New jewelry made from dismembered Barbies

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A New York designer says she was inspired to make a new brand of designer jewelry out of spliced apart Barbie dolls due to her own history with the toy.

Designer Margaux Lange said on her Web site that by slicing apart the popular plastic doll and her boyfriend, Ken, she was able to create a jewelry line featuring Barbie's dismembered body parts.

"Barbie dolls were extremely significant in fueling my creative life as a child," she said. "They were an invaluable tool for the expansion of my imagination then and, ironically, Barbie continues to be such for me as an adult."

"I am fascinated with who she is as a cultural icon, her distinguished celebrity status and the enormous impact she has had on our society."

The jewelry made from pieces of Barbie, a Mattel toy initially released in 1959, include necklaces made from Barbie's severed breasts and earrings made out of the doll's removed lips, ears and noses.

Other unique offerings from Lange include rings featuring half of Ken's face and bracelets that show off Barbie's trademark smile.

'Cloud computing' popular but confusing

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Cloud computing is one of the most popular yet confusing technological buzzwords used by society this year, an Austin, Texas, group said Thursday.

The Global Language Monitor said in a news release the term, which portrays the Internet as a cloud accessed through programs and services, is one of 2008's most confusing yet popular techisms.

Other top 2008 buzzwords, the group said, are green washing and, appropriately, buzzword compliant.

Green washing refers to the marketing of a product in a way that its flaws appear environmentally friendly. Buzzword compliant represents the use of new buzzwords in marketing to make a product appeal to customers.

Monitor President Paul JJ Payack said the three top phrases, along with equally confusing terms like de-duping and versioning, are becoming more immersed in general society despite a lack of understanding by most people of their true definition.

"The words we use in high technology continue to become even more obtuse even as they move out of the realm of jargon and into the language at large," he said.

Illinois man accused of burning toilets

CHICAGO, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- An 18-year-old man from Big Rock, Ill., allegedly set fire to a church bathroom stall and burned two portable toilets in a single night, police said.

Police in Cary, Ill., said Thomas J. Meehan allegedly set fire to a St. Peter and Paul Church bathroom stall on Oct. 10, before conducting similar arson with two portable toilets, the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights, Ill., reported Thursday.

Cary Police Detective Susan Ellis said an anonymous tip linked Meehan to the three fires, which caused limited damage and resulted in no injuries.

Ellis said Meehan allegedly admitted to the three acts of arson but offered no explanation for the motive for his crimes.

The Daily Herald said after being arrested last Friday on an unrelated criminal trespass charge, the suspected toilet arsonist was held on $70,000 bond pending a court appearance on the criminal charges.

Facebook gets 'sick' worker in trouble

GLOUCESTER, England, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A 22-year-old grocery worker in the British city of Gloucester says a posting he made on Facebook after calling in sick to his job has him in hot water.

Tom Stones said while he did call in sick for a recent shift only to go enjoy a night out on the town, he shouldn't be facing a disciplinary hearing on the employment matter, The Daily Telegraph said Thursday.

Stones said while he phoned in "sick" on a recent night to the Tesco station where he is employed, he didn't go out for the night until after his shift would have ended.

"I think it's a bit much -- a step too far. I wasn't out when I should have been working -- I didn't go out until 11 p.m. I phoned in sick but later started to feel better and went up town," he said.

A Tesco spokesman told the Telegraph the company decided to move forward with disciplinary measures after being told about a Facebook posting apparently by Stones reading "Tom had a good night xxx."

The unidentified spokesman denied that Tesco uses the social networking Web site to monitor its employees, the Telegraph said.

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