strange stuff

From strange crimes to strange celebrity deaths, read all of the latest weird and strange stuff news stories on Newser.com

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Is Millionaire Who Adopted Girlfriend Committing Incest?

And should John Goodman be prosecuted for it, Terry L. Turnipseed wonders

(Newser) - When Florida millionaire John Goodman adopted 42-year-old girlfriend Heather Laruso Hutchins, he may have successfully protected his assets. But did he set himself up to be criminally charged with incest? Incest is, after all, defined as sexual relations between close relatives—even adopted ones, Terry L. Turnipseed explains on Slate...

15 Oddball US Town Names
 15 Oddball US Town Names 
Feb 12, 2012 1:43 PM CST

15 Oddball US Town Names

One-way ticket to Toad Suck, please

(Newser) - There are so many towns in the great expanse of the United States that a few of them are bound to have absurd names. ( The little Irish town of Effin isn't the only spot struggling with a name that makes us say, "Huh?") BuzzFeed runs down...

For Icelandic Lovers, an Incest Database
 For Icelandic Lovers, 
 an Incest Database 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Feb 12, 2012 12:07 PM CST

For Icelandic Lovers, an Incest Database

Íslendingabók tells Icelanders if they're related to their dates

(Newser) - An Icelander's pre-date checklist: Put on a nice shirt, buy some flowers … run date's name through incest database? It sounds crazy, but with Iceland's population at just 300,000, the risk of accidentally romancing a relative is high. Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders,...

Your Cat's Poop May Be Blowing Your Mind

Jaroslav Felgr's quest to study Toxoplasma gondii

(Newser) - Jaroslav Flegr has a theory: Cat poop is rewiring the human brain, including his own. The Prague-based biologist has been pursuing the theory since the early '90s, but he's only recently beginning to garner scientific respect, with some of the biggest names in neurobiology backing him up, the...

British Cop Chases Suspect: Himself
 British Cop Chases 
 Suspect: Himself 
in case you missed it
Feb 11, 2012 7:00 PM CST

British Cop Chases Suspect: Himself

Security camera confusion leads to hilarious pursuit

(Newser) - For 20 minutes, an undercover British police officer intrepidly tracked a suspicious person in an area recently hit with a spate of burglaries. Unfortunately, the officer was chasing himself. How? An operator watching the street via security camera alerted the plain-clothes officer of a suspicious person in the area—not...

Earth&#39;s Oldest Living Thing Is...

 Earth's Oldest Living Thing Is... 
in case you missed it
Feb 11, 2012 7:15 AM CST

Earth's Oldest Living Thing Is...

Giant seagrass, called 'Posidonia oceanic,' likely at least 100K years old

(Newser) - The 43,000-year-old Tasmanian plant once identified as the planet's oldest living thing turns out to be a relative youngin'. At up to 200,000 years old, patches of giant seagrass in the Mediterranean have taken the top slot. Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of the Posidonia oceanic to...

Angry Dad Shoots Daughter's Laptop

Tommy Jordan punished daughter for criticizing parents on Facebook

(Newser) - YouTube's star of the day, for better or worse: A North Carolina dad named Tommy Jordan who posted a video of himself repeatedly shooting his daughter's laptop after she criticized her parents in a Facebook post, notes Mashable . “That right there is your laptop,” he says....

Get Engaged at Pizza Hut ... for $10K

 Get Engaged 
 at Pizza Hut ... 
 for $10K 
happy valentine's day?
Feb 10, 2012 10:40 AM CST

Get Engaged at Pizza Hut ... for $10K

Posh package even comes with a $10 dinner box

(Newser) - If you're more interested in being memorable than romantic, and happen to have a significant other that you'd like to spend the rest of your life with, you may want to propose to her ... at Pizza Hut. Because for a mere $10,010, the Hut promises to show...

UK Fugitive Since 1993 Became Missouri Cable Guy

'Fast Eddie' Maher, alleged thief, caught after 19 years

(Newser) - Nearly two decades ago in England, one "Fast Eddie" Maher allegedly stole an armored car packed with $1.6 million in coins and bills. Now Edward John Maher has finally been caught—in a Missouri town, where he was working as a cable guy, the Kansas City Star reports....

