Unusual News
Losing Your Memory? Stop Googling, Turn Off Your GPS and Stop Watching Violence on TV
Some of today’s most popular technologies are making it easier to find what we’re looking for. They’re also making us forget what we’ve found, and perhaps everything else.
Two new studies show Google and GPS navigation systems may be bad for... read more
Pirates Losing Their Cutting Edge
Pirating on the high seas is not yielding the same results as last year, though not for lack of trying.
So far this year pirates have carried out 266 attacks, up from 196 incidents during the first six months of 2010. But the increased effort ... read more
The U.S. Default That Is Unthinkable Has Happened Before
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the Obama administration’s lead official on raising the national debt ceiling, has insisted Congress must act soon to avoid the government experiencing its first-ever default. Such a development “would be cat... read more
It May Be Time for Invasive Species to Step Up to the Plate
Environmentalists are hoping Americans are ready to contribute to the cause of saving domestic species under attack from foreign invaders—by eating them.
Invasive species, those plants and creatures not native to the U.S., have been growing in... read more
Wonder Why Americans Are So Fat?
County fair food has never been mistaken for Lean Cuisine. But the San Diego County fair has really taken fatty delights to a whole new universe of belt-busting gluttony.
This year, fair patrons can go way, way beyond the usual offerings of pi... read more
Newly Discovered Mushroom Named after SpongeBob
A new species of mushroom discovered in Borneo has been named SpongeBob SquarePants by researchers. The fungus, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was found by biologists from San Francisco State University during an expedition to Borneo’s forests. They... read more
ACLU and Tea Party Unite over Free Speech in California
The ACLU and the Tea Party have found at least one thing in common: believing that Redding, California’s local ordinance limiting free speech has to go.
In separate legal briefs, the two disparate groups challenged Redding’s new law restrict... read more
8 Million Gallons of Drinking Water Go to Waste Because a Man Urinated in a Reservoir
In a decision based more on public relations than hard science, the city of Portland, Oregon, decided to dump millions of gallons of drinking water after someone urinated in a local reservoir.
Local water chief David Shaff announced about 7.... read more
Man Robs Bank to Get Arrested and Gain Health Care
Following on the heels of the case of the man who lost his job in Idaho because his wife has multiple sclerosis, we now have another example of why the United States needs health care reform.
Out of work and in need of health insurance, Jame... read more
Learning From Defeat…31 of 43 Presidents Lost Elections before Winning Presidency
Getting to the White House means dealing with defeat. Of the 43 men who have served as president of the United States, 31 of them lost at least one race during their political career.
The list of those who overcame losing (as complied by Lar... read more
Unionized Actors Made Anti-Union Video for Target
The Target retail chain has, for years, encouraged its workers in its 1,750 stores to refuse to join a union by using a 13-minute in-house video that, ironically, features actors who are union members.
Starring Ric Reitz and Nicky Buggs, mem... read more
Bank Demolished Man’s House by Mistake
Rafat Azzam is suing three companies, including a division of Citibank, for allegedly tearing down the house he purchased last year in northeast Washington, DC.
Azzam, an Egyptian citizen who came to Washington to pursue a degree in mechanic... read more
Belgium Has No Official Government, but is Getting along Just Fine
This just in: Generalíssimo Francisco Franco is still dead, and Belgium still has not formed a government.
Like the catchphrase started by Saturday Night Live in 1975 to mock the seemingly unending story of Spain’s dying dictator, Belgium co... read more
Forget Sarah Palin and Paul Revere: What About the Midnight Ride of William Dawes?
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Certainly, in January, 1861, when Henry Wadsworth... read more
National Security Agency Declassifies Report on Secret Writing…From 1809
More than 200 hundred years after it was produced, a book on cryptology is finally being declassified by the U.S. government.
The National Security Agency (NSA) decided that the 1809 book, Cryptology: Instruction Book on the Art of Secret Wr... read more
Obama Issues Fewest Vetoes of Any President in 130 Years
The veto has not been a significant political weapon used by President Barack Obama during his two and a half years in office.
Obama has issued a total of just two vetoes since taking office, an average of one veto every 435 days. This avera... read more