WEIRD

Since the late 1980s, Purdue University has invited students to make Rube Goldberg machines accomplishing simple tasks in absurdly complex ways.

You know the saying: "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." But improving on the mousetrap is tough—just ask Joseph Barad and Edward Markoff. Their attempt, "Device Employed for Exterminating Rats, Mice and Other Animals,

All it took to locate the bones of Richard III was 500 years, a psychic vision, and a grassroots movement.

Tired of giving your kids the same green plastic shreds and dead-eyed chocolate bunnies every Easter? Pinterest has some creative alternatives for you.

Sure, having a star sign a part of your body is strange—but it gets much, much weirder than that.

It was September 27, 1726, and Mary Toft was going into labor. The 24-year-old peasant, who worked in hop fields of rural England, called out for her neighbor, Mary Gill. Gill rushed inside Mary’s house and found her squirming in pain. Then something unus

When Mary Ellis died in 1828, her family buried her in a peaceful patch of woods near a bend in the Raritan River. She’s still there, but the trees are long gone—her body now rests in the middle of a movieplex parking lot.

Western cultures often frown on the practice of eating insects of any sort. But for reasons ranging from health and wellness to eco-friendliness, foodies the world over have tried punching up everyday dishes with creepy-crawly ingredients. Hey, at least t

Stirling Council had a problem. The A811 road between Stirling and Loch Lomond, Scotland, was suffering from too many speeding drivers breaking the 30mph speed limit on the stretch of tarmac around Arnprior, a small village.

Since the beginning of the U.S. Postal Service in 1775, mischievous citizens have constantly pushed the envelope when it came to challenging their local mailmen.

According to forest rangers who were led to a hilltop grow site by under-the-influence animals in Italy, deer who’ve consumed marijuana plants are “unusually frisky” and “abnormally high-spirited.” This got us wondering what kind of effect marijuana had o

Since the late nineteenth century, analgesic drugs have been available to the masses to alleviate general pain, including that caused by headaches. While that might not always do the trick, it sounds a lot better than these alternative treatments from his