competition

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The 'Steroid Games' Might Be Gaining Some Steam

Aron D'Souza's Enhanced Games to allow athletes to compete without drug tests

(Newser) - A former Australian Olympian is coming out of retirement in an attempt to swim faster than he ever has—while openly on drugs. James Magnussen, 32, aims to beat the world record in the men's 50-meter freestyle, though his time won't be logged in any record book due...

Have You Gotten 'Whammed' Yet This Holiday Season?
39 Years Later, Wham!
Tops UK Christmas Chart
updated

39 Years Later, Wham! Tops UK Christmas Chart

George Michael wanted a holiday No. 1, Andrew Ridgeley says

(Newser) - The avoidance game that's all the rage apparently is not hurting the popularity of "Last Christmas," released by Wham! 39 years ago. For the first time, the song is top of the Christmas chart in the UK, the BBC reports. Andrew Ridgeley said the other half of...

Ever Wanted to Race Through a Bog? No? Keep Moving
Well, This Is an
Unusual Contest

Well, This Is an Unusual Contest

Ever wanted to snorkel your way through 120 yards of a Welsh peat bog?

(Newser) - If slogging through mud potentially infected with bacteria doesn't seem like a good idea to you, this will probably also fail your survival test: Intrepid athletes donned snorkels and slithered through slime over the weekend during one of Britain's quirkiest sporting events, the World Bog Snorkeling Championships. The...

Amid Air Raids, Ukrainian Group Preps for Eurovision

Tvorchi, featuring Andrii Hutsuliak and Jeffrey Kenny, will perform 'Heart of Steel' Saturday in UK

(Newser) - Last year, Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra took home the grand prize at Eurovision for "Stefania," just a few months after the Russian invasion that has upended life there since. Per NPR , there's now a "special spotlight" on Ukraine for its entry this year into the international...

UK Just Nixed the Biggest Tech Deal in History

Microsoft's $69B attempt to buy video game maker Activision scuttled over fears of stifling competition

(Newser) - British regulators have blocked Microsoft's $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard over worries that it would stifle competition in the cloud gaming market. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority said in its final report Wednesday that "the only effective remedy" to the significant...

American Idol Contestant Makes 'One of the Hardest Decisions'

Frontrunner Kenedi Anderson, 18, says she's dropping out of show 'for personal reasons'

(Newser) - She could've won it all. Just as she was becoming a household name thanks to American Idol, Kenedi Anderson is leaving the show "for personal reasons," she announced Monday on Instagram . "This has been one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but...

Report: Masked Singer Judges Exit After Giuliani Unmasked

'Deadline': Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke temporarily walked off the stage of Fox show in protest

(Newser) - In the third season of The Masked Singer, a Fox crooning competition in which famous contenders' identities are concealed by costumes and face coverings, host Nick Cannon exclaimed, "This might be the most shocked I've ever been on this show!" when Sarah Palin was shown to be...

'Something Went Terribly Wrong' on 'Extreme' Version of AGT

Daredevil Jonathan Goodwin severely injured after being smashed between 2 swinging cars

(Newser) - Maybe "extreme" versions of talent show competitions aren't a great idea. A stunt for America's Got Talent: Extreme, an NBC spinoff of the popular original, went awry on Thursday at Georgia's Atlanta Motor Speedway, and "it was so bad people on the set thought [the...

UNESCO's Plan to Rebuild From ISIS Doesn't Go Over Well

Critics of Mosul landmark getting rebuilt after ISIS destruction say plan ignores Iraq's heritage

(Newser) - A UNESCO competition to rebuild devastated landmarks in one of the world's oldest cities isn't going over well. The UN agency launched its "Revive the Spirit of Mosul" project after the Islamic State occupied the Iraqi city from 2014 to 2017, wreaking havoc on its heritage sites,...

US Going After Google in Landmark Case

Justice Department to file an antitrust suit, and implications could be far-flung in tech

(Newser) - The Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Google has been abusing its online dominance in online search to stifle competition and harm consumers, per the AP . The Washington Post also has the story, saying it "could have vast implications not only for Google but...

