Can You Pop Popcorn With Your Cell Phone??
Unusual Stuff

Comcast Becomes Xfinity And Other Bad Brand Names

Posted 2/09/2010 10:30 am by Ron Hogan

It’s becoming more and more common.  For example, on February 12, 2010, Comcast will cease to be.  In its place will be Xfinity.  No, that’s not a typo; that’s the company’s new name.  In an attempt to escape years of bad publicity due to poor public relations, poor customer service, bad channel selection, and generally […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Banned By Tim Horton Himself!

Posted 2/09/2010 10:00 am by Ron Hogan

After one too many complaints, the corporate offices at Tim Hortons, the Canadian Starbucks, had enough.  Jimmy Craig, a frequent customer from St. Andrews, New Brunswick, has been on the wrong end of the banhammer after his complaints about the quality of Tim Hortons coffee.  He described it as “burnt, brown water.”  Even after staff […]

Read »
Images

The ROUS Named Caplin

Posted 2/09/2010 9:30 am by Ron Hogan

Melanie Typaldos has a few hundred pounds of rodent at her home in Buda, Texas, but she won’t need any rat poison.  The rodent she has is actually the family pet.  He’s named Caplin Rous, and he’s a 2-foot-tall, 200-pound rodent from South America called a capybara, and he might be the most popular capybara […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

42 Tons Of Rat Poison Required

Posted 2/09/2010 9:00 am by Ron Hogan

Lord Howe Island is a beautiful tropical island some 370 miles off the coast of Australia.  It was declared a World Heritage Site back in 1982 thanks to its pristine beauty and the wide variety of rare animals found there.  However, Lord Howe Island has a bit of a rat problem.  In 1918, a freighter […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Drink Beer And Promote Bone Health

Posted 2/09/2010 8:30 am by Ron Hogan

Beer is, without a doubt, the alcohol equivalent of bacon as far as miracle foods go.  Bacon, as you know, is the perfect food for a hangover, so it goes without saying that it’s a perfect finisher to a night of beer consumption.  However, according to researchers at University of California, Davis, that beer is […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Super Bowl Gets Record Ratings

Posted 2/09/2010 8:00 am by Ron Hogan

It took 27 years, but something has finally knocked the finale of MASH off the top of the TV ratings pyramid.  When the show, starring Alan Alda as a war-weary, wisecracking doctor in the Korean War, went off the air in 1982, it was watched by 105 million people throughout the United States.  Despite population […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Space Cowboy Swallows 18 Swords

Posted 2/09/2010 7:30 am by Ron Hogan

So let’s say you’re Chayne “The Space Cowboy” Hultgren.  You’ve just set a Guinness World Record by swallowing a staggering 18 swords, each one over 28 inches long.  It’s an act you’ve been perfecting for 15 years, starting with sword swallowing back when you were just 16 and honing your skills over thousands of hours.  […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Well, That Was Quick: Burj Khalifa Closed Already

Posted 2/09/2010 7:00 am by Ron Hogan

The ongoing soap opera surrounding the world’s tallest building just continues to swell.  The building, as you might remember, opened a month ago to great fanfare, despite not being completely booked up with tenants and not actually being finished.   Now, with the first tenants scheduled to move in this month, the building’s only officially […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Trapped In Snow, Living Off Mountain Dew

Posted 2/09/2010 6:30 am by Ron Hogan

It’s not every day you have to drive from Dulce, Minnesota, to Aspen, Colorado, so Jason Pede was a bit out of his element.  When he stopped to ask a local for a quicker route to get to the popular Colorado skiing town to deliver an Australian Shepherd rescue dog, he didn’t think to make […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

French Toast Alert!

