Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

The usual arguments for OOP vs. Procedural apply. That is, procedural processing tends to offer few opportunities for code-recycling; the programs are frequently monolithic, top-down instruction-sets that are harder to maintain and evolve over time. Objects tend to provide small, manageable blocks of code that address small sets of specific concerns that can be reused. I prefer OOP in general, since I always have an eye to code reuse. However, size and complexity come into play, when making the decision as to which to apply for a particular project. When building an HTML page, the PHP most often looks very procedural in its most general structure, since the composition of a web-page has a very top-down order, i.e., head, head-child-elements, body, body-child-elements, etc. A simple, one-off page may be unworthy the heavier-weight engineering principles of OOP – where the line is drawn is a fuzzy issue. I note that the PHP-based CMS, Concrete5, that my shop employs widely on behalf of clients is a purely OOP implementation…very appropriately so, given the complexity of the app. There’s a good “contrast and compare” article at:

http://devzone.zend.com/article/1236

That said, there is another approach you didn’t consider explicitly in the statement of your question, namely Functional Programming (FP). FP provides the same potential for code reuse as OOP. It allows you to develop fairly small procedural-style blocks that rely on functions to perform the actual processing. If you really drink the FP kool-aid, you can make your top-level, “procedural” blocks be functions as well. So, even when I elect a more procedural model, I implement more of the processing in functions in order to offer recyclability…most often, I simply reuse existing functions, plugging them into top-level, director/controller procedural code. My shop mostly develops new apps using the J(2)EE Design Patterns (in PHP) for the web aspects and the GoF Design Patterns for the base operations. All of these are implemented in a mix of procedural and functional approaches. We write some pretty darned big apps this way, and still have a huge amount savings from recycled code; in fact, our entire project template is static and completely reusable. Individual “procedure” can vary at the level of the component-include or the functions employed. Joel has an amusing OOP vs. FP article at:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/01.html

I see potential and competing values in each model, depending on the nature of the individual project and the need and desire to avoid reinventing the wheel. As with most modern languages, the programming paradigm is up to the developer; each language supports all programming models, even when there may be a generally-preferred approach. Don’t let anyone else’s preferences lock you into a single choice of practices. Also, don’t neglect learning new models just ‘cuz you already know one…learn and grow, so that you have more options and CAN pick the right tool for the job.

The Expert answers:

500 senko worms per summer is really A HUGE number even if you fish every single day all summer. Are Yamamoto Senkos really that special? Are they really that irreplaceable? Must you spend that much on Yamamoto products? Have you tried other name brand senko variants out there? I’m pretty sure you already knew Yamamoto Senkos aren’t that cheap already. But are they really worth that price tag?

I have tried almost all name brand senko variants available to me and I’ve concluded that there are suitable substitutes for Yamamoto Senkos. Yum Dingers really performed well for me and they are every bit comparable to Yamamotos. In fact, Yum Dingers will outperform Yamamotos during the first several casts because of the scent. Yum Dingers cost a lot less than Yamamotos as well.

Pouring your own plastic is also an option. You can recycle your chewed up lures. You can make plaster molds and create carbon copies of your favorite lure. You can add scent and oil to your finished lure. You can control the softness of your home made lures. Most importantly, fish can’t tell a difference and you’ll save tons of money. FYI, senkos could be duplicated very easily and the equipments necessary to create 500 of your own senkos will cost less than 500 Yamamoto Senkos. Please keep in mind that I’m referring to initial investments plus first 500 home made lures only. Additional lures will cost considerably less. Catching fish on lures “you made” is a lot more satisfying as well.

When I first started using senkos, one lure will last me around 2-3 fish at the most. It doesn’t matter if I use texas rig or wacky rig or drop shot, my senkos won’t last very long. Now, one senko worm could get me around 8-10 bass on the average. If you wacky worm a lot, then I highly recommend those wacky o-rings. Those tiny pieces of rubber ring will really extend your lure’s useful life.
Http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_95043?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT&cmid=PP_P0_2
You can find those rings on eBay at low price as well. Other than the price, both me and the fish couldn’t tell a difference.