Teen Wins $250K for Malnutrition- Busting Tool

Inspired by her 3 siblings and an Ethiopian drought, Lillian Peterson aces Regeneron science contest

(Newser) - A high school senior in New Mexico has a bright future in STEM—and it just got much brighter with the announcement she beat out 40 other finalists to win a prestigious science and math competition. NPR reports that 17-year-old Lillian Kay Petersen of Los Alamos has taken home the...

Quest for Faster COVID Test Spurs $5M Contest

XPrize is offering big bucks to innovators who can come up with rapid-result virus testing

(Newser) - Last week, the Trump administration's point man on COVID-19 testing acknowledged that turnaround times for test results have been too slow , noting that "we are never going to be happy with testing until we get turnaround times within 24 hours." Now, a nonprofit hopes to help expedite...

House Panel Demands Bezos Himself Come Testify

Judiciary Committee investigating whether Amazon is cheating its own sellers

(Newser) - A recent Wall Street Journal investigation discovered Amazon.com workers had used proprietary data from independent sellers on the site to boost its own competing products, and that probe has now spurred a call to Jeff Bezos himself to appear on Capitol Hill. The Journal reports that the company's...

Andrew Lloyd Webber Offers Something to 'Lift the Spirits'

Win contest and you could sing for 13 seconds after 'Phantom' performance on Broadway or in London

(Newser) - Andrew Lloyd Webber has launched a virtual competition that could lead to one fan singing on Broadway or the West End when musicals resume playing. The composer has invited singers to make up their own tiny vocal showcase at the end of the song "Think of Me" from The ...

Investigation: Amazon Beats Own Sellers With Shady Tactics

'Wall Street Journal' says ex-employees admit looking at off-limits data on competitors

(Newser) - Amazon is selling more products under its own label as it directly competes against independent sellers on its own platform. The company swears up and down it doesn't peek at data deemed by those sellers as proprietary, but the Wall Street Journal reports the claim isn't true. The...

Need a 'Wonderful' Distraction During the Pandemic? Here It Is

Competitors invited to invent gadget that gets soap to your germy hands in 10 to 20 steps

(Newser) - We've been told to scrub our hands for a full 20 seconds to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. But can you think of a way to make the hand-scrubbing process even longer? That's the gist of the Rube Goldberg "Bar of Soap" challenge , promoted by none other...

This Is the World's Best Cheese
This Is the World's
Best Cheese

This Is the World's Best Cheese

Gruyere from Switzerland takes top prize at world's biggest cheese, butter, yogurt competition

(Newser) - A Gruyere from Switzerland has been named the world's best cheese, chosen from a record number of entrants from 26 nations in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. The cheese from Bern, Switzerland, made its maker, Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus, a two-time winner. Spycher also won...

Warren: Time to Bust Up Google, Amazon

Presidential candidate is going after the giants of tech

(Newser) - Elizabeth Warren wants a fair playing field in the marketplace—and she's going after Big Tech to make it happen. "To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last,...

Think Your Ex Is a Snake? Here's the Ideal Valentine's Gift
A Snake Needs
a Name: Your Ex's

A Snake Needs a Name: Your Ex's

Aussie zoo contest lets you explain why its resident reptile deserves your ex's moniker

(Newser) - The brown snake of Australia is among the most poisonous in the world, which is apparently why a zoo Down Under has decided to let you name one of them after your ex. That is, if you win Wild Life Sydney's Valentine's Day contest, which is giving competitors...

Six Flags Offers Macabre Challenge, With a $300 Prize

If you can tough it out in a coffin for 30 hours, your wallet could get a cash infusion

(Newser) - If you've been dying to take a 30-hour nap in a coffin and wouldn't mind getting $300 at the end of your repose, Six Flags St. Louis has just the Halloween-themed happening for you. Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , that's how much the theme park is offering...

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