WEIRD

The Mysterious Deaths of 9 Soviet Hikers in 1959

In February 1959, a group of students went on a camping expedition in the Ural mountains. They never returned.

Midnightdreary via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 3.0

The Search for Baltimore’s Next Poe Toaster

As in the local tradition, not the kitchen appliance.

Spend the Night in Paris's Bone-Filled Catacombs

Lodging website Airbnb isn’t hurting for unusual accommodations, but none of them have the spook factor of its latest listing.

Thanks to Smartphones, 20 Percent of San Francisco’s 911 Calls are Butt Dials

Accidental calls are putting a strain on San Francisco's emergency dispatch system.

7 Places Where Dying Is Not Allowed

In some places, death is a crime. Alas, no one has figured out a suitable punishment just yet.

Chriseaton via Wikimedia Commons // CC-BY-3.0

The Nasal Ranger Is a Real-Life Smell-O-Scope

Scent detectives use the olfactometer to sniff out trouble.

When Evacuating Hospitals, Some People Use Baby Aprons

Hospital staff use infant evacuation aprons to carry babies to safety.

Captain Morgan Helps Hips in the Emergency Room

It's more effective than it sounds.

Burning Mouth Syndrome Is Real, and It's Terrifying

The mysterious syndrome is alleviated by sleep.

Bookstore Offered Sleepovers After Accidentally Locking a Tourist in for the Night

After Texan tourist David Willis got trapped in the bookstore, others wanted a similar treatment.

Sam Fentress via WikimediaCommons // CC BY-SA 2.0

The First-Ever Loch Ness Monster Sighting

The first photo of Nessie was taken in 1934. But the first mention of the lake-bound monster? An account of a sighting back in 564 CE.

George Grantham Bain collection, Library of Congress via Wikipedia // Public Domain

Queen Marie of Romania's Heart Will Find a New Home

In November, it will be moved from museum storage to the castle where she died in 1938.

Photo courtesy of G. Cole, C. Rando, L. Sibun, and T. Waldron; UCL Institute of Archaeology

Archaeologists Discover 7-lb. Calcified Uterus in British Cemetery

"I've never seen anything quite like that before, nor have my colleagues, and we were very excited."

The Time Bloodsucking Fish Rained From the Sky in Alaska

It wasn't the first time fish rain has fallen.

6 Sssecrets of a Snake-Sound Scientissst

It's not all hiss, rattle, and slither. Snakes can also growl, fart, and shriek.

Savor Your Spring Water With the World's Only Water Sommelier

There's apparently no such thing as one-taste-fits-all H20.

Why Does Everyone Else's Skin Feel Softer Than Mine?

Touching another person’s skin and thinking it’s super soft is an illusion that may help cement social bonds, one study finds.

The Goblin-Possessed Stove That Was Blamed on a Voice-Throwing Maid

"Unconscious ventriloquism" was used to explain one of the most bizarre supernatural cases in history.

In 1995, You Could Smell Like Kermit the Frog

In the mid-'90s, Kermit the Frog was the face of the 40-year-old Muppet brand and had both a movie and a TV show to promote. So he did what any single-person empire does while sitting atop their celebrity throne: he released a fragrance.

Man Types Faster With His Nose Than Many Can With Their Fingers

Pecking out 103 characters of text in less than a minute is nothing to sniff at.

The Time Google Enticed Job Applicants With a Math Riddle

People could only submit their resumes after they solved two math puzzles.

Tragic Tunes: Execution Ballads Were the Crime Reports of the Middle Ages

Blood-soaked tales of murder, rape, and other crimes were written into popular songs and sung merrily in the streets.

Lily Dale, the Town That Speaks to the Dead

This little town in upstate New York has stayed true to its spiritualist roots.

The Time Max Headroom Hijacked Two Networks

To this day, no one knows how or why hackers chose to take over two Chicago-area TV stations—or who, exactly, was responsible.

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