Living Today: Issues of modern living

INTERNET TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

Internet telephone connections were supposed to make conventional public telephone networks obsolete, but they haven't.

Despite the money-saving potential, sending voice telephone calls over the Internet remains largely a niche service for technophiles and for people seeking cheaper international communications, The New York Times reports.

Internet calling currently accounts for more than 10 percent of international calling traffic, according to the research firm Telegeography.

"We expect a steady transition to Internet calling so that by 2010, nearly all calls will go over the Internet," says Tom Evslin, chief executive of ITXC, a company in Princeton, N.J., that is a leading carrier of Internet calls.

THE ULTIMATE CADILLAC

It's the most outrageous car to come out of Detroit since tail fins flew: a $250,000 Cadillac made entirely of aluminum, with a steroidal 1,000-horsepower, V-16 engine, Newsweek reports.

Bob Lutz, General Motor's vice chairman and chief of product development, says the car will prove, "We simply will take a back seat to no one."

Lutz's creation, dubbed the Cadillac Sixteen, is his boldest bid yet to make Detroit iron-hot again.

The design concept car is outfitted with silk carpets, a crystal Bulgari clock, smoked-glass roof, a chilled-champagne compartment and a leather rear seat that reclines into a bed.

It would cost GM $1 billion to put the car into production and at most, 1,000 of the mega cars could be expected to sell per year.

BRING YOUR OWN PEANUTS

United Airlines' belt tightening may result in its passengers' belt tightening, as well, as it scales back food service, USA Today reports.

High-paying first-class fliers used to steak dinners on fine china may wind up flying several hours without more than a snack.

On all of United's U.S. and Canadian flights except coast-to-coast routes, deli plates or salads will replace hot lunches and dinners in first- and business-class -- and coach passengers on the five-hour flights between the West Coast and Hawaii no longer will get even a sandwich.

Most carriers have slashed food spending since business travel began declining more than two years ago. America West starts a three-week test of selling meals on 12 flights.

TALKING MOVIE POSTERS

In Metroplex lobbies, movie posters that talk are emerging as the latest invention to spice up the evening's entertainment, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.

Walk up to a poster and James Bond's Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan leap into a full-motion, fist flying fury with a pulsating stereo soundtrack in the background.

The leaping into life posters are the idea of Stephan Fitch, the head of Thinking Pictures. Digital and Internet-based technology is at the heart of ThinkPix's motion posters, which are loaded with radar-like sensors or detectors that recognize when a person approaches.

Each "smart display" actually is a flat plasma screen coupled with custom-made computers and some off-the-shelf PC speakers.