Indonesian social media influencer Ratu Thalisa was recently sentenced to two years and ten months behind bars for telling a picture of Jesus that He needed a haircut.

A court in Medan, Sumatra found Thalisa guilty of spreading hate speech against Christianity, as well as disrupting “public order” and “religious harmony” in Thai society, after she responded to a comment that told her to cut her hair to look more like a man by holding up a picture of Jesus Christ and saying: “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.” Just a few days after making the remark in a TikTok video, five Christian groups filed complaints against her, accusing her of blasphemy. In addition to jail time, the court ordered Thalisa to pay a fine of around $6,200.

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Turkish police recently arrested a network of scammers who preyed on people’s desire to get rich quickly by selling them fake treasure maps and charging them extra to help them sell the “priceless” loot.

As part of a complex operation conducted in 9 Turkish provinces, dozens of con artists collaborated to defraud unwitting victims of more than 50 million Turkish lira ($1.3 million) using fake treasure maps. The suspects reportedly traveled around rural areas of the country, showing hand-drawn treasure maps on artificially aged pieces of paper to villagers looking to get rich overnight. The maps were very detailed and featured nearby locations that the victims were familiar with, unlike the scammers, who claimed to be from far away. As they had problems navigating the area to reach the treasure, they offered to sell their maps for a fee. But this was only half of their admittedly witty scam.

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A Kansas babysitter got the shock of her life when she tried to show a child that there was no “monster” under their bed, only to find a complete stranger hiding there.

It sounds like a cheap scare right out of a horror movie, but it happened just a few days ago in Kansas. A babysitter looking after children in the town of Great Bend was trying to calm a toddler down after they told her there was a “monster” under their bed. That’s one of the most common fears in small children, and one of the easiest ways to calm them down is to show them that there is nothing to fear. Only in this case, there really was someone under the child’s bed, an unknown man who had been hiding there for who knows how long.

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A Chinese barbecue restaurant has gone viral for selling bamboo skewers seasoned with a mix of spices, chili, and spring onions to people looking to enjoy the flavor of barbecue without the calories.

Last month, Chinese media reported the hottest late-night snack in Southern China, an unusual “dish” called Spicy Bamboo Skewers. Thought up by a barbecue restaurant owner in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, the unusual treat consists of bamboo skewers seasoned with a mix of spices, chili, and spring onions before being tossed on the barbecue to add a bit of smokiness to the mix. The wooden skewers are then sold in batches of 50 for just 10 yuan ($1.4), making them both affordable and delicious. Just in case you’re wondering, you don’t eat the bamboo skewers, instead you suck the flavor off of them as a guilt-free snack.

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A small delicatessen shop in Cannes, France, has been making international news headlines because of its controversial name – ‘Ma femme est une cochonne’ (My Wife Is a Sow).

Ever since it opened in mid-January, Ma femme est une cochonne, a delicatessen shop in Cannes, has been getting a lot of attention because of its unusual name. Founded by a couple of “bon-vivants who love good food,” the shop sells all kinds of treats, from cold cuts to spirits, and while we’re sure their products are all excellent, many people are drawn by the name. “My wife is a sow” sounds more like an insult, but the two male co-founders swear they have nothing against their spouses; in fact, both of theirs find the name funny. They wanted a name that attracted attention, and they definitely hit the mark with their choice, but it managed to attract some unwanted attention as well.

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A young Chinese woman went viral on social media after showing off her unusual home – a 6-square-foot toilet at her workplace for which she pays just 50 yuan ($7).

Everyone tries to save money on rent, but how many of us would be willing to sleep in an actual toilet to do it? One young woman from Hunan, China, recently shocked the world after posting photos of her unconventional living quarters – a small, unused toilet located inside the furniture factory where she works. The 19-year-old woman explained that she comes from a poor family and couldn’t afford to pay upwards of 800 yuan ($110) for a proper home, so she asked her boss if she could live there instead. Her post went viral, but most people commented that she was only sharing photos and videos to attract attention because no one could live in such conditions. However, the woman’s boss took to social media to confirm that she was indeed sleeping in a 6-square-foot toilet at his factory.

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Police in New Delhi have finally been able to capture an elusive thief who would always poop his pants when in danger to keep people away as he made his escape.

Do you know how good actors can cry on command? Well, apparently some people have the same level of control of their bowels, allowing them to defecate at any moment. Deepak, a 27-year-old phone thief from Delhi, India, was one such person, and he used his unusual gift to avoid law enforcement whenever they got close to catching him. According to a Delhi police spokesperson, Deepak evaded arrest multiple time by pooping his pants to create a stench so foul that police were repulsed giving the thief enough time to make a run for it. The dirty trick was so effective that police even named it ‘poop and run’. Deepak’s poop-fueled reign of terror finally came to an end when policemen equipped with masks and gloves apprehended him.

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Running has been a part of Antonio Rao’s life for 80 years, and the 92-year-old Italian man has no plans of stopping anytime soon. This year, he completed his 30th consecutive Rome marathon in under seven hours.

