Strange News

New Venezuelan Ministry Focuses On 'Supreme Social Happiness'

8:00am October 28, 2013

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has not had a great year. After a winning a disputed election, he faces inflation near 50 percent. Supplies of basic goods like toilet paper have run low. Now Maduro is acting. He created a new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness. It's supposed to coordinate services for the poor.

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What Employees Will Say To Get A Sick Day

8:00am October 28, 2013

A study released by the website CareerBuilder finds nearly a third of employees said they called in sick when they weren't really. Among their imaginative medical excuses: losing false teeth out the car window or extreme grumpiness from quitting smoking.

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Row Over Stilton Could Cause A Stink

6:43am October 25, 2013

The British government has told a pub in the village of Stilton that it can't call its cheese Stilton. The name is protected by a law that says true Stilton cheese can come from three specific regions — not Cambridgeshire, where Stilton is located. The pub's landlord is weighing his legal options.

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Norwegian Town Uses Mirrors To Try To Come Into The Light

8:07am October 24, 2013

A mountain town in Norway has spent all 100 of its winters in the shade. Now that may change. A local artist campaigned to have mirrors placed on a mountainside. When unveiled on Oct. 31, they should drop a patch of sunlight in the town square.

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How Did The Chicken Cross The Road? In Style

3:37pm October 22, 2013

We all know why the chicken crossed the road. Now, a new product wants to make sure they get to the other side safely. As chickens become more popular as pets, the British company Omlet is selling high-visibility chicken jackets — tiny fluorescent safety vets for when they're on the streets.

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Scary Halloween Display Prompts Police To Get Involved

3:37pm October 22, 2013

Police say a British man took Halloween decorating too far. He decorated his front yard to raise money for cancer research, but his display — inspired by the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — terrified neighborhood children. It included a mock dismembered corpse.

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Man Goes Deer Hunting In Wal-Mart Parking Lot

6:53am October 22, 2013

When a man in Indiana, Pa., spotted a deer in the Wal-Mart parking lot, he shot it right there. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports he got six months' probation, even though it was, in fairness, the first day of hunting season.

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Cow Tipping: The Myth That Just Won't Stand Up

1:01pm September 07, 2013

Though it may be considered an adolescent rite of passage in some places, journalist Jake Swearingen insists it can't be done. Swearingen talks to host Scott Simon about the science of cow tipping, and why it's mathematically impossible.

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Welcome to Night Vale is the number one most downloaded podcast on iTunes.

Arts

Welcome To 'Night Vale' — Watch Out For The Tarantulas

10:06am September 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

The popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast imagines a creepy desert town where conspiracies are real. From the hooded figures lurking in the closed-up dog park to the mysterious lights above the Arby's, Night Vale is a standard small American town that's just not quite right.

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Mark Malkoff makes a Skype call to Belgium.

Call Me, Haiti? One Man's Quest To Skype Around The World

11:59am August 31, 2013

by NPR Staff

Mark Malkoff has lived inside of an IKEA store, consumed beverages at 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in less than 24 hours and proved that his kid's Big Wheel bike could beat a New York City bus. Now, the comedian has video chatted with people in 162 different countries — including North Korea.

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