Revenge Of The Garbage

Bin-men took their revenge on a driver who had blocked their way by stacking dozens of empty bins round the car.The incident was caught on camera and the footage is now a Youtube Hit.

The 62-second clip shows three men, each of them wearing a high-visibility jacket, dragging bins into the alleyway beside Stephenson Street, Horwich, near Bolton, Greater Manchester.

An accompanying narrative reads: “This shows Horwich Bin Men getting their own back on a car owner who has obstructed a back alley with their car.
“The bin men usually drive their van through this back alley to the next street and they are a bit annoyed they have to drive round via Chorley New Road, which is very busy.”
One local refuse collector claimed to be unaware of the incident but said: “These things do go on, but it is just a big of harmless fun.
“It can be frustrating when cars block the wagons, but the lads will have made sure they didn’t damage the vehicle in question”.
Officials at Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council believe the footage is at least four years old. They said they took such incidents “very seriously”.

(Electronic) Bugs In British Trash

Microchips have been placed in garbage bins in Britain to monitor how much people throw away. A pro-privacy group warns in a new report that more than 2.6 million of the chips have been surreptitiously installed in what is seen as a first step toward charging those who toss too much.

Proponents say it's a bid to push recycling. Opponents say it stinks.

"They should mind their own business," said Terry Williams, an unemployed Londoner who thinks the government is meddling. "I believe they have gone too far. It's not like we are throwing away anything that is illegal."

The advocacy group Big Brother Watch found through a series of Freedom of Information requests that many local governments, called councils in Britain, are installing the microchips in trash cans distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them -- in part because officials know the move would be unpopular.

The microchips are part of the British information grid, which already includes a heavy reliance on closed-circuit television surveillance and cameras to monitor the population, particularly in public transportation system.