Spectral lines: Hardware, software, and mushware

Huge piles of garbage lie rotting in the streets of New York City as we write this message. Meanwhile, elsewhere, urban technologists are meeting to discuss highly efficient systems to remove refuse regularly and inconspicuously from metropolitan streets. The two images are incongruous. The New York rubbish heaps may be partly due to work slowdowns resulting from layoff threats by a City administration in severe financial straits, but an executive of the Sanitation Department insists it is simply a matter of the difficulty in redeploying a somewhat reduced sanitation force — the workers are presumably willing but confused.