Don Deane

Have you ever really wanted a carnival prize but couldn’t win it no matter how hard you tried? Peter Drakos doesn’t have that problem. In fact, the 64 year old Detroit resident may just be the best carnival game player in the world.

Trampolines in theory seem like a heckuva lot of fun. Given that they’re typically made of fabric pulled tight by an array of coiled springs, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, it turns out.

After an eight month journey, NASA’s multi-billion dollar rover Curiosity made a successful landing on Mars early this morning. Mission controllers cheered after the six-wheeled, one-ton machine made a perilous seven-minute landing involving a parachute, rocket pack and sky crane.

If there’s one thing we’ve always taken for granted regarding the Olympics, it’s that gold medals are actually made out of gold. So imagine our surprise when we learned that this year’s first place medals are mostly silver.

Given that his city is currently hosting the Olympics, London mayor Boris Johnson is riding high … literally. On Wednesday, the eccentric public official rode a zip line in Victoria Park to promote the summer games. There’s just one problem — he got stuck. No, this isn’t an episode of ‘The Benny Hill Show.’ This is for real.

A Chicago Cubs fan named Greg wanted to give his girlfriend a marriage proposal that she’d never forget. So he popped the question via the video scoreboard during a game on Monday night at Wrigley Field. There was just one problem — she wasn’t in her seat at the time.

On Tuesday, pilot Mark Simmons was towing a marriage proposal behind his small plane when he suddenly experienced engine problems and crashed off Rhode Island’s Block Island. Uh oh! We hope this isn’t a bad wedding omen.

Olympic taekwondo may not be as popular as, say, swimming or track and field, but its athletes are just as motivated. Take Diana Lopez, for example, a fierce competitor in the sport who hopes to soon add gold to her 2008 bronze medal win in Beijing.

Caleb Medley was one of the 58 people injured during last week’s horrific theater shooting in Colorado. As a result of that terrible ordeal, the aspiring comedian lost his right eye, suffered brain damage and is currently in a medically-induced coma. To make matters worse, he has no insurance and his bills could exceed $2 million. There is a bright spot in this terrible story, however.

There are funny pranks and those that are just plain cruel. This one, where a husband convinces his wife that they’re about to be creamed by a semi truck in a head-on collision, is definitely more the latter. Hey, this could be grounds for divorce, buddy.

As one-half of the legendary team also starring Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh-Jennings is instantly recognizable as one of the greatest beach volleyball players in the world. Together, they’re defending Olympic champions who won gold medals in both the 2004 and 2008 games, and they’re looking to repeat their success for a third time in London this year.

Check out 10 things you may not have known about this world-class athlete below.