Watercooler Stories

Women, Liberal Democrats favor Valentine's

LONDON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Women are significantly more enthusiastic than men in celebrating Valentine's Day -- by nearly 10 percent -- a British dating Web site indicated.

The survey by dating site FreeDating.co.uk asked 6,878 users how positively or negatively they felt about Valentine's Day and a statistician combined their answers with anonymized data from their dating profiles.

A person's political persuasion was one of the strongest predictors of favoring Valentine's Day, along with how politically active that person was. Liberal Democrats -- along with lawyers, Christians and women who don't read books -- were particularly positive toward Valentine's Day.

Tory (Conservative) and Labor (center and the left on the left-right spectrum, but excluding far left stances) voters were particularly negative to Valentine's Day, beaten only by atheists and scientists.

Married men looking to cheat on their wives were marginally more positive than Tory and Labor supporters, the survey found.

Other findings included:

-- Christians and Catholics are among the most positive, while atheists and agnostics are among the most negative toward Valentine's Day.

-- Occupation was statistically irrelevant, except for lawyers, who were extremely positive, or scientists who were extremely negative.

-- The more serious a relationship someone was looking for, the more pro-Valentine's they were.

No further survey details were provided.

$55,000 cupcake comes with diamond ring

MALVERN, Pa., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania bakery is teaming with a jeweler to offer a $55,000 cupcake that comes topped with an 8-karat diamond ring.

Cupcakes Gourmet in Malvern and Warwick's Jewelers in Exton said the red velvet cupcake is perfect for someone seeking a sweet way to propose marriage on Valentine's Day, CBS News reported Monday.

"We wanted to do a statement piece, that when people see it they would say 'Wow, I can't believe this is a $55,000 beautiful ring,'" said Brittany Burkland, marketing manager of Warwick Jewelers.

400-year-old witchcraft trial reopened

COLOGNE, Germany, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The trial for a woman burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft almost 400 years ago resumed Monday in Germany.

Katharina Henot was burned at the stake in Cologne in 1627 after being found guilty of practicing witchcraft, The Daily Telegraph reported.

She was arrested and tortured before being paraded through the city in an open cart before being tied to a stake and burned.

Now, a panel of city councilmen whose predecessors found Henot guilty of witchcraft hundreds of years ago will review the evidence, the British newspaper said.

The trial was instigated by Hartmut Hegeler, an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher.

It is suspected the Henot, head of the city's post office in her time, was accused of practicing witchcraft by her rivals, the newspaper said.

"We were taking about the witch trials in class and my students asked me if whether the judgment against Henot had ever been canceled and the answer was 'no,'" Hegeler said. "Katharina had her own reputation in high esteem; she would want to have it cleared."

At least 25,000 Germans, mostly women, were executed for allegedly practicing black magic between 1500 and 1782, the newspaper reported.

Towns and villages across Germany are now beginning to exonerate the names of those executed in an attempt to bring a belated justice.

Survey: Many Swedes believe in ghosts

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Twenty-one percent of people in Sweden believe in ghosts and 20 percent said they have had a spiritual encounter, a newspaper survey indicated.

Many of the 1,000 people who participated in the survey, conducted for the Svenska Dabladet newspaper, believe the dead walk the earth as ghosts and others said they have had contact with or felt the presence of ghosts, the Swedish news agency TT reported Monday.

The newspaper said people over age 65 were less likely to believe in ghosts, with only 13 percent of respondents in that category.

Liselotte Frisk, a professor of religious studies at Dalarna University, said the country is in the midst of a supernatural "renaissance."

"Many television programs address the supernatural and strengthen the beliefs that exist in our culture," Frisk said.

The Svenska Dagbladet said the survey was conducted by the Sifo polling firm.