Wasting garbage Sep 3, 2009
I feel bad about using and wasting the following things that end up in the garbage: 
  1. Paper towels.  They do a great job of drying things up, but sometimes they simply soak up water.  Clean water.  I feel bad using paper towels to dry my hands after washing them because I could just as easily use a washable towel or my pants.  All three objects perform the same function equally well, but only paper towels end up in a landfill.  Thankfully paper towels are biodegradable, so they won't sit around forever.
  2. Plastic bags.  On at least two separate occasions in my lifetime, I threw out a bag full of other plastic bags, simply because I had no use for that many plastic bags and they were taking up space.  This is still something I sort of regret, because plastic bags have a tendency to sit around in landfills for eternity.  And most times, they perform the stupidly simple purpose of transporting objects from one location to another.  You could use a billion other things to perform that function.
  3. Styrofoam cups.  I like me some smoothies, but smoothie-makers feel the need to package their products in landfill-destined polymer cups (which also stay around for eternity) because they keep things cold.  I personally wouldn't mind plastic (recyclable), metal, or even wood containers to transport my blended fruit semi-beverage from the store counter to my mouth.  I'm not that picky.
Wendy's a hippie, and it's rubbing off on me. #science
Speed checked by radar (2) Sep 3, 2009
There are a lot of signs on the road that say "Speed checked by radar".  I understand this.  There's a rule, and in order to enforce the rule, police officers use radar.  But my question is, when is this fact not true?  In other words, are there roads where the speed limit isn't checked by radar?  Or is there some other sort of magical device that's used to measure speed besides a radar gun?  If speed is always checked by radar, there's really no need for the sign any more than there's a need for a sign that says, "Continue moving forward". #travel