A ropeless bungee jumping attraction from the world’s highest road bridge has been suspended before its inauguration after videos of safety tests sparked fear on social media.

After making news headlines as the world’s highest road bridge, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge was again in the news recently, this time for a controversial attraction that challenged daredevils to jump from the bridge into a rainbow-colored net to avoid falling into the Beipan River 625 meters (2,051 feet) below. Footage of the safety staff dropping sandbags of various weights into the net as part of safety testing went viral on Chinese social networks earlier this month, causing concern among the general public.

Read More »

As part of a divorce agreement with his ex-wife, a Turkish man has agreed to pay 10,000 liras ($240) every three months as child support for their two cats.

Buğra B., who lives in Istanbul, filed for a mutually agreed-upon divorce from his wife, Ezgi B., citing “severe incompatibility and a breakdown in the foundation of their marriage.” The two parties have agreed to end their marriage and have not sought any compensation or alimony from each other, but they did include a rather peculiar protocol in their divorce filing, which could impact future divorces of pet-owning couples. The document states that the husband transfers custody of their two cats to his wife and assumes financial obligations for their maintenance.

Read More »

A Brazilian motorist had the misfortune of being caught on camera lighting up his Porsche sports car so he could cash the insurance policy.

On October 5th,  the Civil Police of Paraná was contacted by a man who claimed to have been stopped in traffic by armed men and stuffed in the trunk of his Porsche 911 Carrera before being driven to a rural area in Lapa and being set on fire. He claimed to have been rescued in the last second by passers-by who heard his screams from the burning vehicle, but had suffered minor burns. He told police he didn’t know his assailants or the reasons for trying to kill him, so police launched an investigation that revealed some peculiar details. The victim in this case appeared to have made up the story of his kidnapping, because CCTV from a farm close to the site of the arson showed the owner of the Porsche sports car setting it on fire himself.

Read More »

A 38-year-old Japanese man was arrested on suspicion of fraud after exploiting a food delivery app’s loophole to unlawfully receive over 1,000 deliveries without paying for them.

For more than two years, Takuya Higashimoto, an unemployed man from Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, took advantage of the order cancellation policy of a major Japanese food delivery platform to eat over 1,000 free meals. To do this without being detected was no easy feat. Investigators found that the fraudster used 124 accounts on the Demae-can delivery app, many of them registered under false names and fake addresses. Higashimoto typically used prepaid cards to register an account and cancelled his membership a few days later. This made it very hard for the platform to detect and stop his operation, which resulted in losses exceeding 3.7 million yen ($24,000).

Read More »

A young couple from China’s Guangdong province has become famous for their uncanny resemblance, leading many people to speculate that they might be long-lost siblings.

Liang Caiyu and He Xiansheng, both in their twenties, run a herbal medicine shop in Dongguan, Guangdong province. Although they both come from families with decades of experience in traditional herbal medicine, the two struggled to get their business off the ground until they started doing promotional clips on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. After noticing how similar they looked, Liang convinced her husband to take part in funny clips where they dressed alike to emphasize their likeness even more. Today, these clips are the couple’s main promotional material for the shop.

Read More »

A Turkish Court ordered a man to pay his ex-wife compensation for both material and moral damages after he saved her number as “Chubby” in his phone’s contact list.

Spouses often come up with nicknames for each other, some more endearing than others, but rarely do these end up as a reason for a divorce. Exceptions do occur, though, as was the case with a Turkish couple who broke up over how the husband had his wife’s name saved in his phone. The Court of Cassation ruled that the woman should be compensated for being saved as ‘Tombek’, which is apparently Turkish for ‘Chubby’. The nickname came to light during court proceedings as the couple went through a divorce, and the woman claimed that the derogatory nickname was degrading and damaging to their marital relationship.

Read More »

A sound expert at the University of Bristol in the UK created a special song designed to enhance the sweetness and intensity of chocolate.

The “Sweetest Melody” is the result of over 60 years of scientific research into a phenomenon known as “multisensory integration,” where taste and hearing influence each other. Apparently, music with soft melodies and in major keys can enhance the sweetness and silkiness, sharp notes highlight bitterness, and fast-paced music is more suitable for pairing with fast food rather than dessert. Knowing this, Natalie Hyacinth, a sound expert at the University of Bristol, teamed up with UK chocolate brand Galaxy Chocolate to create a song that makes chocolate taste better for the listener.

Read More »

After completely losing sight in his right eye, an Alabama jewelry store owner decided to personalize his new fake eye by having a diamond embedded in it.

