News you wish you didn't know.

Samantha StainburnMay 3, 2013 13:25

RoboBee: a buzzworthy insect-sized robot is invented at Harvard (VIDEO)

Harvard scientists have invented an insect-sized robot that can launch itself into the air, hover and fly around – just like a real bug.

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About the size of a US penny, RoboBee can fly and hover. (Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences/Courtesy)

RoboBee is half the size of a paperclip and weighs less than a tenth of a gram.

Jessica PhelanMay 2, 2013 09:40

Crossing the Border: Jang Jin Sung, North Korea's poet laureate, to publish memoirs

Jang Jin Sung, who used to write propaganda poems for Kim Jong Il, offers a rare glimpse of life in North Korea with his forthcoming memoirs.

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North Korean defectors hold defaced posters of North Korea leader Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Un as they participate in an anti-North Korea protest in front of the South Korean Defense Ministry on Nov. 29, 2010 in Seoul. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Jang's work is billed as unique in coming from someone who was close to that government, who not only cooperated with it but actively shaped its myths. As he told one interviewer, "The more one serves the regime, the more one knows its true nature."

Paul Ames and Alexander BesantMay 1, 2013 13:08

Austerity, French-style: President Francois Hollande selling his wine for cash

The Elysee palace's wine cellar will put 1,200 bottles for sale at the Drouot auction house in Paris at the end of the month.

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Paris Elysee presidential palace is auctioning off 1200 of its choicest wines later this month in a sign of austere times. (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

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France's presidential palace is auctioning off some of its most prized vintages to the public.

Freya PetersenMay 1, 2013 06:56

Alpaca torturer got off too easy, Australian attorney general says, appealing sentence

An Australian government has stepped in to appeal a sentence handed down to a teenager who savagely beat two alpacas to death.

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The Australian state of Queensland wants harsher punishment dealt out to two teens who savagely beat alpacas on a school farm. (PATRICK PLEUL/AFP/Getty Images)

A teenager involved in beating two alpacas to death at a school farm in the Australian state of Queensland should have his punishment increased, the government says.

Kaitlin FunaroApril 30, 2013 23:56

Employees get inked with company logo in exchange for a 15% bonus

A NYC realtor is offering its employees a raise if they get a tattoo of the company logo.

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A New York City company, Rapid Realty, is offering its employees a raise in exchange for getting a tattoo of the company logo. (JOE RAEDLE/AFP/Getty Images)

Forty of the company's employees have volunteered to get a logo tattoo in exchange for a raise.

Samantha StainburnApril 30, 2013 20:36

New York elementary school adopts all-vegetarian menu

A public elementary school in Flushing, Queens, has become the first school in New York to adopt an all-vegetarian menu at the school cafeteria.

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Vegetables on sale at a market. (David Silverman/Getty Images)

"It's green so it can make your eyes better, and it can also help your muscles to become stronger, and it also has a lot of protein, not a lot of sugar,” a student said to NY1.

Freya PetersenApril 30, 2013 19:44

Italy facing shortage of pizza makers, despite big appetites and high unemployment

One out of every five managers surveyed for a report by FIPE, an Italian business federation, said that they were forced to hire unskilled laborers after failing to find anyone who was qualified.

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A pizzaiolo of the Brandi restaurant holds a pizza named after Queen Margherita of Savoy during a ceremony to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the pizza Margherita on June 11, 2009 in Naples. (MARIO LAPORTA/AFP/Getty Images)

Italy is facing an acute shortage of pizza makers.

One out of every five managers surveyed for a report by FIPE, an Italian business federation, said that they were forced to hire unskilled laborers after failing to find anyone who was qualified.

Despite a long recession and high unemployment, few Italians wan't the job because of the long hours and poor pay, ABC News reported.

Alexander BesantApril 30, 2013 17:04

Thin patients are treated more warmly by doctors than obese ones, study shows

Researchers at Johns Hopkins found in what may prove to be a controversial study that doctors showed more more warmth and empathy with thinner patients.

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A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers found that doctors showed more care and warmth with patients who were normal weight rather than overweight. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images)

A new study showed that doctors were more warm and caring with thinner patients than obese ones.

Freya PetersenApril 30, 2013 04:56

Planes collide over Southern California, killing 2, while three others walk away

The collision saw one of the planes spin off into a ridge, while the other "belly flopped" on the fairway of a golf course.

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An American Flyers Pilot Training School instructor and student taxi in a Cessna 172 single-engine plane - like those that collided over Southern California. (Tim Boyle/AFP/Getty Images)

A pilot has died after a midair collision between two small planes over Southern California.

Jill LangloisApril 29, 2013 19:09

Woman convicted of cutting off husband's penis and throwing it in garbage disposal

A jury convicted a woman of drugging her estranged husband before cutting off his penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife and throwing it in the garbage disposal.

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In 1994 a jury found Lorena L. Bobbitt not guilty of all criminal charges, concluding that she was temporarily insane when she cut off her husband's penis with a kitchen knife. Catherine Kieu was not so lucky. She was found guilty of drugging her husband, cutting off his penis and throwing it in the garbage disposal. (AFP/Getty Images)

She laced his soup with the sleeping pill Ambien, then tied him up after he fell asleep. She then woke him up, cut off his penis and threw it in the garbage disposal before calling 911 and telling police that her husband "deserved it."

ABOUT THIS BLOG

The word news most often conjures up visions of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the troubled global economy, a political crisis in Washington, erupting volcanoes and devastating earthquakes. But as we all know, there is far more to news than that. Indeed, it’s often the wacky, weird, offbeat and sometimes off-color stories that can most intrigue and fascinate us. Those stories can range from changing astrological signs to lost pyramids in Egypt but in their essence they all cast new light on the shared human condition in all of its wild diversity.