Word: plasticizers
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...doing neither. The headline in one New York paper was HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW, as the President returned to Shepherdstown, W.Va., for the Israeli-Syrian talks. Among their possessions, you could see a couple of rugs, a kitchen table and a large bed. Don Imus wondered whether the plastic would ever come off the mattress. I wondered whether there would ever be enough living in the living room to fill up such a huge space...
Paper or wheat? That's the checkout quandary you may soon face now that the first plastic made from such environmentally friendly crops as corn, wheat and soy is almost ready to go into mass production. Polyactide - or PLA in plastic-speak - is the result of a heated race among chemical and bioengineering companies throughout the past decade to reap the environmental cachet that would come with the first "all natural" plastic. This week, Dow Cargill Polymer, a combined effort of Dow Chemical and Cargill Inc., prompted sighs in the Monsanto and DuPont boardrooms when it announced that it would...
...moment too soon. Petroleum-based plastics, the magically versatile material of the 20th century, have two major problems: Their manufacturing cost is held hostage by crude oil prices, and, because they're not easy to break down chemically, they can linger in landfills for decades. PLA solves both problems, and is as durable as petroleum-based plastics. The complex process that creates the new plastic involves feeding the crops to microbes, similar to the way yogurt is curdled. The result has been compared to the polyester frequently used in plastic soda bottles, carpeting and wrinkle-free clothes, and clothing manufacturers...
They're just green plastic silhouettes, but the symbolism is obvious when you've got to get the close ones first: Kill the enemy before he kills...
...Fancy yourself a modern-day Minnesota Fats? Now you can sink those eight balls and hustle suckers without leaving your PC. The Real Feel PoolShark from Interact ($29.99) works with all USB-enabled computers, including the iMac. How it works is simple: you hold a pool cue (plastic one included) over a roll bar on the mouselike controller. How fast and far you move it directs the virtual cue on your screen. Also included is the PC-only game Ultimate 8 Ball, which lets you try your luck against computer players or challenge other hustlers on the Internet. No fancy...