Cuts like a knife

After several flights out of the dreaded East Satellite Terminal, today was my first day back in the Maple Leaf Lounge in many weeks. Passengers are now entrusted with metal cutlery again. While soup spoons have been back for a long time, you can now get forks for salad, and (gasp!) knives for buttering bread.

On the other hand, all the large bottles of water have been opened and the caps taken away. It seems you can trust the passengers not to attack each other, but not enough to leave bottles of water on the counter.

Wireless

I held out as long as I could, but I've finally joined the world of mobile devices. Four and-a-half years is a good long run, but my phone was about ready to give out (the first battery having already done so two years ago). My first cell phone before that managed to limp into its sixth year, before the issue was forced by switching providers (GSM to CDMA).

There are some sobering statistics on the number of cell phones being discarded, or piling up in people's homes - some 426000 each day in the US alone. Certainly, some get lost, stolen, run over, or otherwise smashed. However, most are still perfectly functional, and were only used an average of 18 months.

In Japan, there are stories about foreigners scavenging on sodai gomi (over-size garbage) day, where appliances and electronics are collected for recycling, when new models come out.

There's definitely something wrong here, and it's inspired people like Chris Jordan and Annie Leonard to call out for societal change.