Shopping carts are one of the simplest forms of herd robot. A single store can support a huge corral of shopping carts in a vibrant, active community. The shopping carts from a large store can make many, many migrations through the store each day, or rest outside within bounds of the parking lot, socializing and nesting with other carts. As new carts approach mating age, they will spend more of their days roaming the perimeter of the parking lot, away from the other carts, away from safety. Sometimes they are maimed or destroyed by delivery trucks. More often, they are removed from the lot by homeless people. That is how the carts begin their "mission", or "visionquest". Homeless people use shopping carts to collect and transport recyclable material. The urban garbagescape contains a rich vein of harvestable aluminum, glass and used chinese food. Homeless people live close to the earth, so I had always assumed that they were collecting these recyclables to help perserve the environment. Recently, that belief was shattered! I heard on Fox News that homeless people collect bottles and cans for money, and that they use that money toward the satisfaction of their own free will. Could it be true? Could collecting cans in a shopping cart generate a significant income? How many cans could one of those carts hold? And what would those cans be worth at the recycling center? On Saturday morning, we decided to find out. The first step was to collect a whole bunch of aluminum cans. Luckily, I love soda. I looooooove soda. The citizens of downtown Sacramento also love soda. They looooove soda. They aren't that fond of refried beans or chow fun. I also put the word out, and in seven short months, Eric, Nick and I had saved up a fat bounty of aluminum cans. We were ready. I really had planned to ask the Manager down at Albertson's for written permission to borrow a shopping cart. Sacramento has strict regulations for shopping cart migration. My next step was to contact the cart-emancipation underground but again had no luck. My final option was to stalk and poach a cart caught up in the undergrowth near the edge of the parking lot. With one lame wheel, this blue plastic cart didn't have a chance. Nick and I were easily able to subdue and rope him into my hatchback. In minutes, we were back at my home, ready to fill the cart with cans. First, the uncrushed. Most newer plastic shopping carts in Sacramento are manufactured by the Rehrig Pacific Company. If you know where to look for their logo, you can spot this breed at Home Depot, Food4Less, Albertsons, Safeway, everywhere. The one was female. Rehrig invented the plastic milk crate, and went on to create these awesome plastic shopping carts. The innovative Rehrig corporation is constantly striving to build the products that future consumers would like to steal. We counted 256 uncrushed cans into the cart. 256 is a loose-packed fill to the top edge. This is known as "grain-capacity" in the shopping cart business. We could have fit a few more, if we had stacked them carefully and evenly, using the latest configurations in the U.C.S.B. beeramid engineering database. Next, we dumped out the cans and started the crushing. "Iron hands" Eric smashed them. Nick "Leadfoot" crushed them, and I, Rob "The Crinkler" Cockerham mashed them! Our infant children, "Thirsty" Jonas and June "The Trampler" also helped. It was an extraordinarily hot day, and crushing hundreds of aluminum cans took a really long time, and a surprising amount of effort. This was loud, thirsty work. With 526 cans crushed, we took a break and re-thought our crushing strategy. We were exhausted, but too proud to consult a homeless dude. Finally, a plan was hatched. We would use the tires on Nick's Jetta to crush long lines of cans! This is probably how German homeless people crush their cans. In no time, we lined up hundreds of cans in my driveway and Nick was poised to crush the California land speed-crush record. Oh, this was the way to go! Nick's precision driving nailed both rails of cans. Nick's aluminum rims. Perhaps the metal from these cans would be recycled into aluminum rims for someone else's Volkswagen Jetta. Video Still, it wasn't enough. We counted all the crushed cans into the cart, 600, still inches shy of the top. It was hot, but we were determined. We crushed cans for another 25 minutes and were finally able to fill the cart. It took 853 crushed cans to fill the cart! We were going to be rich! Rob Cockerham Web Editor, EDS/Medi-Cal Publications 916-852-4963 robert.cockerham@eds.com CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email from EDS is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review or use, including disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the email.