Daily archives: November 15th, 2009

Todd Stroger Doesn’t Have Time to Ask for Your Vote

November 15, 2009
ChicagoChicagolandCook CountyDemocratic NewsElections
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Look, we’ve spent plenty of time over the last several years critiquing Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.

Let’s make sure we remember that when it’s time to go to the polls.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Cook County Board president Todd Stroger took some heat for not attending today’s Democratic forum among candidates vying for the job of heading the county.

The candidates in attendance were Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, Chicago Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien.

A representative for Stoger said the county board president was not at the forum because of a conflict of interest that prevented him from attending.

The video above is courtesy WGN.

According to WGN, Stroger did say he would be there, but had a “conflict of interest” that prevented him from appearing.

I am not ready to make an endorsement yet, but I know I will not vote for Todd Stroger.

Another Reason to Kick Yourself When You Lose a Golf Ball: 1000 Year Decay

November 15, 2009
EnvironmentSports
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Golf balls take 1,000 years to decompose, and they release toxic metals into the environment as they break down.

Yet another reason to kick yourself when you lose a ball.

From Green Living Ideas:

Golf balls are often lost by players, in fact there are a few lost in my own meadow and I don’t even play golf. Live Science reminds us that in 1971, Alan Shepard even left some on the moon (two or three golf balls). Golf ball litter is becoming an environmental concern on this planet. CNN reports:

Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone, every year…The scale of the dilemma was underlined recently in Scotland, where scientists — who scoured the watery depths in a submarine hoping to discover evidence of the prehistoric Loch Ness monster — were surprised to find hundreds of thousands of golf balls lining the bed of the loch.

Not only do golf balls take between a century and millennium to break down, they release toxic zinc in the process. This heavy metal attaches “itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna” when in water. Other heavy metals used in golf ball production include tungsten, cobalt and lead.

Read more here.