If you texas rig a lot, then I’d suggest that you get some worm glues such as this one: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=NQA0DGOGNFBQRLAQBBJCCOFMCAEFGIWE?id=0057462123586a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=worm&Ntk=Products&sort=all&Go.y=0&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&Go.x=0&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_requestid=235405 The worm glue do come with a little catch though. Please spend a few minutes going through user review on that product. Personally, I don’t use worm glue anymore. I found I could use a lighter to do some emergency patch up jobs on the water. You only need to melt plastic around chewed up portions of the lure. Once the molten plastic cooled, chewed up portions will be covered by molten plastics and you’ll be able to squeeze a little bit more life out of that lure. The patched up lure won’t look perfect and you can’t restore the lure back to “like new” condition but the result will be acceptable to fish. I found out about the lighter trick in the middle of a wide open bite. I was down to my last senko and I simply refuse to leave. That lighter saved the day. LOL

I found smaller bass in the water tear up senkos more than bigger ones. If the fish is not big enough to inhale the lure whole, there’s a possibility that the fish will hold on to the tail portion of the worm and miss the hook completely. When this happens, the lure’s useful life will shorten considerably provided that lure didn’t expire on the spot. To solve the problem, I either use smaller size lures or I tear/bite off 1/2 to 1 inch off the tail. Reducing the size of the lure a little doesn’t mean you won’t be able to catch bigger fish. You’ll just have less missed fish and you’ll catch a little more smaller fish that’s all.

I also found if you allow the fish to have the lure a couple split seconds longer, the chances of “tail bite” will reduce. This is a little tricky though. If you let the fish have the lure for too long before you set the hook, the fish could either swallow the lure or drop the lure. Only experience could tell you how long you should allow the fish to have the lure.

Hope this helps.

The Expert answers:

What to Do

Reduce stress. Stress makes allergies and asthma worse. Right about now you’re saying to yourself, “Stress? What the heck kind of stress does a cat have?” That’s a fair question. They certainly don’t have to worry about paying bills or where their next meal is coming from. (Those are your stresses, actually.) They don’t have job pressures or deadlines to meet. Heck, they don’t even have to think about what they’re going to wear every day.

Cats have stress that we like to call “domestication stress” or “family stress.” You see, cats weren’t originally designed and built to live among humans. They’ve done a superb job of adapting, but no matter how independent and primal your cat seems, she’s still having to deal with the human world and human civilization every single day. And that gets tough. Giving her plenty of options to do cat things such as run, climb, stalk (preferably another cat), bat things around, hide, and nap in secluded spots helps her cope.

If the stress level goes up in your life or in your household, it goes up in your cat’s life, too. She can’t understand why things are getting tense — she just knows people are moving and sounding anxious. Remember, “stress” doesn’t just mean negative things; positive events carry stress, too. In fact, probably the worst kind of stress for a cat is change.

A new baby, for instance, is not only a time for great joy but also for great change — and the stresses that go with that. For you, those stresses mean less sleep (or none at all), a change in lifestyle, and an extra mouth to feed. For your cat, it means some strange new animal, who makes odd noises, smells funny, and doesn’t do much, suddenly takes all the human attention away from her!

Clear the air. Secondhand smoke isn’t the only thing that can make asthma worse. Even things that we think make our home more pleasant can be a no-no for a cat with bronchitis or asthma. Perfumes, room fresheners, deodorizers, and even scented litters or litter additives can trigger allergy and asthma attacks.

Likewise, the fumes from paints, cleaners, varnishes, and new carpeting are actually chemical irritants that create problems for the asthmatic cat. Use natural objects, such as flowers, eucalyptus sprigs, and fresh floral potpourri, to provide a fresh scent to a room instead of sprays or solids that contain chemicals. Use strong-smelling paints, stains, cleaners, and solvents in well-ventilated rooms, and keep the cat out until the smell goes away. And put out those smokes.

