Tennessee has it all figured out.

Or at least that’s the implication; they must have it all figured out, otherwise why would they waste their time on this crap?

That’s right, the Tennessee Senate is working on making sure that their kids don’t experiment with dangerous gateway activities like hand-holding, heavy petting and kissing, because intimacy kills. Or something.

Let’s just ignore the fact that abstinence-only education doesn’t work, that it’s inherently discriminatory towards LGBT kids, and that it’s mired in sexism, because maybe this will be the bill which actually makes kids in TN realise that doing teh sexytime without a ring on your finger will straight up murder you.

And, hey, who knows? Maybe this will work, against all expectations in the reality-based community, and Tennesseans will breed themselves out of existence. Or not breed, in this case.

Strange Alternative Power Source: Expired Medications | snarfd

Imagine this sticker above your light switch: Powered by Prozac.

No, it’s not likely that your local power plant will be swapping coal for old Celebrex tablets anytime soon. But a little free energy is the happy byproduct of drug disposal by Milwaukee-based Capital Returns, a company that specializes in the management of old pharmaceutical stocks.

Drugs have shelf life, beyond which they cannot be sold. But old medications are more difficult to get rid of than you might think. Drugs which get sent to landfills will eventually leech their way into the groundwater. Flushing old stock — the method generally recommended to consumers — puts chemicals into our watershed even faster.

Drug-Filled Rivers

And that’s a problem. Ignored for years, pharmaceutical water pollution is finally getting the attention of U.S. and European scientists as unexpectedly high levels of antibiotics, heart medication, anticonvulsive drugs, and a host of other powerful medications are turning up in rivers and groundwater. Perhaps the most disturbing pollutants are endocrine disruptors: human estrogen from birth-control pills and the vast effluence of animal hormones produced by commercial livestock production.

The effects of these substances on wildlife — and the human food chain — are just now being studied. But they’re likely to reveal bewildering mutations similar to the dual-sexed smallmouth bass turning up in the Potomac River north of Washington, DC.

Most pharmaceutical pollution makes its way to our watershed through the release of treated sewage. But controlled industrial incineration prevents old drug stocks from adding to the problem, and is being harnessed by Capital Returns to produce surplus power.

Prescription for Free Power

Every day, the company receives millions of expired pharmaceuticals from drug manufacturers, cataloging their receipt and routing them for hazardous disposal or to Covanta Energy, a company which specializes in converting waste into energy. Covanta currently operates thirty facilities in the United States, offering communities an alternative to landfill dumping in the disposal of such things as municipal solid waste and household trash. Their incinerators exceed EPA regulations for air purity.

And now, expired drugs. Capital Returns disposed of over 6.5 million pounds of pills in 2006 — producing enough energy to power about 220 homes for a year. That’s tons of coal or natural gas saved and fewer pollutants making their way into the water table.

Next Stop: Your Corner Drug Store

Capital Returns says it handles about a quarter of the industry’s disposal needs. But they don’t address expired drugs already in the hands of consumers. Washington State is among the first to set up pilot programs to test the viability of public drop-off centers. Emma Johnson, who works for the state’s Department of Ecology, says a five county area has been experimenting with pharmacy-based drug collection centers since last October. If successful, the effort will be expanded statewide.

Converting drugs to power is, admittedly, a footnote to emerging story of 21st century alternative power solutions. But it illustrates the larger strategy of closing the loop on consumer goods, keeping dangerous wastes out of the environment while converting them into something useful.

Via Snarf’d

You know how sometimes you come across a news story that just makes you sit up in delight? This one did it for me.

The growing levels of pharmaceutical pollution in groundwater have been a concern for a long time; a lot of people believe that falling levels of male fertility in the West are connected to rising levels of female hormones in the water table, and that it is linked to use of the Pill. I’m not so sure on that last one, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if there were a link to pharmaceutical pollution; that’s not figuring in the extra hormones used in meat farming, either, which is something else which needs to be sorted out.

Either way, though, this is a great story: recycling, energy from waste and less polution are all winners in my book!

McDonald’s Sued Over Woman’s Naked Buns – TMZ.com

McDonald’s is known for its cheap meat — but after a bad trip to the burger joint, one guy’s wife allegedly became cheap meat.

McD’s just got served by a guy who allegedly left his cell phone — which contained nude photos of his wife — at the Arkansas restaurant, only to find the nude pics posted online.

Phillip Sherman was assured by employees they’d keep the phone safe, yet the photos — along with Sherman’s phone number and address — somehow found their way onto the Internet.

