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A Love Motel For Dogs

12:00 pm in Daily Bulletin, Signature

Centives has reported in the past on restaurants and menus designed specifically for dog owners. Now entrepreneurs in Brazil have taken things a few steps further in launching a love motel for dogs:

  • The motel rooms have heart shaped mirrors, red mattresses, and mood-setting lighting.
  • Dog owners can pay $50 for a mating session where dogs can do things in privacy and comfort. Doggie beer costs extra. Spa services are available.
  • If the attempt to mate is unsuccessful then the motel can arrange for artificial insemination.
  • In addition to the on-call veterinarians the upscale motel keeps 35 staff on hand.
  • Other services available for pets in Brazil include a pet taxi that transports the animals, café’s that specialize in pet food (“beef-flavoured muffins”), $40-a-bottle perfume for dogs, and plastic surgeons willing to provide Botox injections to pets.

Read more about the hotel, the people behind it, and why one pet owner was impressed with the establishment over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution

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How Much is the TARDIS Worth?

9:25 am in Editorial, Top

Disclaimer: This is not the cost of making the TARDIS. This is an estimate of how much the Doctor could rent it out for.

That is to say, how much we think that people would pay for it. We’ve decided to go for a year-long hire of the TARDIS, and make a flying guess at what we would expect the market price to be. Roughly.

The easier bits first.

For one, the TARDIS is like a mobile translator. Wherever you go, the TARDIS allows you to speak fluently to local people. We’ve taken that to be equivalent to h Read the rest of this entry →

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Are Rising University Tuitions Justified?

9:00 am in Daily Bulletin, Signature

On Pileus, Marc Eisner takes a look at the argument that tuition costs have risen too much, too quickly. He argues that students are getting something in return for the higher fees:

  • The most striking thing about the evolution of the university experience over the years is the change in the services provided.
  • Not too long ago university students were given fairly limited support and complete freedom. They were expected to come to their own decisions and adjust their own schedules. Course catalogues had to be picked up, and advisors were rare. Moreover the living facilities were basic with community television rooms and bland food the norm.
  • Now students have PhDs helping them through every step of the university process. The advisor’s approval is seemingly necessary for every little decision. Living conditions have also significantly improved with personal televisions and computers the norm, meaning that the university has to provide cable and internet. The quality and variety of the food has also significantly increased.

Eisner concludes by noting that the inflation adjusted $5,500 tuition he paid for a year of education reflected the quality of service that he received. To read more about the differences in the college experience between the past and present, the political implications of this change, and how this is interpreted from the university’s perspective, click here.

Source: Pileus

Via: Newmark’s Door

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How People Are Getting Around Airline Checked Baggage Fees

9:00 am in Daily Bulletin

The New York Times reports that passengers are coming up with creative techniques to avoid check baggage fees imposed by the airlines. They include:

  • Travelling hundreds of miles to find airports serviced by Southwest Airlines or JetBlue – two airlines that don’t charge for the first checked bag.
  • Others have taken up using airline branded credit cards which give them a host of perks but require high annual fees.
  • An entire category of clothes with large pockets and plenty of storage room has become popular. Travelers are able to store a fair amount of things in clothing such as trench coats.
  • Some passengers have resorted to vacuum sealing their packages – something that can significantly shrink the size of packages. They better hope that security doesn’t try to open them up though.

To read about some of the other techniques that passengers might use, as well as what Congress is doing to make things easier for passengers click here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Cheap Talk

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Taxi Medallions: A Better Investment than Gold?

9:00 am in Daily Bulletin

According to the NY Times, this week two New York taxi cab medallions were sold for one million dollars each. Taxi cab medallions are plates that allow drivers to operate a cab inside the city limits, so in a city like New York the medallions can be worth a lot of money as shown. Some of the interesting takeaways from the article are:

  • The return value on the medallions from 30 years ago outperformed the stock market and gold
  • The amount of taxi medallions is occasionally increased, but rarely and by auction
  • When the medallions were first issued, they sold for what would have been $157.50

For that and more you can go to their article.

Source: New York Times

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