Alabama native Slater Jones might just have the world’s most expensive prosthetic eye. After losing his right eye as a result of a terrible illness, the young jewelry store owner turned to eye prosthetic expert John Lim to create a custom artificial eye to truly reflect his identity as a jewelry designer. Featuring a two-carat diamond at its center, the unique ‘gem eye’ sparkles when it catches the light, making it a guaranteed conversation starter wherever Jones goes. 

Read More »

A Polish farmer was shocked to see this year’s harvest of potatoes disappear overnight after a viral social media post claimed that he was giving them away because he couldn’t sell them.

A farmer from Dąbrowica, in Poland’s Podkarpacie region, lost 150 tons because of a fake social media post that encouraged people to go to his field and help themselves to his potatoes because he couldn’t sell them and had decided to give them away. Many came to his plot of land to fill their bags with potatoes, but some took tens of tonnes of tubers, essentially stealing the man’s hard work for profit, whether they knew it or not. When the farmer came to check on his potatoes lat Monday, he was shocked that most of the harvested piles were gone.

Read More »

A 74-year-old man who wanted to check who would grieve his passing faked his death and staged a mock funeral to see who would attend.

The people of Konchi, a village in India’s Bihar state, were shocked to learn about the sudden passing of Mohan Lal, a local 74-year-old former Air Force veteran. It was confusing to see a procession when most people didn’t even know he had died, but that didn’t stop people from joining the procession, mourning the poor man, and taking part in all the traditional rites. But what really stunned people was the moment when Mohan got up from his casket. They soon learned that the funeral was nothing but a twisted test thought up by the 74-year-old man to see how many people cared about him.

Read More »

A South Korean woman recently went viral after revealing that she spent 300 million won ($210,000) on about 400 cosmetic procedures during the last 15 years.

Speaking during her appearance on tvN STORY’s hit entertainment show “It’s Okay to Be a Martian”, Gil Lee-won revealed that she first turned to plastic surgery in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since. While studying for her college exam, she started putting on weight, and people began making fun of her chubby figure. Later on, one of her exes started criticizing her look, which pushed her to undergo plastic surgery. Although Gil didn’t say what her first procedure was, it definitely opened her eyes to the possibilities, as she has undergone hundreds of procedures since, and even though she spent a small fortune on her physical transformation, she has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Read More »

Brazilian police recently arrested 35 people in connection with an elaborate scam that involved selling people AI-created prayers for an average of $10 per prayer.

The scam ring operated out of Nilópolis , in Brazil’s Baixada Fluminense region, for two years before finally being brought down by police. Its members ran a sort of call center that contacted Catholics via phone, tried to learn as much about them as possible, and then sold them AI-generated personalized prayers capable of curing illnesses and improving lives for around 50 reais ($10). Some of the victims were so impressed by the prayers they heard that they paid for several others after that. Many people, moved by what they believed to be a spiritual gesture, paid larger sums, convinced they were receiving supernatural help.

Read More »

A young woman went viral on Russian social media after claiming that she underwent a procedure to change her eye color during her pregnancy so her baby would be born with the new eye color.

Did you know there are multiple procedures that allow people to change their eye color? Apart from artificial iris implants, there are laser procedures through which melanin from the surface of the iris is removed, turning brown eyes into blue ones in just 20 seconds. Then there is the newer keratopigmentation, aka ‘corneal tattooing’, which relies on advanced machinery and biologically compatible pigments to permanently tattoo the cornea. But can these changes transfer to one’s unborn child? Well, according to a Russian cosmetologist who recently changed her eye color, they certainly can, because the DNA will automatically rearrange itself.

Read More »

A 70-year-old Italian man stands accused of pretending to be totally blind for over a century, during which time he collected over one million euros ($1.16 million) in disability payments.

The case of a Vincenza man who unduly received over a million euros in benefits for total blindness over a period of 53 years has once again brought Italy’s verification mechanisms for subsidies and disability payments into the spotlight. The septuagenarian, whose name has not been revealed, had been declared completely blind over five decades ago, following a work-related incident. Since then, he had collected over a million euros, but when the finance police of the Vicenza provincial command conducted cross-checks, something caught their attention, so they decided to follow and video-record him. That’s how they caught him performing gardening work with dangerous tools and carefully checking out produce at the market before buying it. 

Read More »

The Netty, a cozy boutique hotel located down a flight of stairs, in the middle of St. Giles Road, in Oxford, used to be a public toilet for over 100 years.

Originally built in 1895, during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria, The Netty served as a gentlemen’s toilet until 2008, when it was closed for safety reasons. It remained unused for 11 years before its owner finally decided to give it a new lease on life as an unusual boutique hotel. It is now regarded as one of the most unusual places to stay in all of Oxford, and even though it’s “not for everyone,” according to hotel manager Ana Pinheiro, it definitely has its own distinct charm.

Read More »