Watercooler Stories

Job vacancies at the bottom of the world

MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The Australian government's Antarctic Division is finding it hard to recruit people to work on the frozen continent.

While the division says it has always been difficult to attract doctors to Antarctica, as in the case of the isolated outback areas of Australia, the main challenge now is to lure skilled tradespeople away from the nation's booming mining sector.

Antarctic Division Director Anthony Press told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. he is looking for people willing to to live in isolation and keen to experience something different.

The division is advertising for station leaders, physicians, chefs and a wide range of tradespeople to support scientists working in Antarctica.

"What we can offer people when they are sick of the heat, is a little bit of ice to work on," Press said.

U.S. facing 'first $1 billion election'

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Federal Election Commissioner Michael Toner warns the next race for the White House could result in the "first $1 billion election."

Toner said, based on increasing political costs, any candidate in the 2008 presidential race would likely need to raise $100 million this year to even measure up to rivals, the New York Daily News reported.

"The 2008 race will be the longest and most expensive election in American history," Toner said. "We're heading into the first $1 billion election."

The higher cost of the 2008 election could effectively double that of the 2004 presidential election, which saw President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, raise a total of $503 million for their campaigns.

Such a dramatic increase has officials calling for an alteration of fundraising regulations in what is seen as a broken political system, the newspaper said.

"The system is broken," said Common Cause spokeswoman Mary Boyle, whose organization supports public financing. "Until you cut the dependence between people who are running for office and the special interests who are raising money for them, you are going to have public policy that favors the special interests."

NYC receives $7,000 gift from housewife

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- An 84-year-old housewife who used to live in the borough of Queens gave New York City a donation of $7,000 earmarked for the city's poor.

Marguerite Drucker sent the large check to the city comptroller's office in November 2006 with a note saying, "Please find enclosed check for the poor of the city of New York. The city has been very good to me," the New York Post reported.

There was no return address, just the name on the cashier's check.

Drucker would not comment on her gift, but City Comptroller Bill Thompson told the Post, "She stands as a wonderful symbol of New York and all that's good about this city."

Drucker and her pediatrician husband moved out of Queens and the state in 1997. Former neighbors described her as "the best" and "just a normal person."

The check will be deposited into New York City's general fund, which funds various projects including support for the poor, the Post reported.

Modernist house razed in Westport, Conn.

WESTPORT, Conn., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A Westport, Conn., house designed by world-renowned architect Paul Rudolph was razed despite an attempt by the state attorney general to preserve it.

The house was torn down by construction crews Saturday on orders of the property's new owners, David and Yvette Waldman, the New York Times reported. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was unable to get a court order blocking the demolition because the home was not yet listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rudolph designed the 4,200-square-foot Modernist home in 1972. Its design was unconventional, resembling a series of cubes connected by short hallways.

An attempt by an owner of another Rudolph building to purchase the home was unsuccessful. Locals were upset that part of their town's heritage had been destroyed.

"An irreplaceable piece of our town, indeed our state's, architectural heritage has been consigned to a landfill. It's hard to fathom," historian Morley Boyd told the Times.