Of Garbage and Bets

I had to chuckle when I read this story (the link will probably not work after March 1) about British trash customers being upset about microchips that have been stuck to their wheeled carts. "Wheelies," they call them...the carts. They are calling the chips "bugs."

Apparently Britain has one of the lowest recycling rates in Europe. (SHAME ON THEM!) Chips were stuck to more than 500,000 "wheelie bins" to "monitor collections."

"Germans Plant Bugs in Our Wheelie Bins," was a headline in the Daily Mail in August. (Apparently two of the bin manufacturers are German companies.)

The story tells of "small-scale revolts" erupting across the UK as customers have found the devices and ripped them off the carts.

There's the whole "Big Brother" concern but there's also the idea that the chips could be used to calculate garbage charges. And officials have admitted that is a long-term goal.

The article doesn't say it, but I guess if I were a municipal garbage customer, I'd be wondering about my dollars being wasted on the devices themselves.

This afternoon I watched the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Cute, cute movie! I was never attracted to the title before, and skipped going to see it in the theatre and never really have felt much like renting it. But it was on AMC yesterday afternoon so I recorded it.

And a good soundtrack. I'm listening to Chantal Kreviazuk on Napster right now. She had two songs in the movie, "Feels Like Home" and "Weight of the World," both enjoyable songs. I'd never heard of her before, but I think I'll put her in my playlist for a while...she's good for cooking to, I think. I'm not finding "Feels Like Home" on Napster, though.

And speaking of cooking...this afternoon I've been roasting a duck. I used to make a duck recipe of Alton Brown's that involved steaming the pieces and then roasting at a high temp in a cast iron skillet in the oven. The kids raved about it. This time I really didn't feel much like going to all that, so looked in my "Joy of Cooking" book and found recipe for slow-roasting. 3 hours at 250 and then another 45 minutes or so at 325. It's just about done and I think it's going to be great. No flame-ups, either. Pricking the skin all over and roasting it low and slow has done the trick.

It's been a good afternoon for roasting something and vegging in front of the TV. Dark and rainy all day.