school tells cheerleaders to wear leggings with skirts
An Idaho high school wants its cheerleaders to wear leggings or sweatpants under their uniforms. The decision by the school in the northern Idaho city of Post Falls came after teachers at the high school reported some girls’ bottoms were sometimes visible when uniforms were worn to class on the day of football games or other sports matches, said Dena Naccarato, director of programmes and instruction.
A long-standing policy in the district’s dress codes requires skirts no shorter than mid-thigh, but that had not been strictly applied to cheerleaders in the past because no incidents raising the issue had occurred, she said. That tradition changed this year amid reports of exposure at the high school. “We can’t have anatomy showing,” Naccarato said.
(Reuters)
Alaska Airlines misplaces its own CEO’s luggage
The head of Alaska Airlines, which proudly touts a baggage delivery guarantee policy, made an embarrassing confession — his own airline misplaced his luggage. Chief Executive Bradley Tilden admitted on stage at an airline summit in Washington, DC, that his own airline misplaced his luggage on his flight to Washington and it was delivered to him the next day.
Tilden said the airline lost his luggage on one other occasion, 25 years earlier. “The media is here and I’m hoping that you don’t write this down and print it,” the los Angeles Times quoted him as saying.
Alaska Airlines offers a guarantee pledging customers will receive their luggage within 20 minutes of reaching their gates. The airline said customers whose bags aren’t returned in time are awarded a $25 credit toward a future flight or 2,500 miles toward the airline’s reward programme.
Tilden did not say whether he will claim the compensation. A 2014 report from IT firm SITA indicates lost luggage was at an all-time low last year after steadily declining in recent years.
(UPI)
ResearcherS put sea turtles in swimsuits for fecal samples
Researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland dressed sea turtles in homemade swimsuits so they could collect the animals’ feces for research. Owen Coffee, a PhD student at the school, said he was trying to collect fecal samples from six captured loggerhead sea turtles so he could analyse their diet with an aim to identify their foraging areas for conservation purposes.
Coffee, who is being assisted in his project by University of Queensland researcher Carmen da Silva, said his plan ran into a snag when he realised how difficult it was to retrieve the samples from the turtle tank at the Moreton Bay Research Station.
“It was challenging to collect the entire fecal sample once it dispersed into the water,” Coffee said. “So we developed a flexible funnel anchored to the shell, to fit over the turtle’s tail. But this was not a good answer either. Because the animals are so large, it was difficult to keep the devices in place.”
Dr Kathy Townsend, the station’s education coordinator, told Coffee about a previous project that involved creating flexible harnesses from swimsuit material to help study the vision of sea turtle hatchlings. Coffee said he modified some second-hand sun shirts to act as harnesses for the “giant nappy.” The turtles’ swimsuits were removed after the samples were collected and the animals returned to the wild in Moreton Bay.
(UPI)
Minions sign at village taken down amid safety concerns
The village of Minions, England, removed a sign featuring the yellow cartoon creatures of the same name amid safety concerns from people stopping to snap photos. The sign, erected in May at the entrance to Minions as part of a deal with Universal Studios to promote the Despicable Me spinoff film, features three of the cartoon characters posing with the town’s name and holding a sign reading, “Please drive carefully.” The sign proved popular with travellers, as evidenced by the dozens of pictures posted to Twitter featuring motorists stopped to take photos with the sign.
Cornwall Council said the sign was never meant to be permanent. “The sign was erected as a temporary measure to celebrate the release of the Minions film and was paid for by the film company,” the council said. “It is being removed and returned to the firm as agreed.”
Some local businesses had lobbied to keep the sign to help boost tourism, but Carl Hearn, linkinhorne Parish Council chairman, said they were concerned about motorists’ safety.
(UPI)
Potter fans ‘trying to free’ Dobby with socks in london
Harry Potter fans taking the Warner Bros Studio Tour in london are “trying to free” Dobby the house elf by placing socks outside his glass case.
A picture posted to the Hogwarts logic page on Twitter — and retweeted by series author JK Rowling — shows the glass case holding one of the puppets that portrayed the house elf in the Harry Potter film series with socks draped over the accompanying plaque.
Fans might remember the scene toward the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when the series’ protagonist tricks villain lucious Malfoy into freeing Dobby by handing him a sock.
The film explains a house elf can only be freed from its service if its master gives it a gift of clothing.
Other Potter fans on Twitter posted more pictures of Dobby’s burgeoning sock collection, with user @katiethekools posting a shot of herself leaving one of the socks for the beloved house elf.
(UPI)