Unusual News
Hog Farmers Protect Their Pigs from Human Flu
Hog farmers want everyone to know that the fear over the swine—sorry, H1N1—flu epidemic goes both ways. While people may be scared of catching the illness from eating pork, which experts say can’t happen, farmers have their own worries humans carr... read more
Sex Strike in Kenya
Kenya is once again poised on the brink of political violence between factions, prompting one leading female attorney to propose a novel solution for resolving the crisis: Don’t sleep with your husband. Taking a page from the ancient Greek play, L... read more
Fight Terrorists by Calling Them “Qutbists”
American officials fighting against Islamic terrorism should utilize a war-of-words to marginalize militant extremists, according to a new comprehensive study, the “Militant Ideology Atlas,” commissioned by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.... read more
Saudi Crackdown…on Women’s Gyms
Not only are women in Saudi Arabia banned from driving and have to cover their entire bodies in public, but now they can’t even work up a good sweat at a women-only gym. Government officials recently began to shut down “unlicensed” sports clubs an... read more
Creating Mini-Pigs for Human Organ Transplants
Pigs hardly resemble the gallant heroes featured in movies and comic books. By 2017, however, “mini-pigs” may be saving more lives than Spiderman ever has, shining a new “bacon of hope” for those on the organ transplant waitlist by providing their... read more
Blame Canada
Fans of “South Park” know that it’s good to have a scapegoat, and that Canada fits the bill. Unfortunately, in real life, some politicians are still blaming Canada. Culprits #1 and #2: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Senator ... read more
Montana Town Asks for Guantánamo Prisoners
City officials in Hardin, Montana, have one thing to say to those worried about detainees from the soon-to-be shuttered facility at Guantánamo Bay coming stateside: Send them our way. The small town of 3,400 has a brand new prison waiting for occu... read more
Two Decades Later and Even the CIA Can’t Crack This Code
A puzzle that the Central Intelligence Agency set out to solve more than 20 years ago still remains a mystery today. In 1988, the CIA commissioned James Sanborn, a DC artist, to create a sculpture of encrypted messages to be placed in the CIA head... read more
Taking a Lichen to Obama
In the words of Jai-Rui Chong of the Los Angeles Times, Kerry Knudsen, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside Herbarium, ”took a lichen” to President Barack Obama. Knudsen named a newfound species of lichen, Caloplaca obamae, afte... read more
Fight Global Warming by Losing Weight
Researchers in Britain have determined that the more people weigh, the more they contribute to global warming. A study by Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Population ... read more
Abruzzo Earthquake Uncovered Long-Lost Fresco of Madonna and Child
The destructive earthquake that struck Italy two weeks ago has produced one small, but important piece of good news for art conservationists and residents of the village of Rocca di Cambio. Like many of the buildings in the small mountainous town,... read more
State Environmental Office Discovered to be Source of Unpleasant Pollution
“Holy crap” was the response, in all seriousness, by one Washington state environmental expert upon learning that the source pollution in a long contaminated stream flowing through Vancouver City was none other than her own office’s bathrooms. The... read more
Talk about Toxic Assets…
When it comes to toxic assets, Lehman Brothers has got everyone beat on Wall Street. Thanks to a commodities trading contract from before it went bankrupt, Lehman is sitting on half a million pounds of uranium “yellowcake”—enough material to power... read more
Arrested for Touching Dick Cheney—Lawsuit to Proceed
When Steven Howards spotted Vice President Dick Cheney in a mall in Beaver Creek, CO, in June 2006, he decided to give him a piece of his mind over the Iraq War. But after approaching Cheney, Howards found himself being hauled off by Secret Servic... read more
Indian Politician Addresses Wrong Rally
VS Acharya, a minister in the Indian state of Karnataka and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was driving through his district last Sunday when he noticed a political rally being held. Like any good politician, Acharya saw an opportunity... read more
Paraguay President Admits to Fathering Child While He Was a Bishop
Americans might think that the sexual indiscretions involving their politicians are juicy stuff. But the scandals involving Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Foley, Larry Craig and others don’t compare to the fresh revelation that th... read more