Don Deane

Exactly one year ago Thursday, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, rocked the Eastern seaboard, causing tremors from Georgia all the way to New England. Where were you when it happened?

Trampolines in theory seem like a heckuva lot of fun. Given that they’re typically made of fabric pulled tight by an array of coiled springs, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, it turns out.

In the U.K., a 40-year-old man recently had a plastic fork surgically removed from his stomach after swallowing it. That’s bad enough, but when you consider that he ingested the item a decade ago, the story reaches all new levels of weird. We’ll never look at cutlery the same way again.

We’ve spent our fair share of bleary-eyed nights in front of computers and gaming consoles. But it never once occurred to us that we might, you know, have a problem. And yet, according to the American Psychiatric Association, this could be a sign of a serious addiction.

Hooters, the restaurant best known for bodacious waitresses who flaunt their womanly assets, is undergoing a makeover that includes a new menu, updated decor and an attempt to attract patrons who normally wouldn’t be caught dead in the “breastaurant” — women.

Last Sunday, Chinese diver Wu Minxia took home gold in the 3m synchronized springboard and became the first woman in history to win three consecutive Olympic golds. But her remarkable accomplishment was marred somewhat when it was revealed that her family intentionally hid devastating secrets as she pursued her career.

Given that his city is currently hosting the Olympics, London mayor Boris Johnson is riding high … literally. On Wednesday, the eccentric public official rode a zip line in Victoria Park to promote the summer games. There’s just one problem — he got stuck. No, this isn’t an episode of ‘The Benny Hill Show.’ This is for real.

While the music of Justin Bieber will never, ever make our playlist, this parody, which is entitled ‘Droidfriend,’ just might. It’s ‘Star Wars’-themed, you see, so that makes it okay. We hope.

Although she’s never considered herself “the beauty pageant type,” Wisconsin resident Tasha Schuh was recently crowned Miss Wheelchair USA in a nationwide competition that celebrates the accomplishments of disabled women.

While some may prefer the relative quiet of working the late shift, a new study says that after-hours work may be bad for your health. In fact, the study says, working the graveyard shift may actually give you a heart attack or stroke.

There are funny pranks and those that are just plain cruel. This one, where a husband convinces his wife that they’re about to be creamed by a semi truck in a head-on collision, is definitely more the latter. Hey, this could be grounds for divorce, buddy.

While soccer isn’t nearly as popular here as it is in other parts of the world, it seems to get its due in the US during the Olympics, at least. And when the women’s national soccer team won gold after a hotly-contested battle against Brazil at the 2008 Games in Beijing, its members became superstars.