Chuck Shepherd

In May, the Norwegian Consumer Council staged a live, 32-hour TV broadcast marathon — a word-for-word reading of the "terms of service" for internet applications Instagram, Spotify and more than two dozen others, totaling 900 pages and 250,000 words of legal restrictions and conditions that millions of users "voluntarily" agree to when they sign up (usually via a mouse click or finger swipe). A council official called such terms "bordering on the absurd," as consumers could not possibly understand everything they were legally binding themselves to. The reading was another example of Norway's fascination with "slow TV" — the success of other marathons, such as coverage of a world-record attempt at knitting yarn and five 24-hour days on a salmon-fishing boat.

Unclear on the concept

Gainesville, Fla., performance artist Tom Miller planned a public piece in a downtown plaza during May and June as homage to the music composer John Cage's celebrated "4'33," which is four minutes and 33 seconds of purposeful silence by all musicians who "play" on the piece. Miller said his project would consist of local artists "installing" sculpture at 15-minute intervals for five days — except that the "sculpture" would have to be imagined by observers, as (in the tradition of Cage) nothing otherwise perceptible would be there.

Crime scenes

• The Massachusetts attorney general disclosed in May that state crime-lab chemist Sonja Farak, who was fired in 2013, worked "high" on drugs "every day" in the lab in Amherst, beginning around 2005. Among her preferred refreshments: meth, ketamine, ecstasy and LSD.

• The U.S. Justice Department revealed in April that in the 20-year period ending about 2000, most FBI forensic unit examiners overstated hair sample "matches" in criminal trial testimony — helping prosecutors 95 percent of the time.

Burying the boss alive

Erick "Pork Chop" Cox, 32, in an angry construction-site clash in DeBary, Fla., recently used his front-end loader to dump two heaps of dirt onto his boss, Perry Byrd, 57, burying him up to his waist before co-workers intervened. Cox said Byrd had taken the first swing and that he had only accidentally engaged the loader when trying to turn it off, but Byrd claimed that Cox was laughing during the episode. Cox was arrested.

Least competent criminal

Suspected drug possessor Darius Dabney finally confessed after a protracted confrontation with the judge in a Cincinnati courtroom in May — a showdown initiated when the judge noticed an "overwhelming" smell of marijuana accompanying Dabney as he entered the room. Upon extensive questioning, according to a transcript provided by WXIX-TV, Dabney swore that he had no drugs — though the penalty for lying would be immediate jailing, but producing the drugs voluntarily would result only in their being confiscated, without charges. One more chance, the exhausted, patient judge implored, just to be sure. Dabney then sheepishly pulled out a bag of marijuana. "Finally, you come clean," said the judge. "Are you sure [now]?" Dabney then pulled out another bag. "Oh, my lord," said the judge, who still kept his word and only found Dabney in contempt for "coming to court high."

Read News of the Weird daily at weirduniverse.net. Send items to weirdnews@earthlink.net.