Poor Peacock 3 hours ago

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 3 hours ago

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 3 hours ago

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 3 hours ago

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 3 hours ago

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 3 hours ago

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 …

Be Careful What Closet You Choose 3 hours ago

Three men committed a home invasion of a Houston residence May 14 and, although two escaped, one wound up in the hospital and under arrest. The three men kicked in a door and shut the resident in an upstairs closet while they ransacked the home, but …

Ancient Germ Killer 3 hours ago

Researchers writing recently in the journal PLoS ONE disclosed that they had found certain types of dirt that contain antimicrobial agents capable of killing E. coli and the antibiotic-resistant MRSA. According to the article, medical "texts" back …

Alligator Assists in Arrest 3 hours ago

Bryan Zuniga, 20, was (according to a deputy) weaving in traffic in his SUV in May near the St. Petersburg city limit, but instead of submitting to the deputy, he fled on foot and eventually climbed a fence to a water-treatment plant — and …

Disney Disabled Pass Abusers 3 hours ago

As recently as mid-May, people with disabilities had been earning hefty black-market fees by taking strangers into Disneyland and Disney World using the parks' own liberal "disability" passes (which allow for up to five relatives or guests at a time …