Watercooler Stories

Web site sends text messages into space

LONDON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A British Web site is offering visitors the chance to broadcast text messages into outer space in hopes alien life forms will get the message.

Chris Thomason, co-founder of SentForever.com, said the Web site, based in Surrey County, England, uses a large satellite dish to transmit the text into the cosmos on radio waves, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"Lots of people believe we're not alone. They send messages saying 'I am here, I am ready', or 'Waiting for you to contact me,'" Thomason said.

"In space, radio waves travel forever or until they hit a solid body like a star or a planet," he said. "However, the radio beam gets wider and wider with distance so that if a star or planet in some distant galaxy was in the direct line, large amounts of the signal would continue straight past it."

50 failed school applicants told accepted

EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., said about 50 rejected applicants were mistakenly sent an acceptance e-mail.

Northwestern spokeswoman Megan Washburn said a "technological glitch" in Kellogg's system caused acceptance letters to be e-mailed to the rejected applicants, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

"It was not human error," she said. "It has never happened before. Our systems have been in place for years. We have never experienced a problem."

Washburn said Beth Flye, Kellogg's director of admissions and financial aid, began Tuesday to contact the rejected applicants who received the mistaken e-mails. She said the affected applicants will be reimbursed for their $235 application fee.

"Certainly we're very, very sorry," Washburn said. "It's an isolated incident and something we definitely have corrected and will work to ensure it never happens again."

Abe Lincoln turns in lost wallet

PERU, N.Y., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Police in upstate New York said a man named Abe Lincoln lived up to the honest reputation of his namesake by turning in a lost wallet he had found.

New York State Police said Raymond Hudson reported his wallet missing in the town of Peru Sunday, the same day he was scheduled to head home to Jamaica, WPTZ-TV, Plattsburgh, N.Y., reported Thursday.

Officers said they soon received a call from a man named Abe Lincoln who had found the wallet -- intact with $2,835 cash and Hudson's personal identification cards inside.

Police said they gave the wallet to Hudson's U.S. employer to have it returned to its owner.

Two officers face inquiry after complaint

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Two Florida police officers are under investigation after a diabetic woman said she was left alone and handcuffed in a transport while the van driver ate lunch.

Francesca Fretta said she was arrested Oct. 17 for failing to sign a speeding ticket -- a second-degree misdemeanor -- after arguing with the St. Petersburg police officer who pulled her over, John Douglas, about what she said was a mistake on the citation, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

"He wrote a Hyundai. I had a Daewoo," Fretta said. "When I tried to explain to him (the error), over and over again he keep asking: 'Are you refusing to sign the citation?'"

The arrest report said Fretta immediately fainted after her arrest and was taken to a hospital -- where Fretta said she was told while handcuffed that she had been diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes. Douglas then took Fretta to Officer Sandra Minor's prisoner transport van.

Fretta said in her complaint against Douglas and Minor that she was forced to sit in the back of the van while Minor waited to see if more prisoners would be delivered, the newspaper reported. The complaint says Fretta was left alone and handcuffed in the van for 30 to 40 minutes while Minor took a lunch break. She said she started blacking out due to stress and low blood sugar while she was alone in the vehicle.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said inquiries were under way after Fretta's lawyer filed the complaints.