Taking aim at free AOL CDs

California legislation in the works

[Robert Charlton]

San Jose Mercury news article here [mercurynews.com]...

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, says it's time for the companies that produce and mail them to pay for their return....

To illustrate the pervasiveness of the problem, two East Bay residents plan to dump their collection of 278,000 unsolicited AOL CDs onto the state Capitol steps today.

Unfortunately, because of AOL's excess, and they are the problem... if the bill passes the use of CDs as a marketing medium may be severely curtailed.

[Robert Charlton]

PS... You may have to do a free registration to follow the above link. Can't sort out the cookie situation.

[hannamyluv]

Aw, man. The local schools here do a parade in the summer and half the floats or projects are AOL CD covered. The one AOL CD dragon a few years back was spectacular. How will they get free decorations if laws like that pass?

Besides that, do you know what great baby toys those things make? Nearly impossible to break, no sharp edges and shiny to keep the little one extra occupied.

;)

[bcolflesh]

Not a great idea for a child to put Cyanine or PhtaloCyanine dye and their chemical binding agents in it's mouth:

[xdr2.com...]

[grelmar]

Dangit, what the heck am I gonna make throwing stars out of now? Chip the edges on those things right, and you can bury them 3 inches deep in dry-wall.

[mivox]

CDs are also great for keeping birds away from fruit trees and vegetable gardens. String them around with fishing line, and the flashy lights scare the buggers away. :)

[Macguru]

He he! I love these guys.

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[robots.org...]

[hannamyluv]

Not a great idea for a child to put Cyanine or PhtaloCyanine dye and their chemical binding agents in it's mouth

Aw, come one. Can it be any worse than the lead poisoning from old paint? I mean paint chips make great play things, too, you know. ;)

[bcolflesh]

I keep all the children chained to the radiator - keeps them well away from my stuff.

[grelmar]

[wired.com...]

This law looks really dumb from an environmental standpoint.

Having to include a return envelope will just create more waste for landfills, as 90+% of people will be too lazy to return them, and the envelope will just be one more piece of trash.

[john_k]

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, says it's time for the companies that produce and mail them to pay for their return

And what of the other 2 pounds of junk mail I get each day?

And what about the 3 or 4 credit card applications each day, part of which need to be shreaded?

You can tell the campaigns are heating up - the windmill hunters are coming out in force!

[drbrain]

Not a great idea for a child to put Cyanine or PhtaloCyanine dye and their chemical binding agents in it's mouth.

Uh... AOL CDs aren't CDRs...

[jatar_k]

I guess there goes my lifetime supply of coasters, my furniture will never be the same

[john_k]

my furniture will never be the same

Maybe - but I bet the corporate furniture at AOL will be looking pretty funky!

[Teknorat]

If you pour metho on an AOL cd and set fire to it it looks cool. True story.

[HowlingWizard]

And what about the 3 or 4 credit card applications each day, part of which need to be shreaded?

These already come with business replay envlopes. Recently I have been 'completing" the form with the shreader and sending it back to them.

[pixel_juice]

>>If you pour metho on an AOL cd and set fire to it it looks cool. True story.

Microwaving them is pretty good fun too (but don't try this at home kids ;))

[SlowMove]

I liked the floppies they used to send out a long time ago. You could rewrite them.

[Robert Charlton]

but don't try this at home kids

Actually, just cutting a CD can be dangerous to your health. I tried it once and the thing exploded like tempered glass shattering... thousands of pointy little shards everywhere.

[vkaryl]

They "fly" better than frisbies....

[cabowabo]

The last thing we need is more legislation, it's just like Spam, if no one buys, the offender eventually goes away. The problem is, people keep buying this garbage, so it continues.

Ack.

CaboWabo

[Leosghost]

you can microwave them ...they have a really neat blue sparkly effect around the edges...

there 's even some schools of thought that the patterns it makes are really comunications from the invisible board members of microsoft to Bill ...

radiators have just got to be the ultimate in goth chic ....I actually had someone ask me if I had any the other day to decorate an appartement ...they didn't ask for kids tho

[Sanenet]

Not quite light bulbs but...
[webmasterworld.com...]
and I thought he was kidding ;)