chuck shepherd »
WEIRD NEWS
Socks, Lies And Videotape James Dowdy, 43, who was on parole for an earlier theft of socks, was arrested once again in Belleville, Ill., after police received reports of socks missing after burglaries. Authorities
Read More »
NICE KNIVES
Alfred Guercio, 54, was arrested in Burnsville, Minn., after forcibly entering a neighbor’s home and swiping a knife set that he had given the woman of the house as a Christmas gift. He told
Read More »
AND YOU THINK YOUR JOB IS BAD…
California State University-Los Angeles researcher Marc Kubasak spent 2,500 hours training 40 brain-damaged rats to walk on a treadmill. He sewed little vests on the rats to tether them to a robotic arm. His
Read More »
HARD-HITTING NUMBERS
In March, offensive lineman John Urschel of the Baltimore Ravens added to his curriculum vitae by co-authoring the latest of his several peer-reviewed academic articles: “A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector
Read More »
DINING WITH SHEEP
An entrepreneur in Seoul, South Korea, has opened the Thanks to Nature Cafe, where sheep wander through the dining room. Owner Lee Kwang-ho said his novel business model has attracted visitors from Macedonia, Saudi
Read More »
OWLFEST
— In February, officials in Salem, Ore., posted signs to warn joggers on a popular running path that they might be attacked by a rogue owl. Four joggers had already been aggressively pecked by
Read More »
FLASHLIGHTS ARE NOT HEADLIGHTS
The Knoxville, Tenn., Police Dept. recently reminded motorists that all vehicles need working headlights for night driving. Included was a recent department photo of the car of a Sweetwater, Tenn., motorist who was ticketed
Read More »
HERMAPHRODITES NO MORE
In January, Mittens the kitten and Charcoal the Chihuahua made news as hermaphrodites that veterinarians had recommended be considered part of a particular gender. Mittens, of the town of Heart’s Desire, Newfoundland, was scheduled
Read More »
ROBOT CAMEL JOCKEYS
Two recent innovations to the generations-old Middle East sport of camel racing boosted its profile. First, to cleanse the sport of a sour period in which children from Bangladesh were trafficked for use as
Read More »
SANDRA, THE NON HUMAN PERSON
A court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, granted a petition in ordering the freedom of a Sumatran orangutan from Buenos Aires Zoo. Sandra, age 29, is a “non-human person” and thus sufficiently advanced in “cognitive
Read More »
