Broken Record

"The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes."


I know I sound like a broken record to most when I post misleading quotes and headlines and then complain about them, and maybe nobody who reads my blog cares, but I have to vent sometimes.  The headline: "Economy grows at best pace in 2 years" but nobody should be patting themselves on the back that the recession has ended just because the government is paying people to buy things and that resulted in a modest growth!  Why not hand everybody $10k and announce that we as a country all got magically richer?  The new home credit is over and the CARS program ended a month ago so will the recession still be over once all these programs stop paying?  Is everyone getting hired over Christmas to their new permanent lifetime job that will also provide a fully funded magical pension?  Yes, all that, and world peace coming right up!

Technology FAIL... turns into government FAIL!

I knew everyone was anxiously awaiting an update on the advancement of trashcans, so I was going to offer the picture below as an update of my earlier post.  It tells a lot.

I didn't feel the need to state that I walked by the solar trash can every day for months and had one recurring observation, that it was always full, with a blinking red light, and wouldn't take any more garbage.  I thought the trash can dropped off next to it last week was a sign that someone had come to their senses.  That was it, until I read this:

PASADENA - (10/6/09) The city will soon be installing 40 solar-powered trash compactors on city streets.The compactors use power smash down garbage making city staff able to come empty them less frequently.
Staff estimates that garbage men will now only have to empty those trash cans once a week instead of five times a week.
That will save the city an estimated $61,400 in fuel and maintenance costs, and should reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions since garbage trucks will go out less frequently.
The city has already installed the solar trash cans in six spots as part of a pilot project.

Now how exactly did the city not see in this pilot program that was so painfully obvious to me?  Oh yeah, it's the government.  Sorry, forget I said anything.