Search results

Austin Aitken sued NBC for $2.5 million. He claimed that an episode of “Fear Factor” caused him “suffering, injury, and great pain.” He said that watching the contestants eat rats on television made him dizzy and light-headed, causing him to vomit and run into a doorway. The judge said the...

The characteristic broad foreheads and large noses of Neanderthals did not give them any special advantage in the cold arctic conditions of the last ice age, according to new research that has raised new questions about the habitats our prehistoric relatives lived in and why they died out...

Phantom Lovers of Dismal Swamp A Virginia Ghost Story retold by S. E. Schlosser He couldn't believe it when she fell ill just a few short weeks before their marriage. His betrothed was beautiful, strong, and healthy, but she just faded away before his eyes. He held her in his arms as...

Hickory, North Carolina, cops were able to solve in record time the mystery of the two cash registers purloined from the Captain's Galley restaurant. Their big break came when they discovered a trail of white register tape. They followed it 50 yards to an apartment, where, they say...

This from the BBC Jan 16 How does the US view Tunisia's revolt? When 26-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi lost hope in the future and set himself on fire on 17 December, no-one expected it would be the undoing of the 23-year-long rule of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali - including Washington...

BBC News Jan 16 Chinese President Hu Jintao has said the international currency system dominated by the US dollar is a "product of the past". Mr Hu also said China was taking steps to replace it with the yuan, its own currency, but acknowledged that would be a "fairly long process"...

AP Jan 16 WASHINGTON – As lawmakers shaken by the shooting of a colleague return to the health care debate, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds raw feelings over President Barack Obama's overhaul have subsided. Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to...

Independent In a dramatic breakthrough that could affect millions of lives, scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body's immune defences can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until...

Waverly Hills Sanatorium Louisville, Kentucky The original Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a two-story wooden structure, was opened in 1910, but the larger brick and concrete structure as it stand today was completed in 1926. The hospital was always dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis...

Joseph Goetz's alleged attempt to rob a York, Pennsylvania, bank met with some snags. Cops say the first teller he tried to rob fainted and the next two insisted they had no cash in their drawers. Fed up, Goetz stormed out, threatening to write an angry letter to the bank :p

Independent Jan 17 Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower warned of the danger of the 'military-industrial complex'. The huge budget and reach of America's modern defence industry has proved him correct, says Rupert Cornwell If you doubt, half a century on, that Dwight Eisenhower had it...

Guardian Jan 16 Spain is insisting that the United States removes tens of thousands of cubic metres of earth still contaminated by plutonium from unexploded US air force nuclear bombs that accidentally fell in the 1960s. Spain sent a diplomatic note to the Obama administration shortly...

Mercy killing & Assisted suides After reading some really tragic situations where people felt that the only option was to end the life of their spouse, child or parent, fully knowing that they would be arrested, one has to ask: Is the action of mercy killing the crime or being arrested for...

Please don't cry – it upsets a man's sex drive Smelling the tears of a woman can quell a man's sexual desire, according to a study that determined female crying can have a direct chemical impact on male libido. Scientists have found evidence to suggest that tears from a weeping woman...

Independent The nation already has its soccer moms, hockey moms, and even Sarah Palin's merry band of Mamma Grizzlies. But a new brand of pushy parent is suddenly the talk of Middle America: the no-nonsense "Tiger Mother." Amy Chua, a little-known law professor at Yale University, coined...

Independent Humans have proven themselves remarkably adept at learning to do what other animals can do naturally. We have taught ourselves to fly like birds, climb like monkeys and burrow like moles. But the one animal that has always proven beyond our reach is the fish. The invention...

Independent Blame Stella Liebeck. It was her ridiculous lawsuit against McDonald's that started the avalanche. Back in 1992, 79-year-old Stella spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee on her lap and burned herself. Everyone laughed when she declared she was suing McDonald's, until a jury awarded...

Sightly different, but funny nevertheless :p Mitchell Deslatte walked into a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hotel and asked the clerk for a room. Only, the clerk wasn't a clerk—he was a state trooper. And the hotel was actually a state trooper station. That's when Deslatte was arrested...

The world's most haunted places :eek: First up is ........ :p The White House, Washington, D.C. By Stephen Wagner That's right, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. is not only home to the current President of the United States, it also is home of several former...