Slashdot Mirror

Uber drivers are licensed where I live. It's a cheap license, but it's a license. They are also required to remit 2% gross receipts and to carry commercial vehicle insurance. They can only legally be hailed via the app, and not in person or at a depot.

Houston, Texas -- vehicle for hire FAQs

Chopping up all the plastics and suspending them in water, oil, etc fluids is how some places separate them. It's a kind of "distillation" I suppose.

Also, eddy currents can be induced in aluminum, tin, etc. other metals to sort them by tossing them around.

Crushed glass can be sorted by optical systems which let pieces fall and puff jets of air at certain pieces.

In Houston (and lots of other places) we don't have to sort our recyclables. Soon we may not even have to separate the recycling from the trash:

One Bin For All (OBFA) is the next evolution of recycling. It will allow
Houston residents to place all trash, recyclables, and compostables
in one bin, providing for a much higher rate of resource recovery.

Since the two polymers "come from the same reaction" I'm guessing there's a way to separate them...

http://www.houstontx.gov/health/NewsReleases/heatplan.html

Second bullet point from the bottom.

If more companies in a set area went to a flexible schedule, I wonder how much that would fix traffic jams

The City of Houston thinks it will help alleviate traffic problems. It's actually city policy to encourage flex time for this reason, and this policy has specifically caused one of the (very large) aerospace contractors I work with to implement a generous flex time policy.

http://www.houstontx.gov/flexworks/flexinthecity/i ndex.html

Feel free to email the mayor directly, possibly you would like to organise a date for the salshdot team to come and install cameras in his house. mailto:mayor@cityofhouston.net?Subject=Message-to- Mayor Here's a great link to the hiring of the soon to be ex police chief Harold L Hurtt http://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/20040227.html Cheers, Dean

Once White was elected, with Hurtt's help he set about reducing police and employee pensions and making employees pay more for their health and pension plans. Consequently experienced officers found that they would actually lose money if they remained on the police force. It was better to retire ASAP.

So police officers quit in droves - literally hundreds have left during White's term as mayor (I believe the figure is currently about 800-900 officers gone). Since the total force is about 4000, this is a significant loss of manpower. And since the most experienced officers left, it is even a harder blow on criminal enforcement.

Simultaneously the Mayor and Chief Hurtt saw no reason to plan for any new police classes (after all there were plenty of cops, right?).

Fast-forward as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit and about 150,000 people move to Houston. Some are criminals, so the police get busier. But there are fewer cops. Guess what, response times go down and police workloads are up.

Mayor White undoubtedly saw this opportunity to balance Houston's city budget by asking for federal assistance for housing, police and everything else he could think of that was related to Katrina, Rita and the consequent influx of people. Houston is now sucking at the teat of your government, drinking your federal tax dollars.

When Police Chief Hurtt was hired, he lived with his family in a very ritzy downtown (I believe the Sheraton Hotel) at a special rate (IIRC it was $1/day). Now this is one, if not the best hotel in Houston. It is such a nice hotel that months later newspaper reporters were asking why Hurtt hadn't moved out. IIRC he said that he hadn't found a home yet. A very busy man, indeed. AFAIK he still is living there. Along with some New Orleans people perhaps? And all on your tax dollars!-)

Say "Cheese", Harry.

Maybe we all ought to file complaints against him. After all, his statements are so dangerous and totalitarian that I'd say it's subversive and borderline treason!