POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When British motorist John Hopwood, 44, received a traffic ticket after a speed camera recorded him driving 48 mph in a 30-mph zone, he removed a 40-mph speed limit sign elsewhere, drove back to the 30-mph area, attached it to a lamp post and took a photo...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - I’ve been doing some research on the great American songwriter Irving Berlin and something struck me as odd. Several sources claim he never learned to read or write music. While this is certainly believable for later songwriters with easy access...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When Thomas Reyes, 23, walked into a neighborhood grocery store in Philadelphia and pointed a gun at owner Eddie Gomez, one of the customers, Thomas Santana, who is 66 and 5-feet-4, grabbed the 6-foot-1 gunman from behind and beat him with a can of Mott’s...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - I work for an electric utility. I’ve heard tales over the years of invisible high-pressure steam leaks in power plants that have “cut people in two.” Any truth to this? 'wr99gre, via e–mail Much to the disappointment of my inner...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - When three people at a bank drive-through in Sylvester, Ga., tried to cash a personal check from Joyce Powell, the teller, who knows Joyce Powell because they work together, alerted Powell and asked the driver for identification. Driver Calvin Barfield,...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - How long are these huge dams, like the Hoover Dam, engineered to last? How would we go about replacing it if it began to weaken or became obsolete? What’s the largest dam ever to fail? 'Craig S., Jacksonville, Florida Don’t sweat the big...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - After two men robbed a Brinks armored truck guard at gunpoint as he left a bank in Cutler Ridge, Fla., carrying a moneybag, Alvaro Zabaleta of the Miami-Dade County Police Department pointed out that the bag contained no money, only deposit slips. •...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Police said that Pierre Barton, 20, tried to rob a Cleveland pizza place by waving a gun in the manager’s face. When he dropped the weapon, which turned out to be two sticks taped together and covered with a black cloth, he hastily grabbed the bulky...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - Popular opinion holds that gasoline is unstable and lasts six months at the most; some claim it loses its “edge” after as little as two weeks. Practical experience seems to show that gasoline can be stored without special precautions for years...

POSTED // Jun 11,2007 - After a clerk reported a robbery at a 7-Eleven in Royal Oak, Mich., police spotted a man matching the robber’s description sitting in a pickup truck parked on the side of the road about a mile from the convenience store. The getaway vehicle had...