■ When Claire Johnson, 50, took her seeing-eye dog, Venice, to training classes in Stoke-on-Trent, England, the canine helper quickly became friends with fellow student Rodd, owned by 52-year-old Mark Gaffey. As the two dogs became inseparable pals, their sight-impaired owners struck up a friendship that soon turned into romance. Now, after an 11-month courtship, Johnson and Gaffey are to […]
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EUGENE, Ore A man who was upset with his local state revenue office released a flock of chickens inside the agency’s office. Police responded to the scene to find that Louis J. Adler, 66, released seven chickens in the office lobby. The police officer, accompanied by an animal welfare officer rounded up the chickens and took them to a local […]
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■ Tourists at a Los Angeles hotel were distressed to learn they’d been drinking, bathing, and brushing their teeth with water from a rooftop tank in which a dead body had been decomposing. The body was discovered by a maintenance worker who was trying to figure out why the water pressure was so low. “The water did have a funny […]
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Atlanta Assault on a toddler: An Idaho man was charged this week with federal assault for allegedly slapping a crying 2-year-old and calling him a racial slur on a flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta. Joe Rickey Hundley, 60, an executive with AGC Aerospace & Defense, was seated on the flight next to Jessica Bennett, 33, of Minnesota, and her adopted […]
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High blood sugar doesn’t just increase your risk of developing diabetes—studies have also shown a link between blood sugar and dementia. Researchers tracked the blood glucose levels of more than 2,000 older adults for seven years and found that those who had high glucose levels—but not diabetes—were nearly 20 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with low levels. […]
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Researchers have discovered a new map of the octopus genome that is so strange that it could actually be an “alien”. The first whole cephalopod gene sequence shows a striking level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes identified – more than in a human. Not only that, the octopus DNA is highly rearranged – like cards shuffled and reshuffled in […]
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Jackson, Miss. Belated ratification: Mississippi officially ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery—148 years late. The approval came after University of Mississippi medical professor Dr. Ranjan Batra watched the Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, and began looking into whether the state had ever endorsed the end of slavery. Batra discovered that by December 1865 the measure had been ratified by the three fourths […]
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A British fisherman was arrested after stealing a sea bass from an aquarium to win a fishing competition. Matthew Clark, 29, won a trophy and $1,300 in prize money for the 13-pound fish. But rival anglers quickly recognized the bass’s distinctive markings from a local aquarium and reported him to police. Clark confessed and said he sold the prizewinner to […]
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■ A Virginia teenager was booted out of her prom after fathers acting as chaperones complained that her sparkly mini-dress would “cause the young men at the prom to think impure thoughts.”The 17-year-old had made sure the dress met Richmond Homeschool Prom’s regulations for length. But she said dads who were “ogling” her as she danced suddenly sent a security […]
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Inhabitants of towns in the Heilongjiang area of China reported three UFOs tumbled from the sky on Friday morning, as per the China News Service. The roundabout, metallic articles collided with the ground of two provinces after “villagers heard…a tremendous piercing sound, and after that a few villagers saw a major fireball” that in the long run fell in a […]
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