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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Teen: I Was Raped by 4 200-Pound Women

Toronto police seek alleged assailants

(Newser) - Police say four women weighing about 200 pounds each raped a Toronto man last month after offering him a lift home, the Toronto Star reports. Word is he met them at a downtown nightclub and accepted a ride—but they drove him only a few blocks in an SUV before...

Thieves Steal 12K Pounds of Nutella

That's almost $21K worth

(Newser) - Either a gang of German thieves loves Nutella, or the country's black market is going to be flooded with the stuff. Authorities say the thieves raided a parked truck in Bad Hersfeld and made off with more than six tons of the chocolatey spread—that's about 12,000...

Woman Robs Bank Using ... Spaghetti Sauce: Cops

She said jars were a bomb

(Newser) - Bank tellers thought a female robber was armed with a bomb Saturday, but it was actually just spaghetti sauce, police say. The woman, about 60, put a bag on the counter at a Michigan Fifth Third Bank, said it contained a bomb, and demanded money. "It did look like...

Your Heart, Lungs May Be Able to Smell

They appear to have odor receptors, researchers find

(Newser) - While your nose sniffs that fresh espresso, your heart could well be enjoying it, too. Researchers find that the heart, lungs, and even the blood may be capable of smelling, LiveScience reports. The nose has olfactory receptors to pick up on chemical compounds traveling through the air, and it appears...

More Americans Eating ... Guinea Pigs
 More Americans 
 Eating ... Guinea Pigs 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apr 7, 2013 11:54 AM CDT

More Americans Eating ... Guinea Pigs

They've long been popular food in some South American countries

(Newser) - New Mexico is thinking about processing horse meat . Montanans have roadkill . And now the latest in offbeat meat appears to be ... guinea pigs. NPR reports on an American trend fueled by South American expats and the US restaurants that serve such cuisine, and bolstered by foodies' penchant for trying—and...

Short on Friends? Hire Mourners for Your Funeral

Company capitalizes on odd tradition from China, Middle East

(Newser) - You may be less than popular, but there's no need to appear uncool in death: For about $68 a head, a British company called Rent A Mourner will send "professional, polite, well dressed individuals” to your funeral or wake, Time reports. The industry is already well-established in China...

Meet the Drug That's Powering Wall Street

Prescriptions for Modafinil up 10-fold in decade

(Newser) - Cocaine may no longer be the drug that fuels Wall Street. Instead, traders and start-up entrepreneurs looking to work hard rather than party hard are increasingly turning to a Modafinil—a "smart drug" said to have inspired the film Limitless, in which a writer pops a pill that allows...

National Laughing Contest Debuts in US

Contestants try to infect audience with laughter

(Newser) - Like laughing at nothing in particular? Then check out the American Laughing Championship when it debuts tomorrow in San Diego, reports the Huffington Post . The audience will determine which contestant is best at the Alabama knee-slapper, the maniacal laugh, and the diabolical laugh—the latter an attempt to make the...

You, Too, Can Be Kidnapped —for a Fee of $1.5K

GQ pays for new 'extreme' service

(Newser) - GQ magazine paid $1,500 to the men who kidnapped one of their writers, but not in the way you might think. The magazine gave the fee to a company called Extreme Kidnapping, which provides the only-in-America service of a fake abduction. Drew Magary writes a first-person account of the...

Basketball 'Sportswriters' Reveal Hoax After 40 Years

Three college students made up 'Hershberger' award

(Newser) - It sure sounded official. Forty years ago, the National Association of Collegiate Basketball Writers picked the nation's top 15 rookie players and named them to an All-America team. The award got national publicity. Schools boasted of the honor. The only problem is that the NACBW didn't exist; it...

Latest Super PAC to Push ... Bearded Candidates

Those with goatees will be considered; mustache only? Forget it

(Newser) - At last, a super PAC that can be described as hirsute—it's Bearded Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of a Responsible Democracy, aka BEARD, a political action committee dedicated to advancing bearded candidates. Founded by Jonathan Sessions and Andy Shapero, BEARD is as quirky as you might imagine: A planned...

Video Spurs Mystery: Are These Women Twins?

Internet helps them find out

(Newser) - The Internet is best known as a giant repository of cat pictures and Downfall parodies, but occasionally it has other uses. Case in point: Two South Korea-born women who met thanks to a YouTube video and connected via Facebook believe they are twin sisters separated at birth and have now...

Brothers Have Babies an Hour Apart

Cousins born at same hospital

(Newser) - The babies are cousins—but they're practically twins. Two Long Island brothers found themselves at the same hospital yesterday, as their wives had babies less than an hour apart, CBS New York reports. "I sent my brother a text message, telling him that we were in the hospital,...

Cops: Graffiti Tagger Died in High-Rise Stunt

He was dangling from 9 stories in the air

(Newser) - After locals spotted a body dangling from a Sacramento building yesterday morning, police have been postulating about what he was up to. Their theory: The 30-something man, who was hanging from at least nine stories up, was a graffiti artist. He had a rope tied around him, rappelling-style, and a...

Easter Bunny Gets Pulled Over

Gets off with a warning after motorcycling without helmet

(Newser) - He must have been in a rush to hide some eggs. The Easter Bunny was pulled over on Saturday for riding his red motorcycle without a helmet near San Diego, the Los Angeles Times reports. The bunny told a California Highway Patrol officer that he was en route to a...

Inmates Host Raunchy Party at Prison Nightclub

Venezuelan prisoners invite friends, family to bash

(Newser) - For a fun night, visit the local ... prison? Seems inmates in Venezuela have built their own nightclub and hosted an inaugural bash including strippers and a light show, AFP reports. According to a local paper, the inmates at a prison on Margarita Island invited friends and family over for the...

Freezing Temps Wipe Out ... Entire Flea Circus

300 fleas in Germany meet tragic end

(Newser) - It's a pint-sized tragedy in Germany, where freezing temperatures have claimed their latest victim: An entire flea circus. As the AP reports, flea circus director Robert Birk opened his transport box Wednesday morning, only to find all 300 fleas dead. The mass die-off left Birk scrambling to keep a...

Dad Shoots Family Dog to Retrieve Boy's Finger

Florida man disembowels animal in frantic search

(Newser) - A father in Florida shot and disemboweled one of the family dogs yesterday in an effort to retrieve his son's finger, the Bradenton Herald reports. Luis Brignoni, 41, pulled the finger out and rushed his 11-year-old to a hospital in St. Petersburg—but doctors said the nerve damage was...

Pilot Ejected From Airplane by Mistake

Student wasn't wearing a seat belt when aircraft nose-dived

(Newser) - Freak accident in Tennessee: A student pilot was ejected from his plane during a lesson and fell about 2,500 feet to his death, NBC News reports. The man, as yet unidentified, flew out of the plane during a malfunction yesterday because he wasn't wearing a seat belt. Neither...

Good Friday Dancing Ban Has Germany in a Twist

But some Germans say one-day ban small price for tradition

(Newser) - No, the "Tanzverbot" isn't the latest German dance craze. It's quite the opposite: the decades-old law that bans all organized dancing in Germany on Good Friday and other religious holidays. And with church attendance falling around Germany, its citizens are increasingly calling for the ban to be...

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