Why buy if you can rent?
"A power tie for a job interview, an educational puzzle for a teething two-year-old, a dress for a White House gala. A decade ago, we bought these items at the mall. Today, we rent them with a smartphone," The Washington Post reports. "Pay a monthly fee. Rent your object of desire. Return it when it bores or becomes useless. It's easy, on-demand, non-committal. Consumerism is being redefined for the mobile age, and the model is spreading among professionals and families in ways that were little anticipated, even by the venture capitalists funding this new era of co-operative capitalism. … 'I've been renting the tartan plaid ties that are trendy right now,' said Masai McDougall, 29, a lawyer at the D.C. office of Bingham McCutchen. 'It's nice to try out styles without having to spend 100 bucks on a tie.' "
Modern civility
"For all her family's generations of well-mannered breeding, Lizzie Post is not immune to the awkward moment," says The Christian Science Monitor. "She was out to dinner not long ago with friends and, as the hour grew late, the wine flowed and so did the foul language coming from her group. A man from another table came over and asked that they tone things down because he had children with him. 'I was really embarrassed,' winces Ms. Post, great-great-granddaughter of the legendary etiquette giant Emily Post. But not so for one of her tablemates. He said that it was the father who was out of line, that people curse, and that if the man wanted to take his children out in public, they'd better get used to it. Such is the state of American civility in 2012."
Do bears use tools?
"In July, 2011, Volker Deecke of the University of Cumbria, U.K., was on holiday in Alaska's Glacier Bay national park when he spotted a brown bear in shallow water," reports the New Scientist. "The animal picked up a small, barnacle-covered rock, turned it around a few times then rubbed the rock over its face for a minute. It repeated this with another rock. The bear was moulting, and had big patches of fur hanging off its skin. Moulting bears often scratch themselves with their claws, or rub their bodies against trees or rocks. 'The barnacles,' Deecke says, 'may have given that exfoliating feeling.' "
Penguin goes over the wall
"An aquarium in Tokyo is trying to locate an escaped penguin seen heading for Tokyo Bay," BBC News reports. "The escaper, a one-year-old Humboldt penguin, was spotted swimming in a river mouth in the Japanese capital. An official from the harbourfront aquarium said the bird appeared to have scaled a wall in its bid for freedom. The Humboldt penguin hatched last January and lives with 134 penguins in an enclosure at Tokyo Sea Life Park. 'We first noticed the penguin might have fled when the director of a neighbouring zoo e-mailed us Sunday with a photo,' park official Takashi Sugino told [Agence France-Presse]news agency."
Carrying a torch
"A Leeds woman who is attracted to inanimate objects says she has found true love – with the Statue of Liberty," says Orange News U.K. "Amanda Whittaker, 27, says she has fallen head over heels for the New York monument, reports The Sun. Ms. Whittaker, who had a love affair with a drum kit while still at school, said: 'She is my long-distance lover and I am blown away by how stunning she is.' The shop assistant has a condition called objectum sexuality, in which people fall in love with things rather than humans. She first fell for 'Libby,' as she calls the statue, when a pal in New York posted … a picture online. Since then she has visited the 151-foot statue in person four times, caressing it and leaning out of a window to kiss its hair."
The costliest year
"The economic cost of disasters in 2011," reports Associated Press, "was the highest in history – with a price tag of at least $380-billion [U.S.] mainly due to earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, a UN envoy said Monday. Margareta Wahlstrom, the secretary-general's special representative for disaster risk reduction, said the figure was two-thirds higher than the previous record in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the southern United States. In addition to the earthquakes, Wahlstrom said major floods in Thailand and other countries caused extensive damage."
Thought du jour
"Life is a game show where the people who enjoy it are the winners."
- Orson Bean (1928-), American actor