Archive for the ‘reuters’ tag
Paid to Pee #
To fight their public urination problem, officials in Musiri, Tamil Nadu, India are paying people to use the restroom.
Dozens of people are queuing up to use toilets in Musiri, a remote town in Tamil Nadu state, where authorities are succeeding in keeping street corners clean with the new scheme.
The urine was also being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertiliser, an official of Tamil Nadu’s agricultural university said.
The poor of Musiri, are earning upto a dollar a month and very happy to keep the street corners clean.
(via Neatorama)
American Tastes Change in Downturn #
Though I’m wary of most new organization playing with economics or statistics, this Reuters story qualifies for being both modestly interesting and completely plausible:
At U.S. warehouse club stores, a growing number of shoppers are giving up steak for cheaper chicken. Coffee sales are soaring at McDonald’s, while higher-priced Starbucks slows. Restaurants are serving fewer customers because more people are eating at home.
Stung by the housing slump, tightening credit terms, and rising inflation, U.S. households are finding ways to cut back, putting a damper on the consumer spending that is the driving force behind the economy.