strange stuff

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

Stories 2961 - 2980 | << Prev   Next >>

Angry Guy Fired Cannon at Neighbors: Cops

Brian Malta accused of firing powder blasts

(Newser) - Well, here's one way to handle a disagreement with your neighbors: Fire up your trusty Civil War replica cannon and bombard them with blasts of noise. That's what police in New York state are accusing Brian J. Malta of doing, the Buffalo News reports. The 52-year-old, apparently upset...

Tattoo Parlors Packed for Free Swastika Day

Movement seeks to 'reclaim' ancient symbol from the Nazis

(Newser) - If you ever wanted a swastika permanently inked on your body, then yesterday would have been your lucky day. More than 120 tattoo parlors around the world were offering free swastikas—not to salute the Nazis, but as part of a controversial movement to reclaim the symbol that was a...

30 Squats Gets You Free Subway Ride in Moscow

It's a fitness stunt to push the Sochi Olympics

(Newser) - Subway stations in Moscow have an interesting stunt in progress designed to promote the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Any rider who can do 30 squats in two minutes gets a free ticket, reports Mashable . Be warned, though: You have to pass muster with a fairly high-tech vending machine that can...

Chicago Cops Hunt Woman Who Left Gator at O'Hare

She reportedly rode in with the critter on the L train

(Newser) - You see some strange things on public transportation, but this may be one of the strangest: A woman brought a 2-foot-long alligator on a Chicago "L" train earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police found the gator underneath an escalator at Chicago's O'Hare airport, then traced...

Pianist Faces Jail Over Incessant Practicing

Neighbor says it caused psychological damage

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors want to send a young pianist to jail for more than seven years after a neighbor accused her of causing psychological damage and noise pollution. The plaintiff—identified only as Sonia B.—claims she suffered from noise contamination between 2003 and 2007 owing to the five-days-a-week, eight-hour...

Dog Fetches Human Leg, Then More Remains Found

Uh, thanks, Fido

(Newser) - Your dog has surely brought you some grisly "gifts," but hopefully nothing quite this bad: A 93-year-old Washington man found his dog standing over a human leg Tuesday. "I picked it up, and looked at the toes," says Bill Flowers, who estimates the limb had been...

Boost Your Optimism: Wash Your Hands

Trouble is, you might also lose your drive, study says

(Newser) - Feeling dejected? You might want to turn on the sink. Washing your hands, a study suggests, can be emotionally cleansing: It may help us feel more optimistic after a failure. Researchers assigned an "impossible task" to two groups of people; they failed, of course. Then, scientists told one group...

Now on eBay: Entire Record Store, $482K

On the Beat Records opened in 1979

(Newser) - With the holidays coming, here's a gift for the music fan who has everything: How about an entire record store? On the Beat Records, in London, is going for some $482,000 on eBay. It's "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live the High Fidelity life!" the posting...

This $110 Cologne Appeals to ... Cows

Scent is for farmers (or farmer wannabes) who don't want to upset their animals

(Newser) - A cow pasture may not be the most typical testing ground for a new cologne, but then new colognes typically don't get written up in Modern Farmer . Such is the case with Farmer's Cologne out of Maine, which goes for $110 a bottle and has the unique selling...

Stolen Motorcycle Found, 46 Years Later

Was found at Port of Los Angeles, and Nebraska man is getting it back

(Newser) - Authorities say a Nebraska man is getting his motorcycle back—46 years after it was stolen from his backyard. US Customs and Border Protection say the black and blue 1953 Triumph Tiger 100 was recovered last week at the Port of Los Angeles. It was on its way to Japan,...

New Fossil Find: 'Platypus-Zilla'

3-foot-long creature lived between 5M and 15M years ago: scientists

(Newser) - As if platypuses weren't weird enough already, scientists in Australia have come upon a fossilized tooth of what they're calling "platypus-zilla"—a creature some three feet long, or at least twice the size of your everyday platypus. "It probably would have looked like a platypus...

Oklahoma Bigfoot Hunt Ends Very Badly

1 shot, 3 arrested, 0 Sasquatches

(Newser) - If Bigfoot is lurking in the woods of Rogers County, Oklahoma, this sounds like the wrong group to send to hunt the creature down: Three people were arrested and one was hospitalized after a hunting trip, supposedly to find Sasquatch, went incredibly wrong, News9 reports. After Omar Pinera, 21, was...

Deadly Spiders Hatch Out of Grocery-Store Bananas

Supermarket has to pay $4.5K for fumigation, hotel costs

(Newser) - Yes, we have no bananas today ... because they're full of deadly South American spiders. A family in London was forced to flee its home after spiders began to hatch out of the Colombian fair-trade bananas it had bought from a supermarket chain. Consi Taylor had already eaten half the...

Man Who Famously Blew Up Whale Dead at 84

George Thomas Thornton gained national attention in 1970

(Newser) - An Oregon highway engineer who famously blew up a dead beached whale with a half-ton of dynamite in 1970 died last Sunday at the age of 84. George Thomas Thornton gained national attention over the exploding whale, and the act endured for decades thanks to a video that shows giant...

8 Kids Hospitalized by ... Axe Body Spray
8 Kids Hospitalized by
... Axe Body Spray
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nov 3, 2013 10:22 AM CST

8 Kids Hospitalized by ... Axe Body Spray

Noxious odor in classroom turns out to be from the product

(Newser) - Eight sixth-graders in Brooklyn ended up in the hospital Wednesday thanks to the unleashing of Axe Body Spray in a classroom, reports the Smoking Gun . The parents of two other students brought their kids to family doctors. School officials called for medical help when the kids started having trouble, and...

Bizarre Find at Chicago Airport: Alligator

Critter was found under escalator

(Newser) - Maybe he missed his connection, but a stray alligator raised some eyebrows Friday at O'Hare International Airport, reports the Chicago Tribune . The footlong critter was discovered under an escalator in Terminal 3, and officials were able to trap it in a garbage can. The gator has since been turned...

New from Lay's: Chocolate-Covered Potato Chips

Limited-time snack arrives for holidays

(Newser) - Finally, Frito-Lay is saving you the trouble of physically dipping your potato chips in chocolate sauce. The company is releasing milk chocolate-covered chips for the holidays, and they're set to hit shelves next week—though only at Target, and only for a limited time, USA Today reports. "When...

Town Plagued by Mystery Hum
 Town Plagued by Mystery Hum 
in case you missed it
Nov 2, 2013 7:15 AM CDT

Town Plagued by Mystery Hum

Possible culprit: mating fish

(Newser) - "It's a really low pitched sound that literally pulsates through the house." If that sounds like the kind of noise that would drive you crazy, be glad you don't live in Southampton. The British town is collectively pulling out its hair over an unexplained hum that...

Fan Sues After Injury by Flying Hot Dog

Worse, it was thrown by the Kansas City Royals mascot

(Newser) - Bad enough to get injured by an airborne hot dog. But a hot dog thrown by a goofy baseball mascot? That's grounds for a lawsuit. Or says a Kansas City man who is suing the hometown Royals over the 2009 incident, reports the AP . It seems that mascot Sluggerrr...

80-Year-Old Headbutts Bear, Lives to Tell Tale

Oh, and he got tossed off a cliff, too

(Newser) - As far as survival stories go, this one is pretty impressive: An 80-year-old Russian man encountered a bear in a raspberry field last week, and didn't exactly take it lying down. Yusuf Alchagirov fed the bear a few kicks and headbutts, and also tried to stab it with a...

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