What weird news stories make you either laugh out loud, or just say "huh?'

[DonaCatalina]

Have you tried Bing Maps (Microsoft's version of Google Maps)?

Paste in these grid coordinates 32.82829, -97.21896 into www.bing.com. Now search. Now click on Maps at the top. Then click on "Aerial". Do not click on "Birdseye View" yet.

Zoom in. Now, what you see is vacant mall land. You can see a mall footprint. Now click on "Birdseye View". Viola! North Hills Mall appears. What happened to North Hills Mall you ask?

North Hills Mall was built in the 1970s. Across Loop 820 to the east was their competitor – Northeast Mall, in Hurst.

Hurst, in its infinite wisdom, condemned an adjacent 102-home fully occupied residential subdivision, then turned the land over to the Northeast Mall owners so they could expand the mall area. Hurst did this on the basis that the mall expansion would generate 10x the property and sales taxes hence, the Public Good would be served (a requirement under Condemnation Law).

And it worked. It is today a commercially successful regional mall generating big tax revenues for the city of Hurst.

Unfortunately, the demographics of the surrounding neighborhoods could not support two regional malls. North Hills Mall lost tenants and traffic to the expanded Northeast Mall.

North Hills Mall finally closed in 2007-8, and the city of North Richland Hills had to sue the mall owners to force them to clear the land at considerable expense.

This is one of the unintended consequences of allowing a government to take the private property of one private person in order to give it to another private person on the basis that the Public Good is served through greater tax revenues.

North Richland Hills lost its tax base however, and the North Hill Mall owners lost their shirts.
http://www.castlecoalition.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=460&Itemid=130

[Rowan MacD]

  Icky, Ick Ick Ick!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/drone-pilot-finds-river-blood-outside-dallas-meatpacking-155450010.html

[DonaCatalina]

[Auryn]

DonaCatalina
that is awesome,
i am going to have to send that to my dad and his aviation buddies

[Merlin the Elder]

I love it! 

UPDATE: While it's still a fun story, it turns out that it's naught but urban legend. According to Snopes, it never occurred.  ...such a great story, though!

[Rowan MacD]

  There are sooo many funny things you can say....I don't know where to start 

http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2012/01/17/virgin-sperm-donor-video/

[Rowan MacD]

  In a casket no less.    Must have been cheaper than burying her.

http://www.bangstyle.com/2012/01/grandmas-body-found-in-storage-unit-after-17-years/

  Edit: Darn, it would have made for a really interesting 'Storage Wars'

[Merlin the Elder]

  There are sooo many funny things you can say....I don't know where to start 

http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2012/01/17/virgin-sperm-donor-video/

Did you notice how much bigger his right arm was than his left? 

[Archer]

Something found in the Baltic Sea causing "huh" factor . . .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/ufo-found-in-baltic-sea-update_n_1241646.html#s648718&title=Sunken_Ship_in

[Archer]

Thanks Eurpean Union.  Your money may provide a plan that will allow humans to attend many future festivals . . .

                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2zDl9Or4pM

[Rowan MacD]

Nerds attack!  Lordy this had to have been funny as you-know-what.....


Man dressed as Depp's Jack Sparrow pepper-sprayed

Associated Press – 12 hrs ago
   
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say several people dressed as movie characters on Hollywood Boulevard got into a brawl that ended with a man dressed as "Pirates of the Caribbean" character Capt. Jack Sparrow being pepper-sprayed.

Officer Rosario Herrera says it's unclear why the Sparrow character, made famous in the movies by Johnny Depp, got into a fight with people dressed as Catwoman and an alien in front of the Kodak Theatre Thursday evening.

Officers responded to a call that there was a disturbance on the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard known to host costumed characters who hustle tourists for a few bucks in exchange for a photo with a celebrity lookalike.

Sparrow was treated for minor injuries. No arrests have been made.

[dbaldock]

On Yahoo! News - Burglar Caught Inside Grocery Store Wearing Only Boots, Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

Wonder if he was stealing Reeces?     

[Rowan MacD]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/congressman-thought-parody-article-planned-parenthood-real-113439270.html

LMAO (while I burn my GOP card)

[Merlin the Elder]

"The Onion is satire. How exactly did you get elected?"  What a question! I would really like to know the answer....

It is sadly way too frequent that people believe total B.S.  I get emails daily warning me about this, or that, or telling me I'll make a million bucks the easy way by **enter stupid as hell method here**

I truly wish that people would stop and think, that they would verify facts before passing some idiocy along to me in email.

I love the Onion!

[Archer]

TV "huh" news out of Kentucky, channel 14 . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqyUtWmst4