Contractors Prey on Recent Victims 11 hours ago

"Ambulance-chasing" lawyers are less cliché than they formerly were because of bar association crackdowns, but fire truck-chasing contractors and "public adjusters" are still a problem — at least in Florida, where the state Supreme Court tossed …

Very Personal Hygiene Yesterday at 12:00 AM

Orestes De La Paz's exhibit at the Frost Art Museum in Miami in May recalled Chuck Palahniuk's novel and film "Fight Club," in which lead character Tyler Durden's principal income source was making upscale soap using discarded liposuctioned fat …

Armored ‘Package' Protectors Yesterday at 12:00 AM

After setting out to create a protective garment for mixed martial arts fighters, Jeremiah Raber of High Ridge, Mo., realized that his "groin protection device" could also help police, athletes and military contractors. Armored Nutshellz underwear, …

Is That a Pepperoni in You Pocket? Yesterday at 12:00 AM

John Allison, 41, who was arrested inside a Hannaford's grocery store in Massena, N.Y., in May, first aroused suspicion as an anticipated shoplifter, but it turns out that all he wanted to do was to remove a pepperoni from the meat case, rub it on …

Poor Peacock Yesterday at 12:00 AM

David Beckman, 64, was charged in DuPage County, Ill., in May with misdemeanor animal cruelty after he allegedly sexually abused his pet peacock, "Phyl."

Go Ahead, Suck on It Yesterday at 12:00 AM

Researchers writing in May in the journal Pediatrics found that some infants whose parents regularly sucked their babies' pacifiers to clean them (rather than rinsing or boiling them) developed fewer allergies and cases of asthma. (On the other …

Company's Patent Makes Cancer Test 
Too Expensive Yesterday at 12:00 AM

Until recently, apparently, gene mutations were considered merely freaks of nature, but that was before Myriad Genetics obtained binding U.S. patents for mutations it discovered — now known as BRCA-1 and BRCA-2. Those mutations were in the news in …

Mayan Ruins Mined for Road Fill Yesterday at 12:00 AM

Archeologists discovered in May that a construction company had bulldozed 2,300-year-old Mayan ruins in northern Belize — simply to mine the rocks for road fill to build a highway. A researcher said it could hardly have been an accident, for the …

Your Friendly Neighborhood Drone Yesterday at 12:00 AM

A woman in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood reported to a local news blog in May that she had seen (and her husband briefly conversed with) a man who was operating a "drone" from a sidewalk, guiding the noisy device to a point just outside a …

Horrible Fort Hood Irony Yesterday at 12:00 AM

Army Major Nidal Hasan went on trial in June for killing 13 and wounding another 32 in the notorious November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, but his 43 months in lockup since then have been lucrative. WFAA-TV (Dallas-Fort Worth) reported …