Strange News

World News

Laughter Is The Best Medicine For Gulag Blues, Russia Tells Guards

7:44am December 08, 2014

The country's justice ministry suggested to its prison guards that using humor and irony could improve prisoner morale; one official suggests the idea itself is the joke.

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An anamorphic installation portrait of Malian actor Sotigui Kouyate by French artist Bernard Pras.

Arts

The Fine Art Of Deception

8:26pm December 05, 2014

by Linton Weeks

When visual tricksters play with perception, things are not always what they seem.

For This Reindeer, The Game Is Hide And Seek

7:44am December 02, 2014

Tinsel, a rare albino reindeer who is the main attraction at a Christmas tree farm in England, has hoofed it. After escaping his enclosure, he remains on the loose.

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Man Ends Fight With Girlfriend By Driving Into Pole, Walking Away

7:44am December 02, 2014

David Scarpa's neighbors heard yelling, then a crash, then nothing — because he was gone, apparently preferring being charged with fleeing an accident to dealing "with his girlfriend yelling at him."

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Two men wrestle in a ring full of smelt during the Smelt Carnival in Marinette, Wis., in 1939.

National

Wacky Wrestlers Of Yesteryear

4:37am November 28, 2014

by Linton Weeks

In America, there's a fine line between gimmicky wrestling and performance art.

Arts

Sandwich Monday: The Thanksgiving Hot Durkey

6:15pm November 26, 2014

by Peter Sagal

For this week's Sandwich Monday, we make our own holiday turkey — out of hot dogs.

National

When Thanksgiving Was Weird

10:05am November 24, 2014

by Linton Weeks

Circa 1900, Americans wore gaudy costumes and bizarre masks, and some roved the streets begging for candy and treats — on Thanksgiving Day.

India has record no Ebola cases, but the country is on high alert and has quarantined hundreds of travelers from West Africa. This hospital in New Delhi has set up an Intensive Care Unit for potential Ebola patients.

India Quarantines Ebola Survivor Because Of Infectious Semen

8:15pm November 18, 2014

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Ebola can linger in semen for months after a person recovers from the disease. So survivors are typically given condoms and a stern warning. But India is being more cautious.

Airbus' patented design for amphitheater-like seating.

Economy

'Flying Doughnuts': Airbus Files Patent For A New Kind Of Plane

1:50pm November 18, 2014

by Laura Sullivan

The new design would seat passengers within a circular seating area rather than in short rows inside a tube.

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Vape was chosen as the word of the year for 2014 in part because it provides a window "onto how we define ourselves," says Casper Grathwohl of the Oxford University Press. Here, women exhale vapor clouds during a competition at the Henley Vaporium in Manh

Take It In: 'Vape' Is The Oxford Dictionaries Word Of The Year

10:28am November 18, 2014

by Bill Chappell

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes sparked the notice of the Oxford Dictionaries, which chose "vape" as the word of the year for 2014. It beat out contenders such as "bae" and "normcore."

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