Slog - Comments on And Now... Laptops http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops Last week I wrote a few Slog posts about the traffic circle at14th & Howell on Capitol Hill. It had become home to a growing number of computer monitors and I was intrigued. Every time I stopped to take a look someone passing by would ask, "Is this supposed to be art or something?” My post upset some folks, who angrily pointed out that a computer monitor contains certain environmental toxins and if they were left there to rot, well, no one would be able to drink from the stream that runs through the traffic circle at 14th & Howell.... Copyright 2007 Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:46:10 -0800 Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:08:17 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Will in Seattle No, the TV Graveyard in the vacant lot next to the Fremont Library was art.

This was trash.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459487 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459487 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:47:49 -0800 Comment by JMHT Will, this was art.

]]> JMHT http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459517 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459517 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:33:59 -0800 Comment by Christian Out of curiousity, does the city actually recycle any of this stuff? If not, maybe we should be forced to look at it on the corner of every neighborhood until we set up a program to do so.

]]> Christian http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459522 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459522 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:37:02 -0800 Comment by Anonymous Coward That is really fucking creepy.

]]> Anonymous Coward http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459528 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459528 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:47:58 -0800 Comment by MoTown If trash is art, then South Park and Georgetown are now officially the most artsy, yuppie neighborhoods now, right? Right?

]]> MoTown http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459529 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459529 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:49:56 -0800 Comment by Horace BEAUTIFUL

]]> Horace http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459536 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459536 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:57:51 -0800 Comment by Glenn Fleishman I know you're trying to be funny, Dan, but the whole point is that the proliferation of toxins in the environment eventually trickles down everywhere.

It might be interesting if you used this creative energy to also promote how to dispose of lead/toxin-containing stuff safely.

Yes, a monitor sitting on a traffic circle doesn't leach lead or what have you. At that moment. But it gets busted up. The glasses (which is mixed with lead) is broken down. It runs off with the rain. Kills the fish, poisons our children.

When you joke about this stuff, I get all righteous lefty environmentalist about it, because you're giving hipsters a way to be stupid about a public health problem.

]]> Glenn Fleishman http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459547 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459547 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:24:51 -0800 Comment by lance Hey Glenn
I know you and you ARE a hipster. 100%

]]> lance http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459548 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459548 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:26:56 -0800 Comment by Dan Savage Agreed, Glenn. But here's why I think the freaking out about the monitors was a little... misplaced. The monitors were not abandoned in some ravine somewhere, or along some dirt road in a national forest. They were in a traffic circle in the middle of the city, in perhaps the most environmentally conscious corner of the state. The odds that they would sit there until they “busted up” and the glass was all “broken down,” leeching
lead always seemed… unlikely. However long they sat there, they wouldn’t sit there that long. Someone would come along and take them away—the city, say. So the real question wasn’t “what about the salmon and the children?” but “what will the city do with them? or will someone else take them away and dispose of them properly?”

]]> Dan Savage http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459554 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459554 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:55:31 -0800 Comment by seattle98104 while we're on the topic of civic responsibility and environmentalism.

what's up with requiring recycling, but not require apt. managers/owners to provide recycling service?

how do i recycle when i'm a car-less, urbanite in a recycling-less apt. complex?

fucking loopholes.

]]> seattle98104 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459557 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459557 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:01:21 -0800 Comment by Matt What are the odds!?! A message just for Dan.
Suuuuuuuure.

]]> Matt http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459581 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459581 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:51:38 -0800 Comment by nagonnahappen Here is the deal.

Debate about the toxins aside.

The idea that someone will"come along and take them away...from the city" is wrong.

Now if the monitors were a car that someone left parked for 72 hours on Capitol Hill during a parking enforcement binge the city would "come along and take" it away.

Why? Money.

C'mon folks we've all seen it. Couches, baby chairs and all manner of crap all over the right of way. The city won't come along and take it because there is no money to be made.

Its always been a pet peeve that they will tow away an operating working vehicle because its been in the same spot for 72 hours.

On the other hand now I don't drive....

]]> nagonnahappen http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459582 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459582 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:53:03 -0800 Comment by nightlifejitters Dan, looks like your SLOG coverage is encouraging this "vigilarte". The dumping of our tech trash is a big problem in poor corners of the globe:

http://tinyurl.com/lnes5

Seems to me that the makers of these products should take a more active role in the disposal of them. I don't know to what extent they currently partake, but seems like it's not enough. The European Union passed a directive in 2000 that deals with the end-of-life of vehicles, and requires the makers to take part in the recycling/disposal, including sharing costs.