The couple claims they had to move to a new house to get away from his wife’s new stalkers. Sherman wants 3 mil for their troubles.

via McDonald’s Sued Over Woman’s Naked Buns – TMZ.com

Hehehehe… I know I should be sympathetic towards the woman, and I am, but I can’t help laughing just a little bit at her husband’s stupidity.

You can bet your arse that if I were to have nudie pics of my wife, they wouldn’t be accompanying me on a visit to a fast food joint, and they certainly wouldn’t be on something that I could accidentally leave lying around.

Noisy sex gets man banned from home

A British man has been banned from visiting his girlfriend’s home after neighbors complained about noisy sex, a local official said Thursday.

A court barred Adam Hinton, 32, from being within 110 yards of the apartment of his 29-year-old girlfriend, Kerry Norris, Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman Mike Taggart said.

Residents of Norris’ publicly owned home had been complaining since 2006 about thumping music, banging headboards and screamed obscenities, Taggart said.

MSNBC News

HT to Lottie.

Wow. Sounds like they were really having a good time…

Frige’s-Day Round Up

After Dunar’s recent unreasonable behaviour, which included throwing lightning bolts around like a mad bastard, this week’s round up is dedicated to the goddess Frige, who is much more reasonable and sweet-tempered than Dunar.

Lottie has a question or two about Clinton supporters who’ve said they’ll vote for McCain… The general idea is “What the hell are you thinking?!”, and it’s one that I can get behind; McCain promises to be not more of the same, but more and worse. Thought the Iraq war was bad now? Wait till your great grandkids have to go and fight under the McCain plan!

Kalliope over at Missing Mojo has a deconstruction of the flak being thrown around over the Sex and the City movie. It’s pretty clever and insightful.

Gary takes celebrities who whine about privacy to task, especially those who do so in public interviews. If you want to be private, try going away and leading a private life! He also adds the most recent update for Idiosyncratica.

MichelleObamaWatch.com is keeping an eye on the media for the inevitable racism and misogyny directed towards Michelle Obama that will follow Barack Obama’s (presumptive) nomination (via Ms Andrist).

This discussion on feminist sex at Feministe has turned pretty interesting; while it was initially of mild interest, the comments have made it worth a read.

And finally, congratulations to Anxious Mofo, who’s been linked to by Conservapedia. I’m sure he’s honoured and inspired by their linkage; he shows his appreciation by deconstructing their feeble article on Atheism. Well worth a read.

Dunar’s Day Round-Up

I’ve decided to start using old-style Saxon god names for the days of the week now; Monday would be Mani‘s Day, Tuesday will become Tiw’s Day, Wednesday is Wodin’s day as we know, Dunar’s Day will stand in for Thursday, and Friday will be Frige‘s Day. Saturday will change to Sun’s Eve, and Sunday stays the same.

Well, I say I’ve decided. What I actually meant was that I won’t do that, I just wanted to have a rationale for using Dunar’s Day in the title.

Anyway, handpicked by the gods of my ancestors, here are your selected links.

Lottie has an excellent post over at Rambling On about online romantic involvements. As you may know, this is something which has particular relevance to us. It’s called Getting to Know You (if you’re like me, you’ll soon start humming bits of The King and I), and she starts with the biggest question that couples who have met online usually face: How can you fall in love with someone you don’t even know?

Gary has a post highlighting the ridiculous, moronic behaviour some right-wing Christians recently embarrassed themselves with. The object of their misguided idiocy? Petrol.

Caitlin May has a post positing the Wizard of Oz as an Atheist film, which is certainly an interesting and overlooked perspective.

PZ spears Michael Medved for a ludicrous jamming together of pseudoscience and right-wing politics. Eugh. It’s one step away from advocating forced eugenics…

Mother Jones has Alyssa Quart analysing the new trend for fertility movies coming out of Hollywood. I have to say I don’t 100% agree with every syllable, mainly because I liked Juno rather a lot. Other than that, good article.(HT – Feministing)

And finally, in some good news, the California Supreme Court has ruled that the State’s Constitution requires equal treatment for homosexual couples in regards to marriage laws. Well done, California (HT – Alas, A Blog).

Edit to fix link.

Wednesday Round-Up of Interestingness

From around teh webz, I have some interestingness to showcase. The choice of day is entirely arbitary, like that for most round-ups.

Good news for lonely Texans…

… as a Federal appeals court has overturned the State’s ban on sex toys (HT to Feministing). As I understand it, lonely and frustrated Texans were required to pretend that they were buying massagers or buying said toys for “educational” purposes. How exactly one would teach anything except masturbation using a vibrator, I have no idea — unless it were used for positive reinforcement purposes, perhaps.