DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
FOR SALE? The US state of Montana highlight in red, abuts the southern border of Canada. PICTURE: TUBS (licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0)
• A petition calling for the US to sell the state of Montana to Canada for $1 trillion to reduce America’s national debt has gone viral on the internet. The petition, on Change.org, was placed on the website by Ian Hammond (although it was apparently first posted on Reddit by ‘Christian Moms Agaisnt [sic] Public Education’) and had garnered more than 9,700 signatures when we checked. A comment on the petition reads: “We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Just tell them it has beavers or something.”
• Drivers in the Australian state of Queensland will soon be able to include emojis on their vehicle number plates. Five emojis – representing “laugh out loud”, “wink”, “sunglasses”, “heart” and “smile” – will be available from next month for custom plate purchases. The emoji must be accompanied by three letters and two numbers but there are already some fears they could make it harder to identify vehicles.
• The owner of a US comic book store is giving it all away to whoever writes the most compelling essay on the subject “What makes a great comic book store?” Carmelo Chimera, owner of Chimera’s Comics in Oak Lawn, has invited people to submit an essay of no more than 500 words (and they must also pay a $US25 application fee) for their chance to win the store and its inventory. Applications are being accepted until 28th February or when 2,000 applications are submitted.
