A 15-year-old Chinese boy was rushed to a hospital back in March after passing out in his home in the city of Nannning. He reportedly suffered a stroke that left his left arm paralyzed, after spending the past month gaming and sleeping just two hours a night.

Like many other Year 9 students, the boy, identified only as Xiaobin in the media, had been confined to his home since February due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in China. His parents told doctors that he had been spending most of his time in his room, under the pretext of taking online classes, but they later found out that he was in fact spending his days and most of his nights playing video games. According to medical experts at Jiangbin Hospital, that was the main cause of the boy’s unusual stroke, which left him with a paralyzed arm and hand.

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German automation company Festo recently unveiled its latest bio-inspired creation, the Bionic Swift, a lightweight robot capable of mimicking the flight of an actual swift.

Over the last decade Festo has unveiled an impressive number of robots inspired by the Earth’s fauna, from bionic ants and butterflies, to penguins, jellyfish and even kangaroos. Earlier this month, the robotics studio showcased their newest invention, a lightweight flying robot inspired by the swift and capable of mimicking its flight maneuvers with impressive accuracy. From steep turns and drops to nausea-inducing loops, the new Bionic Swift can pull of most, if not all, of a real swift’s movements.

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An Indian man is so obsessed with photography that he named his three sons after iconic camera brands – Canon, Nikon and Epson – and spent a small fortune on a three-story villa shaped like a giant camera.

You hear the phrase “passionate about photography” a lot among photography enthusiasts, but Ravi Hongal, a 49-year-old professional photographer from Belgaum, India, actually came up with some truly unique ways of showing off his passion for the art. After naming his three sons after some of the most iconic camera brands in the history of photography, Ravi recently spent around $95,000 on an impressive house shaped like a giant vintage camera, complete with a lens-shaped window, flash, and even a giant SD card.

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A 95-year-old man from India’s Karnataka state claims that he has never once cut his hair, which now measures an impressive 24-feet-long and has to be bundled into a huge, entangled mass on top of his head.

During this year’s lockdown, a lot of people were freaking out for not being able to visit the hairdresser for a few weeks, but one Indian man claims he has gone almost a century without getting his haircut even once. Doddapalliah, who is reportedly 95-years-old, is revered by many as a human deity in his home town of Molakalmuru, Chitradurga district, needs to have his hair wrapped into a giant ball on top of his head and secured with cloth just so he can move around. That’s because his entangled locks measure a whopping 24 feet (7.3 meters) in length.

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A Japanese former busker turned Zen Buddhist monk has been getting a lot of attention because of his unique music which combines beatboxing, sampling and a wide range of chants.

Before being ordained as a monk in 2015, 37-year-old Yogetsu Akasaka traveled the world as a full-time busker, making a living on his beatboxing skills. A friend had introduced him to the oral art of sound and instrument imitation in his early 20’s, and he was so impressed that he decided to give it a go himself. It turned out that he was pretty good at it, so good in fact that he was able to make a living as a busker in several countries, including the United States and Australia. After following his father’s example and becoming a monk, he realized he missed his music, so he came up with a way to blend his calling and his beatboxing talent in a unique way.

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If you’ve been dreaming of going electric, but can’t yet afford to buy a Tesla, you can start low, really low. Changli, the world’s cheapest electric car, will set you back just $930 ($1,200 with larger batteries), and can be ordered online and delivered to your door.

Designed and produced by Chinese manufacturer Changzhou Xili Car Industry, the Changli, or Changli Nemeca is a tiny electric vehicle that has been getting a lot of attention online after being promoted as the world’s most affordable electric car. Calling this thing a car is kind of stretching it a bit, as it’s electric motor can only produce the equivalent of 1.16 horse power, and it has a top speed of only 30 km/h. Still, it does come with some interesting features, like air-conditioning, independent suspension, heater, radio and even reverse-view camera. But the most impressive thing about the Changli, in my opinion, is that you can have it delivered to your doorstep.

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There are plenty of interesting places to visit in South Korea, but if you’re all about adding new and exciting content to your Instagram feed, the you simply must add the Purple Island on your itinerary.

With the Covid-19 wreaking havoc around the world, South Korea included, international travel isn’t what it used to be just a few months ago, but that just means more time to plan your next great adventure. And if you have your sights set on Instagram-worthy destinations, South Korea’s new Purple Island is a must-visit. As the name suggests, this place is a purple paradise complete with vast fields of lavender, empress trees that bloom purple, purple painted houses, bridges and even purple roads.

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The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in the UK, are home to thousands of fascinating plants, but none as lonely as the Encephalartos woodii, an ancient cycad species and, most likely, the last one of its kind.

