strange stuff

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

Stories 881 - 900 | << Prev   Next >>

Floral-Scented Asphalt Is Now a Thing

Road builders have Poland's Budimex to thank

(Newser) - Construction workers know the stench of hot asphalt all too well, and it doesn’t smell like roses. Or does it? Polish construction firm Budimex says it's teamed up with refiner Lotos to create a floral-scented asphalt more pleasing to road builders. Added to the typical bitumen recipe are...

Man's Response at Contentious School Board Meeting: Strip

James Akers made his point on masks by showing how he didn't want to follow other everyday rules

(Newser) - School board meetings around the country have been going off the rails on COVID safety protocols, and now it's Texas' turn. The San Marcos Daily Record notes that even though Monday's gathering for the Dripping Springs Independent School District was meant to focus on such mundane agenda items...

Capone's Granddaughters Are Selling His Favorite Gun

They're worried that wildfires could destroy mobster's mementos

(Newser) - Would you want Al Capone’s favorite gun? Or the dapper gangster’s diamond and pearl stick pin? It’s not just a thought experiment—his granddaughters are selling off some family heirlooms. The items are pretty nice things, with dollar values inflated by the mobster cooties all over them....

Horse Bolts From Track, Hits Highway Instead

Bold and Bossy is recuperating after her Kentucky escape

(Newser) - A 2-year-old filly got loose before a race at a Kentucky track and ran onto a highway alongside cars before being corralled over the weekend, per the AP . The filly named Bold and Bossy got loose on her way to the starting gate at Ellis Park on Saturday, and jockey...

Woman in Tonga for Weekend Ends Up Trapped For 18 Months

She's not that upset about it

(Newser) - A British woman is telling her story of a weekend trip to the South Pacific that has now stretched on for some 18 months. It'll come as no surprise that COVID is to blame for what Zoe Stephens dubs "the longest weekend of my life," but the...

He Left Behind Two Widows and One Big Lawsuit
Widow Sues Funeral Home
Over Husband's Other Widow
in case you missed it
Aug 21, 2021 1:45 PM CDT

Widow Sues Funeral Home Over Husband's Other Widow

It's all explained in a strange federal lawsuit against a Baltimore funeral home

(Newser) - A Baltimore Sun report on a strange federal lawsuit begins with a doozy of a first sentence: "Demetra Street didn't know, as she sang at her husband Ivan's Baltimore funeral service in late January, that apparently he already had been buried days earlier and miles away,"...

The Publishing World Has Been Battling a Truly Bizarre Thief

Someone has been working to access manuscripts for years, but not for profit

(Newser) - Reeves Wiedeman has spent years trying to unravel a literary-world mystery, and his lengthy recap of his digging for New York Magazine is confounding at times. As is the mystery. In simplest terms, for the past four years someone has been using somewhat sophisticated measures to try to steal book...

Golf Ball Lands in Most Unusual Place During Tourney

Hideki Matsuyama's shot on the 10th hole during Northern Trust ended up in spectator's shirt

(Newser) - Some bizarre stuff has been happening on golf courses lately, and an incident Friday at the Northern Trust golf tournament at New Jersey's Liberty National Golf Course continued the streak. CBS Sports reports that Hideki Matsuyama was on the 10th hole during the tourney's second round when he...

Sea Snake Attacks Are Just Failed Attempts at Romance

Snakes aren't the only animals that 'court inappropriate objects'

(Newser) - Love is blind. That’s the best explanation researchers have for why sea snakes occasionally attack divers. Sometimes a fishing net will trap a venomous sea snake and the snake will try to bite its way out. But why would a snake, venomous or not, approach and tangle with someone...

Parents Went on Hike With Baby, Dog. They All Died on the Trail

Authorities in California haven't ruled out dangerous gases, toxic algae

(Newser) - A friend of a family of three found dead on a California hiking trail on Tuesday says the whole situation is just "freaky." Jonathan Gerrish and Ellen Chung had set out for an apparent day hike in Mariposa County with their 1-year-old daughter and dog on Sunday. A...

