UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

University chalks one up for low-tech

URBANA, Ill., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- University of Illinois administrators have taken high-tech to a new but effective low by issuing school announcements with chalk on campus sidewalks.

The school in Urbana was getting only about 50 students a day registering for an emergency communication system that sends cell phone text messages and e-mails in the event of a campus crisis, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Monday, administrator Robin Kaler headed to the campus square known as the Quad, crouched down and began scrawling with a jumbo piece of purple chalk "Sign up now!!! emergency.illinois.edu."

Later in the day, 203 students and faculty had signed up, he told the newspaper.

"If you want to reach students, you have to use the method that's found to be most effective," said Kaler. "Talk about direct marketing -- they're walking on my message as I'm writing it."

The tactic isn't universally embraced -- chalking sidewalks is viewed as graffiti and banned at the University of Iowa and Washington State University, the report said.

Council: Famous graffiti still graffiti

LONDON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Works by the British artist known as Banksy may sell for thousands of pounds but officials in one London neighborhood say he is a vandal.

The Tower Hamlets council plans to remove Banksy graffiti from all walls in the neighborhood, the BBC reported. The neighborhood is east of the Tower of London.

"Tower Hamlets Council takes the cleanliness of the borough very seriously and is committed to removing all graffiti as soon as possible," the council said in a statement. "Whilst some graffiti is considered to be art, we know the many of our residents think that the graffiti in areas where they live, such as local housing estates, is an eyesore."

Officials said that they might consider selling Banksy graffiti instead of scrubbing it to raise money for local projects.

Banksy, an artist who guards his identity, began as a guerrilla armed with a spray can. More recently, Angelina Jolie reportedly paid $400,000 for a Banksy painting.

Bride floods wedding suite

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- An inebriated bride flooded a suite of rooms in Illinois when she hung her wedding dress on a sprinkler head and activated the emergency fire system.

The bride had just arrived from her wedding reception and was drunk enough to require help in getting to her room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hoffman Estates, Ill., the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald reported Tuesday.

At about 1 a.m. Sunday, she hung her dress and activated the system, flooding her fourth-floor suite and the one next to it with stinky, stagnant sprinkler water, the Daily Herald reported.

Water soaked through the floor and down an elevator shaft, damaging two rooms on each of the second and third floors below. The sound of the fire alarms evacuated the 184-room hotel, where seven weddings had booked rooms for the night.

The bride and groom fled and hadn't been heard from as of Monday afternoon.

"She definitely won't forget her wedding," Hoffman Estates Deputy Fire Chief John Mayer told the newspaper.

Prisoners put out fire, save prison

FYRESDAL, Norway, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A group of prisoners at Arendal Prison in Fyresdal, Norway, were rewarded after they chose to fight a fire rather than use the opportunity to flee.

Firefighters arrived about 40 minutes after the blaze was reported, but the flames had been extinguished and a prisoner sleeping near the fire had been rescued before they made it to the scene, Aftenposten reported Tuesday.

"I don't dare think what would have happened if the prisoners themselves hadn't discovered the fire and helped fight it," prison guard Daniel Trollsas said.

"We couldn't let such a nice prison burn down," said Ronny Stenberg, one of the prisoners who fought the flames.

"I've done time in a closed prison, I wouldn't wish that on anyone," Stenberg said. He said that was part of the reason prisoners worked so hard to save their prison.

The prison held a party for the prisoners in celebration of their heroism with cake and candy.

"About 10-12 years ago prisoners took responsibility and saved my life when one of the inmates went completely berserk and tried to kill me. Now I have had another chance to experience that this prison is full of so many good and reasonable people that when things get dangerous, it is the prisoners that take charge," Trollsas said.