Strange Stuff: Weird Crimes, Crazy Laws, and Other Interesting News Stories - Page 214

Man Tries to Get Wife Drunk So He Can Use Facebook

Mar 22, 2012 10:08 AM CDT

Man Tries to Get Wife Drunk So He Can Use Facebook

When his plan doesn't work, he calls 911

(Newser) - Facebook, that destroyer of marriages , has come between yet another couple—who will find themselves apart for 60 days as Doyle Hardwick completes a little stint in jail. The Florida man's trouble began after he decided he just wanted to cruise Facebook in peace. But what to do with...

Wisconsin Town Pays to
Find Cause of Weird Booms

Mar 22, 2012 10:02 AM CDT

Wisconsin Town Pays to Find Cause of Weird Booms

Hopes an engineering firm can detect mysterious noises' epicenter

(Newser) - About 400 concerned and somewhat sleep-deprived residents of Clintonville, Wisconsin, showed up at a town meeting last night to discuss the mystery booms that have rattled the town three times this week. If they wanted answers, they both did and didn't get them. In the didn't category: Officials...

You Can Talk to Michael Lohan for $18 Per Minute

'dial-a-star'

Mar 22, 2012 8:43 AM CDT

You Can Talk to Michael Lohan for $18 Per Minute

Dial-a-star.com connects normal folk with D-list celebrities

(Newser) - If you've been just dying to actually speak to one of the Lohans, today is your lucky day: For $25 per minute, you can have a chat with Lindsay's mom Dina, or for the relative bargain of $18 per minute, her dad Michael. It's all thanks to...

Woman Fights Order to Pay Alimony to Her Attacker

Ex-Wife Fights Order to Pay Alimony to Her Attacker

Mar 22, 2012 2:00 AM CDT

Ex-Wife Fights Order to Pay Alimony to Her Attacker

Crystal Harris must also pay ex-hubby's $47K legal costs in sex assault conviction

(Newser) - A California woman is turning to the state legislature for help after she was ordered to pay alimony to the ex-husband convicted of sexually assaulting her. Crystal Harris, 39, told the judicial committee of the State Assembly yesterday that the 2010 court judgment "amounted to making a rape victim...

10 Places
Blurred on
Google Maps

10 Places Blurred on Google Maps

What is that weird blob in Siberia?

(Newser) - Google Maps provides a vast photographic atlas of the planet, but many locales are blurred out and hidden from the public because of security concerns by the country in question. Mashable rounds up 10 such spots you are forbidden to see with clarity:

Mystery Booms
Rattle Wisconsin Town

Mar 21, 2012 12:53 PM CDT

Mystery Booms Rattle Wisconsin Town

Clintonville residents shaken awake 3 times this week

(Newser) - Authorities are flummoxed as to the source of mysterious booms that reverberated again through the eastern Wisconsin city of Clintonville early today. No one has come up with a feasible explanation for the loud disturbances that shook people awake on Sunday and Monday nights, and rattled sleepers again as the...

Literary Squabble
Lands Guy in
Hospital

Mar 21, 2012 11:44 AM CDT

Literary Squabble Lands Guy in Hospital

Yep, alcohol was involved

(Newser) - An Ann Arbor man ended up in the hospital over the weekend after a heated argument about … books. The 34-year-old was at a party discussing books and authors on the porch with a group of people around 9pm on Saturday, AnnArbor.com reports. Another guest joined the conversation and...

Thanks to Twitter, Teen Gets Porn Star as Prom Date

Mar 21, 2012 9:44 AM CDT

Thanks to Twitter, Teen Gets Porn Star as Prom Date

Michael Stone, 18, tweeted nearly 600 adult film stars

(Newser) - Michael Stone is nothing if not perseverant: The Minnesota high-schooler had no prom date, so he started tweeting to every porn star he could think of, asking if anyone would accompany him. Almost 600 tweets later, the 18-year-old had two takers: Megan Piper, 19, and Emy Reyes. "I thought...

With Marmite Dwindling,
New Zealand Freaks Out

Mar 20, 2012 11:56 AM CDT

With Marmite Dwindling, New Zealand Freaks Out

It's Marmageddon! Earthquake shut down production of gooey black spread

(Newser) - It's a time of unprecedented national crisis in New Zealand, where supplies of Marmite—the black, nationally cherished goo—are running dangerously short. Dubbed "Marmageddon," the shortage is hitting even the highest reaches of government, with PM John Key noting that he has but a "very...

Woman Sets
Paragliding
Record ...
at Age 101

Mar 20, 2012 8:57 AM CDT

Woman Sets Paragliding Record ... at Age 101

She decided to do it because her 75-year-old son did

(Newser) - A 101-year-old Utah woman who ushered in her birthday with a tandem paraglide ride last year will soar into the record books today. Great-great-grandmother Mary Hardison has been officially recognized as the "Oldest Female to Paraglide Tandem" by Guinness World Records. She has supplanted a 100-year-old woman from Cyprus...

