Kim Jong Un emojis parody Kim Kardashian’s app
A Houston-based web designer has created a set of emojis that poke fun at the Kim Jong Un regime, while mocking Kim Kardashian’s set of Internet icons that include the reality TV star’s breasts and buttocks. Designer Ben Gillin said he made the ‘Kimunji’ series as a parody of the “terrible” Kimoji series Kardashian’s web icons available for purchase.
“Kim Jong Un is obviously a terrible person, but in some respects what the Kimoji app is doing to society is also terrible,” Gillin said. Gillin added he hoped the series would get people talking about North Korea, but leaned more toward targeting the blatant commercialism of the Kardashian enterprise — her emoticons include drawings of her voluptuous body parts, and the app was a bestseller on iTunes in 2015.
“In no way do I want to downplay the human rights violations in North Korea — that’s super serious and oftentimes overlooked. But if my joke makes people look at it in a serious fashion, or look at it at all, then at least they’ve looked at it,” he said.
(UPI)
It’s ‘too cold’ for Ice Festival in New york
Officials in New York City cited cold weather as the reason to cancel the annual Central Park Ice Festival. The Central Park Conservancy announced the Valentine’s weekend event would be cancelled due to “extreme temperature and high winds” in the area.
The free annual event typically features lights and music as well as ice sculptures carved by local artists. The festival’s ice-sculptor-in-chief Shintaro Okamoto told The New York Times the cancellation is “a bummer” and insisted that similar events have been carried out despite extremely cold weather.
The Central Park Conservancy stood by its decision to cancel the festival, which will not be rescheduled despite forecasts of temperatures in the high 40s as early as Tuesday. “Safety is of the utmost importance to the Central Park Conservancy,” spokeswoman Jordan Jacuzzi said. “We have to take all things into consideration.”
(UPI)
Sea lion shows off its pool habitat using selfie stick
A sea lion at a a California aquarium used a selfie stick to give viewers a brief firsthand look at its environment. The 14-second video uploaded to YouTube was captured by Milo, a sea lion at Aquarium of the Pacific, using a GoPro mounted to a selfie stick created by a volunteer named Hugh.
“Just for fun I made a selfie stick for the sea lions,” Hugh wrote in a blog post on the aquarium’s website. “WhyIJ I just thought it would be neat to see a swimming sea lion from the same selfie stick perspective that surfers and other action sports athletes use to give a ‘you are there’ feel to their shots.”
The pole was constructed using a pipe with a float on the end that canceled out the weight of the camera. Hugh worked with Milo who quickly adapted to holding the selfie stick and was able to capture the brief tour of his pool habitat.
(UPI)
Spanish man skipped work for six years unnoticed
A Spanish man was fined after his employer discovered that he had been absent from work for six years without notifying anyone.
Joaquin Garcia, a 69-year-old engineer at a municipal water company in Cadiz, was fined more than $30,300 after his employer discovered that he hadn’t reported for work for six years while attempting to present him an award for 20 years of service.
The maximum fine represents only sightly less than one year of his annual salary of almost $41,600.
His employers at the water company believed he was being supervised by local authorities while Deputy Mayor Jorge Blas Fernandez thought the opposite to be true. “We thought he had been supervised by the water company but that was not the case,” he told Spanish news outlet El Mundo.
According to the BBC, local newspapers have given Garcia the nickname “el funcionario fantasma” or “the phantom official”.
Garcia said a combination of office bullying related to his family’s politics and a lack of work for him to do at the water company ultimately caused his extended absence. He did not report these conditions for fear of losing his job. He did occasionally report to work for brief periods of time but spent his days at the office studying philosophy.
(UPI)
Obama tells 6-year-old: ‘No direct contact with aliens’
US President Barack Obama recently answered a six-year-old’s hard-hitting question at a television show taping: “We haven’t actually made direct contact with aliens yet.”
Obama was questioned during a recent taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show by six-year-old ‘presidential expert’ Macey Hensley, and she asked the President about the legendary Book of Secrets. “That’s a secret,” the President quipped.
Hensley theorised the “secrets” in the book could include an answer to whether “aliens are real”.
“We haven’t actually made direct contact with aliens yet,” Obama said. “When we do, I’ll let you know.”
The President did not clarify whether indirect contact had been made with aliens through some type of intermediary.
(UPI)