Exploding toilets injure federal worker, and more

Exploding toilets injure federal worker

A federal worker was injured on her trip to the bathroom when two toilets exploded in a shower of water and porcelain shrapnel. A water-pressure problem at the General Services Administration building in Washington, D.C., caused the explosion, which sent the woman to the hospital with a leg wound. Plumbing expert Chuck White said that water-pressure problems can turn toilets into deadly weapons. “If you’re not careful about how you release pressure,” White said, “the contents of that bowl will come up like Old Faithful.”

Why Brad Pitt keeps on truckin'

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Brad Pitt says he suffers from a “psychological defect” that won’t let him go backward. The 47-year-old actor says that if he is leaving his home and realizes he’s forgotten something, he is incapable of going back to get it. Similarly, “if I’m driving down the road and I miss a turn, I have to keep going forward. I can’t reverse.” Pitt says the condition has afflicted him all his life but that he has learned to accept it. “For better or worse,” he says, “I want to keep moving on.”

Girlfriend swallows necklace hidden in a muffin

A Chinese man who hid a gold necklace inside a muffin for his girlfriend’s birthday was horrified to watch her swallow the whole thing in one gulp. Xaio Li, 22, said he hid the necklace in the muffin to show Wang Xue, also 22, “how much I love her. And it would be a good joke, too.” Doctors retrieved the jewelry by endoscopic surgery, but now Li doubts Xue “will ever feel comfortable wearing it, even though I spent hours cleaning it for her.”