Unusual Stuff

If you filed your taxes with H&R Block, there might be a problem with your returns depending on what kind of forms you needed to file.  H&R Block has acknowledged messing up over 25 percent of the tax returns they’ve filed, up to 600,000 forms.  The trouble involves the IRS Form 8863, aka the student […]

In a place like China, where laws are only as good as the people enforcing them and there are many ways to get around environmental protection regulations, there are a lot of problems with the drinking water, but rarely has there been a problem as big as this.  Nearly 3000 dead pigs were pulled from […]

Genetically modified foods have infiltrated the food supply in a steady way since rising to prominence in the 1990’s.  The bulk of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States is GMO, thanks to being tweaked to work with various pesticides, and that trend has only spread.  Mostly vegetables now, GMO is spreading into cow’s milk […]

Justin Bieber has had a pretty bad trip to London, all things considered.  Sure he’s drawing tens of thousands of fans to London’s O2 arena, but it hasn’t been all strawberries and cream for the Biebs.  Bieber first got into trouble by being late to a show.  Then there was the issue where he got […]

The publishing industry is going through some serious changes these days, thanks in no small part to the rise of the Internet as a news delivery media.  For example, The Daily Beast/Newsweek merger is a strange idea, but the fact that an Internet company can buy a real publisher is mind boggling.  That’s only the […]

For 14 years, Venezula was the private playground of popular president Hugo Chavez.  He postured and preened, rattling his anti-US saber, and maintained a great deal of popularity among his constituents and country for his efforts.  He reached out to all of South America’s communist, proto-socialist, and anti-US elements, particularly the Castro family of Cuba, […]

Since taking over as the host of Comedy Central’s hit news/satire program The Daily Show, Jon Stewart has become something other than a comedian who reads from a teleprompter.  Somehow, he’s become a major force for change and an American opinion broker.  He’s gotten health care for 9/11 first responders and even led a massive […]

The cell phone is both the scourge of modern life and the best thing to happen to the modern world.  Cell phones make life so much easier, but they’re also really obnoxious in public places.  That’s why some places discourage cell phone use, and in a lot of coffee shops, if you approach the counter […]

When it comes to getting drugs across the border and into the United States, Mexican narcotraffickers are a creative and busy bunch.  They have created massive tunnels to sneak under the border and submarines to swim through and around the border where security is weakest.  Drug shipment routinely come through the air along the US […]

In 2005, Alex Smith went from starring at the University of Utah to being the top pick in the NFL draft, picked by the prestigious San Francisco 49ers.  After that, though, he may as well have been with a new team every year, despite not moving actual location.  The Niners went through a different offensive […]

When it comes to the reality competition show Dancing With The Stars, the “stars” portion of the program’s title can be debatable, but there’s no argument over who has the most success.  Generally, athletes, former athletes, and those with previous dance experience seem to do the best on the show, which makes sense since it’s […]

What should be one of the most wonderful moments of a trip through Egypt turned into a tragedy.  A hot air balloon crash killed 18 tourists from a variety of countries throughout Europe and Asia.  During the tour, when the balloon was about 1000 feet off the ground, a fire broke out.  It spread to […]

Cuba is a country in the middle of a generational shift.  The old guard, as typified by Fidel and Raul Castro, is slowly retiring or dying off.  A new guard is slowly moving in to take their place and assume rule of the long-time communist dictatorship.  With new leaders come new policies, and it remains […]

Age is a relative thing.  For every athlete who is washed up in his mid-30’s, there’s a great, great, great grandmother who signs up for Facebook.  Few Facebook users are older then Marguerite Joseph.  In fact, Marguerite Joseph is so old she has to lie about her age to use Facebook.  As it turns out, […]

The rumors were true.  The scuttlebutt was that on February 20, Sony would announce the PlayStation 4.  What happened?  Well, yesterday, Sony announced the PlayStation 4.  Sony’s latest video game system was revealed to the public at a big press event yesterday courtesy of Sony CEO Andrew House, though the system itself won’t be available […]