4,935 Forum Posts by "Freakapotimus"
Yippee! The ever-popular "News Story of the Day" has started again in the Political BBS! Go there now!
Friday February 23 10:26 AM EST
Maine Proposes Cigarette Butt Redemptions
By Amanda Onion ABCNEWS.com
If a legislator's proposal in Maine is successful, the stubby ends of smoked cigarettes could be redeemed for a nickel apiece.
If a Maine legislator has his way, soon the stubby ends of smoked cigarettes that litter roadsides, beaches and lawns could be worth a nickel each.
Under a proposed law, thought to be the first of its kind, all cigarettes sold in Maine would be labeled with 5-cent deposit notices. After paying an additional $1 per pack, smokers could then turn in their used butts to redeem the deposits.
The bill is modeled on bottle and can deposit laws. Supporters of the idea, including Maine inkeepers and some environmentalists, claim it can reduce the amount of ugly stubs littering a state heavily dependent on its stunning landscapes for tourism.
"There are still a lot of people who still think it's a silly idea," says Maine Rep. Scott Cowger, co-sponsor of the bill, "but I think it could work and reduce waste."
The main sponsor of the bill, Rep. Joseph Brooks, D-Winterport, doesn't believe everyone will turn in their butts for nickels. But, he has argued, unredeemed deposits could bankroll an estimated $40 million to $50 million dollars each year for the state. That money could then be used to fund anti-smoking education programs in Maine schools.
Cowger also supposes the program could bolster the struggling industry of bottle redemption centers in the state, since the centers could begin adding butts to their accepted redemptions. He even imagines high school teams and bands raising funds not only by collecting bottles but also by doing "butt drives."
Redeemable McDonald's Wrappers?
But while many Mainers take pride in the fact that their state was among the first to adopt bottle and can redemption laws, the idea of redeeming stinking cigarette butts for change hasn't yet found much support.
"I don't really want to play around with other people's cigarette butts," says Annie Loadwick, a Mercer, Maine resident who owns a bottle redemption center with her husband, Rick. "I think adults should be responsible for themselves and take care of their own trash."
Cleanliness has been a big sticking point for the bill since some fear encouraging people to pick up used butts could lead to the spread of disease. But Cowger says contact with the litter will be avoided since each pack would come equipped with a plastic bag. Once smokers finish each cigarette, they would place the remains in the attached bag. Redemption workers would then count the number of butts in each bag and deliver the change.
"No one would actually be handling the butts," says Cowger, "only the bags."
Maine is home to an estimated 2.3 billion smokers, some of whom argue the proposal amounts to an odd form of discrimination.
"If we go to the extreme of putting a redemption on butts, then we might as well do it for all trash," says Rick Loadwick of Mercer who smokes at least one pack of cigarettes a day. "Then we should start turning in McDonald's bag, straws and wrappers for money. It's unfair and ridiculous."
Governor Remains Unconvinced
The Maine Legislature has held a public hearing on the idea and committees are expected to send a version of the bill for a vote in about two weeks. Cowger thinks all the talk the unique proposal has generated bodes well for the bill.
"It's got people talking and I think support is growing," he says.
But even if the bill passes, it may not get by the governor's mansion.
Spokespeople for Maine Gov. Angus King have said the governor does not support the idea. Instead, King has proposed a 26-cent increase in cigarette tax per cigarette pack, which would raise between $35 million to $36 million a year in state revenue for tobacco prevention efforts.
Extra taxes, says King spokesman John Ripley, "are a more realistic approach."
At 2/23/01 02:52 AM, P-Chan wrote: *Personally*, I see two main groups of users in the cam pages...
Which group am I in? I'm neither a Flash contributor (yet!) not a hot cam-slut...
Basically, the point I'm trying to get at, is that Tom doesn't reward loyal followers all that much in terms of camspaces, but instead selects the people whom he believes to be best for the site's image and traffic. Money is important for NG, and hits get money...
If the campage WAS really based on loyal and noble users, it would look something like this.....
http://www.snooble.com/webcam/index.htm
Hey! That's my cam portal! I try to be fair, I have a hard time trying to figure out where to place people though, because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I may be taking some people off though... I mean what happened to Slutmouth? He hasn't updated in a while! Which is why I moved him to the bottom in the first place...
Oh, and I'm making a new layout for Snooble.com, and they'll be some kooky webcam fun coming up!
At 2/22/01 10:27 PM, P-Chan wrote:At 2/22/01 04:04 PM, adambomb wrote: one time i went too the zoo and a monkey peed on meActually, you kinda remind me of Bugger_99.
Hmmm... I wonder when that little bugger is going to make an appearance.
At 2/23/01 11:30 AM, TheUnknownJobber wrote: There is no big deal...heh. I mean it may look cool in the NG java chat room, but I'm on a mIRC utility, so all it is is a stupid "+". If I wanted a plus next to my name I'd just type "/nick +UnknownJobber" Of course that's an "erroneous nickname", but you get the idea. I love when people beg for VOPS...it's so funny. They probably think it gives them some kind of special powers or something.
It's the same as people on the BBS boasting about the number of posts they have, or Portal voters bragging about their levels: it's a power trip. I'm not saying that's the way of the current Ops, but the people asking for it!
At 2/23/01 11:36 AM, KaneOfNod wrote: However, this is fairly unenforcable. Any sane judge would side against this unjust law in a ruling.
