Trash receptacles such as this are very common in Paris. The words on the bag translate as Vigilance and Cleanliness. The bag is transparent so anything discarded is still visible. London, presumably because they have more recently experienced terrorist bombings, has no (or almost no) rubbish containers.

Paris uses painted metal barricades…

…while London uses these open-structured plastic segments to block off areas for construction. Other than path dependence (that’s just how they’ve always done it), why?

I’ve used this image before to talk about Unconsumption. This semi-space between the formerly binary states of garbage and non-garbage is an interesting cultural innovation. And now it’s been formalized as a movement called replate – a way to prevent unwanted leftovers from going to waste by placing them on top of a trash can.

Very cool.

Last night was San Francisco’s Pecha Kucha night. I showed 20 slides, at 20 seconds per slide, on Unconsumption.

The slides are below.

And this widget will play the audio.

There were some problems with the projection at the beginning so it’s not immediately obvious where we go from slide 1 to slide 2, but hopefully by slide 3 you’ll have figured it and can follow along.

And for better visual quality, I’ve put the slides up on flickr..

Update: the slides are also on the Pecha Kucha site

I got a 500 Internal Server Error on YouTube yesterday.

It began with the usual Web 2.0 PoMo post-ironic stuff.

Sorry, something went wrong.

A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.

And then what seemed to be a more serious request, complete with link

In any case, please report this incident to customer service.
Also, please include the following information in your error report:

Hmm. What do information do they want me to include?

M566Wv3PR4EcMR9a9eLGms9NQ5r30bYV6nz4j1rH-tDhYTLe_9h9DFPn-vhd
lNcw6XXxPnluW1Z3FeEjkpsEA8W9ue26uIor-q-6AJUiwkIM9X2Gpab0DatV
4qWI7wZtchM43GxVKTr4Q9oI0nd4yQzF1nPCdOKM2NrFqU2CdcQlXBII-_KZ
g5r2azifjOkEFkGS0csq1oAPl5g-v6a2yPRbT_y9BQH5bqbX7BJzc0o-mi-U
16KJSKqG-jgwfmGw3RsiMRoXM0Rmy2dz1WZLe_0UEdHtnLTptHYTI73d-9QH
BvpeXk3I5-E9QEawtA8vwR4RqWlRXc2Nl4fcuhN7nCzYn5Y3HbQ3X4ZDw3sM
xVEFjG9VR8xQk8gB4Q2CB1AHoIqaJJdp0gw1aYJTjsTgxgw9aKmfpX3ss9AE
b3z64NhBRk2O05TIeouQCcn34A1mxmRREelaQ7BudB01cQJywCpJrbkaX-bD
JOm9LI3IgUb5ZCI_PRNRkg13QALYFB9KEG0VA5WpQ-niXyV7klPZRL43vN10
PSD2kIPV_R8-qiVoZ3pBPQjb7ZyK2_eKSBfAA-2tKZ4BSfsi_MowjTjiA4Xq
56JSDndugp8A5qh57SqOlV688psc4iBYOq8gl3iSb-Hr0H41qTJUZFTD7rV5
3kPt4j1eI0Kmz0_9pib24oc6HmaEDOUxn4g_EgWttTjf9ptZAQeVFf_sIkeS
BIejqre1qaeLU9eeeZq9RICz8s4TSs3b1ZDwQ8VDeygg49jZHQK0ZdbshskV
KsCt5y-hJWw1W3C2lPBAP8aXa8BrwOqpUQuEV9GV0fb8vSXP1cuXri2VBuIR
tOA0Y-1yopGUJdYRgqIP732KjS2GzFzzBdffsSHnFYiLth11eg50kWDi-Sq-
UlyweOpjuO4IN257qYIM71VKssHLb9VNOlppuOk_ofs6VDjD0co_KcUNynS0
1nks896khINVIgI_9q353HqnlmP6UGd9viO8zjoGRruoMV_Avh3VXP_9U8Y8
s__8G46NM4Khl0W2d7I5_FYMdWjH11c36mtjbygu9M9yvXdr6rJsh-lg-aqK
w1SyOwo6VY47TS815MsP00ZtRAVxwzt2-XeFOxYHJaOA3kESIqly927Yvhcx
iiDdAAwPpS5qFJnwoNO6YXxWlpbeavzTHypL_i_vmhUP4rCrk24l4yO41LVR
kVWNYq29hvKfRQXv0TvmJetYC31dIdyl-uUiV1YE__4wYPU_9y7zjxoL_w2H
sKlc7AlSvfs0eVuxEhEtbdGF7ojesWRqrdFeZanR0YexPZKRXN_u_R4r2PTK
7ZWdpOZT2XUtyi8ETeTB1q9gksq9qv9itOpN2LXX54UMKCwiFm2zI1LUydO3
OWx_zjYun946H69BO9s1pYnIqkwLwHyE1OgDFkP8OKIN85pw6w==

Now, are they being smartass or serious? Yeah, cut and paste is cut and paste whether it’s two lines or two paragraphs, but that mass of computer gibberish is something they want me to use to communicate to a human? Strange and off-putting. Let’s put some of that Google money to work on that, folks…

Here’s what I’ve seen outside an Au Bon Pain store in Manhattan on two separate nights – a huge amount of food being discarded. Easily noticeable is dozens of bagels; no doubt other stuff as well.

Does Manhattan no longer have a hunger or homeless problem? Where is the food rescue organizations to pick this up and deliver it to someone who can use it? I’m not picking on Au Bon Pain specifically, it’s just what I’ve seen casually walking about. No doubt the problem/opportunity is more widespread than simply one store that I observed personally.

I ate dinner in Chinatown last night (despite picking a Chowhound etc. fave, I wasn’t that impressed, I’ve had better in SF and environs easily), and had quite a bit left over. I took it to go, even though being in a hotel there was no way to eat it. But the homeless dude I saw on the way in had packed up, and I couldn’t find anyone in Midtown either. But there are these buildings with atrium (atria? I dunno – they each only have one) that are designated public space (is this a tax thing or what?) and open til 10pm. I walked by one and there were many people playing chess. It wasn’t clear to me if these people had homes or money or were just chess enthusiasts, or if it was a mixture. I saw a lot of backpacks that seemed fairly full. I walked in nonchalantly past the security guard, and just left my food on an empty table. It’ll probably get thrown out, but if those people are in need, maybe someone will take it.

And just for some extra context – I don’t give money to people on the street. Ever. I rarely look or acknowledge, etc. I’m not boasting about what I did yesterday, or defending what I do normally, it’s just who I am and how I’ve chosen for now to handle these things.

What does motivate me more than any sense of “charity” or “giving” as an abhorrence of waste. My leftovers and the Au Bon Pain bounty are waste that could be leveraged. That appeals to something in me. One thing I’ve done is start a local freecycle group that allows people to exchange unwanted goods instead of tossing ’em out.