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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Muslim: TGI Friday's Tricked Me Into Eating Bacon

Woman says server put bacon in her iced tea

(Newser) - Bacon-filled iced tea wasn't exactly on the menu when Nicole Queen sat down for lunch at TGI Friday's. But Queen, a converted Muslim, says the wait staff in Garland, Texas, gave her a refill containing bacon bits—a food her religion forbids her from eating, USA Today reports....

Norway's New Must-See TV Stunt: Live Knitting

Settle in for hours of riveting stitching

(Newser) - In its latest experiment with live coverage of mundane events, Norway's public broadcasting network plans to dedicate five hours of air-time to an attempt to break the knitting world record. The NRK network says the Nov. 1 broadcast will be preceded by a four-hour knitting documentary. "It's...

Boy Needs Surgery After Hitting Puberty at 18 Months

Good news is that it seems to have worked

(Newser) - It was your standard-issue case of a boy going through puberty—changes in voice, genitals, and demeanor, along with some acne—except for one crucial factor: He was just 18 months old. The bizarre case is from India, where doctors diagnosed the toddler with premature puberty, reports the International Business ...

Lake Turns Animals Into 'Statues'

Tanzania's Lake Natron, probably not a great swimming hole

(Newser) - We would strongly advise you not to go swimming in Tanzania's Lake Natron. Animals who are immersed in the water not only die, they're calcified and turned into creepy-looking "statues," New Scientist reports. Why is it so inhospitable? Alkalinity is extremely high (between pH 9 and...

Huge Nuclear Reactor Shut Down by Jellyfish

Swedish plant is back in business after massive clog

(Newser) - The Oskarshamn power plant in Sweden has one of the biggest nuclear reactors in the world, but it's apparently no match for tiny jellyfish. Tons of moon jellyfish clogged the reactor's intake pipes from the ocean over the weekend, forcing the plant to shut down, reports Popular Science...

Fencing Coach Foils Crime as Only a Fencing Coach Can

Tennessee man chases off robbers with sword

(Newser) - Two Nashville robbers had the misfortune to try to steal a purse in a shopping center parking lot just as Franco Scaramuzza pulled in. That's because Scaramuzza is a fencing coach who had just left practice and still had his equipment with him, reports WSMV . What results is explained...

Teenage 'LSD Party' Ends Really, Really Badly

How badly? Well, a blood-covered boy attacked paramedics, for one

(Newser) - There are destructive teen parties where kids punch holes in the walls ... and then there are ones like the one that was broken up in Mill Valley, California, on Sunday morning. It sounds, quite frankly, nuts: Paramedics showed up at the house around 7:30am in response to reports of...

Dye Trap Nabs Green-Faced Thief

London police testing invisible spray

(Newser) - A luckless thief in London was caught not red-handed, but green-faced after breaking into a police "decoy car" equipped with a dye trap, the BBC reports. The 28-year-old, who stole a laptop and other items from the car, was arrested when the system alerted police to the theft and...

Cops Seek Pair Who Parachuted Into Manhattan

Security guards reported seeing parachutists near Goldman Sachs HQ

(Newser) - New York City police are looking for two unidentified people who may have parachuted onto a lower Manhattan street. NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said private security guards reported seeing parachutists land in front of Goldman Sachs' headquarters at about 3am today. The building is near the World Trade Center site....

Teacher Finds Human Fetus in Classroom Cabinet
Teacher Finds Human Fetus in Classroom Cabinet
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 29, 2013 7:01 PM CDT

Teacher Finds Human Fetus in Classroom Cabinet

May have been used as a teaching tool for years

(Newser) - A teacher at Florida's Cape Coral High School returned to his classroom at the beginning of the school year and was greeted with a not-so-pleasant surprise: Inside one of the cabinets was a mason jar wrapped in a paper bag ... and inside the jar was a human fetus, WFTX...

Giant Hornets Are Killing People in China
 Giant Hornets Are 
 Killing People in China 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 29, 2013 10:22 AM CDT

Giant Hornets Are Killing People in China

28 dead, 18 in one city alone

(Newser) - As many as 28 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in a wave of giant hornet attacks in China, the Guardian reports. Eighteen of the fatalities occurred in the city of Ankang alone. The stings are believed to be the work of the Asian giant hornet or...

Shining Hotel Plans Creepy Cemetery Move

Get married at hotel that inspired book ... on top of former pet cemetery

(Newser) - It doesn't exactly sounds like every bride's dream: Get married at the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining ... atop a former pet cemetery. But that's exactly what Colorado's Stanley Hotel intends to make possible. The hotel doesn't seem to intentionally be going...

Man Grows New Nose ... on His Forehead

Not your average nose job

(Newser) - A 22-year-old man in China needed a new nose. So a surgeon has built him one ... on his forehead. The surgeon, Guo Zhihui from Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, constructed the second nose out of cartilage from the man's ribs, then put it under the skin on his forehead...

EPA Official Stole $900K by Not Showing Up for Work

Says he was on special assignment at 'Langley'

(Newser) - There's calling in sick with a little white lie, and then there's this guy: A former high-ranking official with the EPA pleaded guilty today to stealing nearly $900,000 from the agency over 13 years by failing to show up for work while falsely claiming to be working...

Man Hijacks Ambulance —With Patient Inside

No one hurt in bizarre incident

(Newser) - Let's say traffic is backed up on the highway, and you're a gun-toting would-be carjacker in a hurry. What car do you grab? If you're a quick thinker like Brian Timothy Kada Jr., you carjack an ambulance and make everyone get out of your way. That's...

Half-Marathoner Misses Turn, Wins 1st Marathon

Meredith Fitzmaurice qualifies for Boston in longest race of her life

(Newser) - That Meredith Fitzmaurice finished first among all female marathoners in an Ontario race on Sunday is a story that wouldn't typically make it past the local paper. But Fitzmaurice's story has a pretty awesome twist: She had never run more than 20 miles before and only entered the...

Man Whose Skin Was Blue Dead at 62

 Man Whose 
 Skin Was Blue 
 Dead at 62 
obituary
Sep 25, 2013 2:13 PM CDT

Man Whose Skin Was Blue Dead at 62

Paul Karason's skin changed color because of his use of silver

(Newser) - As far as obituaries go, it's not your everyday death notice: Paul Karason died Monday in a Washington hospital after suffering a heart attack, at age 62. Had his death occurred five years earlier it likely would have gone quietly unnoticed. But in 2008, Karason went on the Today ...

To Rebuild Company, Sharp Turns to ... Strawberries

Will grow the fruit indoors in Dubai, sell it to rich Middle Easterners

(Newser) - Remember Sharp? Perhaps you owned one of the Japanese company's TVs many years ago. Perhaps you still do—though that's less likely, given, as Reuters reports, the company had to get bailed out by banks last year after posting a $5.5 billion loss. So to address its...

Explained: The Complex Math Jokes Hidden in The Simpsons

Staff of math-nerd writers have inserted many mind-blowing freeze-frame gags

(Newser) - Many of us can quote endlessly from The Simpsons, citing obscure plots, characters, and gags from the show's 24 seasons. But not so many people are aware of the complex math jokes that have been quietly slipped into the series over the years, writes Simon Singh, who calls The ...

Man Charges $35 for 'Hand-Sharpened Pencil'

And almost 2K people have paid

(Newser) - David Rees is an artisanal pencil sharpener. No, really. The former political cartoonist charges $35 for a "hand-sharpened" No. 2 pencil, and he has sold 1,804 of them already, Fox News reports. Rees, who discovered the art of pencil sharpening after taking a job with the 2010 Census...

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