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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Hillary Mag Cover &#39;Deeply Weird&#39;
 Hillary Mag Cover 
 'Deeply Weird' 
OPINION
Jan 23, 2014 1:28 PM CST

Hillary Mag Cover 'Deeply Weird'

NYT Mag explores Clinton's 'political universe'

(Newser) - New York Times staffer David Joachim tweeted a photo of the newspaper's Sunday magazine cover, declaring that it shows Hillary Clinton "as you've never seen her before." That's an understatement. It depicts Hillary as a planet (or a "faceplanetball" in the words of Mediaite...

Mathematician Cracks OkCupid, Finds Wife

Though it still took 88 actual first dates

(Newser) - First, there was boy meets girl. Then, boy meets girl online. And now, boy meets girl online after manipulating the algorithms of his Internet dating site. As Wired explains, it helps to be a mathematician. Christopher McKinlay was a 30-something looking for love on OkCupid and not having much luck....

Wanted Man Posts Mugshot, Gets Captured Immediately

Anthony James Lescowitch shared police department's post

(Newser) - Note to those wanted by police: If your goal is not to get caught, it's probably not a good idea to "share" your mugshot on Facebook after the police department posts it . That's what Anthony James Lescowitch did Monday, police say; not surprisingly, the move led to...

In One Sochi Men's Bathroom Stall, 2 Toilets

And the Twittersphere erupts!

(Newser) - They're the toilets seen 'round the world, in a photo taken and tweeted Monday night by the BBC's Moscow correspondent of the men's restroom in a Sochi Olympics venue. What it shows: one stall, two toilets. "Seeing double in the Gentlemen's Loo at the...

Buffett Will Give You $1B for Perfect NCAA Bracket

He backs contest offered by Quicken Loans

(Newser) - A math professor at DePaul once figured out that the odds of picking every game correctly in the NCAA March Madness bracket is 1 in 128 billion, notes Yahoo Sports . (And that assumes basketball knowledge.) If those odds aren't too daunting, then Warren Buffett has just the contest...

Cyclist: Driver Didn't See Me Stuck in Windshield

Despite the fact that he actually spoke to the driver, Steven Gove says

(Newser) - A Wisconsin man who became lodged in the windshield of a car that struck him said he turned to the driver and said, "Hello, I'm the guy you hit on the bicycle." The driver did not respond, but continued on, running a stop sign and hitting another...

Kids TP Home, Which Leads to It ... Burning Down

Cheryl Crausewell tried to burn some lingering bits out of a tree

(Newser) - Toilet-papering a house is just a harmless teen prank, right? For one family in Dora, Ala., not so much. The first part of the story is fairly rote: Neighborhood kids TP Cheryl Crausewell's house of a dozen years over the weekend, doing a number on her yard and magnolia...

Cow-Pee Soda: Miracle Cure?
 Cow-Pee Soda: 
 Miracle Cure? 
Jan 19, 2014 9:45 AM CST

Cow-Pee Soda: Miracle Cure?

Hindu sect says so

(Newser) - An Indian Hindu group says it has a cure for some "70 to 80 incurable diseases ," but it might not appeal to everyone. The miracle medicine is cow urine—specifically, pee from a virgin female taken before sunrise, LiveScience reports. The head of a cow shelter in northern...

Your Pee Could Be Fertilizer of the Future

Team collects 3K gallons of nutrient-rich stuff

(Newser) - Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are among plants' key needs—and your urine contains all of them. That's why Vermont's Rich Earth Institute is studying the use of human urine as fertilizer, Modern Farmer reports. There's already plenty of evidence that it works. Yahoo cites one study, earlier...

Surprised Nun Gives Birth
 Surprised Nun Gives Birth 
Jan 18, 2014 10:36 AM CST

Surprised Nun Gives Birth

Insists she had no idea she was pregnant, names kid after pope

(Newser) - In a not-so surprising development, a woman in Italy has named her newborn son after the pope. In a more surprising development, she happens to be a nun. The 31-year-old in Reiti went to the hospital complaining of stomach pains and reportedly rejected the doctors' crazy suggestion that she was...