Now Illegal on LA Beaches: Frisbees

 Frisbees Are OK 
 on LA Beaches 
UPDATED
Feb 9, 2012 5:04 PM CST

Frisbees Are OK on LA Beaches

As are footballs; just try to use a little common sense

(Newser) - After a media flurry, the LA county supervisor would like to clarify: It's fine to toss around a Frisbee or a football on local beaches—"as long as you do it responsibly." Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky writes at his blog that county officials were "baffled" that an...

Telecommute or Shower? 12% Pick Telecommute
Telecommute or Shower? 12% Pick Telecommute
survey says
Feb 9, 2012 1:23 PM CST

Telecommute or Shower? 12% Pick Telecommute

Perhaps more disturbingly, 5% choose telecommuting over their spouse

(Newser) - Apparently telecommuting is very important to some people. So important, in fact, that a new survey shows 5% of people would get a divorce in exchange for the chance to work from home. Other than marriage, what else are people willing to give up in order to telecommute? LiveScience reports...

Kids Battle Millionaire Dad's Adoption of Girlfriend, 42

John Goodman defrauded court, blindsided teens' mom: court filing

(Newser) - The wily multimillionaire who recently adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend —in what experts say is an attempt to shield his assets from the family of a young man he is accused of killing while driving drunk—faces a new opponent in court: his teenage kids. A guardian acting on their...

Teacher Febrezes 'Stinky' Student

Newfoundland boy sprayed for smelling fishy

(Newser) - A teacher in a Newfoundland fishing village put a student out in the hallway for a period and sprayed him with Febreze—for smelling fishy. The mother of 10-year-old Christian Robertson said he was teased by other students after having fried fish for lunch, and then bullied by his teacher....

Nuns Fight Next-Door Strip Club

Owner of 'gentlemen's cabaret' promises to be good neighbor

(Newser) - A group of nuns in suburban Chicago aren't happy about their naughty new neighbors. A huge strip club is being built next door to the sisters' convent complex, which includes a home for elderly nuns and one for young nuns-to-be, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The nuns complain that they...

Teacher Uses Robber, Gun to Teach Kids Spelling

Parents shoot down lesson plan

(Newser) - How do you spell G-U-N? That's the lesson a 5-year-old girl brought home, complete with a picture of a pistol-packin' bank robber escaping with a bag of cash. "The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh no no no,’ I don't want you reading it, I...

Russia Putting Dead Man on Trial

Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, accused of tax evasion, died in police custody

(Newser) - For the first time in its history, Russia plans to prosecute a dead man. Police intend to bring to trial the tax-evasion case of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in custody in 2009, reports the New York Times . Russian authorities claim they reopened the case so Magnitsky's supporters...

Things Congress Talks About: Caribou Sex

Texas' Louie Gohmert says Alaskan pipeline is hot date meet-up

(Newser) - A Texas Republican congressman is adamant in his backing of the trans-Alaska pipeline, but not because of silly energy independence. No, we must keep the oil flowing for the sake of ... caribou romance. So argued Rep. Louie Gohmert, tongue perhaps in cheek, during a meeting of the House Natural Resources...

Meet Chun Chun, China's Biggest Baby?

He weighed 15.5 pounds at birth

(Newser) - Chun Chun is less than a week old, but it looks like he's already a record-holder in China. He weighed 15.5 pounds at birth, with local media in central Henan province speculating that he's the biggest newborn in the nation's history, reports the Times of India ...

44 Celebrities&#39; Real Names
 44 Celebrities' 
 Real Names 
hello, walter willis
Feb 8, 2012 10:21 AM CST

44 Celebrities' Real Names

Neither Demi Moore nor Bruce Willis were born that way

(Newser) - It's no secret that sometimes celebrities' names are just too perfect to be the ones they were born with. The Huffington Post rounds up the real names of 44 stars, including:
  • Meg Ryan: Margaret Hyra
  • Pat Benatar: Patricia Mae Andrzejewski
  • Chevy Chase: Cornelius Crane Chase
  • Portia De Rossi: Amanda
...

Big Catch in Pakistan: Giant Whale Shark

35-foot creature weighed as much as 7 tons

(Newser) - A photo is worth 1,000 words ... or 14,000 pounds, in the case of unbelievable images out of Pakistan. The Express Tribune reports that a 35-foot whale shark was found dead in the Arabian Sea and hauled to the Karachi harbor yesterday, where two small cranes attempted to hoist...

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