Around Town Around Town (July 28, 2004)

TAKING CARE OF THE PLANET . . . Stanford University will host a symposium Thursday to explore technologies leading to a sustainable environment. "We have two large challenges before us in the 21st century," said Richard Luthy, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and faculty advisor for the event. "(They are) how to provide the basic needs for society to function - in terms of food, water, energy, shelter and clean air - and how to do that in a way that preserves the basic cycles on Earth on which all life depends." The symposium is called "Planet X - Technology Innovations Toward a Sustainable Environment" and will be held 1-7:30 p.m. at the Arrillaga Alumni Center. Registration is required at http://soe.stanford.edu/alumni/planetx/.

MIDTOWN 411 . . . Midtown residents, do you ever get the urge to run out for more facial cleanser at 9 p.m. but you're unsure what your local drug store's hours are? Action-oriented shoppers would jump in the car and drive, all the while willing the store to be open. The more logically minded might look up the shop's number in the phone book, or dial 411. But for the technologically savvy, there is only one acceptable solution: Look it up on the Internet. Thanks to Sheri Furman, Web mistress for the Midtown Residents' Association, all of the businesses in Midtown Shopping Center at Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue are now on the Web, along with their hours, phone numbers, locations, Web addresses, managers' names and a handy-dandy interactive map. It's not exactly click-and-shop -- e-commerce is a whole 'nother kettle of fish -- but at least you won't waste any gas driving to a store when its "closed" sign is in the window. Check it out at www.mimi.com/mra/ and click on "Visit Midtown Businesses."

HP HP HOORAY . . . Hewlett-Packard Company and Office Depot are offering the deal of a lifetime for people whose electronic goods have come to the end of their useful lives: Free recycling. From now through Labor Day -- Sept. 6 -- Office Depot customers can bring in one electronic product per day, to be recycled at HP's U.S. recycling facilities in Roseville, Calif. and near Nashville, Tenn. The program will accept a range of information technology and digital-entertainment goods from any manufacturer, including desktops, notebooks, keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, handhelds, digital cameras, fax machines, desktop copiers, flat panel displays, monitors, TVs (27" or smaller), TV/VCR combos and cell phones. Is there fine print to the deal? Of course there is! Items that will not be accepted include TV consoles, furniture, laptop batteries, rechargeable batteries or electric appliances. So save that broken toaster for the next White Elephant gift exchange. The nearest Office Depot is in East Palo Alto, off East Bayshore Road.

GLOBAL THINKING . . .Wearing a native costume and dancing to the sounds of Brazilian music, San Carlos resident Roya Ansari will bring her interactive and educational program, Windows to the World, to Atherton Library's Reading Patch Club at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Ansari and her friend Souroor Milani recently brought a program on Greece to Keplers Bookstore in Menlo Park and she plans to entertain Palo Alto's youth in the near future. "Since the tragic events of 9/11, I saw a critical need to reach and educate our children about the world and how as individuals we can break the cycle of cultural misconceptions and not fear diversity but instead embrace it," says Ansari. Windows to the World, which started in Ansari's son's second grade classroom last year at the Belmont Oaks Academy, teaches geography, history and cultural diversity through music.

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