It’s a good idea to use plain, natural, unscented litter and to stay away from deodorizers you add to the litter. Also the dust from the litter itself irritates the lungs and can cause attacks in asthmatic cats. Some natural litters — like the ones made of recycled paper — have virtually no dust at all. To cut down on dust from clay litters, pour them slowly, keeping the opening of the bag just a few inches from the litter box.

Wetter is better. Dry air dries out the lining of your cat’s air passages, encouraging coughing and making your cat more vulnerable to infection and allergic reactions. Be sure to have a good humidifier going, especially in winter, during heating season, and in arid areas of the country. There’s an added bonus to this remedy: You will also be less likely to have as many coughs, stuffy noses, and colds in the air if your home is kept properly moist.

The Expert answers:

Get a lawyer or go to the governmental employment bureau and lodge a complaint.

A) They cannot go through your things without your permission or prior notice that bag checks will be conducted. All bag checks must be conducted by security – was it? Also there needs to be a witness and you must be present. Who’s to say this person didn’t plant the bottle?

B) Where in the employee handbook does it say what you can or cannot have in your bag? Where does it ban empty bottles? Would ANY empty bottle get you fired? Maybe you put it in there until you found a recycle container. What else would get you fired? How about a pack of cigarettes? If smoking on the job isn’t permitted, would you get fired if they found a pack? What about a bottle of mouthwash? It has alcohol in it. Would THAT get you fired too?

C) You were not given a sobriety test, so they have absolutely no proof you were drinking in the job or dunk. So they legally cannot accuse you of either of these.

So . . .WHY were you fired? They have no proof you were drinking or drunk on the job, they searched your bag without your consent or you being there and where in the employee handbook does it say you cannot have an empty bottle in your bag?

You were wrongly terminated.

Have a lawyer draft up a demand letter stating this and what you want – money, the person who went through your bag fired or your job back – or a combination of any. You definitely have a case.

Also, if the person who went through your bag wasn’t security and went through your bag on their own accord (decided to do it without being told by management), go to the police and file charges of invasion of property and theft. They took your purse without your permission, regardless of the fact that they later gave it back. That’s theft.

The Expert answers:

Taxing the rich so the middle class get poorer because the big company owners will cut jobs and pay by half,you watch,that is a great plan….NOT!!!

The Expert answers:

Copy and paste this into your browser.

Http://www.hoovers.com/safety-kleen/–ID__11287–/free-co-factsheet.xhtml

This is a fact sheet from Hoovers on line one of the better business directories you can find.
I hope it helps.

My company uses Safety Kleen for recycling of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. In my opinion they are a good company and even through the refinancing of the company they did not skip a beat on custmer service. I would not be concerned when considering employment there.

The Expert answers:

Enzymes can break down many substrate molecules. In fact, some enzymes can act on millions of substrate molecules per minute! This allows cells to have very efficient metabolism, producing relatively few proteins for the amount of substrates they act on.

However, they are eventually broken down any recycled. There are enzymes called “proteases,” which, as the name suggests, have the job of breaking down other proteins. So a given enzyme, like a lactase, is broken down and recycled pretty regularly; perhaps every few minutes or so, depending on the specific enzyme and how fast it is broken down by the cell. But in that few minutes of life, the lactase can act on thousands or millions of substrate molecules. So it’s not a single-use enzyme.

This system is very efficient because it allows a cell to get a lot done with a few enzymes, while at the same time quickly adjusting its metabolism to changing environmental conditions. If lactose becomes unavailable, the cell will stop making lactase within minutes, and existing lactase molecules will be broken down into constituents to make other, more useful proteins. But as long as there is lactose, a single lactase enzyme can break down thousands or millions of lactose molecules. I think this type of cellular regulation is pretty cool.

Hope this helps!

The Expert answers:

I have a degree in Environmental Studies and currently work as an Environmental Education Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador. I’m working with the local municipality to increase recycling and better garbage management – i.e. Not burning the trash. I also work in the schools and teach kids about the environment. I’m also learning and speaking Spanish 🙂

During college, I worked for one local and one national environmental non-profit. With the first job, I worked to inform landowners of their rights when they have oil and gas on their land that the federal government has leased. I also informed them, through fact sheets, etc, about what things about oil and gas drilling causes concern, i.e. Road placement, waste management, water contamination.

