Weird News

A collection of weird and strange news articles from around the Internet.

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Japan doctors helped themselves to kidneys
Kidneys were allegedly removed from sick patients at a Japanese hospital without their permission and then used for transplants, a report says.

Woman offers mummy for sale on eBay
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) - Mummified human skeletal remains confiscated from the home of a woman who police say was trying to sell them on eBay likely came from an early 19th century Scottish collection, authorities said.

Buchanan's Iraq remark draws skeptical laughs
PALMETTO -- Republican Vern Buchanan was interrupted by laughter during a debate before a group of veterans Thursday when he insisted that the White House has a strategy for the war in Iraq.

'Ritual' gets UCF fraternity suspended
Police called to a University of Central Florida fraternity house last week found young men crawling on hands and knees, screaming profanely and wearing women's underwear, fairy wings and a diaper.

Man Posts Sex Offender Photo on MySpace
A man who posted his own sex offender registry photo on the social networking site MySpace.com is back behind bars.

9-Year-Old Charged With Attacking Teacher For Fourth Time
A 9-year-old boy in Volusia County, Fla., was charged with battery on a school teacher -- the fourth time he has attacked a teacher, police told Local 6 News.

Cool Links

A collection of cool, weird and funny links from around the Internet.

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10 Things You Don't Know About Women
10 Things You Don't Know About Women by Jenna Fischer from NBC's "The Office".

Determining the Height of a Tall Building
Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score.

Kitty Litter Cake
"Great Halloween cake! You'll need a new kitty litter box, box liner and litter scoop as "props" to get the full effect with this cake!"

Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords
If you log on to an MIT realm, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, click Change Password, type your existing MIT password, and then type a new, simple password that does not pass the dictionary check in Kadmind, you may receive the following error message:

Xdress.com
I feel dirty now.

Joke of the Day

A golf challenge

A young man, who was also an avid golfer, found himself with a few hours to spare one afternoon. He figured if he hurried and played very fast, he could get in 9 holes before he had to head home. Just as he was about to tee off, an old gentleman shuffled onto the tee and asked if he could accompany the young man as he was golfing alone. Not being able to say no, he allowed the old man to join him.

To his surprise, the old man played fairly quickly. He didn't hit the ball far, but plodded along consistently and didn't waste much time.

Finally, they reached the 9th fairway and the young man found himself with a tough shot. There was a large pine tree right in front of his ball and directly between his ball and the green.

After several minutes of debating how to hit the shot, the old man finally said, "You know, when I was your age, I'd hit the ball right over that tree."

With that challenge placed before him, the youngster swung hard, hit the ball up, right smack into the top of the tree trunk and it thudded back on the ground not a foot from where it had originally lay.

The old man offered one more comment, "Of course, when I was your age, that pine tree was only 3 feet tall."

1530 - St. Felix's Flood destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands

1556 - Fifty miles north of Delhi, a Mogul Army defeats Hindu forces of General Hemu to ensure Akbar the throne of India.

1605 - Gunpowder Plot: A plot led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is thwarted when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building.

1688 - Glorious Revolution begins: William of Orange lands at Brixham.

1780 - French-American force under Colonel LaBalme is defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.

1838 - The United States of Central America began to disintegrate when Honduras separated from the federation.

1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George McClellan as commander of the Union Army for the second and final time.

1862 - Indian Wars: In Minnesota, more than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers and are sentenced to hang.

1872 - Women's suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100.

1895 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1911 - After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica.

1912 - U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a victory over the Progressive former President Theodore Roosevelt and Republican incumbent William Howard Taft.

1913 - The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumed the title Ludwig III.

1913 - United Kingdom annexes Cyprus, and together with France declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

1916 - The Kingdom of Poland proclaimed by the November 5th Act of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

1916 - The Everett Massacre takes place as political differences lead to a shoot-out between IWW organizers and local police

1917 - St. Tikhon of Moscow was elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church.

1930 - Sinclair Lewis is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1935 - Parker Brothers releases the board game Monopoly.

1937 - World War II: Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.

1940 - U.S. presidential election, 1940: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the United States' only third-term president.

1945 - Colombia joins the United Nations.

1951 - I Love Lucy airs for the first time.

1962 - A mining accident kills 21 miners at the government-owned Kings Bay Coal Company on Svalbard, leading the Norwegian government to close the mine.

1965 - State of Emergency declared in Rhodesia after collapse of negotiations with Great Britain over Rhodesian independence (UDI would follow six days later)

1968 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

1970 - Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).

1975 - The Travis Walton abduction happens.

1979 - The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio.

1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1985 - Reliquary of St Maurus from the 13th century discovered in a cache in the chapel of Becov Castle.

1986 - USS Rentz (FFG-46), USS Reeves (DLG-24) and USS Oldendorf (DD-972) visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China—the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.

1987 - Apartheid: In South Africa, Govan Mbeki is released from custody after serving 24 years in the Robben Island prison. He had been sentenced to life for treason against the white minority South Africa government.

1990 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.

1992 - In Detroit, Michigan, black motorist Malice Green dies after a struggle with white policemen Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn.

1994 - A letter by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan is released that announces he has Alzheimer's disease.

1994 - Forty-five year old George Foreman becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion when he knocks out Michael Moorer.

1996 - U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democrat incumbent Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term.

1998 - Lewinsky scandal: As part of the impeachment inquiry, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde sends a list of 81 questions to US President Bill Clinton.

1998 - The journal Nature publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered a son, Eston Hemings Jefferson, by his slave Sally Hemings.

1999 - United States v. Microsoft: U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that software maker Microsoft had "monopoly power".

2000 - Emperor Haile Selassie I given an Imperial funeral by the Ethiopian Orthodox church.