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Winnipeg, Canada, retains Slurpee title

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, July 10 (UPI) -- Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has named Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Slurpee Capital of the World for the 10th consecutive year.

The company did not release specific numbers of Slurpee sales, but said 20 percent more Slurpees -- the store's popular flavored crushed-ice drinks -- were sold in Winnipeg than the second place city, Calgary, Alberta, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

The third place city for Slurpee sales was Detroit.

"Slurpees are part of life for Manitobans and Winnipeggers," 7-Eleven Canada spokeswoman Sheila Calder said. "It's a huge achievement and something that all Manitobans alike should pat themselves on the back for."

Karl Copp, who oversees several 7-Eleven stores in Winnipeg, said the city's Mayor Sam Katz will receive an honorary Slurpee cup trophy to mark the city's achievement Friday at City Hall.

Chicago's old post office to be auctioned

CHICAGO, July 10 (UPI) -- The auctioneer handling the sale of the old Chicago Main Post Office says he is hoping for an opening bid of at least $300,000 for the property.

Rick Levin of Rick Levin & Associates Inc. said he is suggesting $300,000 for an opening bid, but there will be no minimum bid when the auction opens at 1 p.m. Aug. 27 at the InterContinental Chicago O'Hare Hotel in suburban Rosemont, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Levin said the U.S. Postal Service is committed to selling the building, which it vacated in favor of a new headquarters in 1996. The building was most recently used for filming the bank heist scene in the 2008 Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight."

The auctioneer said during a Wednesday tour of the building for members of the media the city of Chicago may bid on the building, but Jacquelyn Heard, Mayor Richard Daley's press secretary, said Chicago officials have "not expressed interest at all in that property."

The building, which is as much as 3 million square feet, holds nearly as much interior space as the Sears Tower and stretches for nearly two blocks, including a portion that passes over the Eisenhower Expressway.

Sleep Coach offered to aid insomniacs

NEWTON, Mass., July 10 (UPI) -- A company in Newton, Mass., says its new Sleep Coach will help insomniacs finally count some sheep through the use of a sleep monitoring system.

The company Zeo is touting its new Zeo Personal Sleep Coach as a tool to help get a good night's sleep thanks to the device's wireless headband alarm clock/sleep monitor that gathers vital information on an wearer's sleeping habits, USA Today reported.

After initially gathering statistics regarding a user's nightly sleeping habits, the Sleep Coach is combined with e-mails detailing the company's "7 Step Sleep Fitness Program."

Using the online program, a user chooses up to three goals ranging from having more energy the next day to awakening easier each day.

Users provide the program with additional information such as typical use of an alarm clock's snooze function, and the program offers a personal ZQ score that users monitor to help improve sleeping patterns.

USA Today said the only thing about the Sleep Coach, which was designed in 2003 by a group of Brown University students, that may disrupt users' sleep is its $399 price.

Woman carrying grasshoppers put off bus

BEIJING, July 10 (UPI) -- A woman with two cages full of grasshoppers was put off a bus in China because other passengers could not stand the large insects' serenade, the driver said.

In the incident -- reported Monday in Wuhan, the capital of China's central Hubei province -- the bus driver had to listen not only to the grasshoppers' racket but also to the screams of passengers for allowing the village woman to board the vehicle, China Daily said.

The driver's plea that there was no law against transporting grasshoppers fell on deaf ears and the woman was forced to step out of the bus.

The report identified the non-human noisemakers as the long-horned species.