World’s Strangest

• ”Gnocchi,” a kind of traditional potato dumpling, means “lumps” in Italian (how … appetizing). It can be difficult to pronounce (just ask Katie Couric), but is more or less “gno-key.” • Everyone loves potato dumplings, including Washington’s elite and Russell Crowe (who liked the gnocchi at the DC restaurant Spezie so much he ordered it [...]

Psst – wanna lose weight while eating all you want and doing no exercise? No, it’s not a spammy Internet ad – it’s real science! All you have to do is live a while at high altitude: Overweight, sedentary people who spent a week at an elevation of 8,700 feet lost weight while eating as much [...]

A man from Germany has been jailed after attempting to smuggle a number of reptiles out of New Zealand in his underwear. The German reptile collector …

Photo: Snorky [wikipedia] In the coal stripmine Hambach in Germany, there was a machine so big that it boggles the mind.the Bagger 288: This is the 45,000 ton Bagger 288 digger built by Krupps in Germany, and it is the largest land based machine built by humans on the face of the planet. It’s not fast, moving at [...]

Scientists in Germany have developed a new device that can literally sniff out explosives in the search for terrorists. The artificial nose is adept a…

LinkScroll down for today’s pictures & links. Russian Extreme Loggers Off-road like you never seen it before – Russian-made “Ural” logging trucks and their drivers (from Karachaev region) are simply… unstoppable. Watch the video below and then click this link for more logging madness. Link ———— Cold fingers of… The creepiest icicle ever: (image via) ———— Dieselpunk art is alive and well Jud Turner’s sinister [...]

As they say, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” With this calendar, you get an apple every day of the month and it helps you keep up with the days as well. The Serviceplan advertising agency of Munich, Germany created the apple calendar for AOK health insurance. Every month, fill it with 28, [...]

The oldest remains yet of a member of English royalty are thought to have been found in Germany. Queen Eadgyth (pronounced Edith) was the sister of King Athelstan and married the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 929 AD. She died in 946. The bone fragments from a lead coffin in Magdeburg will be analyzed [...]

If snarky commentary could deep-fry, Jay Leno would be onion rings. Ever since NBC announced that Jay Leno’s current 10pm show would be fine-tuned and moved to the 11:35 time slot, the knives have been out for the former Tonight Show host. Is Leno a hapless pawn caught in the middle of cutthroat NBC politics? [...]

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s most famous novel is Slaughterhouse-Five. You may have read it — it’s taught in many high school English classes in the U.S., though in others it has been banned. So it goes. Anyway, Slaughterhouse-Five is partially autobiographical; it’s based partly on Vonnegut’s experiences as a Prisoner of War in World War II, [...]