This blew straight past me, but it seems in 2005, the state of Idaho passed a bill commending Jared and Jerusha Hess for the production of the indie film Napoleon Dynamite. The state of Idaho wanted to commend the Hess’ on a job well done and for portraying Idaho in a favorable light, by showing off it’s scenery, increasing tourism and economic growth in the area where the film’s production took place. There is also a great list of what the state of Idaho finds as positive moments within the movie, such as promoting tater tots made from Idaho’s #1 export (the potato), providing a testament to Idaho’s athletics with Uncle Rico’s football skills, and promoting self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship among the small towns of Idaho with Rico’s Tupperware sales and Deb’s keychain and glamour shots business (!?). The list goes on and I recommend everyone read it through

Read more: Idaho state resolution commending production of Napoleon Dynamite | Not a hoax

An elderly man on welfare, who regularly searched through convenience store trash bins in the hopes of finding a winning lottery ticket hit the jackpot in October 2005. While searching through a local store’s trash he found a discarded lottery ticket worth $1 million, which he immediately claimed, sparking a fierce battle between the ticket’s original purchaser, who states he threw away the ticket by accident and was entitled to the money, rather than Edward St. John, the 83 year old pensioner who lives in subsidized housing in the Blackstone, Massachusetts area. The court battle was fierce, with an April 2006 decision of the Massachusetts Lottery Commission concluding that a lottery ticket is like cash, requiring only possession to show ownership. Shortly after, Kevin Donovan, the 49 year old who claimed ownership of the winning ticket passed away after suffering a massive heart attack. At this point, Donovan’s family took up the case, challenging the commission’s ruling and attempting to lock-up the winnings in court for as long as necessary to reclaim the winnings. This meant that the longer the court case was open, the chances of St. John’s passing grew, meaning there was a great chance he wouldn’t live to enjoy the payoff from his found ticket. This prompted him to settle with Donovan’s family for the sum of $140,000 or $7,000 annually for the next 20 years, with St. John getting $43,000 annually for the next 20 years, before taxes of course. St. Johns plans to share the money with his older brother and will have to move out of his house now that his annual income exceeds the maximum allowed for government subsidized housing.

Read more: Man finds winning lottery ticket in the trash, gets sued by the person who threw it away

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

Apparently there are more than 2 trillion methods for tying your shoes. Thankfully Ian over at Ian’s Shoelace Site hasn’t tried all of them yet, but he’s working on it. In order to make things a little simpler, Ian is trying and reviewing 31 different ways for you to tie those Nikes of yours, starting with everyone’s favorite, the Criss-Cross lacing! I actually remember when I was younger, some of these lacing variations were actually all the rage among middle-schoolers, like the Over-Under lacing and the Straight-Lacing. For those fashionistas out there who’ve already blown through all 31 variations, don’t worry, Ian is working on getting reviews down for many more, so, keep your trendy Adidas warm.

Read more: 31 different ways to tie your shoes, reviewed

In 1968, David Lynch was just getting his hands dirty with experimental film and art, but was getting reluctant to continue working with film due to the high cost. His mind was changed when a fellow student saw Lynch’s paintings and offered the soon-to-be cult director, $1000 to create a similar film to Lynch’s “After Six Figures Getting Sick”. Lynch purchased a used Bolex camera and began filming, only to discover a few months later that the camera was defective, rendering his film useless. The film student told Lynch to keep the rest of the money and do whatever he’d like with it.

Around this time, Lynch’s wife, Peggy, told him of a dream she had, where her niece was reciting the alphabet in her sleep, woke up, then started bouncing around the room repeating the recital. Lynch ran with it, creating the haunting short, “The Alphabet”. When I say haunted, I mean it, I’ve seen it many times and I always get an icky feeling, maybe it’s just something about scary chanting children or the chilling soundtrack, featuring a newborn Jennifer Lynch crying, I can’t quite place it.

Turn off your lights and watch the video after the jump…

Read more of ”David Lynch short film: The Alphabet“

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]