Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Workplace slackers also energy drains TORONTO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A Toronto electric utility claims workplace slackers not only waste time, but huge amounts of energy by leaving lights and computers on to make them look busy. Advertisement The survey commissioned by Toronto Hydro found nearly one in 10 Toronto workers -- most of them less than 34 years old -- leave lights or computers on to give the impression they're working. Conservative estimates are that some 1.3 million people work in office-type settings with computers in the city of Toronto, meaning 130,000 people "slack off" using electricity. The average computer uses about 120 watts, and the annual cost to run an average computer and monitor for 24 hours a day is about $168. Task lighting or desk lamps use another $50 per year if left on all the time, and the utility said from an office expense perspective, equipment left on needlessly can represent millions of dollars in electricity costs. Advertisement Podcasts thinning college lecture halls CHICAGO, Oct. 20, (UPI) -- Attendance at U.S. university lecture halls is declining as more institutions offer lectures via the Internet for downloads to MP3 players. Supporters say podcasts help students who miss a class or want to review the material, while professors "score points" for being flexible and being hip, the Chicago Tribune said. At Drexel University in Philadelphia, a chemistry professor assigns podcast lectures, recorded last semester, for homework, then uses class time to review problems. At the University of Michigan, lectures can be automatically delivered to dentistry students' computers or portable devices. Taking it even further, at the University of Hawaii, hundreds of students in a computer science class are required to show up at a lecture hall only twice a semester -- for the mid-term and final exams. Erica Carlson, a professor podcasting her lectures at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., said the technology hasn't changed her two-hour lectures. "We run the course just like we did before. Just now it is more accessible," she said. Pig kiss protested for animal rights FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A "kiss the pig" fundraiser at a Florida law school has animal rights groups concerned but the event will go on as planned. Advertisement The Nova Southeastern University chapter of the national law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta said it will hold it's fifth annual "Kiss the Pig Charitable Fundraiser" despite complaints from the school's dean, professors and an animal-rights student group. The money, about $400, is given to the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood. In the past, professors are given a piggy bank and students donate money. Whoever has the most donations has to kiss a pig the students get from a local petting farm. Dean Joe Harbaugh wrote in a condemning e-mail he witnessed a visibly shaken pig at the previous year's event. The school's Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter agreed the antics violated the pig's rights. The event wasn't canceled but Harbaugh urged professors not to participate. Phi Alpha Delta said this year's event would still go on, with some modifications. The piggy banks will be given to students instead of professors and one bank will be marked "No Kiss," giving the animal rights groups a chance to save the pig from a smooch. Man cybersquats on anti-racist site MARBLEHEAD, Mass., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts cyber-squatter who controls an anti-racism Web site says he will move out as soon as the founder convinces him her group is non-profit. Advertisement Lisa Cherniak of Artists Against Racism told the Boston Herald she started the site in 2001 in response to a neo-Nazi group in Toronto. She said that she inadvertently lost control of it when she took ill. Russ Goodwin of Marblehead, who told the Herald he controls about 4,000 domain names, said he did not realize he had caused any hardship for Cherniak until he talked to a reporter. While cyber-squatters generally try to get payment by registering desirable online real estate, he said he would donate artistsagainstracism.com back to its founder as soon as she proves her non-profit status.
