· At noon today, The Dude will announce the first of 500 Big Belly solar-powered litter baskets in Center City, pictured at right in all of their “What-the-hell-is-that-thing” glory. But trust us, this is good news:

[...] solar-powered litter baskets are cost effective and more efficient than our traditional litter baskets. They will reduce overflowing, decrease the number of collection trips and cut related fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. It has the capacity to hold 200 gallons of trash (normal city trash cans hold 55 gallons) and can operate for a week on the energy it takes to make a pot of coffee.

And that’s not all: Between now and July, 210 of the Big Bellies are gonna have Little Buddies — recycling baskets — right next to them. (The technical term for them is not Little Buddies, but really, that’s what they are.

· The Mann Center for the Performing Arts just announced that, contrary to earlier statements, they will be running the full schedule of their planned Philadelphia Orchestra concerts this summer. The series of nine concerts will begin at the end of June, and free lawn tickets — seriously the best cheap summer date in town — will be available once again. (There’s also some rumblings about an “exciting new dining experience” at the Mann that we’ll have an update on soon on Phoodie.info.) For more, check the Mann’s website.

· And finally, mad Philadelphians on Time‘s list of the 100 Most Influential People In the World: John Legend, Tina Fey and Sister Mary Scullion. So proud!

So there you have it: The world is not totally made of shit. Have you got some good news? If so, send it to tips[at]philebrity[dot]com with “GOOD MOTHERFUCKING NEWS!” in the subject header — we’d love to hear about it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 11:53 am.