Unusual News
English Town Hires Official Tweeter
Mike McTimoney has the distinction of becoming the first Tweeter-in-residence in the United Kingdom, following his hiring by the town of Darlington in County Durham in the northeast of England. McTimoney, an IT lecturer at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Fo... read more
Gamer Sues Sony over Disabled Access to Virtual Worlds
Alexander Stern of Los Angeles can’t play Sony’s role-playing video games like EverQuest because of his disabilities, so he’s suing the company under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Due to problems with his eyesight and “multiple learning dis... read more
Thousands of African Albinos Hide to Avoid Body-Parts Hunters
If enduring superstitions, discrimination and a high risk of skin cancer weren’t enough, albinos living in Africa have to worry about being killed for their body parts. Murders of albinos in East Africa have been on the rise since 2007, with 44 ki... read more
Murder Suspects Used YouTube Rap Song to Intimidate Witnesses
Ishmael McLean, suspected of killing 24-year-old Jason Johnson in west London, managed to avoid a murder charge by intimidating witnesses with a rap video posted on YouTube. But McLean did not get off entirely after he, and accomplice Rowan Simon,... read more
Drunken Elk Suspected of Murder after Victim’s Husband Spent 10 Days in Jail
The European elk is a shy, peaceful creature—as long as it doesn’t get a hold of fallen fermented apples found in Swedish gardens. Then, it can become an aggressive animal capable of killing humans, as Agneta Westlund, 63, found out.
Westlund’... read more
Global Warming Could Lead to Increased Civil War in Africa
Described as the first quantitative evidence linking climate change and the risk of civil war, university researchers have concluded rising temperatures on the continent of Africa are likely to result in more warfare in the coming decades. A group... read more
Delhi Mayor Admits City Paid 22,000 Non-Existent Employees $44 Million a Year
Delhi, India, has a serious ghost problem on its hands that has local leaders terrified. But the fright has nothing to do with spirits. Rather, the terror has to do with the realization that a local governing body, the Municipal Corporation of Del... read more
House Health Bill Longest in 10 Years
Republicans have tried to make a big deal about the length of the House Democrats’ health care reform plan, using it as a symbol of how much their adversaries love big government. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), in fact, claimed the Affordable Health ... read more
Miami Powerboat Racing Stadium Put on World Monuments Watch List
Preserving cultural heritage is the aim of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a nonprofit organization that each year issues a “watch list” of locations around the world that it says deserve preservation. WMF’s 2010 Watch list includes 93 cultural he... read more
Town Government Fines Man Who Says It “Screwed” Him
For several years, William Bowden of Cary, North Carolina, had been in a dispute with the town government over damage done to his property by water runoff from a road project. In July 2009, he grew fed up with the lack of response from local offic... read more
German “Robin Hood” Bank Manager Borrowed From Rich, Loaned to Poor
All Erika Schmidt tried to do, she says, was help disadvantaged people get back on their feet. That would have been fine had she not helped the less fortunate by stealing money from the rich, earning her the moniker the Robin Hood of Germany.
... read more
IBM Employee Loses Health Benefits over Facebook Fun Photos
A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of Nathalie Blanchard of Quebec, Canada, it can also be worth thousands of dollars in lost benefits. The 29-year-old IBM employee, diagnosed with severe depression, spent more than a year and a ... read more
Navy to Employ Dolphins and Sea Lions to Protect Submarine Base
Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington soon will have a new kind of anti-terrorism personnel to guard the nation’s Pacific fleet of nuclear submarines. Specially-trained dolphins and sea lions will be deployed next year in the harbor to detect int... read more
Lawry’s to Pay $1 Million in Anti-Men Hiring Case
For more than 70 years the hiring practice at the Lawry’s restaurant chain was men need not apply for food server positions because only women were sought. That discriminatory policy is now coming to an end after the Equal Employment Opportunity C... read more
New Technology Takes Aim at Notorious Watergate Tape Gap
Specialists at the National Archives believe they may be able to finally fill the “gap” left on a key Watergate tape made by President Richard Nixon’s secret recording system. Three days after the infamous June 1972 break-in of the Democratic Nati... read more
Gaddafi Preaches Islam…to 200 Tall, Beautiful Italian Women
Some party. After getting dressed for what they thought would be a Sunday night festival of fun in a posh Rome neighborhood, 200 young Italian women found themselves being pitched to convert to Islam by none other than Libyan dictator Muammar Gadd... read more