From a factory worker with otherwise employed fingers to a manufacturer’s fixation with fruity bowling balls, here’s some offbeat industrial news from around the globe:

The Accidental Stowaway
A Milwaukee airport worker took an unplanned trip to Philadelphia after he was locked in the airplane’s cargo hold. Unknown to his fellow colleagues, he was inside loading a wheelchair when they sealed the door shut. While the trip was stressful, the airport worker was uninjured, says a spokeswoman for Midwest Airlines. The cargo area was heated and pressurized. “He knew where it was going,” Carol Skornicka tells the AP. “He tried to get somebody’s attention, but it didn’t work. When it landed, he jumped out of the airplane and asked for a cigarette.” He later caught a plane back to Milwaukee, this time riding in the passenger compartment. “He wanted to finish his shift,” says the spokeswoman. “We told him he should go home and rest.”
Source: Locked in cargo hold, airport worker takes unexpected trip
USA Today, March 26, 2005

The Scent of a Bowling Ball
Utah-based bowling ball manufacturer, Storm Products Inc., is putting a new spin on bowling balls. Forgoing traditional bowling alley aromas such as sweaty palms and cigarette smoke, it’s imbuing its mid- to high-end balls with fruit and other appealing scents. The result has been a healthy jump in sales, with more than half of the bowlers on the Professional Bowlers Association tour using them last year. Since its first scents–green apple and citrus–were introduced in 2000–the manufacturer has come out with about 40 different scents, including black cherry, chocolate, lemonade, plum, blueberry and amaretto. Several bowlers are attesting that its scented balls have actually enhanced their performance–helping them concentrate or just distract opponents. Storm is also looking into imparting scents on its lower-end balls, which are common in bowling alleys.
Source: Bowling Balls Come in Different Scents
Carrie Antlfinger
Yahoo! AP Strange News, March 14, 2005

Champion Texter
A Scottish factory worker has earned the distinction of being the world’s speediest text-messager after keying in a tricky message in record time. In just 48 seconds, Craig Crosbie, 24, punched out the 160-character message: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” According to Guinness World Records, he shaved off 19 seconds from the previous record–an accomplishment that Crosbie, who types out 75 messages a day, credits to practice.
Source: Factory Worker Crowned World’s Fastest Texter
Yahoo! Reuters Oddly Enough News, March 22, 2005

Hide ‘N Seek
Why wake up refreshed when you can wake up really annoyed? MIT’s Media Lab has invented a new alarm clock with a novel way of jarring perennial snoozers out of their slumber. Dubbed “Clocky,” the invention rolls off the bedside table when users hit the snooze button and scampers off on a set of wheels to a different part of the room, where it will lie in wait for 10 minutes before sounding the alarm again. Since it will pick a different hiding spot every time, snooze-happy sleepers will be forced to wake up the first time or else engage in a morning bout of hide and seek.
Source: Snooze button addicts defeated by runaway clock
New Scientist, March 26, 2005

Expect an Icy Reception
A Northern Ireland artist wants to commemorate the industrial history of Belfast–where the ill-fated Titanic was constructed–by dragging an iceberg into the city. Rita Duffy plans to let the iceberg slowly melt in Belfast Lough, thereby symbolizing hope in a memorable display of “performance art.” She is targeting 2008 for her project and is currently studying its feasibility with a local filmmaker before requesting funding.”It comes from the story of the Titanic…some people might see it in bad taste and I suppose some might find it amusing, but I actually see it as a deeply serious project,” she tells Reuters.
Source: N. Irish Artist Plans Titanic Iceberg Stunt
Reuters Canada, February 23, 2005