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From NYTimes.com: Houston Resists Recycling, and Independent Streak Is Cited

Houston recycles just 2.6 percent of its total waste, according to a study this year by Waste News, a trade magazine. By comparison, San Francisco and New York recycle 69 percent and 34 percent of their waste respectively. Moreover, 25,000 Houston residents have been waiting as long as 10 years to get recycling bins from the city.

“We have an independent streak that rebels against mandates or anything that seems trendy or hyped up,” said Mayor Bill White, who favors expanding the city’s recycling efforts. “Houstonians are skeptical of anything that appears to be oversold or exaggerated. But Houstonians can change, and change fast.”

Independent streak.  Good one.  Instead of taking blame and correcting it, the Mayor says it’s an independent streak.

Let’s face it, Houston’s a city that grew with the excesses of the oil and energy industries so it’s not surprising that Houston’s not been accepting of environmentally friendly ideas.  But, come on now, it’s 2008 already!  Just because landfill is cheap doesn’t mean you should still throw everything away.

There’s a story in Soapbox Cincinnati about Fountain Square’s makeover and the resulting impact in the surrounding area.
 
A few years ago, my friend Chris and I were at a happy hour in front of what was then Bella when an out of town police officer visiting Cincinnati for a convention asked us where he could go after the happy hour to grab a drink.  Chris and I looked at each other and  apologetically told the guy that there really weren’t many choices in the downtown area.  The story is so different today.

It is absolutely exciting to see downtown teeming with life.  Now, if more in Cincinnati would realize how much progress has been made.

Kudos go to Bill Donabedian and 3CDC for organizing these activities and bringing life back to the Square.

A few pictures from last Thursday’s Salsa on the Square

I was browsing some blogs for more Comic-Con news when I came across some photos of the Entertainment Weekly/SciFi Channel Comic-Con party.  If he weren’t carrying a sign with his name on it, I wouldn’t have recognized Richard Dean Anderson, Macgyver himself.

He’s been more recently seen on Stargate, but I never watched it or it’s spinoff. 

As a side note, Richard Dean Anderson used to be huge in Taiwan.  Every time you’d go into a TV/Movie poster shop, there’d be a zillion photos or posters of him there.  He and Tommy Page had a huge following.

Full Video of the Battlestar Galactica Panel from Comic-Con

This is what I really would have wanted to see if I had gone to Comic-Con.  Thanks to Scifi.com for putting it online.  It’s the entire one hour Battlestar Galactica Panel with some cast and producers.

I’ve not had any luck in getting MobileMe to push iCal events to my iPhone.  I’ve created events on my desktop and synced them to the MobileMe.  The events will show up on the other computers in my “cloud”, but the events don’t get pushed to the iPhone.  They only show up after I’ve manually synced the phone to my computer.  

Have I found my dream girl? Maybe!

Second grade teacher by day and stripper by night!  And she likes nachos!

Three Battlestar Galactica  political posters by Laurent-LX via IO9.com andGalactica SITREP

Last night was the first annual Cincinnati Bloggers Convention at the Mercantile Library.  I didn’t know any other bloggers personally prior to attending so it was wonderful to put some faces to a lot of the blogs that I read.  Thanks to the the Mercantile Library for putting things together.

Here are a few pictures of the Convention plus a few of the Mercantile Library.  The Mercantile Library has the classic library look, you should check it out if you get the chance.  I’ve embedded these photos in my blog using a site called Pictobrowser that takes Flickr photos and generates code that you insert into a blog.  I’ve been looking for better ways to present a series of photos.

UPDATE: Ride the Ducks Spotted!

From Soapbox Media: Ride the Ducks, Cincinnati ‘a perfect fit’

I’ve seen “Duck” tours in other cities, and I think it’s a fun little tour for those visiting Cincinnati/Newport.  However, any tour that lists the “World Peace Bell” as a “hot spot” on their tour seriously needs to reconsider the path of their tour. 

The “World Peace Bell” is good for a WTF reaction, that’s about it.

From NewportDucks.com:

Experience sightseeing fun from a duck’s eye view on Greater Cincinnati’s only duck tour. Travel on land and water in one amazing vehicle. Tour the streets and SPLASH into the Ohio River. Ride The Ducks is the fun thing to do in Newport.


Ride The Ducks hits all the hot spots within the historic district, such as…

World Peace Bell
Roebling Suspension Bridge
Newport Aquarium
Serpentine Wall
Historic Riverside Drive
Paul Brown Stadium
Great American Ballpark
And much more!

On July 26, 2008, the Cincinnati Reds are offering a 1980’s themed Adam Dunn Bobblehead to the first 30,000 fans.