Oddlyenough

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Oddlyenough

Sunday, 20 January 2019 | Pioneer

Oddlyenough

Texas sheriff uses cardboard deputies to deter speeders

A Texas sheriff is taking on speeders in his county by placing cardboard cutouts of deputies next to roads rife with lead-footed drivers. Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody tweeted a video showing one of the cutouts, which he said depicts one of the department’s real-life deputies, giving the appearance of a police presence next to a road in the Fern Bluff neighbourhood of Brushy Creek.

“It’s a creative way to solve a problem without really working the problem,” Chody told KTCB-TV. Chody said the cutouts, which depict the deputy pointing a speed-measuring radar device at the road, look like a real deputy at first glance.

“When you’re going 20, 30 miles per hour and you see the silhouette you’re immediately breaking slowing down and that’s exactly what we are trying to do,” Chody said.

He said the department tested out the cardboard deputies by placing them near school zones, with real deputies waiting nearby to observe the results. “We didn’t get one speeder; all these people were breaking before they got to the cut out or as they were approaching the cutout,” Chody said.

Costco selling 27-pound bucket of mac & cheese

Costco is appealing to comfort food lovers and emergency preppers alike with its latest product: A 27-pound bucket of macaroni and cheese. The wholesale retailer’s website is now listing the Chef’s Banquet brand bucket, which contains 180 servings of mac ‘n’ cheese packaged into separate pouches.

The unopened pouches have a shelf life of about 20 years, Costco said, earning it a spot in the retailer’s “emergency provisions” section, which also famously contains a $1,000 package of “emergency food” designed to feed a small family for an entire year. The mac ‘n’ cheese bucket is a comparative value at $89.99, coming out to about 50 cents per serving.

Beijingers vent their stress in ‘anger room’

It took Smash customer Qiu Siyu just a few sharp blows with a baseball bat to wreck what looked like an old car radio, after which two friends battered telephones, audio speakers, rice cookers and even a mannequin.

All three paid 158 yuan ($23) to spend half an hour in an “anger room” in Beijing, where patrons wearing protective gear use hammers and bats to vent their frustration on household objects while staff play music of their choice in the background.

Qiu, a bespectacled 16-year-old high school student with braces, said she was there to vent anger about school. “It feels so good when I destroy those bottles and watch them explode,” she said, smiling sweetly.

Since the venture opened in September, customers have smashed around 15,000 bottles every month, said 25-year-old Jin Meng, who co-founded Smash with her friends.

Not intended to promote violence, Smash aims to help people deal with the pressures of living in big cities like Beijing, Jin said, adding that their target customers are between 20 and 35 years old. Another customer, Liu Chao, 32, looked relaxed and pleased after his session. “If you have money, you can smash anything — smash some TVs, computers, wine bottles, furniture, mannequins, but the only thing you can’t do is to smash someone,” said Liu.

Similar ventures already exist in other countries, including the United States. Jin said around 600 people visit Smash each month. “A woman brought all her wedding photos here, and she smashed them all. We welcome people to bring their own stuff,” Jin said.

“Every time when we come across cases like this, they affirm our belief that we’ve provided a safe place to let out negative energy. And we are happy for that.” In Beijing, Jin said her next step is to open a new anger room in a shopping mall where people can take a break from their shopping to smash a bottle or two.

Surfer joined by pod of dolphins in California

A California surfer was unexpectedly joined by a pod of curious dolphins and their encounter was captured by a drone video. Craig Badger was using his video drone off the California coast, near Ventura, on Wednesday when he spotted a group of dolphins jumping out of the water near surfer Alden Blair. “Good times were had,” Badger wrote in posting the video to Facebook.

Blair, a Ventura County firefighter, said the dolphin encounter happened on his late grandmother’s birthday. “Can’t believe that this happened, and was caught on film by Craig Badger,” Blair wrote. “Fast forward to 45 seconds in to see me lose my mind.”

Woman breaks into police station, wanted to date cop

Police say a woman smashed her way into a closed Pennsylvania police station looking for an officer she’d been sexually harassing ever since he arrested her. Police say 27-year-old Ashley Keister, of Nanticoke, used a large cigarette butt receptacle to smash glass doors into the West Wyoming police building. Once inside, she started rummaging through filing cabinets. West Wyoming Police Chief Curtis Nocera says Keister had been under investigation for harassing an officer who arrested her last year. He says she sent sexually harassing messages on social media and would call 911 just to talk to him. The break-in was caught on surveillance cameras.

Keister was charged with aggravated assaulted on a police officer, burglary and vandalism. A message was left with her public defender seeking comment.

 

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