mysteries

Is This Comely Lady the Real Jane Austen?

Seth Abramovitch · 12/06/11 12:40AM

There is only one accepted portrait of Jane Austen, sketched by her sister in 1810, in which the author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice looks to be extremely pissed off. But Austen scholar Dr. Paula Byrne, who is working on a definitive biography due out some time in 2013, has discovered a portrait in auction, and thinks there is an excellent possibility that the woman in it daintily holding a quill and staring out a window pensively — which, coincidently, is precisely how I look at this exact moment — could be Austen herself.

Freak Tofu Explosion Terrorizes Portland

Maureen O'Connor · 11/29/11 05:05PM

A female resident of Portland, Oregon was at home cooking tofu when, suddenly and without warning, her kitchen exploded. The woman said she was rinsing her tofu pan in the sink when a mysterious force—she isn't sure what—burned her hand and knocked a six-foot window out of her home and onto the street.

NYPD 'Loses' the Occupy Wall Street Wikileaks Truck

Adrian Chen · 11/22/11 02:24PM

Life can be difficult when your vehicle has a huge Wikileaks logo and "Top Secret Mobile Collection Unit" emblazoned on the side. An artist's Wikileaks-themed U-Haul truck is missing after being confiscated by the NYPD.

The Natalie Wood Drowning Case Has Been Reopened

Seth Abramovitch · 11/17/11 10:04PM

Thanksgiving, 1981. Natalie Wood spends the weekend on Splendour, the yacht she shared with husband Robert Wagner, docked at Catalina Island. With the couple is Christopher Walken, with whom she was shooting Brainstorm, a sci-fi film which would be her last.

Who Is Putting Up Posters in Washington Calling Antonin Scalia a Rapist?

John Cook · 11/16/11 03:40PM

A crazy person, certainly. A tipster sent us shots of these leaflets, which have been going up "all around D.C. streets in recent days." In addition to misspelling his first name, the flyers accuse Scalia of date rape, soliciting prostitutes, and pistol-whipping women in hotel rooms. For more information, they recommend that you contact Scalia. He'll probably just deny it.

People Don't Move Any More

Hamilton Nolan · 11/15/11 12:02PM

Used to be that people here in America would sometimes "move" themselves and their belongings from their present dwelling place to a new, different dwelling place. No more.

Hedonistic Ghosts Rudely Sex It up in Woman's Living Room

Lauri Apple · 11/02/11 04:30AM

This smokey whitish mass of nothing obvious in particular is actually—and this is serious, guys—authentic ghost porn. Look again. See the human-shaped figures? See the outline of the lady-ghost's high-heel? Not really? You're probably not trying hard enough. Look again.

Missing Tourist May Have Been Eaten by Cannibals, Or Not

Maureen O'Connor · 10/17/11 05:45PM

Following the discovery of charred human remains beside a campfire in French Polynesia, European rumormongers fretted that Stefan Ramin—a German tourist who went missing while vacationing on the island of Nuku Hiva—had been eaten by cannibals.

Vincent van Gogh Was Maybe Murdered?

Richard Lawson · 10/14/11 03:11PM

A new biography of Vincent van Gogh, which is getting a featured segment on 60 Minutes this weekend, posits that the post-Impressionist master didn't commit suicide by shooting himself in the abdomen, as previously believed.

Young Woman Ages 50 Years in a Matter of Days

Matt Cherette · 10/14/11 01:06AM

Doctors are baffled at the case of Nguyen Thi Phuong, a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman who says that an allergic reaction caused her skin to sag and wrinkle, effectively aging her 50 years in just a few days.

The Mystery of Ron Paul's Collapsing Eyebrow

Jim Newell · 10/13/11 01:13PM

Okay, sorry, this post probably should have been tagged "NSFW" due to the large image of an old man's melting face. But let's move beyond courtesies: Was Ron Paul's eyebrow collapsing during Tuesday's debate? This image appears to show a fake eyebrow just stone cold fallin' off.