Strange News

World News

Finns Dominate Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship

5:30pm August 27, 2013

The 2013 Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships in Finland have crowned a winner in the Women's category — Asa Lundgren from Sweden. Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel have more.

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Fantasy sports attract an estimated 36+ million players in the U.S. and Canada.

Quitting Your Job For Fantasy Football

6:04pm August 25, 2013

Drew Dinkmeyer was an investment analyst. Pretty steady job, right? He left that job - in this economic climate - to become a full-time fantasy sports player.

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Tim Curry as Pennywise in a 1990 TV adaptation of Stephen King's It. Come on, tell us you aren't just a little creeped out.

Arts

Fear Of Clowns: Yes, It's Real

12:53am August 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

Clowns are terrifying — that's pretty much a given. Even children, to whom they're supposed to appeal, are said to dislike them instinctively. Writer Linda McRobbie says darkness has always been a part of clowning.

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Thai Elephant Orchestra co-founder David Sulzer (bottom center, in red) poses with the animals and their mahouts, or keepers.

The Biggest Thing Out Of Thailand: An Elephant Orchestra

3:01pm August 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Based out of a conservation center for former work animals, the Thai Elephant Orchestra is just what it sounds like: a group of elephants trained to play enormous percussion instruments, holding mallets in their trunks and sometimes trumpeting along.

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At 18, Gabrielle Turnquest is the youngest person in the history of the English legal system to be admitted to the bar.

Education

U.S. Teen Is Youngest Ever To Pass Britain's Bar Exams

6:38pm August 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

An 18-year-old from Florida is the youngest person to be admitted to the bar in the United Kingdom.

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Bland Meets Dull In Scotland

6:01pm August 02, 2013

The village of Dull, Scotland, has just been visited by a delegation from Bland Shire, Australia. It wanted to get in on a bit of the publicity generated last year when Scotland's Dull established links with Boring, Ore. Bland Shire resident Dot McCaskie said she hoped the visit would bring awareness to places with unusual names.

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"Liver buds" grow in petri dishes. The rudimentary organs are about 5 mm wide, or half the height of a classic Lego block.

Scientists Grow A Simple, Human Liver In A Petri Dish

9:48am July 04, 2013

The tiny organs created from stem cells aren't complete, but they act like regular livers when transplanted into mice, Japanese scientists say. Still, it will be years before the synthetic organs could help people with liver problems, even if further research all works out as hoped.

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Scottish Couple Welcomes Third Set Of Twins

10:23am June 03, 2013

Karen and Colin Rodger already had two sets of boys. When Mom got pregnant this time, the thought of more twins crossed her mind, but a doctor said the odds were 500,000 to 1. Now she's given birth to twin girls, and the family tells the Daily Mirror it's shopping for a van.

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Movie In The Works For 'Grumpy Cat'

8:34am May 31, 2013

Last year a snapshot of a frowning feline went viral, emblazoned with captions such as: "Of all the 9 lives I've lived, this is the worst." Within months, "Grumpy Cat" had a book deal. Now the feline face that launched a thousand memes has a movie in the works. Turns out Grumpy Cat has a great agent — the same one that represents fellow online star Keyboard Cat.

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High Schoolers Show Up For Prom On Wrong Night

10:51am May 01, 2013

About 400 students from Bloomington High in Southern California showed up for prom a week early — because the invitations had the date wrong. The venue managed a makeshift party for them anyway, complete with a DJ and chicken strips.

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