Watercooler Stories

Chicago ordinance would limit panhandlers

CHICAGO, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A Chicago alderman is proposing an ordinance that would slap fines of up to $100 on overly aggressive panhandlers.

The ordinance would ban panhandling at bus stops, on public transportation, in restaurants and sidewalk cafes and within 10 feet of a currency exchange entrance or an automatic teller machine.

Critics call it compassion burnout, but Alderman Burton Natarus calls it a quality of life issue.

"We don't want to stop people asking for money if they are homeless, but we're saying it you ask for money you have to do it in a reasonable way," Natarus, co-sponsor of the ordinance, told the Chicago Tribune. "If you become aggressive and pushy, that is interfering with someone's else's rights."

Panhandlers would face fines if they touched, blocked the path of, or used profane or abusive language to intimidate people they solicited.

Fallout over twins speech continues

NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Bush strategist Karl Rove reportedly has said he's ready to put whoever approved the Bush twins' New York convention speech "on a slow boat to China."

The New York Daily News, citing unnamed sources, reported Rove, who is widely acknowledged as the political brain of the Bush machine, was among those who were turned off by the twins's appearance -- though the blame belongs to the staff rather than to the girls.

In their remarks introducing their mother to the Republican National Convention delegates, the twins talked of the difficulties of being part of the youngest generation of one of the nation's most prominent political families and of the generation gaps that sometimes occur.

"Whoever approved this," Rove is quoted as saying, "I'm going to put on a slow boat to China."

The oldest generation, however, saw nothing amiss.

"I thought they were wonderful," former President George H.W. Bush told reporters. "They gave a great speech. Somebody's sniping at 'em today, but I don't know why.

"Those girls have never really kinda liked all the politics, but because of their love for their dad, they're out campaigning," the elder Bush said. "I think they did a superb job."

Odd extra-terrestrial radio signal heard

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Scientists looking for radio signals from extraterrestrials have zeroed in on one that has occurred three times since last year.

The signal was picked up by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, does not carry the signature of any known astronomical phenomenon, and does not appear to be the result of natural interference or noise, according to researchers who have studied its frequency pattern.

The signal originated from the region of space between the constellations Pisces and Aries, researchers told New Scientist magazine. Scientists are cautious about ascribing it to extra-terrestrial life, as it appears to be coming from a point in space where there are no obvious stars or planets for 1,000 light years around, and the transmission is very weak.

The Times of London quoted Dan Wertheimer, a radio astronomer from the University of California at Berkeley and the project's chief scientist, as saying researchers are not "jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it."

The analysis was conducted by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence program, or SETI, which uses millions of volunteers' home computers to analyze radio data.

British survey shows waistlines 'exploded'

LONDON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A British survey says women's waistlines have expanded more than six inches over the past 50 years.

At the same time, the report says, the typical bust and hips have grown by just one inch.

It would seem that as time goes by, the hourglass figure goes with it. Researchers say the fast food, couch potato lifestyle is to blame for the change in the typical female figure, the Telegraph said Thursday.

The authors of the study, which found that about 40 percent of people were overweight, believe men have ballooned just as much as women over the last few decades but are unable to make the same comparison because of a lack of data.

Philip Treleaven, the National Sizing Survey's director, said he was shocked by the results.

"We expected an increase," he said. "But the waistline has just exploded."