Ahhhh, the United States of America with it’s pride and patents and all those freedom-inspiring things. We can go on for days about some of the shit being granted patent-protection in this country, but, I’ll leave that up to some of our favorite blogsters over at Patently Silly, who sniff out some of the silliest inventions receiving patents as they are granted. For instance, the recently patented bandage printed with the stars and stripes (minus a few stars), which was recently granted patent-protection after several long years of review. Congratulations Anduss; Craig of San Antonio, Texas, you have a winner on your hands. I for one, can sleep a little sounder tonight know that myself and our pals over at Patently Silly can now apply a God-fearin’, US-flag emblazoned bandage to our open wounds, rather than those normal, boring beige Band-Aid-brand bandages.

Read more: Patent for American flag bandages granted

Chuck Shephard is the father of odd-news reporting, starting in the 1970s with his zine “View from the ledge”, Chuck has been collecting, reporting and syndicating odd news bites long before Fox News was ending their broadcasts with their feel-good puff pieces or stupid crook stories. Chuck’s column is currently published in over 250 daily and weekly newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Posting weekly round-ups on his site and daily blasts via his blog, Chuck documents just about every odd or strange news snippet you could imagine, from dead cow carcasses mysteriously placed in trees to incompetent crooks to just plain weird tales of a detiriorating society. Chuck works from morning until night documenting judgment-challenged people committing weird news and is an inspiration to all of us here at Bunch of Nerds. One such example of Chuck’s work:

Ernest G. Johnson, 42, was arrested in Shreveport, La., in May after he, posing as an insurance company employee, roamed the corridors at LSU Hospital seeking to photograph women wearing casts. Said a police detective, “It’s like all he wants is to be in the presence of a woman with a cast on and have her attention.”

Read more: [News of the Weird | News of the Weird breaking reports]

An 11-year-old boy in North Carolina was in for a little shock after her purchased the latest “N-B-A video game” from Wal-Mart, only to find the disc contained a pornographic film, rather than the game he assumed he was buying. This was reported to be for the Sony PSP and the game was sealed and wrapped, but I’m finding this to be a little suspect (“oh gosh dad, that porn was in the packaging when I bought this game! Honest!”), without at least some more details. Wal-Mart are said to have replaced the game and are working together with the manufacturer to figure out what could have happened. Naturally, the boy’s father has already contacted his attorney, but is stating he only wants his son to get the right game before they leave on a trip next week. Ahhh North Carolina, how I miss you!

[11-year-old finds porn video in game package]