Watercooler Stories

British computer whiz re-invents bicycle

LONDON, July 13 (UPI) -- A 65-year-old British pioneer in microchips Wednesday unveiled a new folding urban bicycle that weighs just 11 pounds and fits in a locker.

Clive Sinclair's A-Bike was so named for its shape, and made its debut at the Design Museum in London. It is priced round $275 and, with practice, can be folded and dismantled in 15 seconds, The Scotsman reported.

The A-Bike was designed in London and is manufactured in China made from nylon reinforced with glass fiber, similar to material used in the aerospace industry.

While critics already pointed out its 6-inch wheels aren't suited to city potholes, Sinclair says cyclists with larger wheels are accustomed to avoiding potholes anyway.

Even before its debut, the A-bike won a "Distinguished Design from China" award. It is on display in Beijing along with the decades-old landmark Sinclair Executive pocket calculator, also on display in the New York Museum of Design.

Handbags become status symbol

WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Goodbye plain pocketbook -- hello designer handbag, whose U.S. sales have grown 20 percent since 2003 to an estimated $6.4 billion a year.

Not only are designer-handbag sales growing, the Washington Times reports, but the price of designer bags has skyrocketed, too.

Bags by top-of-the-line designers such as Chloe and Louis Vuitton can cost in the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. A Fendi bag -- complete with a crocodile "B" -- goes for $27,700 and is the most expensive handbag in the world, Forbes magazine reports.

Some analysts attribute the sales increase to designers making more eccentric handbags and to Americans' interest in upgrading everything from their coffee to their fashion accessories, the magazine reported.

"Five or 10 years ago, a handbag was pretty neutral. It was designed to match anything," says Pam Danziger, who specializes in marketing luxury products. "Today, they're highly distinctive and designed to go with a select group of things."

Employees at some upscale stores report seeing teenagers as young as 15 or 16 buying bags at close to $2,000 -- as well as men buying upscale bags for their wives and girlfriends

153 students rejoice after SATs found

NAPERVILLE, Ill., July 13 (UPI) -- There is joy in Naperville, Ill., after the Educational Testing Service found 153 SAT answer sheets that had been missing since May.

The missing answer sheets were found among thousands of boxes of testing materials at the ETS warehouse in New Jersey. They were supposed to go to a test-scoring service in Austin, Texas, the Chicago Tribune reported.

But the details are not important for 153 relieved students at Naperville North High School, who had been fretting over having to take the test again.

"I wish they could've found them sooner, but I'm not complaining," said Kristina Dakis, 17, who had been in SAT limbo. "I've very relieved, extremely relieved."

Mike Jermann, also 17, had celebrated after he finished the initial test, figuring: "I'll never have to take (the) SAT again." He was dreading the thought of a retake.

"I hadn't thought about math for a whole month," Jermann said.

An ETS spokesman says the mix-up is being investigated.

Top political strategists launch Web site

WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- High-powered Republican and Democratic strategists are joining forces to create a Web site they promise will elevate the level of political debate.

Mark McKinnon and Matthew Dowd, senior advisers in President George W. Bush's last two campaigns, are teaming up with Joe Lockhart, a Clinton White House spokesman, and Carter Eskew, a strategist in Al Gore's presidential campaign, The Washington Post reports.

Their Web site is named HotSoup.com to evoke a tasteful mixing of ingredients, the founders say. When it goes live in October, they say it will raise the level of public discussion on matters ranging from politics and business to sports and culture.

The founders promise, despite their partisan backgrounds, the site will be non-partisan.

"There is nobody who knows how broken the system is more than us," said Lockhart.

The founders say they intend to attract advertising from telecommunications companies, financial institutions, automakers and publishers.