Watercooler Stories

DIVORCE LINKED TO TEEN SHOPPING

Adolescents and teens with divorced parents could be prime candidates for the "affliction" known as compulsive buying.

A marketing study by Xavier University, based on 900 adolescents and teens, finds the disruption caused by divorce -- including an increase in stress, loss of income, change of household and less quality time with parent -- can lead to more shopping.

"There is a definite correlation," says Jim Roberts. "Divorce impacts teen shopping behavior."

Roberts suggests compulsive buying may be a coping mechanism for adolescents and teens during a difficult life transitions.

MIXING FUEL OIL AND SOYBEAN OIL

Purdue University researchers have refined a method for producing home heating oil -- adding soybean oil and conventional fuel oil -- called soybean heating oil.

This oil blend can be used in conventional furnaces without altering existing equipment, says Harry Gibson, one of the developers of the process.

The idea came from a winning entry submitted by a team of Purdue undergraduates in the 2001 New Uses For Soybeans Student Contest. The mixture was further developed by Gibson and his colleagues.

Replacing just 20 percent of the fuel oil used in 2001 with soybean oil could have saved 1.3 billion gallons of fuel oil and have been a boom to American farmers, according to Gibson.

U.S. NO LONGER SAFEST NATION TO DRIVE

The United States has fallen from first place in to ninth as the safest place to drive, because of rollovers by sport-utility vehicles, more speeding and more driving while under the influence of alcohol.

"Here we are losing 43,000 people a year," said Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. "If we had that many people die in aviation accidents, we wouldn't have an airplane flying. People wouldn't put up with it."

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge said a survey shows that if "everybody buckles up, we can save between 7,000 and 9,000 lives a year."

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates 3,500 fewer people would die each year if 60 percent to 80 percent of SUVs, minivans and pickups on the road were replaced with cars or station wagons, the New York Times reports.

NEW DELHI WEDDINGS CAUSING TRAFFIC JAMS

On the day Hindu priests decreed was most propitious for marriages this year, an estimated 12,000 weddings were attended by about 500,000 people in New Delhi.

"All the major planets like Saturn and Jupiter alongside the new moon are suitably configured to make Nov. 27 the most auspicious day for weddings," says Pankaj Khanna, an astrologer. "Couples married on this day are guaranteed happiness by the gods."

The government enacted emergency powers to prevent a massive traffic jam, as hundreds of thousands joined in marriage processions led by ornately dressed bridegrooms riding white stallions and sometimes escorted by a line of elephants, the London Telegraph reports.