The second non-profit I worked for was a regional one with national reach. I worked on a biodiesel bus for 4 months traveling the country with 3 others and engaging the public about sustainable biodiesel, local foods, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. We traveled 7 states and worked at 70+ events in 50+ communities. These events ranged from a small ag store in rural South Dakota and farmers markets to a large corn / music festival in Colorado.

I was paid $10 – $11 per hour at the non-profit working to inform people about carbon fuels and was paid about $12,000 for the four month bus tour.

There are a whole host of environmental non-profits out there, but you may want to start by looking at Greenpeace. They have a list of jobs on their website and that’ll give you an idea what type of jobs are in the area. Also, look for and contact local environmental groups. You’ll have to have a degree and likely start as an intern if you’re in college working toward achieving a degree. These groups are interdisciplinary and look for people with a whole host of backgrounds including environmental related degrees, economics, history, public relations, business management, web design, law, etc.

As far as the degree is concerned, there are a bunch of different degrees from a ton of different colleges. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies. I studied science, politics, and cultural views toward the environment. Others are more science based or business based. It depends on what you want.

Good luck! It feels really good working for something you believe will really help “save the planet.”

Also, as an added note, to address Sienna’s comment about the definition of non-profit. It legally means you can’t sell the business for a profit and any profit made during the sell of the entity goes back into the organization.

The Expert answers:

Your conclusion is your opportunity to wrap up your essay in a tidy package and bring it home for your reader. It is a good idea to recapitulate what you said in your Thesis Statement in order to suggest to your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish. It is also important to judge for yourself that you have, in fact, done so. If you find that your thesis statement now sounds hollow or irrelevant — that you haven’t done what you set out to do — then you need either to revise your argument or to redefine your thesis statement. Don’t worry about that; it happens to writers all the time. They have argued themselves into a position that they might not have thought of when they began their writing. Writing, just as much as reading, is a process of self discovery. Do not, in any case, simply restate your thesis statement in your final paragraph, as that would be redundant. Having read your essay, we should understand this main thought with fresh and deeper understanding, and your conclusion wants to reflect what we have learned.

There are some cautions we want to keep in mind as we fashion our final utterance. First, we don’t want to finish with a sentimental flourish that shows we’re trying to do too much. It’s probably enough that our essay on recycling will slow the growth of the landfill in Hartford’s North Meadows. We don’t need to claim that recycling our soda bottles is going to save the world for our children’s children. (That may be true, in fact, but it’s better to claim too little than too much; otherwise, our readers are going to be left with that feeling of “Who’s he/she kidding?”) The conclusion should contain a definite, positive statement or call to action, but that statement needs to be based on what we have provided in the essay.

Second, the conclusion is no place to bring up new ideas. If a brilliant idea tries to sneak into our final paragraph, we must pluck it out and let it have its own paragraph earlier in the essay. If it doesn’t fit the structure or argument of the essay, we will leave it out altogether and let it have its own essay later on. The last thing we want in our conclusion is an excuse for our readers’ minds wandering off into some new field. Allowing a peer editor or friend to reread our essay before we hand it in is one way to check this impulse before it ruins our good intentions and hard work.

Never apologize for or otherwise undercut the argument you’ve made or leave your readers with the sense that “this is just little ol’ me talking.” Leave your readers with the sense that they’ve been in the company of someone who knows what he or she is doing. Also, if you promised in the introduction that you were going to cover four points and you covered only two (because you couldn’t find enough information or you took too long with the first two or you got tired), don’t try to cram those last two points into your final paragraph. The “rush job” will be all too apparent. Instead, revise your introduction or take the time to do justice to these other points.

Here is a brief list of things that you might accomplish in your concluding paragraph(s).* There are certainly other things that you can do, and you certainly don’t want to do all these things. They’re only suggestions:

include a brief summary of the paper’s main points.
Ask a provocative question.
Use a quotation.
Evoke a vivid image.
Call for some sort of action.
End with a warning.
Universalize (compare to other situations).
Suggest results or consequences.