Earliest Spring
Since 1896 Is Here

Mar 20, 2012 5:47 AM CDT

Earliest Spring Since 1896 Is Here

Vernal equinox brings early first day of spring

(Newser) - Spring has sprung at its earliest in more than a century. At 1:14am EDT today, the sun's path across the sky intersected with the celestial equator, marking the spring equinox and the start of springtime—in an astronomical sense—in the northern hemisphere, and the beginning of fall...

Iron Man Made
of Urine Wins
$13.5K Prize

Mar 19, 2012 2:29 PM CDT

Iron Man Made of Urine Wins $13.5K Prize

Wong Tin Cheung takes home $13,500 for rancid masterpiece

(Newser) - When Wong Tin Cheung started peeing blood, he was inspired, and not in the time-to-go-to-the-hospital kind of way: A big Marvel comics fan, Wong realized that by combining the red urine with the normal yellow-hued sort, he could create a portrait of Iron Man, the unfortunately nicknamed Golden Avenger. The...

Celeb Bunny
Meets Untimely
Demise

Celeb Bunny Meets Untimely Demise

Earless German rabbit stepped on by cameraman

(Newser) - An earless baby bunny that was a rising star on Germany's celebrity animal scene had his 15 minutes of fame brought to an abrupt end when he was accidentally stepped on by a television cameraman. The fate of 17-day-old Til, a bunny with a genetic defect, was plastered across...

Hottest Item to Steal: Tide?

Or, maybe not...

(Newser) - The latest crime wave sweeping the nation: Tide thefts. Yes, that's Tide, as in the laundry detergent. The Daily reports it's stolen so often that some cities and stores are actually forming "special task forces" and coming up with Tide-specific security procedures to fight back. Why? Apparently...

Russian, Korean Scientists Look to Revive Mammoth

Hwang Woo-Suk, the man who faked human stem cell research, is involved

(Newser) - The woolly mammoth may be on the comeback trail, thanks to a deal signed today between prominent Russian and South Korean scientists to collaborate on efforts to clone the extinct prehistoric beast. Vasily Vasiliev, of the North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, forged the pact with controversial cloning expert...

Cops: Woman
Killed Herself
With Chainsaw

Mar 16, 2012 5:22 PM CDT

Cops: Woman Killed Herself With Chainsaw

Valerie Nash, 47, was discovered yesterday in Palms neighborhood

(Newser) - A Los Angeles woman was found dead yesterday after apparently committing suicide with a chainsaw. Police say Valerie Nash, 47, was discovered inside her home in Palms by her sister, "with a chainsaw wound on her neck," reports CBS Los Angeles . An LAPD sergeant says, “At this...

Man Gets Ticket After Cat Refuses to Go on a Jog

Mar 16, 2012 10:11 AM CDT

Man Gets Ticket After Cat Refuses to Go on a Jog

It couldn't keep up, so he tied it to a rock ... then birds attacked

(Newser) - A case of feline fitness gone wrong: Colorado police have ticketed a man who is accused of tying his cat to a rock after it refused to go jogging. Sgt. Fred Palmer says 19-year-old Seth Franco brought his cat on a leash to a path at a Lafayette park on...

Utah Boy, 8,
Takes Sis, 5,
on Joyride

Mar 16, 2012 5:37 AM CDT

Utah Boy, 8, Takes Sis, 5, on Joyride

Neither sibling harmed in late-night crash

(Newser) - An 8-year-old Utah boy and his 5-year-old sister were unharmed after crashing the family minivan on an ill-fated late-night trip to the store. Cops say the boy—who made sure he and his sister buckled up before setting out on their midnight mission—barely made it out of the driveway,...

Woman Strangled by
NY Train Station Escalator

Mar 16, 2012 1:44 AM CDT

Woman Strangled by NY Train Station Escalator

LIRR escalator had been slated for replacement

(Newser) - An 88-year-old woman was strangled yesterday on a Long Island Rail Road escalator that commuters said was malfunctioning for months. Irene Bernatzky was killed after she fell and her clothes became entangled in the treads of the moving stairs, investigators say. Officials say the escalator passed inspection last month after...

Overweight?
Blame It on CO2

study says

Mar 15, 2012 4:53 PM CDT

Overweight? Blame It on CO2

Research points to emissions' effect on our bodies

(Newser) - Why are we fat? It's just something in the air, researchers say—namely carbon dioxide. A Danish researcher found that subjects' weight gain over two decades matched the increase in carbon dioxide over the same period, the Daily Mail reports. What's more, between 1986 and 2010, American obesity...

strange stuff

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