Posted 2/09/2010 6:00 am by Ron Hogan

Right now, it’s snowing outside.  All day yesterday, I listened to people who were planning on running out to the stores to pick up three things:  milk, eggs, and bread.  Any time bad weather hits, or threatens, or is even suspected, the first three things anyone picks up are milk, eggs, and bread, as if […]

Read »
Videos

XKCD Loves The Internet

Posted 2/08/2010 10:30 am by Ron Hogan

It’s one of my favorite XKCD strips of all time:  XKCD Loves The Discovery Channel.  And now it’s come to life in what has to be the ultimate tribute to the Internet thanks to Olga Nunes, featuring puppets, Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Cory Doctrow, Miss Cellania, Google Zurich, and pretty much everyone of any importance […]

Read »
Images

Delicious Pepsi H1N1 For Sale!

Posted 2/08/2010 10:00 am by Ron Hogan

I know what you’re thinking.  Well, I know what I’m thinking, anyway.  “People still care about H1N1?”  Apparently so!  That’s why Walgreen’s Drug Stores are putting H1N1 in their drinks, snacks, and even their Buffalo wings.  It’s a sure-fire way to get people to pay up for an anti-H1N1 vaccine; you just have to poison […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Anti-Dog Sonic Stunner

Posted 2/08/2010 9:30 am by Ron Hogan

It’s the longest-running continual battle since the Hundred Years’ War, and there’ll soon be a new weapon at the front.  It’s the battle between the postal carrier and the dog.  Every year, thousands of postmen are bitten, and every year the current anti-dog peppermint spray is proven inadequate on the field of combat.   It’s […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Buy A Ghost Town, Only $3.1 Million

Posted 2/08/2010 9:00 am by Ron Hogan

If you’ve always wanted to own a relic of the Cold War, a one-of-a-kind item was recently auctioned off.  The town of Skrunda, in what is now Latvia, is not on any map.  During the Cold War, it was known as Skrunda-1, and was one of Russia’s secret cities, serving as a Soviet radar base […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Don’t Hide From Cops At A Police Station

Posted 2/08/2010 8:30 am by Ron Hogan

One of the most important rules of any criminal is learning how to hide in plain sight.  That is, you blend into the crowd, into the environment, be just another person wandering around in the aisles of the store before you make your shoplift.  That’s how you get away with that sort of thing.  It […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Former Georgia Tech Student Turns Shogun Assassin

Posted 2/08/2010 8:00 am by Ron Hogan

Taking a page from the playbook of one Sho Kosugi, when a disgruntled former graduate student had a score to settle, he didn’t go for a gun.  No sir or ma’am, firearms are for fools.   Kshitij Shrotri went for the more civilized implement of death, the sword.  Police say he went back to Georgia […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

I Killed Them My Way

Posted 2/08/2010 7:30 am by Ron Hogan

If you thought karaoke violence was bad in the United States, you’re not familiar with The Philippines.  Butchering someone’s favorite song might get you beaten up in America, but if you do that in Southeast Asia?  You’ll risk getting killed.
The Philippines is one of the world’s biggest hotbeds for karaoke, where the people pride themselves […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Bored To Death, Literally

Posted 2/08/2010 7:00 am by Ron Hogan

Thanks to my menial day job, I spend a lot of time being bored.  What I didn’t know was that being bored can kill you, according to a study from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.  A longitudinal study was made of over 7,500 civil servants, ages 35-55, who were […]

Read »
Videos

Super Bowl Ads Get Pantsless And Weird

Posted 2/08/2010 6:30 am by Ron Hogan

During last night’s Super Bowl, there was one really disturbing trend that emerged.  There were a lot of guys without pants on.  From the sumo wrestlers in their mawashis to an extremely casual Friday ad from pants company Dockers, this was the year of being sans pantaloons for a lot of Super Bowl advertisers.  I […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Saints March To A Super Bowl Victory

Posted 2/08/2010 6:00 am by Ron Hogan

It wasn’t exactly a classic Super Bowl, but it was the latest in a string of very good Super Bowls.  In the end, it was two surprise plays that won the game moreso than anything Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees did:  Peyton Manning’s win-sealing interception and an onside kick to start the second half.  Those […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Terry Pratchett’s Case For A Noble Death

