Watercooler Stories

Ohio man goes for world bowling record

MASON, Ohio, June 7 (UPI) -- A Mason, Ohio, man is waiting for word that he officially broke a world record by bowling for 64 hours and 22 minutes.

Dave Wilson went for the record Saturday night cheered on by 300 people at Eastern Lanes in Franklin Township as he earned $7,100 for the children's charity, Building Blocks Foundation, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday.

Wilson played 375 games and knocked down 59,615 pins in three days -- comparable to four years' worth of league bowling.

His personal trainer told the newspaper: "It was incredible to watch -- and it puts being tired into a whole new perspective."

The official record set by a man in Italy is 60 hours and 15 minutes.

It will probably take months for Guinness World Records officials to certify Wilson's feat.

Human version of Pac-Man developed

SINGAPORE, June 7 (UPI) -- Using a battery of high-tech systems, Singapore developers have created a human but virtual version of the classic arcade game Pacman.

Merging different technologies such as global positioning system, Bluetooth, virtual reality, wi-fi, infrared and sensing mechanisms, the augmented reality game allows players with a wearable computer, headset and goggles to play in a digitally enhanced maze-like version of the real world.

An entire system costs between $10,000 and $20,000, the report said.

Combining real and virtual elements, the game allows the human Pacman to see virtual cookies with the aid of the special headset which the player can eat by walking through them.

Ghosts devour players by tapping them on the shoulder when they catch up to them within the game area.

The system was developed by Adrian David Cheok and his team at the Mixed Reality Lab at the National University of Singapore.

Forgotten Dumas novel surfaces in Paris

PARIS, June 7 (UPI) -- French author Alexandre Dumas has been dead for 135 years, but his latest novel has just gone on sale in Paris.

The prolific writer penned some 200 books in his lifetime, including "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers," and somehow the latest one was overlooked after his death, The Independent reported Monday.

"Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine" is the story of an aristocrat opposed to the French revolution and fascinated with the emperor, Napoleon. It was rediscovered by a Dumas scholar, Claude Schopp, 10 years ago.

As with several other Dumas works, the story had been printed in installments in the Moniteur Universel newspaper in 1869, but never published as a book.

In the introduction, Schopp wrote: "It should not be a surprise if scholars sometimes find something which they were not looking for. They often search for things and find nothing."

Lowly flip-flop now high fashion

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., June 7 (UPI) -- Pity the poor flip-flop no more, with summery weather in much of the United States the pedestrian thong footwear is moving from the beach to the runway.

High fashion flip-flops are available in nearly every color and are being worn from the club to the boardroom.

"When designers started making them they moved out of the realm of shower shoes," Jackie Robbins, partner in the 5-year-old company FlipFlopTrunkshow, told the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Havaianas, high fashion flip-flops imported from Brazil, are the rage with celebrities in leather, with jewels, in velvet and even embroidered. Some translucent PVC flip-flops are scented by color -- yellow smells like lemon.

Actress Jennifer Lopez was seen in a pair of $24,000, 18-carat gold-feathered flip-flops, a gift from hubby Marc Anthony. More than 100 styles of V-strap flip-flops come from Old Navy, Banana Republic, Target, Abercrombie and Fitch, Urban Outfitters and discount stores, of course.