Cycling economies
The TelstraClear Cycling Challenge next month includes an elite road race, the Solo Challenge - 110km, across the Harbour Bridge, for the seasoned riders ... And there is prize money for the winners. All good. But what our reader Amy couldn't understand is why the moolah was different for the blokes and the ladies ... Men have prizes for the first seven bikes home, totalling $2600. (1st = $1000, 2nd = $500, 3rd = $350, 4th = $300, 5th = $200, 6th = $150, 7th = $100). But for the women racers the only prizes are for the first five home and cash totalling $1400. (1st = $500, 2nd = $300, 3rd = $250, 4th = $200, 5th = $150). That's almost half the men's prize, which no matter how you look at it hardly seems fair.
Art disaster
An overzealous cleaner in Germany has ruined a piece of modern art worth £690,000 ($1.39 million) after mistaking it for something that needed a good scrub. German artist Martin Kippenberger's sculpture, When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling, was on loan to the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund. The work comprised a rubber trough under a rickety wooden tower made from slats. Inside the trough, Kippenberger had spread a layer of paint representing dried rainwater. He thought it was art: the cleaner saw it as a challenge, and set about making the trough look like new. A museum spokeswoman said the female cleaner "removed the paint from the four walls of the trough".
Pesky punctuation
