Nudist air travel not cleared for take-off
Clothing-free cabin canned; typos foil bond scam; go gaming at the urinal
By Brian Tracey
Associate editor
updated 4:20 p.m. PT, Thurs., May. 22, 2008
Here's one airline cancellation we're actually glad to see: A German travel company said this week it has decided to scrap a special all-nude flight that had been scheduled for this summer.
According to Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper, the fully-booked July 5 flight was to be the first of many aimed at East Germans nostalgic for the nudism that was extremely popular and even encouraged under communist rule.
But OssiUrlaub.de, the firm organizing the trip to a picturesque Baltic Sea island, said it has had second thoughts after "moral objections'' in the media and from visitors to its Web site, a spokesman said.
The 50 people with tickets would have boarded the flight in the eastern city of Erfurt fully clothed, but once on the plane would have been free to undress and enjoy the rest of the journey stark naked.
They will now receive a full refund as well as a voucher for other products offered by the company, which normally caters to travelers who keep their clothes on, the firm said.
No word if the flight crew would have been unclothed as well. Now that may not have been such a bad idea — it would have prevented the pilots from flying by the seat of their pants.
Scammer needs spellchecker
Note to aspiring forgers — hire a proofreader. Or at least that's what a former Australian bank manager should have done after he was jailed for 12 months for possessing fake U.S. bonds supposedly worth $1.3 billion that were rife with typos and grammatical errors.
A jury in Brisbane found William David Wallader guilty this week of possessing nine counterfeit bonds.
Prosecutor Glen Rice told the court Wallader had been in discussions with a Turkish national about selling the bonds to the Turkish government.
But Rice said the plan was always doomed to fail because the bonds had numerous spelling and grammatical errors. "It's impossible to believe the notes would have survived scrutiny by the Turkish government," he said.
Wallader's lawyer Alan MacSporran agreed, saying the bonds were "transparently non-genuine."
This scheme also was transparently nonsensical.
Game gets you going
And you thought "Grand Theft Auto" pushed the limits: Two Belgian beer fanatics have launched a video game named "Place to Pee" that allows players to slalom down ski slopes or kill aliens while relieving themselves at urinals.
Werner Dupont, a software developer, and Bart Geraets, an electrical engineer, got the idea while drinking Belgian brews, they told Reuters Television at a local festival last week.
"This thing had to be invented by Belgian people and that's what we are," they said.
The 'Place to Pee' booth is designed for two users at a time and offers two games — blowing up aliens in outer space or skiing down a virtual slope. Gamers hit their target by aiming at sensors positioned on either side of the urinal.
So spectators better stand back, because we think the risk of collateral damage is high.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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