Texas students don wigs in tribute to painter Bob Ross
There were lots of happy little trees at one Texas middle school this week. Art students at Madison Middle School in Abilene donned their curliest wigs and painted little trees onto canvases to pay homage to the late painter Bob Ross. Teacher Brady Sloane tells the Abilene Reporter News that the idea came about because she wanted to reward Advanced Placement students who had been stressed out over recent projects and grades. The result was a flash mob Thursday of about four dozen students who wore wigs, blue button-down shirts and held palettes of paint. An episode of Ross’ television show, “The Joy of Painting,” was projected onto a large screen. Ross gained a following for his soothing tone and soft-spoken voice. He died in 1995.
(AP)
Indonesia police apologise for using snake in interrogation
Indonesian police have apologised and pledged disciplinary action after officers draped a live snake around the neck of a suspect to persuade him to confess during an interrogation session in the easternmost area of Papua.
A video circulated online shows a man being questioned about stolen mobile phones seated with his hands tethered behind his back yelling in distress as a snake is pushed towards his face by an officer. The man, who can been seen writhing on the ground for much of the time is asked by an officer, “How may times have you stolen mobile phones?” The suspect later responds by saying, “Only two times.”
During the video, a voice can be heard ordering the man to open his eyes and at one stage threatens to put the snake into his mouth and under his trousers.
In a statement, Jayawijaya police chief Tonny Ananda Swadaya issued an apology, saying, “The investigator was not professional in doing his job”. Swadaya added that the officers had been acting on their own initiative to try get a confession, saying the snake was non-venomous and tame. “We have taken stern action against the personnel,” he said, adding the officers themselves had not physically attacked the man.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said the case was being investigated by the internal affairs unit and if violations of the law or code of conduct were proven action would be taken. Reports of human rights abuses by security forces often emerge from Papua, where a separatist movement has simmered for decades.
The former Dutch colony, the resource-rich western part New Guinea island, was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised UN-backed referendum in 1969. Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer focused on Papua, said by text message that using a snake in this way represented torture and was not a one-off incident in the area.
Koman said a snake had also been used in an interrogation of one of her clients, whom she said was a pro-independence activist. Papua police spokesman Kamal said he was not aware of another case.
(Reuters)
A dying disk: Warm weather deteriorates river’s wheel of ice
Maine’s giant spinning ice disk may soon meet its end because of unseasonably warm weather. The Portland Press Herald reports the disk in the Presumpscot River has lost most of the shape and appearance that made it look like a blue moon. Westbrook spokeswoman Tina Radel says that the disk was on the move Wednesday and that its “time may be limited.” The ice disk formed in early January, drawing crowds to the river’s edge and attracting attention online. It formed naturally where there is a circular current that creates a whirlpool effect. Radel says a webcam set up by scientists from Brown University that provides time-lapse photography of the disk will remain in operation through the spring.
(AP)
Art exhibit shows Ivanka lookalike vacuuming
A new art exhibit at a Washington museum shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up. The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, titled ‘Ivanka Vacuuming’, opened February 1 and continues through February 17 at the Flashpoint Gallery. The public is encouraged to “throw crumbs onto the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering.”
A large text description of the work hanging on the gallery wall describes Ivanka Trump as “a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities — daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde.” It calls the act of throwing bread crumbs onto the carpet for her to vacuum “surprisingly pleasurable.”
But Ivanka Trump and her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump criticised the exhibit on Tuesday as a sexist attempt to humiliate her. “Women can choose to knock each other down or build each other up. I choose the latter,” Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser, tweeted alongside a link to a story on the exhibit.
Trump Jr tweeted, “Sad, but not surprising to watch self professed ‘feminists’ launching sexist attacks against @IvankaTrump. In their crazed world, sexism is OK if hurts their political enemies.”
Eric Trump, on Fox News, called his sister a “powerful woman who has done more for women than probably anybody in Washington DC.”
The exhibit is presented by the CulturalDC arts organisation, and Executive Director Kristi Maiselman said her group is always happy to present “timely boundary-pushing installations” like this.
(AP)
