Reminiscence and Recompense: Reuse and the Garage Sale

Among the mix of motivations that inspire people to sell and shop at garage sales is the desire to prevent the disposal of still usable goods. Sales can be so effective for redistributing consumer goods and reducing waste that numerous municipalities, such as Sunnyvale, California and Sydney, Australia, promote their sales through a community-wide staging. Lengthy corridor sales in the U.S., like that held annually on Route 127 (the “World’s Longest Yard Sale”), serve the same function, drawing positive media attention and promoting civic pride. But unlike the mundane act of recycling used papers and cans at the curb, making goods available for reuse at garage sales is an action loaded with personal sentiment. Second-hand purchases are often imbued with “sticky” emotional orientations (Ahmed 2010) and reminiscences. This article therefore examines the garage sale as a site for redistributing goods with emotions and histories attached. Participants derive some small recompense in the form of money made, the acquisition of inexpensive goods, and the self-satisfaction associated with reducing waste, but shoppers and sellers are also allied in a tug of war against the landfill to claim the future of goods, especially the storied items adopted by shoppers. Beneath their goal of cleaning out the garage, garnering some extra cash, or obtaining a bargain, participants assert that the reuse of and care for still serviceable goods is meritorious and morally praiseworthy. In the process of reuse, they enhance their moral selves and perform a good deed, however minor, by preserving both the stories of these objects and the embattled earth

ICESat-2 Bathymetry:Advances in Methods and Science

Since the 2018 launch of NASA's ICESat-2 mission, one capability of its Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) that has far exceeded expectations is bathymetric measurement. Although ICESat-2 was designed to generate surface-specific along-track and gridded data products, bathymetry was not a pre-launch science requirement of the mission. However, since launch, ATLAS has proven capable of bathymetric measurement to &gt;40m in very clear waters [1], and ICESat-2 bathymetry is being used in a growing number of science disciplines. Post-launch efforts have focused on bathymetric signal classification (sea surface, water column and seafloor) and correction for refraction at the air-water interface. Because ATLAS provides bathymetry only along discrete tracks, another area of focus is on integration of ATLAS data with relative bathymetry from multispectral satellite imagery-often referred to as satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB)-to obtain spatially-contiguous 2D bathymetric coverage. This paper synthesizes the latest algorithms, techniques and uses of ICESat-2 bathymetry, including collaborative efforts of the Bathymetry Working Group of the ICESat-2 Science Team, and recommends topics for future investigation.</p