Welcome to Oddacity News, your source for the weird, unusual and offbeat news of the world.
Doom Scroll: You’re more likely to die in a car accident on a day when a major music album is released, a team at Harvard has found. The researchers looked at the 10 most popular albums released on Spotify in 2017-2022 — including collections by Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Drake — and found that fatal accidents were 15.1% higher on the day of release. They linked the findings to motorists trying to play the new music on their phones while driving. “You unlock the phone, open the app, find the release, read down a tracklist, tap the right song. That’s several seconds of looking at a screen,” said lead author Vishal Patel.
Gee-og-ra-fee Educashun: A planning booklet handed out to middle school students in Kentucky contained a U.S. map that labeled many states incorrectly, reports WDRB. Louisiana was “Lookoong,” Kentucky was “Venecky,” Illinois was “Vitoiis,” and South Carolina was “Sorth Cuanto.” The periodic table was actually worse, filled with gibberish names for each element. Parents are required to pay $10 for the planner. In response, the school told teachers to order students to rip out 18 pages of the planner.
Welcome Back: A woman who collapsed outside a New Zealand supermarket and was “technically dead” before being revived received a parking ticket for leaving her car in the store lot while she was taken to the hospital, reports Stuff.NZ Because of her unexpected near-death experieince, the woman’s car was in the parking lot of the New World supermarket for five and a half hours — more than the allowed 90 minutes. The store’s parking service sent her a ticket for $80 NZ ($47 U.S.), later lowering it to $30 NZ ($18 U.S.). The woman paid the ticket, but the store later apologized and reimbursed her.
Game Time: The U.S. Army is trying to entice current soldiers to re-enlist by offering them four days off to play video games. A memo shared on Instagram from the 9th Engineer Battalion at Fort Stewart, Georgia, notes that re-enlisting soldiers will be entitled to a four-day break in November “to coincide with the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI.” One X.com user noted: “You’ll have unlimited days to play GTA if you don’t re-enlist.”
Squidward, Is that You?: A truck crash in Rhode Island spilled 40,000 pounds of squid onto the road, releasing the potent smell of raw calimari into the neighborhood, reports WJAR. “It felt like something out of SpongeBob,” said one passersby. Crews cleaned up the mess by nightfall.
Odd News Update: Faithful readers of Oddacity News will recall the Alaska Senate race featuring two Dan Sullivans described in the June 5 newsletter. Alaska held its primary Tuesday, with Dan S. Sullivan finishing second and Dan J. Sullivan third. Since the top four vote-getters advance to the state’s general election, the Dan Sullivan versus Dan Sullivan story is not over.
The Dan Sullivans live on!