“A Special Occasion”

A “bouldering” gym in Twin Cities, Minnesota is putting a twist on rock climbing by offering beer. Twin Cities Bouldering allows patrons to rock climb with no harnesses and ropes – aka bouldering – and now they’re partnering with local breweries for the ultimate time out.

The site is owned by Vertical Endeavors who’ve worked a permit to serve alcohol into their lease agreement. Jonathan Prestrud, a member of Vertical Endeavors thinks combining beer and bouldering is a climber’s norm. “That’s a very climber sort of (thing),” says Prestrud. “Climbers would go out and climb for the day, and after you’d be camping and usually drinking beer.”

Don’t expect an all day party though. Development manager Noal Ronken says beer on site won’t be an everyday thing, “but more of a once a week event partnering with local breweries.” They’ve already partnered with Indeed Brewing Company in Northeast Minneapolis and plan to partner with more. Twin Cities Bouldering will also serve wine on occasion.

“Legal to Live”

On the freezing cold Norwegian island of Longyearbyen it’s legal to live… but illegal to die. The law has been instated since 1950 all because it’s just way too cold. Around that time, bodies that were buried in the local cemetery weren’t decomposing due to the freezing temps.

In the 2000’s, scientists investigated further and found that those buried there that died of the 1917 influenza still carried live samples of the virus. The virus literally froze alive. Thanks to those findings, no one else can be buried there for fear of it spreading to its 2,000 inhabitants.

So what happens if someone is to die? The island doesn’t even have elderly care facilities, so anyone on the brink of kicking the bucket gets transferred to the main land. Usually they’ll spend their remaining days in Oslo. Longyearbyen does allow cremated urns to be buried in its graveyard, but no one bothers to risk it. Other things that are banned on the island include giving birth and cats to protect the Arctic bird population.

“Kangaroo Cyrotherapy”

Dave the Kangaroo of the Bronx Zoo is about to make like Stranger Things’ Eleven and receive cryotherapy. If you’re unfamiliar with the process, basically you get submerged into freezing cold water to help with pain management. The little guy is nearly 15-years-old and suffers from arthritis. Zoo director Jim Breheny says he has “stiffness in his joints” and they’re beginning to ache. The zoo has decided this would be the best treatment and it will be documented on Animal Planet’s “The Zoo.”

STUPID CRIMINALS:

• A Florida teacher was arrested after attacking another woman for wearing short shorts to their children’s baseball practice. Terry Lee Coursey first made a comment about the woman wearing short shorts to the practice then reportedly punched the victim and then tackled her when the fight escalated. She’s pleaded not guilty to a first-degree misdemeanor charge of simple battery and has been suspended from Clay High School where she works.
• Linda Tracy Gillman of Salt Lake City is being charged for the third time with hiring a hit to kill her ex-husband Duanne H. Gillman. The last two times she’s made the attempt were from jail. While in the Salt Lake City Jail, she asked another inmate to do the deed and believed he was part of a white supremacist gang. Gillman’s attorney Collen Coegergh argues that she was solicited by the “hit” who was after her money, but the jail has it that she tried to hire someone three weeks ago after she tried mailing a check to an inmate for $155,000. She also tried having audio recordings of her confession and plot destroyed. On top of previous charges of criminal solicitation and attempt to obstruct justice, she’s now charged with two more counts of criminal solicitation and two counts of obstructing justice. Her new charges bring her bail to $2.5-million.