Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Swedes admittedly are cheaters

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Nearly all Swedes have abused the nation's public services and benefits systems, with one in six admitting they are serious cheaters, a study indicates.

According to the study conducted by two senior economists, 95 percent of the 1,257 Swedes polled admitted stretching the rules to maximize their take of government programs, The Local reported Wednesday. About 16 percent said they had seriously cheated, including claiming unemployment or sick benefits to which they were not entitled, the Swedish newspaper said.

Economists Stefan Folster and Fredrik Bergstrom also contend over-exploitation of the system is regularly hushed up by authorities.

"The Social Insurance Administration, ([employment office) AMS and the unemployment insurance funds have for decades presented serious underestimates of the extent of cheating and over-exploitation," they write.

"Government agencies and departments often hold back from highlighting the hidden reality, as it also reflects their failures."

'Chocolate Jesus' bittersweet for some

NEW YORK, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Plans to display "Chocolate Jesus," a life-size statue made of candy, in a New York art exhibit has left a bitter taste in some people's mouths.

While the director of the gallery where the "Chocolate Saints … Sweet Jesus" show will take place has defended the artistic work, the spokesman for the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property had another take on the Nov. 1 show, AM New York said Wednesday.

"It sounds pretty sick to me," society spokesman John Horvat said. "Obviously this man has an agenda. He's targeting very revered religious figures."

Along with creating a chocolate replica of Jesus Christ for his art show at the Proposition Gallery, artist Cosimo Cavallaro made eight other chocolate sculptures of Catholic saints.

"Depictions of Jesus in plastic or wood are what I find offensive," Cavallaro told AM New York. "With my work, you don't want it to melt, so you have to be more aware of the time you have with it. It's more alive."

Decals will help tourists find their way

NEW YORK, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Directionally challenged tourists exiting New York's subway system with no clue which way to go will get an assist from new sidewalk compass decals.

By installing the sidewalk compasses in four trial locations, the New York Department of Transportation hopes to determine whether they help visitors, or even local residents, make their way around Manhattan, the New York Post said Wednesday.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said the compasses may solve a problem that undoubtedly has afflicted most every New Yorker or tourist from time to time.

"Not a single person, native New Yorker or visitor, can truthfully claim that they have not, at least once, been confused as to which direction to walk when emerging from a subway station," Sadik-Khan said.

If the temporary compasses provoke a positive response, they could be replaced with permanent versions and the program expanded.

W.Va. official clarifies 'rednecks' line

CHARLESTON, W.Va., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A West Virginia official is trying to dig himself out of a hole he dug for himself by referring to "four-wheel riding, dope-smoking, alcoholic rednecks."

While Office of Education Performance Audits head Kenna Seal has stood by his "rednecks" comments in terms of how such a lifestyle can impede education, he said this week he had not been referring to the residents of Lincoln County, the Charleston Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

"I used those words, but I didn't call the people in Lincoln County that," Seal said. "I used those words to describe a lifestyle that I have noticed in places across the country and even in West Virginia."

Shortly after Seal made the ill-advised comment this month during a county school administration meeting, area education officials demanded an apology.

The Daily Mail said Seal did capitulate to that demand by writing a letter to the Lincoln School Board this week, apologizing for any use of an inappropriate stereotype.