Peace Officers Suspended Over Bikini Video Shoot
Two Utah peace officers have been suspended without pay over a risque video shoot featuring bikini-clad women firing high-powered weapons. The Utah Department of Public Safety imposed the discipline in December on Rob Wilkinson, a Utah Highway Patrol sergeant, and Justin Hansen, a State Bureau of Investigation agent.
The department released its discipline records last week after receiving a request to obtain them by The Salt lake Tribune. Wilkinson, who received a three-day suspension, and Hansen, who received a one-day suspension, were at the Big Shot Ranch when British bikini models posed for photos and were videotaped firing guns for a calendar. Records show the two were disciplined for conduct that brings discredit to an officer or agency.
(AP)
Urinators Beware! Walls In Germany Now ‘Pee Back’
leaders in the ‘party district’ of St Pauli in Hamburg, Germany, are discouraging public urination by covering walls in paint that “pees back”. The St Pauli Interest Community released a YouTube video explaining the most frequently-soiled walls in the district are being covered in a super-hydrophobic paint that causes sprayed liquid to bounce back in the opposite direction — causing public urinators to make a mess of their own pants and shoes. The walls treated with the paint are labelled with signs reading, “Don’t pee here! We’ll pee back!”
“It was a real annoyance that was growing and growing,” St Pauli Interest Community board member Uwe Christiansen, who owns several local bars, told The local. “We wanted to bring people to reason.” He said the move is being hailed by locals who were similarly tired of dealing with ‘Wildpinkler’. “I’ve seen in Facebook and the local newspapers that the reactions were very positive. People were just tired of the peeing on walls, home entrances and playgrounds,” Christiansen said.
(UPI)
Octopus Nearly Crawls Out Of Aquarium Display
A giant male octopus caught on a cellphone video scaling his glass display tank at the Seattle Aquarium and reaching several tentacles over its open top has sparked Internet speculation that the massive mollusk was trying to mount an escape bid. But aquarium officials say the octopus, named Ink, was not attempting a jailbreak in the video, which has gone viral on the Internet, but simply learning to embrace his new home with all eight arms.
“It was not an escape attempt,” aquarium spokesman Tim Kuniholm said of the video, in which Ink inched his way up the cylindrical glass tank to squeals from onlookers. “It’s a new exhibit and the animal was exploring his boundaries.” A Seattle aquarium employee later put Ink’s arms back inside the case, and a so-called “evening cap” was fastened on top to help keep the curious fellow in place, Kuniholm said. “Octopuses are very inquisitive by nature, and in this case ... Ink is an overachiever,” he said.
Ink is one of two new giant Pacific octopuses on display at the aquarium. Found in Puget Sound, they are the world’s largest species of octopuses, weighing on average about 41 kg and measuring 6.1 metres across. Kuniholm said the two male octopuses are kept in separate homes at the aquarium because the species is solitary by nature, with males and females coming together only to mate during their short three to four year lifespan. In the next year, Ink will be released back into the wild as part of an ongoing education and conservation programme for the species, the aquarium said.
(Reuters)
Man’s Elaborate 365-Day Proposal Video Goes Viral
Video of a man’s elaborate 365-day proposal to his girlfriend has gone viral. Dean Smith spent more than a year preparing to pop the question to his girlfriend, Jennifer Kessel, on her 26th birthday in Aruba. Smith videotaped himself each day for a year — starting January 8, 2014 — holding up a sign declaring his love for Kessel. “For the next year, I’ll show you how much I love you and that you’re in my thoughts every day,” he says at the beginning of the video. “I want to marry you.”
Smith then spliced the footage together in a video package for Kessel, who watches for the first time on the beach in Aruba. “The thoughtfulness that went into making this video is truly beyond any words that I have,” Kessel told The Huffington Post. “When I turned around and saw Dean standing in front of me, we both broke down in tears.” Smith said he decided to make his own proposal video because he saw how much Kessel loved watching them.
(UPI)
11-Yr-Old Boy Goes To School Dressed As Christian Grey
A British mother said her 11-year-old son was left out of his school’s World Book Day photos when he dressed as Fifty Shades of Grey character Christian Grey. Nicola Scholes, a teacher, said her son liam dressed in a grey suit and carried cable ties and an eye mask to Sale High School outside of Manchester, England.
Scholes said students and teachers were dressed in costumes for World Book Day, but school officials deemed liam’s costume “inappropriate” and refused to allow him to pose for photos with his classmates.
(UPI)