Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

This week in the Netherlands, a seal takes a nap in a hotel room in Vlissingen. (Video)

Belgian parliament approves coalition agreement after 40-hour marathon debate. Quick google translate:

After a debate of more than forty hours, the Belgian parliament has approved the coalition agreement of Prime Minister Bart De Wever. "Is this way of debating really still appropriate in this day and age?", De Wever wondered during the debate.

The debate started on Wednesday morning at 10:00. The vote on the coalition agreement did not start until around 2:30 in the night from Thursday to Friday. As expected, all coalition parties voted in favour of the coalition agreement. This meant that a majority of 81 members of parliament approved the agreement, while the 66 opposition members voted against it.

The debate was not even that long due to doubts as to whether a majority of parliament would approve the coalition agreement. It took so long mainly because the members of parliament responded extensively to each other and to the new ministers.

At the start of the debate, all party leaders had forty minutes to respond to the government statement. However, because other members of parliament continually interrupted them, that time quickly ran out.

For example, N-VA faction leader Axel Ronse stood on the podium for six hours straight. That took its toll. After two days and nights of meetings, he almost lost his voice.

De Wever criticizes parliament for long debate

Prime Minister De Wever (N-VA) was only able to start answering questions from parliament after 28 hours on Thursday. At the start of his term, he asked: "Is this way of debating still appropriate in this day and age?"

And members of parliament also complained in the corridors about the long debate. They also applauded after De Wever's statement, which the prime minister did not entirely like. "You do realize that you are applauding yourself, don't you? Everyone participates in this, in the sketch that this is. But the sketch always continues."

After De Wever had completed his contribution on Thursday afternoon, thematic debates of the ministers also took place. The vote did not take place until late at night.

The members of parliament certainly did not have to stay with the debate the entire time: the seats were often empty during the debate while politicians took a nap behind the scenes. But some politicians tried to get as much of the debate as possible. For example, Ronse only missed half an hour due to "a power nap", De Standaard reports.

Boy, 13, arrested at hospital for 'impersonating a doctor' after turning up wearing scrubs and fake ID

Police have now confirmed officers attended the hospital and a child was initially arrested, but later dealt with by means of 'words of advice'. No further action will be taken.

Thank god my habits are of the liquid variety, otherwise I would be in trouble. Can't imagine what I would be thinking if I rolled up to a big pink human looking thing in a tree!

Downtown Boston’s Outdoor Winter Art Exhibition

Toronto Chipotle Strava challenge ends in spicy controversy

The promise of free burritos for a year had hungry Torontonians running in circles–literally. On Jan. 31, Chipotle’s Strava challenge wrapped up after a month of intense competition, with runners vying to complete the most laps around a designated Chipotle restaurant to claim the title of Local Legend. Toronto’s challenge came down to the wire, with an unexpected twist, as one runner vaulted to the top of the leaderboard in the final hour to claim the win–even though 10 days earlier, he’d indicated he was injured and would withdraw.

Canadian Running’s own Marley Dickinson believed he was leading by about 150 segments when, on the final day, with just 40 minutes left in the challenge, Jérôme Sakoun uploaded 230 segments and was declared the winner.

Is it cheating to post stuff about the US government?

Task forces monitoring foreign influence and Russian sanctions disbanded