Uber is a new company, combining elements of a private-car service and simple taxi cabs, in an effort to make it easier for folks to get where they're going. Part of their model, however, could use some fine-tuning.

The company implemented a New Year’s surcharge that stuck San Francisco-based Uber user Dan Darcy with a $63 bill for traveling 0.73 miles. (That’s a rate of $86.30 per mile.)

You could probably get someone to carry you on their back for that rate. Uber calls this "surge pricing", and it could be a logical way to lower demand. Uber's ham-fisted way of presenting the whole thing, however, may help them reduce bring demand down to zero.

The article also mentions that Coca-Cola once tested a vending machine that raised prices when it was hot out. Now that is evil.

Previously, I wrote about Twitter's Raison D'Etre. Sadly, the faux-Michael Jordan account is gone, but there are plenty of other great accounts. Most recently, this single-joke gem provided a good chuckle. The dear-god-I-hope-it's-automated account consists of nothing but replies to users who type "sneak peak", when they mean "sneak peek".

It's a simple but good joke, with an amusing name (and a great avatar to go with it). It gets even better when you check out @StealthMountain's favorites too, to see all manner of indignant replies from the grammatically challenged.

Following a long legal dispute, a black church in South Carolina has been declared the legal owner of a building which currently houses a store peddling Ku Klux Klan merchandise.

Kennedy and his church had ownership of the building transferred to them in 1997 after the previous owner, a Klansman, quarreled with his fellow Klan members, particularly the store proprietor. The Klansman gave the building to Kennedy's church after the two developed a "spiritual relationship," according to the judge in the case.

Awkward.

How did a burglar in San Francisco elude police? By testing their patience, and his own endurance. Apparently, if you wait long enough in San Francisco, the cops will just give up and leave. As the first comment notes, "That's some fine police work there, Lou".

In similar news, Dallas has effectively decriminalized theft under $50.

PayPal has had many, many issues over the years. Google for "PayPal sucks" and you'll find a plethora of horror stories where the company has frozen funds, frozen whole accounts, and worse. Unfortunately, PayPal is also very popular when it comes to Internet sales. After a dispute with a buyer, one unfortunate seller found out PayPal's policy on disputes may require the item in question to be destroyed. That sounds like a bad policy no matter what, but it's particularly egregious when the item is a decades-old violin:

Great work, PayPal.

After fighting one of the greatest evils the world has ever known, approximately 5,000 Irish soldiers returned home to find themselves blacklisted, outcasts in their own country. Incredible.

As one year ends and another begins, far too many sites decide to catalog "Best Of" lists. Perhaps the best list is actually this one, which catalogs picks for the least important story of 2011. One such example?

TMN Editor Leah Finnegan
Some rich people got married.

“Denver cop fired for driving drunk at 143 mph wants job back.”

"No."

If you take down your Christmas decorations and decide to recycle a broken set of lights, they might just wind up back in your life, as slipper soles under your feet. This article in The Atlantic tells the strange story of Shijiao, China, a city which recycles over 20 million tons of Christmas lights each year.

Yet another rumor related to the disappearance of former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa has come to light. This time, the sensational claim is that Hoffa was buried in the concrete foundations of Detroit's tallest building, the Renaissance Center.

“When Tony Jack passed the middle point of the bridge . . . he nodded toward the huge tower’s foundation,” Humphreys writes.

“Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys,” he said.

If you bury someone below a 700-foot-tall tower, he's going to stay buried.