'Social Listening' Led to Pig's Blood Pizza

It was a big hit for Pizza Hut Taiwain

(Newser) - Pizza Hut in Taiwan harnessed the power of social media to create a truly unique pizza topped with preserved eggs and a snack cake made with pig's blood. The "Cilantro Century Egg Pig's Blood Cake Pizza" was invented after the company searched social media for the most...

Spend Eternity In a Very Hot Place Beside Marilyn, Hef
Go to a 
Hot Place
After You Die
Aug 17, 2021 2:49 PM CDT

Go to a Hot Place After You Die

There's a vault available in the same crypt as Hugh Hefner and Marilyn Monroe

(Newser) - In an ultimate act of being kind of creepy, Hugh Hefner bought a burial spot next to Marilyn Monroe back in 1992. When he died in 2017, he went to a hot place—hot as in real estate market hot. And now anyone with $2 million to burn can go...

Man Arrested After Deputies Find Horse in House

The South Carolina man was also wanted for throwing mandolin into pasture

(Newser) - When the deputies saw horse feces on the living room floor, they pieced together the mystery pretty quickly. They showed up at a house in Oconee, SC, summoned by a woman who saw her nephew ride by and remembered that her nephew definitely didn’t own a horse. They tried...

A Stranger Opened Her Car Door. She Drove Off a Cliff
A Stranger
Opened Her
Car Door.
She Drove
Off a Cliff
in case you missed it
Aug 14, 2021 1:50 PM CDT

A Stranger Opened Her Car Door. She Drove Off a Cliff

Woman suffers only minor injuries in California accident

(Newser) - As a woman sat in her car in Santa Cruz, California's Lighthouse Point parking lot Thursday night, overlooking Monterey Bay, a stranger suddenly opened her passenger door. Startled and scared, the woman accelerated right off the cliff, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Miraculously, rescuers located her and she had...

Want This Charred Shell of a Home? Get in Line

And have at least $850K in hand to compete in 'crazy' Bay Area buyer's market

(Newser) - Nightmare homes for sale are apparently now a thing, and people are willing to pay big bucks for them if the location is right. Earlier this year, a "slice of hell" was offered for $590,000 in Colorado. Now, an incinerated abode in Walnut Creek, Calif., is up for...

The $72 Fried Rice Was a Joke. People Couldn't Get Enough

'Over-the-top' dish at Vietnamese restaurant was only supposed to last 2 weeks. Everyone wanted it.

(Newser) - Late last year, in the midst of the pandemic, the chef at a new Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco cooked up a special meal to cheer up demoralized staff: #1 Dac Biet Fried Rice, or crab fried rice with "the works." The offering at Lily ended up becoming...

Mistaken Identity Lands Man in Mental Hospital for 2 Years

Joshua Spriestersbach protested that he wasn't Thomas Castleberry, to no avail

(Newser) - Hawaii officials wrongly arrested a homeless man for a crime committed by someone else, locked him up in a state hospital for two years and eight months, forced him to take psychiatric drugs, and then tried to cover up the mistake by quietly setting him free with just 50 cents...

Is This Song a Troll or a Serious Form of &#39;Outsider&#39; Music?
This Viral Song Is So Bad
It Might Be Genius
VIRAL VIDEO
Jul 30, 2021 12:56 PM CDT

This Viral Song Is So Bad It Might Be Genius

Please explain what Sarah Brand's 'Red Dress' is, exactly, because we can't

(Newser) - It's Friday, so what better time to talk about the video that's sent the internet (and our eardrums) into a tizzy. The viral clip in question is "Red Dress" by Sarah Brand, who describes herself on her site as a "director and writer" from LA, as...

'Jet Pack Man' May Have Resurfaced Near LAX

Pilot reported possible sighting Wednesday

(Newser) - "Use caution, the jet man is back," an air traffic controller at Los Angeles International Airport warned pilots in a recording obtained by CNN after a possible appearance of the mysterious figure first sighted near the airport last fall. The FAA says the pilot of a cargo Boeing...

Inside Newborn's Large Tummy: Parts of a Twin

It's likely a rare case of 'fetus in fetu' in Israel

(Newser) - A baby girl born in Israel this month is doing well after surgery to remove what is thought to be at least one embryo from her stomach, likely from a twin she absorbed. When the child's mother arrived at Ashdod's Assuta Medical Center to give birth, "we...

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