I'm not really sure how enforcable this will be, but we were told that if we weren't compliant by the due date, we would be fined. This goes for all gov't angency websites.
Why do you think this law is unjust? I'm interested in hearing your thoughts...
I probably should have stuck this on the political forum, but since it has to do with websites and HTML as well, I thought I'd post it here, seeing as more people visit this than the Political BBS... get your asses over there NOW!
At 2/23/01 11:22 AM, LordEvil wrote: um.. is this for all websites or for just government sites?
There's a final date for compliance for gov't websites, but I think the move will eventually be for all websites, but I am not absolutely positive on that. I think the gov't sites need to be first, so that disabled people can get the information they need.
I'm getting very frustrated at this stupid Section 508, and anyone who works on a government or corporate website can share in my pain. But for those who don't know, "Section 508 requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. The Federal Information Technology Accessibility Initiative is a Federal government interagency effort to offer information and technical assistance to assist in the successful implementation of Section 508." That's taken right off their website at http://www.section508.gov
So check out the stuff I have to do now to make sure the website's compliant by July. Sheesh... Some of my comments follow.
1) Text equivalent for non-text elements (images need alt tags, etc)
* Not that big of a deal... ALT tags should be used anyway.
2) Alternative text for multimedia presentations synchromized with the presentation
* Our site doesn't use multimedia, so this doesn't really matter right now, but may in the future.
3) Cannot use color as the single method for idicating importance
* Color can still be used, but here's an example: maybe you turned off link underlining, and used red for your links instead. Now you can't do that, turn the underlining back on.
4) Documents must be readable and presentable without style sheets
* This really bugs me. With HTML 4.0, XHTML, and XML, the move is away from inline font styles and toward style sheets. The reason to use style sheets follows from the depreciation of <font> tags! But now they're telling us we have to use them. So now that's I've set up the style sheets to make my life easier, I have to go back and put all the freakin' FONT's back in!
5) Redundant text links for image maps
6) Tables coded accurately and NOT used for non-tabular data
* Another thing that pisses me off: not using tables as a design element. Tables can only be used for tabular data, and the first row MUST be headers. AUGH! This also makes my life difficult. So now I have to really redesign the pages...
7) Frames titled accordingly with text
* I'll probably have to go with frames now that I can't use the tables!
8) Must provide links to plug-ins for such formats as Adobe Acrobat and Real Audio
9) Accessability to interactive forms
10) Must provide method to skip repetitive navigation links
* Another bother: It's a standard that the navigation menu be present on every page. But now they're telling us to skip it? That it can't be on every page? This is really going to suck.
11) User must be notified of a time-out when filling out a form
I'm sorry if I'm wasting your time here, but this is really getting to me, and I thought that maybe some of you guys may have some ideas for me?
At 2/22/01 08:50 PM, Neutered_Llama wrote: The record label most likely set it up because they didnt want shit about Eminem being anti-gay anymore. Besides, the word fag and homo now-a-days has been more or less used as an insult not really in awareness of what its real meaning is. I doubt Eminem intends to offend the gay community. The people that protested against Eminem make me sick. I dont mind if they go and fuck each other in the ass behind closed doors, but when they try to tell kids its right to be gay, well, that just crosses the line. I am not bias against gay people at all, as long as they arent what you would call an 'activist' and protest because they cant get married in a church and have children of their own(which mind you, is just wrong).
Ok, so you're not biased against gay, but you said all that above? It comes across as odd to me, although maybe you didn't quite get your point across exactly. Anyway... Gays and lesbians are not telling people it is *right* to be gay. They're saying that it's *all right* which is a bit different. And why is it wrong for two gays or two lesbians to marry and have children? I won't fight with you about the church, because that's their own thing, but if two people love each other, they have the right to have that legal committment.
But on the other note: I don't like what the protesters were doing, not at all. We have LBGT fighting for their rights, and protecting the rights we have, but then they want to take away Eminem's rights, his Freedom of Speech? I may not like his music, or agree with anything he does, but I respect him for speaking whatever he wants (whether he believes it or not). Protesters = hypocrites.
At 2/23/01 04:27 AM, TannerCenterwall wrote:At 2/22/01 04:29 PM, TannerCenterwall wrote: Yes, the contest is STILL going!Thanks to that zany Freakapotimus for not wearing a shirt when i ask her to AND for making this pic (but thanks mostly for the shirt thang)!
You're welcome for the pics (more are probably coming, I like this idea) and you're welcome for the shirt... then again you have to remember that I get topless when you get topless... so thank YOU!
At 2/23/01 07:32 AM, Hateful_Ed wrote: Well, this isn't a wonderful idea of how to "Save NG" as you people have put it. But I think it'd be pretty cool for Newgrounds to sell a "Portal Collection" CD. Y'know, with the best portal content put on it, you could fit HEAPS on there!! Plus, I think quite a few peeps would buy it, I know I would :)
-Ed
Someone made this suggestion before somewhere on the old BBS a while back, and I think it's a great idea. Now to just get Tom to make it ;)
At 2/23/01 04:26 AM, TannerCenterwall wrote: Me and you, Swilly, We are "The Men!"
YES! You rock! You found my pictures :) I think I shall make more later, there were a bunch more protest pics out there...
Hmmm... I'll have to get moving with the News Story of the Day! ACK!
Garg... I'll have to repost my pics tomorrow or whenever I get back to work, since I don't have them on my home computer. Would anyone have happened to have saved my Elton John / Eminem / protester pictures?
