[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Geary, there is currently a viral circulating on the 'Net, photos of the Wal-Mart $2.99 slippers and matching photos of the people who wore them, with blistered, reddened, sore putrescent feet exactly where the straps were.

And as for scrap metal, there's an interesting piece in the current New Yorker on the scrap-metal industry, which apparently has become hugely sophisticated in the U.S., where we throw out more steel than any other country in the world. And yes, all of the scrap-crap to China. It's a lot cheaper to make new steel out of old steel than it is to create steel from ore. Problem is, the new steel is made from old steel that has all sorts of scheiss in it--copper pennies, ballpoint pens left in the glovebox, McDonald's wrappers under the seat, cheap nails, plastic-coated wiring that didn't get removed...