Watercooler Stories

Coast cities are popular gay destinations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Gay and lesbian travelers rank San Francisco and Key West, Fla., as their prime destinations, a first-of-its-kind travel industry survey said.

Other top spots included New York; Fire Island, N.Y.; Provincetown, Mass.; Chicago; San Diego; Boston; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Chicago Tribune said Wednesday.

The national online survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travelers was the Travel Industry Association's initial attempt to capture travel information for this "historically underserved" market, said Laura Mandala, an executive with the Travel Industry Association in Washington.

"We know they are there but have we really done anything to ensure they feel comfortable, that they have a good experience?" she told the Tribune. "Some companies have, but overall we haven't really reached out to them."

The Travel Industry Association did try to quantify the size of the market, Mandala said, but it found gay men significantly outspend straight travelers when traveling alone.

First anniversary for U.K. same-sex rites

LONDON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Twenty same-sex couples are joining London's Westminister district council in a champagne reception celebrating the first anniversary of civil partnerships.

The guests of honor will be all 20 couples who tied the knot the first day the borough legally recognized same-sex partnerships, Dec. 21, 2005.

Since then, the borough has performed nearly 600 civil partnerships -- the highest number in London, and second in England only to Brighton and Hove, a town just west of Brighton, The Daily Mail reports.

More than 80 percent of the ceremonies were for men.

Percy Steven and Roger Lockyer were the first couple a year ago.

"When we emerged from the register office, it was quite extraordinary," said Steven, 67, a theater director. "Not only were there lots of media and TV cameras, but ordinary people driving past tooted their support. I thought how much the world has changed. It made me feel very proud."

"Because we had been together for 40 years, we thought it would make no difference, but we do feel different," said Lockyer, 79. "We feel 100 percent citizens now. We are equal to anybody."

Cell phones bling, are you listening?

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Ring-ring has become bling-bling as trendy, spendy Juicy Couture, Diane von Furstenberg and Dolce & Gabbana enter the U.S. cell phone market.

Companies are trying to inject fashion sense into technology and appeal to a market segment with style and buying clout -- women -- The Washington Post said Wednesday.

Women who have wielded serious purse-string control are buying all sorts of techno treats for themselves and their families, outspending their male counterparts, a Consumer Electronics Association survey reported.

It's not sexist marketing -- women have different preferences -- the Arlington, Va., organization said. Men prefer high-definition television while women more frequently use their cell phones and portable games.

"Women come to the table with a different sensibility when they talk about technology," the Post quoted Pat Houston, general manager of Yahoo Tech. He said women think less about the technology itself and more how the technology fist with their lifestyle.

Of course, if a black phone is all that's available, there is that "bling kit" of stick-on crystals.

Liposuctioned fat could be biodiesel fuel

OSLO, Norway, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- One person's liposuction is another person's biodiesel fuel, as a Norwegian businessman wants to use suctioned fat to develop an alternative fuel source.

Biodiesel can be produced from either plant oils or animal fat, and Lauri Venoy sees the product from liposuction procedures as a renewable energy source, Aftenposten said.

Venoy's firm in Miami is in negotiations with a hospital to give the company about 3,000 gallons of human fat a week from liposuction operations, which the company says is enough to produce about 2,600 gallons of biodiesel fuel.

In Norway biodiesel is primarily produced from fish oils and used fryer fat.