If you need some extra motivation to get up off the couch and go for a run, just know that a 92-year-old man recently completed the 42-kilometer Rome marathon for the 30th consecutive time, improving on last year’s time by 10 minutes. Rao is not your average pensioner. He lives for running and still trains 20 to 30 kilometers each week. Born in 1933, he ran away from his home in Calabria to Rome when he was just 10 and hasn’t stopped running since. He claims he started running daily as a teenager to keep up with a friend, but it became a huge part of his life, and he hasn’t missed a single Rome marathon in the last three decades.

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A 56-year-old Polish woman was arrested and charged with systematically adding toxic substances to a coworker’s drinks simply because she disliked them.

It’s unclear when the unnamed cleaning woman started poisoning her colleague, but the 51-year-old victim started feeling seriously under the weather a few months ago. At first, she thought her stomach pain was caused by stress and working too much, but as her symptoms worsened, the woman, whose name has not been revealed for privacy reasons, went to the hospital for a checkup. Doctors there told her that she showed signs of internal injuries similar to those caused by toxic substances and asked if she had been ingesting something that she wasn’t supposed to. She hadn’t, but the question reminded her of the weird taste she had felt when drinking her morning cup of tea at work.

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An Australian man is accused of breaking his country’s nuclear non-proliferation laws for ordering a sample of plutonium online in a bid to collect all the elements in the periodic table.

In August of 2023, 24-year-old Emmanuel Lidden was arrested at his parents’ house in Sidney, Australia, during a major operation that involved Australian Border Force officials, firefighters, police, and paramedics. He pleaded guilty to breaching nuclear non-proliferation laws by shipping plutonium into the country, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years, but his lawyer is arguing that Lidden is not some maniac or mad scientist with a nefarious agenda, but rather a “science nerd” who had made it his goal to collect all the elements in the periodic table, even radioactive ones.

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A 23-year-old Kazakh man recently became the first person in his country to use ChatGPT to successfully challenge a traffic violation ticket in a court of law.

In December of 2024, Kenzhebek Ismailov was driving his mother to the hospital in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, when the car in front of them stopped for no apparent reason and blocked the entire lane, which happened to be the only car lane on that particular street. The only solutions he could think of were to bypass the stalled car through the bus lane on the right, or simply wait behind the car and hold up the entire lane. He chose the first option, but his maneuver was picked up by surveillance cameras, and he soon received a ticket in the mail. The young motorist tried contesting the ticket and explaining the situation, but his complaint was rejected, so his only other course of action was to go to court. And that’s where the world’s favorite AI model, ChatGPT, comes into play.

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The caterpillar of the peppered moth has one of the most impressive natural camouflages in the animal world. Not only do they look like lifeless twigs, but they can also change color to match their background.

Over the past 17 years, we’ve featured some of the world’s most incredible camouflages. From caterpillars that position themselves perfectly on mango leaves to blend in, to butterflies that look like dead leaves and moths with flies feeding on bird droppings on their wings, we thought we had seen it all. And then along comes the stick caterpillar to blow our minds once again. Found in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere, like Asia, Europe, and North America, the caterpillar of the peppered moth is a master of mimicry. Not only does it have the shape of a twig, complete with all its natural imperfections, but it can also sense the color of the branch it is resting on with its skin and change its color accordingly to protect itself from predators.

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A Japanese man named “Happy” has been struggling with his unusual name for as long as he can remember, claiming that it had attracted bullying as a kid and ridicule as an adult.

When Terauchi Happy’s mother chose his unconventional name, she had no idea the kind of problems it would pose for him throughout his life. The 27-year-old man insists that he bears no grudge towards his mother, as she only named him “Happy” to express the overwhelming joy she felt when he was born. In fact, that is the only reason why he never went through with legally changing his name, despite the misery it caused him. When he was a small boy, the other kids teased and even bullied him because of his name, and unfortunately, things didn’t improve with age. Companies always thought he was joking when he sent in his resume for employment, and the unusual name even ruined his romantic relationship.

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A London-based startup has come up with an innovative self-cooling beverage can technology that could soon make drink refrigerators obsolete.

There are few things better than a cold drink on a hot summer day, but with energy costs and refrigeration-related carbon emissions increasing every year, it’s high time humanity came up with a better, more eco-friendly way of chilling beverages. Enter Delta H Innovations, a London-based startup that claims to have developed the world’s first self-cooling aluminum can. Codenamed ‘Cool Can’, this intriguing invention combines clever design with simple chemistry to make magic happen at the press of a button. The company claims that the Cool Can can lower the temperature of its liquid contents to about 6-7 degrees Celsius (42.8 – 44.6 Fahrenheit) and keep them cool for up to 45 minutes.

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A German man has been unable to find employment for the last four years after having his ID card stolen during a trip to London and waking up with a lengthy criminal record to his name.

24-year-old Rami Battikh’s nightmare began five years ago, following a short holiday in London in 2019. He had traveled to the UK with his passport and ID card, but at one point realized that he no longer had the latter. He assumed that he had lost it or had it stolen but didn’t think much of it and used the passport to return to Germany, where he simply applied for another ID card. The young man carried on with his life, finished his studies, and after completing his vocational apprenticeship at Vodafone finance in Bonn, he was offered a job opportunity at the corporation and another one with the local tax office. Rami had a brilliant career in front of him, but before he could make up his mind about what job offer to accept, both opportunities evaporated because a routine check revealed that he had a criminal record in the UK.

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