Target Thief's Getaway Vehicle: Skateboard

Video shows him making off with a TV in Florida

(Newser) - It's another headline-grabbing theft at Target , but this one is decidedly more low-tech. Someone in Clearwater, Florida, used a skateboard to make his great escape after stealing a TV, reports the Tampa Bay Tribune . In fact, surveillance video shows him skateboarding inside the store with the 32-inch flat-screen. One...

Trespasser Gets Stuck in Pipe at NJ Water Plant

Spokesperson says guy broke in and somehow got stuck

(Newser) - We're guessing this guy learned his lesson: Rescuers today freed a trespasser stuck in a pipe at a New Jersey water-treatment plant. United Water spokesman Rich Henning says the man broke into the plant that treats and pumps water for the township of Manalapan. Workers heard cries for help...

Hollande Critic Unloads Tons of Manure at Parliament

Police catch the protester in the act

(Newser) - Francois Hollande probably didn't think his week could get much worse. The French president had to acknowledge his affair with an actress, a growing mess that sent his other girlfriend to the hospital . And now? Manure, and lots of it, dumped in his name outside the French parliament in...

Would-Be Crooks Stymied by Door, Stick Shift

Manual transmission and push-not-pull doors are difficult concepts

(Newser) - Two stories this week of would-be criminals thwarted by ... themselves:
  • In Massachusetts, a delivery driver was delivering a food order when three men, one with a knife, approached him. They took the food and his keys, but when they got into his car ... "not one of them knew how
...

Parrot Saves Sleeping Couple From Fire

Pearly woke up his human pals in the middle of the night

(Newser) - NBC Miami has a tale of a hero parrot credited with saving the lives of a Fort Lauderdale couple who were sound asleep during a house fire. "What we heard was a screeching like we've never heard before," Laurajean Niesel tells the Sun-Sentinel . "We thought...

Thieves Try to Steal Sigmund Freud's Ashes

Police still looking for crematorium burglars

(Newser) - Daddy issues? Police are hunting burglars who tried and failed to steal the ashes of Sigmund Freud from a London crematorium. Police say a 2,300-year-old Greek urn containing the remains of Freud and wife Martha was severely damaged in a break-in at Golders Green Crematorium around the first of...

London Romans Piled Skulls in Pits
 London Romans 
 Piled Skulls in Pits 
STUDY SAYS
Jan 15, 2014 6:34 AM CST

London Romans Piled Skulls in Pits

Some may have been gladiators' remains

(Newser) - Slob Romans living in ancient London, it seems, just left decapitated heads lying around in open pits for years, a study suggests. "It is not a pretty picture," a researcher tells the Guardian . "At least one of the skulls shows evidence of being chewed at by dogs,...

Nepal's Retired Goddesses to Get Pensions

Girls lose their exalted status at puberty

(Newser) - It can be tough making the transition from living goddess to mere mortal, so the Nepalese government is here to help. The nation's retired Kumaris will soon get the equivalent of about $160 a month, reports the Economic Times . Kumaris, for the uninitiated, are young girls chosen to be...

China to Build Titanic Replica—That 'Hits' Iceberg

Because experiencing a shipwreck simulation sounds ... fun?

(Newser) - If, for some reason, you've ever wished you could have experienced what it was like to go down on the sinking Titanic ... well, soon that strange dream can come true. A theme park being built in China will feature a life-sized replica of the doomed ship, and it will...

Guy Fatally Stabbed Over Chess: Cops

Boarder admits to killing landlord over game

(Newser) - Chess is, apparently, serious business for some people—deadly serious. Police in Ireland believe a man who was found stabbed to death at his home early yesterday was murdered after a disagreement regarding a chess move during a late-night game, Sky News reports. Thomas O'Gorman, a 39-year-old researcher and...

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