Posted 2/06/2010 6:00 am by Ron Hogan

It goes without saying that Terry Pratchett, one of the most beloved and talented fantasy writers of this or any other generation, escaped my notice until a few months after he announces to the world he’s got early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.  Right as I discover the world he has created, forces beyond his control […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Preteen Mother Gives Birth At Age 11

Posted 2/05/2010 11:45 am by Ron Hogan

While we’ve not quite caught up with China’s 9-year-old mother, we’ve at least tied with Bulgaria’s 11-year-old mother for youngest recent child birth after an 11-year-old girl somewhere in the Northeastern United States gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  Even America has pregnant 11-year-old kids now, if only because we have to keep up […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Delicious Camel Burgers For Sale

Posted 2/05/2010 10:30 am by Ron Hogan

Dubai is one of the most forward-thinking countries in the whole of the UAE, but one of its biggest food trends right now is derived from ancient sources.  In the Middle East, there’s not much grass or water for proper cattle, so beef isn’t terribly available.  However, camels are everywhere.  The restaurant chain Local House […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Blame It On The Monks

Posted 2/05/2010 10:00 am by Ron Hogan

The United Kingdom has a drinking problem, and few places in the Isles are chugging down as much hooch as the Scottish.  The youth of Scotland are drinking so much that the Scottish Parliament is currently attempting to ban sales of a certain type of alcohol that’s taking the blame for a lot of social […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Airplane 101

Posted 2/05/2010 9:30 am by Ron Hogan

Have you ever wondered what all the various parts, doors, and seams on an airplane are?  Well, if you need a ground-up education in aircraft to figure out the engine from the cabin, you’re in luck.  South African airline Kulula and ad firm Atmosphere have put together Flying 101, an infographic/advertising campaign that is currently […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Man Mauled By His Own Dogs

Posted 2/05/2010 9:00 am by Ron Hogan

Four years ago, he saved the dogs’ lives.  This year, they took his.  A 52-year-old doctor from Ljubljana, Romania, was found mauled to death by his own pet dogs in his backyard, which surprised no one save the man himself.  After all, at one point, his beloved bullmastiffs were going to be put down by […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

13-Year-Old QB Commits To USC

Posted 2/05/2010 8:30 am by Ron Hogan

When you’re a 13-year-old boy, you’re not supposed to think too far ahead.  Then again, not all 13-year-olds got written up as the quarterback of the future by Sports Illustrated… when they were 11.  David Sills is a seventh-grade student at Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear, Delaware; he’s also a quarterback and one of […]

Read »
Images

Tweeting Pictures Of Earth From Space

Posted 2/05/2010 8:00 am by Ron Hogan

It’s amazing just how popular Twitter has become.  It’s such a big deal that even astronauts use it!  Not only are they using it, they’re also using the power of Twitter and Twitpic to beam images of the Earth back from space!  Just check out io9’s gallery of Tweeted space photographs from Astronaut Jose and […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Cops Accused Of Being Too Friendly With K9 Partner

Posted 2/05/2010 7:30 am by Ron Hogan

There’s bonding with your dog, and then there’s bonding with your dog.  Five corrections officers in Powhatan County, Virginia, have been accused of getting a little too friendly with their K9 partner during training sessions.   Prosecutors accuse the handlers of touching the dog inappropriately in a very personal area.  I know you want to […]

Read »
Unusual Stuff

Homemade Rocket Bombs At Sledding Party

Posted 2/05/2010 7:00 am by Ron Hogan

It was his second annual sledding party, but the first time an unnamed 62-year-old man tried to build a homemade rocket sled.  In theory, the idea was… okay, I’m not going to be kidding anyone here.  In theory, the idea was dumb.  The man wanted to build a rocket, then attach it to his sled […]

Read »