Any UChicago student has certainly seen, and probably used, one of the many recycling bins on campus. As any Maclab tutor could tell you, the Maclab recycling bins are emptied into the same container with all the other trash. Just from that observation, I think it would be fair to assume that the rest of the Reg’s recycling containers are treated the same way, but surely other buildings recycle, right? Apparently not so… Apparently the bins in the Reynolds Club are treated the same way. We only have paper bins (ignore the sticker that says aluminum cans only), but the Reynolds Club has full on different bins for different types of recyclables. I think it is safe to assume that the same is true for the rest of campus. I realize that recycling in Chicago sucks, but surely the university could find some way of recycling. I think this whole mess is really offensive on so many different levels, besides the fact UChicago is not recycling. Is this thing some sort of ruse on someone’s part so that students and staff can feel better about the university and feel good for thinking we are recycling. I go out of my way to recycle when I can, dammit. The university could at least show the same respect for its community.

Update: Apparently, trash is sorted after the fact, so it doesn’t really matter, but it is still less than forthright to put up recycling bins if they are just combined anyway.

I was in MrKay’s today, the used bookstore where I have purchased so many of the DVDs I own (I am back in Oak Ridge until the weekend). Anyway, I overheard a pretty awesome conversation between two high school-aged girls, who were looking at some CDs. I should note that my taste in music differs greatly from the average high school-aged girl, so please forgive anything I miss. Also, this whole thing is heavily paraphrased, but nothing important is taken away.

• Girl 1: Looking at some CD. God! Maria Carry is so dumb! Look at her album, she put “E=MC²” on it. I start listening closer. I bet she doesn’t even know what that means!
• They blabber for a bit. I assure you it wasn’t worthwhile.
• Girl 2: Yeah, it’s like Maria Carry times two or something!

Her Friend corrected her, but the damage had been done. I headed over to the cash register pretty quick, so I wouldn’t laugh at them. I should really get better at storytelling….

It’s true! Borja wrote up a summary of the GSoC lightening talk event, including pictures. If you don’t know what I look like, I am in both the GSoC student one and the ACM officer one. I really wish I got a haircut before this thing….

Borja linked to our website, which hopefully won’t get too much traffic. It is currently at 359 days of uptime, and I have shooting for a year of uptime before upgrading to the latest and greatest version of OpenBSD.