At the very least, I hope all this attention will rally the fine neighbors of this sad little Charlie Brown traffic circle to beautify it a bit? hmmm? perhaps a bit less atomic test zone, and a bit more able to support life as we know it-ish?

]]> nightlifejitters http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459584 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459584 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:56:41 -0800 Comment by Gomez I would've been paranoid that a sniper were waiting for my arrival near the roundabout (or in this ghetto one's case, the driveover).

]]> Gomez http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459604 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459604 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:52:35 -0800 Comment by Gomez Also, Glenn, it begs the question: why didn't someone (like, ahem, YOU) then pick them up and dispose of them if people are so fucking worried about them sitting there?

Ever hear of being proactive instead of bitching?

]]> Gomez http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459606 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459606 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:54:19 -0800 Comment by robotslave Dan, the city won't pick up monitors when we leave them next to our trash cans or dumpsters— hell, the city won't even accept a monitor if you drive it down to the transfer station yourself. So why do you keep assuming the city will pick up monitors left in traffic circles?


If that's an even remotely reasonable assumption, then why shouldn't we all just dump them there, for free, instead of paying $20 a pop to third parties to get rid of the damned things? For that matter, as a journalist, why haven't you called the city to ask them what they do about monitors dumped on city land, and, you know, reported back with what you learned?


Also, dear laptop artist:


The laptop art would have been quite a bit better if the message "DAN THIS IS ART" had been spelled out in some material widely regarded as noisesome waste.


Now, if I had enough dog poop to recreate the message in letters large enough to catch Dan's attention as he rode by...

]]> robotslave http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459622 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459622 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:27:01 -0800 Comment by josh I'm not sure why you think that monitors are less likely to be broken up by passersby in the middle of a city than in a quiet ravine or national forest dirt road. I've seen more than a few smashed monitors and television sitting on the sidewalk. They usually start out fine, and within a day someone has broken them. Even in an environmentally conscious district (that also celebrates litter art), there are a few people who delight in the fun of breaking glass.

]]> josh http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459628 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459628 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:07:47 -0800 Comment by caphill Yes, seriously what is this all about? I'm in the same boat, I want to recycle, and thought it was now law in the city for mandatory recycling. I don't drive and there are no recycling facilities in my vicinity to take my paper, bottles, and cans to. What is this loophole, and can it be closed?

while we're on the topic of civic responsibility and environmentalism.

what's up with requiring recycling, but not require apt. managers/owners to provide recycling service?

how do i recycle when i'm a car-less, urbanite in a recycling-less apt. complex?

fucking loopholes.

My degenerate landlord would rather have a spot to park his car on the off chance he's visiting slum-tenancy #who-knows-which, than have a recycling dumpster.

]]> caphill http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459637 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459637 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:42:49 -0800 Comment by Charles A few people have hit on this point already, but what I found so stupid about dan's antagonistic snark about the monitors is that it implies that "cleaning up" after the kiddies who dump their trash and call it art is someone else's responsibility.

thats the same mentality that lazy sacks of shit use to rationalize pretty much every environmentally irresponsible habit from driving SUVs, not recycling, or whatever.

it easy to be a dick and then rationalize it away by saying that some "Other" responsible party will magically take care of the rest. thats just retarded, and calling someone out on it doesn't make them some hysterical granola freak. its just common sense.

]]> Charles http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459638 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459638 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:45:04 -0800 Comment by Rielle Ohhhhhhhh man. All I can think about now is that Simpsons episode where Homer wins the election to be Sanitation Commissioner. His whole campaign centred on the slogan "can't someone else do it?" The town ends up such a cesspool that they move everything five miles down the road...hilarious.


So there we have it - Plan B.


]]> Rielle http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459644 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c459644 City Fri, 08 Sep 2006 22:33:43 -0800 Comment by Matt from Denver Gomez, your post raises (not begs) the question, are you so civic-minded yourself? Do you pick up litter on your block, even if you didn't pitch it there? Or do you just pass it by?

]]> Matt from Denver http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460003 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460003 City Sat, 09 Sep 2006 09:31:22 -0800 Comment by Upset Seattle People in Seattle love to feel upset and morally superior. Who cares about monitors anyway? Only hair shirt environmental types who feel holier than thou.

]]> Upset Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460108 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460108 City Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:05:25 -0800 Comment by Gomez Well, I'm not the one freaking out about it.

]]> Gomez http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460149 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/09/and_now_laptops#c460149 City Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:08:17 -0800