At 12:42 PM 10/4/01 -0400, Trei, Peter wrote:

[These tallysticks piled up in government archives, and were kept long after no one could read them (the dead media problem isn't new, either). In 1834 it was decided to dispose of them by burning, but the fire got out of control and burned down the Palace of Westminster]

That is the funniest thing I have heard today. CD's give off toxic fumes if you burn them.