Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Smiley

Clothes off for take-off as German naturism takes flight

German holidaymakers will be able to indulge their love of naturism by taking to the skies nude on special flights being launched this year, a travel company said on Monday.

"In the former East Germany, naturist holidays were a much-loved way of spending the best weeks of the year," said the founder of OssiUrlaub.de, Enrico Hess.

"We want to make that freedom possible above the clouds too."

The flights are aimed specifically at former East Germans, nicknamed "Ossis" in German, who feel nostalgic for the naturism that was authorised and extremely popular under communist rule.

Heart - Black

"Pet" girl kicked off bus for wearing leash

LONDON - A British bus company has apologized to a girl who is led around on a leash by her boyfriend and describes herself as a human pet after one of its drivers threw her off a bus.

Tasha Maltby, 19, told British newspapers she was the "pet" of her 25-year-old fiance Dani Graves.

Bizarro Earth

"Tantric master" breaks ice record in NYC

New York - A man who calls himself a tantric master broke his own world record by standing engulfed in ice for 72 minutes.

Wim Hof, 48, stood on a Manhattan street in a clear container filled with ice for an hour and 12 minutes Saturday.

©(AP Photo/Rubin Museum of Art, Diane Bondareff)
In this photo provided by Rubin Museum of Art, Wim Hof, of the Netherlands, stands up to his neck in ice for an hour and twelve minutes, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, outside the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, during a successful attempt to break his previous world record for immersion in an outdoor ice bath. Known as 'The Iceman,' Mr. Hof controls his body temperature by the tantric practice of tumo and is the only non-Tibetan in the world to have mastered this art.

Eye 1

Couple Threatens Suit when Public Smooch Hits YouTube

An incensed Chinese couple, videotaped hugging and kissing on a subway platform, plan to sue the subway's operator after the video was uploaded to YouTube and other Web sites, attracting thousands of hits.

Einstein

Dough! Hapless thieves mistake bread for cash

MELBOURNE, Australia - Two Australian robbers thought they were hauling away a big sack of cash from the Cuckoo Restaurant, but it turned out to be bread rolls - and one of them accidentally shot the other in the buttocks during the heist.

Smiley

Man Spends Night Homeless As Sentence

Painesville, Ohio - A Salvation Army worker who was ordered by a judge to spend a night homeless for stealing a holiday kettle containing about $250 returned to court Friday with red eyes and red cheeks.

Eye 1

Hotel guest gets an eyeful in the night

A hotel guest got an eyeful in the middle of the night when he was delivered a human eyeball.

The eyeball had been meant to go to a hospital for a transplant operation, but was wrongly delivered to the hotel.

The guest, at a hotel in Hobart, Tasmania in Australia, was shocked when he received the foam box containing a single human eyeball.

Display

US: Angry Employee Deletes All of Company's Data

When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job - and with her boss's phone number listed - she assumed she was about to be fired.

So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years' worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million.

"She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."

©Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
A mug shot of Marie Lupe Cooley released by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Smiley

Using a Car Might Have Been Better...

A bank robbery suspect was arrested while waiting at a bus stop to make her getaway, police said. Channel Monae Gaskin, 22, was arrested Wednesday after a police officer saw her waiting for a bus and matched her to the description of the robbery suspect. She has been charged with robbery.

''That just wasn't too bright,'' Sandy Springs police Lt. Steve Rose said of the escape plan.

A woman went into a bank shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and demanded money, police said. She did not show a weapon.

Book

US: Library Gets Book Back After 57 Years

It's a novel but it's created a mystery - where has the overdue book been for the past 57 years? "We don't have records that go back that far," said Lori Belongia, director of the Marshfield Public Library. "We don't know who checked it out."

The book "Northern Lights" by Roger Vercel turned up in the book drop about a month ago.

Published in 1948, its most recent checkout stamp reads either March or May 10 of 1950.