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Entries Tagged as 'scary'

“kiss of deaf” wrecks chinese girl’s hearing

December 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments

If this isn’t the strangest thing you’ll read today, it’s up there.
A woman in China has apparently lost all hearing in her left ear after a session of “passionate” kissing with her boyfriend.
The BBC reports:

The doctor who treated the girl in hospital was quoted in the paper explaining what had happened.
“The kiss reduced the pressure […]

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Tags: asia · china · curio · holy crap · medicine · news · scary · usa

recipe for disaster: 2 nuclear-armed countries, 1 water crisis, 1 cup shallots

November 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Why shallots? Why not shallots?
From the Times of India:

India would make Pakistan a barren land in the next six years by blocking its water through construction of dams in violation of the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah said on Monday.
[…] Dismissing India’s claim that it had stopped Pakistan’s water […]

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Tags: asia · energy · history · holy crap · india · news · opinion · scary · sustainability · war

30% of asthma diagnoses could be wrong

November 18th, 2008 · 2 Comments

According to a new study, nearly a third of Canadians diagnosed with asthma may not actually have it. The CBC reports:

In Monday’s online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Shawn Aaron of the Ottawa Health Research Institute and his colleagues looked at 496 adults from eight Canadian cities — Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, […]

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Tags: canada · medicine · news · scary

climate change forces island nation to buy new homeland for 300,000 citizens

November 12th, 2008 · No Comments

With the world’s oceans expected to rise dramatically this century, the new president of the tiny island republic of Maldives is getting proactive about climate change.
The Guardian reports:

The U.N. forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59cm [nearly two feet] by 2100, due to global warming. Most parts of the Maldives […]

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Tags: asia · environment · holy crap · news · sad · scary

south dakota buried under 4 feet of snow

November 7th, 2008 · No Comments

Parts of South Dakota are buried under a staggering snowstorm that apparently came out of nowhere, and people are missing all over the state. I know South Dakotans are hardy and all, but isn’t it a little early in the season for this sort of thing?
CNN reports:

“We cannot see a thing in many areas […]

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Tags: americas · holy crap · nature · scary · usa · weather

why do insane bigots still pose for gun-toting myspace pics?

October 29th, 2008 · No Comments

Because they’re idiots, that’s why.

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Tags: americas · crazy · dumb · guns · news · obama · scary · usa

british shin-kicking and other insane sports

October 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment

From the indefatigable Cool Things in Random Places:

The sport of shin kicking has been around since the 17th century [and was] reborn in 1951 at Chipping Camden, England. Although the games are not quite as brutal as the earlier versions, I’m sure players are secretly rejoicing that they now prohibit iron-capped boots. Players used to […]

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Tags: dumb · funny · holy crap · scary · sport · uk

britain uses anti-terrorism laws against iceland

October 10th, 2008 · 5 Comments

According to the U.K., that there is a map of the world’s newest terrorist state.
As stock markets continue to dry-heave at the toilet of the world economy — and as financial-sector CEOs continue to dry-hump the American taxpayer — we’re discovering that British municipalities, police forces and other investors had a lot of money in […]

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Tags: crazy · europe · finance · holy crap · law and order · money · news · scary · uk

the u.s. economy: everybody panic

October 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

Chinese astronauts walked through space this week, the Russian and Venezuelan navies staged ominous joint war games, Myanmar freed 9,000 political prisoners, and a man flew across the English Channel with a jetpack and a parachute. But the only story in the news for the last few days has been the growing worldwide economic […]

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Tags: consumer · finance · holy crap · news · scary · usa

the poetry of osama bin laden

September 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Could the most dangerous weapon in the world be charisma?
From the Los Angeles Times:

Next week the academic journal Language & Communication will publish the poetry of Osama bin Laden, as part of an article by UC Davis Professor Flagg Miller. “Bin Laden is a skilled poet with clever rhymes and meters,” Miller told the Times […]

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Tags: beautiful · curio · news · scary · writing