stories in the news tell of Cohen being sued by some of his Borat movie 'co-stars' for the humiliation of looking like idiots in the movie.

Incidentally, I first heard of Cohen—his Ali G character specifically—about six years ago when the CEO of our company walked into the boardroom in Hong Kong delivering his remarks in Ali G speak. I think most everyone in the room thought he was nuts as we'd never heard of Ali G. He gave us each a video tape, telling us that Cohen was a comedic genius that we'd be seeing a lot more of. (Unfortunately I couldn't watch it as it was in PAL format, which won't play in U.S. VCRs). Little did he know that Cohen would go on to make a movie that is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing comedy of all time.

Borat whacked, New Yorkers live up to their rep | Monsters & Critics

Too Much Coffee Man Opera Animation

It's hilarious.

[Psssst! Be sure to read the 'Italian' subtitles.]

View it here:
Too Much Coffee Man Opera Animation

If that link doesn't work, try this one:
http://www.tmcm.com/opera/animation/