"He was actually a pretty good neighbor up until last week. And then he just went complete psycho." That's how Marty Corbitt described Phillip Roger Bennett, who is both his neighbor and the man responsible for burning his house to the ground because he didn't like Corbitt's unkempt lawn. Well, Mr. Corbitt, one man's "psycho" is another man's "very concerned about his community's brand."

Corbitt told police that Bennett had slapped and shouted at him the day prior to the arson, telling him to mow his yard. And when Corbitt didn't act on that command quickly enough, Bennett took matters into his own hands. He's currently on the run, and authorities consider him dangerous, probably because he burned someone's house down over a yard dispute. Here's a video of the interview with Corbitt, and if you can keep it together when Corbitt's three-year-old daughter, Kylie, says "the mean man burned my house," you're made of sterner stuff than most ... Discuss

Someone—or something—has deflated the massive rubber ducky floating in a harbor outside of Hong Kong. The duck’s only crime was bringing joy, laughter and surrealist wonder to the good citizens of the city and fans of weird Internet news, and now, it is just a deflated pile of yellow rubber. The organizers of the duck display—a touring art installation that garnered international headlines during its latest stop to Hong Kong—initially seemed to be unsure what caused the collapse, but later said it was an “intentional deflation.” Hmmm. In the words of a CSI Hong Kong investigator, “Something sure does sound fishy, about the fate of this ducky” … Discuss

Scientists looking for new methods to make human tissue have successfully used cloning technology to create embryonic stem cells from skin cells. The researchers were attempting to find new ways to create tissue in a lab setting that can be used to treat some diseases and injuries. Unlike the controversial method of tissue harvesting that requires some human embryos to be destroyed, the new cloning technique can use a patient’s own skin cells—combined with an unfertilized human egg—to create tissue with a DNA match. Though there’s no indication that scientists have any intention of using the technology to ever clone another person, the research brings the prospect of such an experiment a step closer … Discuss

The ceiling of a factory in Cambodia that makes shoes for the brand Asics collapsed early this morning, killing at least two workers. Nine more were injured—three of them seriously—when steel beams that supported a large concrete-floored area broke. The incident comes just weeks after a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,100 workers making clothes for several Western brands.

For the last two decades, officials in Cambodia have consulted with international advisors to draft laws and regulations to ensure worker safety, though according to The New York Times, those rules often go unenforced. A spokeswoman for the Clean Clothes Campaign—a group that advocates for safe working conditions for international garment workers—told the NYT, “The shoe and garment industry is built upon huge profits and little concern for the well-being of their workers. It is inherently unsafe and dangerous to work in. As long as workers are marginalized and deprived of their basic rights, the situation will not improve” … Discuss

OK. Hang on for this one, because it's weird. Early this week, this thing started oozing out of a crack in the sidewalk in the Pukou district in Nanjing, China. At this point, nobody's exactly sure what it is, but they are sure that authorities showed up, cordoned off the street and evacuated nearby homes. Eventually, the whatever-it-is seeped back into the ground, leaving local residents with no real clues as to what it was—but that wasn't stopped them from theorizing ("looks like some kind of alien," notes one observer on a Chinese blogging site, who is just saying what everybody's thinking.) China's Propaganda Ministry is now saying that the substance was being used to soften soil for subway construction, but not many locals are buying it ... Discuss