Lazy Saturday Morning News Roundup

The Cost of Legacy Technology

AP:

CANTON, Ohio - A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone.

Art for Thought's Sake

Reuters:

LOS ANGELES - A live Asian elephant, painted in pink and gold, stands in a makeshift living room.

Giant cockroaches swarm over copies of Paris Hilton's pop CD. A dummy angel wearing a gas mask and a white parachute flaps in the blue skies.

Even in free-wheeling Los Angeles, they'd never seen anything quite like this.

Graffiti artist and prankster Banksy opened his first Los Angeles show on Friday in an obscure warehouse in industrial Downtown, bringing his subversive humour and anti-capitalist message to a city better known for wealth and self-obsession.

"Barely Legal," a free three-day event billed as a "vandalized warehouse extravaganza," opened with the excitement and puzzlement that has come to be the hallmark of the elusive "guerrilla artist."

...On one wall, a stencil art picture shows bush hunters in loincloths raising their spears at empty supermarket shopping carts. On another, a masked street anarchist with a thrown back arm prepares to hurl -- a bunch of flowers.

But the placid pink elephant takes pride of place. Tai, 38, looms large in a room decked out with a sofa, a television, rugs on the floor and a man and woman sitting reading obliviously on the couch. It is titled "Home Sweet Home."

Will This Be Included in the Tourism Guides?

AP:

VIENNA, Austria - Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings are urging residents to record how many droppings they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census.

A group that wants the droppings cleaned up said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

...the information provided by residents would help determine what parts of Vienna are most soiled by dogs and provide an overview of just how many droppings are out there on any given day.

It's Not Like It's Jon Voight's Car

Reuters:

NEW YORK - Warren Buffett's car is attracting some early buying interest, but so far isn't exactly flying out of its virtual showroom.

The charity auction for the billionaire investor and philanthropist's 2001 Lincoln Town Car on eBay Inc.'s Web site opened Tuesday at 6 p.m. EDT (11 p.m. British time) with a starting bid of $25,000 (13,300 pounds).

By 5 p.m. Wednesday, a bid of $27,500 by "nnoerper" was the highest of nine bids, topping the next highest bid by $100. The high bidder was not immediately available for comment.

...The Signature series Town Car has a light gold exterior and 14,000 miles on the clock. That model in outstanding condition might sell for close to $13,000 in a private sale in Omaha, according to Edmunds.com, but a Girls Inc. spokeswoman said Buffett's Lincoln has been appraised at more than $18,000.

...He will throw in the Lincoln's "THRIFTY" licence plate. To sweeten the deal, Buffett has agreed to chauffeur the winning bidder from Omaha's airport when it's time to pick up the car.

The auction ends on September 22.

And if you act now you'll get the floor mats, scented air freshener and rear view mirror dice at no extra charge!

New Found Free Time

The U.S. Census Bureau says commute times to work are down. Good news, huh? Yep.

Guess how much they are down by.

Nope. Lower. Lower... Ah, you'll never guess it.

The average commute is 0.4 minutes shorter than it was in 2000 -- shriveling up from a practically intolerable 25.5 minutes in 2000 to an unbelievably brisk 25.1 minutes in 2005.

So enjoy what amounts to an extra 48 seconds a day. Balance your checkbook. Plan a trip. Write the next great American novel. Heck, with an extra 48 seconds in your day anything is possible.

Myself? I'll be taking that time to use the rear view mirror to make sure I don't have anything in my teeth.

Behold the Power of Television

AP:

Researchers confirmed the distracting power of television — something parents have long known — when they found that children watching cartoons suffered less pain from a hypodermic needle than kids not watching TV.

I felt no pain throughout my childhood.

And You Thought Dumpster Diving Was Just for College Kids

This sounds like a great employee morale booster. Reuters:

Bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. advised workers to fish in the trash for things they like or take their dates for a walk in the woods in a move to help workers facing the ax to save money.

The No. 5 U.S. carrier, which has slashed most employees' pay and is looking to cut jobs as it prepares to exit bankruptcy, put the tips in a booklet handed out to about 50 workers and posted for a time on its employee Web site.

...The four-page booklet, "Preparing for a Financial Setback" contained suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."

...Prepared with the help of an outside company, the booklet encourages employees to manage their money better and prepare for financial emergencies.

"If you have saved some money, pat yourself on the back -- you deserve it," the booklet reads. "Take out only what you need and spend prudently."

How much did they pay the outside company for these awesome tips? Gee, couldn't you find the same thing on Google? Oh wait...why, yes you can!

Results 1 - 10 of about 553,000,000 for how to save money. (0.15 seconds)

Did anybody tell Northwest that they should sell space on their airsick bags?

Castro Illness

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senator Wednesday said President Bush told him the administration was caught off guard by the announcement Monday of Castro's illness...

"The president's comment was that everybody was caught by surprise, and we'll have to wait and see" what U.S. action is necessary, said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, of his White House meeting with Bush on Tuesday. "I think all of us can say we had no idea this was coming."

No! We didn't know he was ill?!? Didn't he have the decency to complain about stomach pains? Ask for some Pepto...? Something...