It was in 1895 that botanist John Medley Wood noticed this interesting-looking palm tree on a steep slope in Zululand, southern Africa. Intrigued by its multiple trunks and arched palm fronds, Dr. Wood — who made his living collecting rare plants – had some stems removed and sent to London in a box.It ended up in the Palm House at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew, where it has been waiting for a mate for over a century. Despite numerous efforts to find it a mate, the Encephalartos woodii at Kew remains alone, unable to produce an offspring and propagate its species. For this reason, many consider it the world’s loneliest plant.

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A 50-year-old man from China has been exercising by moving around on all fours and climbing trees like a monkey every day for the past three decades.

Chen Haigang, a fitness enthusiast from China’s Shanxi province, attracts attention whenever he exercises in public, due to the bizarre routine he has been practicing for about 30 years. Instead of the popular tai-chi practiced by many of his countrymen, jogging or simple stretching, Chen acts like a monkey, walking on all fours, crouching his back and dangling his arms, and even imitating the primates’ tree-climbing techniques. He has been doing it for three decades now, ever since he was inspired by a monkey at the zoo, and claims that it’s been keeping him in perfect health ever since.

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Judit Czinkné Poór, Judit Czinkné Poór cake-decorating shop in the Hungarian city of Ajka, is famous for her ability to turn simple gingerbread cookies into edible masterpieces.

Mézesmanna (~Honeyed manna) drew international attention back in 2016, when popular blogs like Bored Panda and This Is Colossal featured Judit Czinkné Poór’s stunning gingerbread creations. Her incredibly detailed embroidered-like treats received the most attention, and for good reason, but the talented pastry chef has since moved on to other types of decorations, from embossed animals to intricate cartoon characters.

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While the rest of the world struggles to find a cure or even a treatment for Covid-19, Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry  claims to have found a solution – wearing a eucalyptus necklace developed by one of its agencies.

The so-called “antivirus necklace” was developed by Balitbangtan, the Agriculture Ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency, and will go into mass-production next month. According to minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, the necklace was made using a species of eucalyptus that can kill the novel coronavirus. Simply wearing the accessory for 15 minutes allegedly kills 42 percent of coronavirus, while upping the time to 30 minutes doubles its effectiveness. The eucalyptus necklace is just one of a whole line of all-natural products designed to prevent or treat Covid-19.

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Taipei’s Songshan Airport recently launched a unique “fake flight” service that gives melancholic travelers the chance to go through the check-in and plane boarding procedures without actually taking off.

Ever since Taiwan closed off its borders in mid-March, travelers have been forced to dream and reminisce about their past adventures in foreign lands, but on July 2nd, the Songshan Airport in Taipei introduced an offbeat service that gives people the full airport experience without the actual takeoff. The new fake flight service includes airport security checks, passport verification, the full check-in procedure, as well the boarding of an Airbus A330 airplane. Cabin crew give passengers the usual instructions as well as some relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, and serve them snacks and coffee, before preparing them for the fake landing.

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A 31-year-old Instagram model from Ukraine recently made international news headlines because of her bizarre addiction to cosmetic fillers, which she apparently likes injecting into her cheeks.

Like many young women nowadays, Anastasiia Pokreshchuk decided that she needed cosmetic enhancements to achieve her desired looks. Only instead of seeking a professional to carry out the procedure, the 31-year-old took it upon herself to inject her own face with hyaluronic acid. The Instagram model seems to be particularly interested in increasing the size of her lips and cheekbones, and despite having already “achieved” a bizarre look, she says she is not going to stop injecting even more fillers into her face.

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On a list of worst yet most original ways to strike up a conversation with the opposite sex, slashing their tires just so you could then come and offer assistance has to rank pretty high…

A 32-year-old man from Aichi Prefecture, Japan, was recently arrested after allegedly slashing a woman’s tire just so he could follow her and offer assistance when she eventually pulled over to check the wheel. On June 11, an unnamed 43-year-old woman walked out of the supermarket in Higashiura, went to her car and drove away. She didn’t get very far before noticing that her driver’s side front tire was almost completely flat, so she pulled over to check it out. That’s when a friendly man stopped his car next to hers and offered to help fix her flat. It’s not every day that you get to meet such kind souls, the only problem was that the woman quickly realized that the same thing had happened to her just a year before, and the knight in shining armor looked suspiciously familiar too…

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A Pune man has been getting a lot of attention on Indian social media after photos of him wearing a solid gold face mask as protection against the coronavirus started doing the rounds online.

Shankar Kurade, a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad, on the outskirts of Pune City, has been fond of gold for as long as he can remember. He never leaves the house without gold chains on his neck and large rings on most of his fingers, so when people started wearing medical face masks to prevent getting infected with the novel coronavirus, Shankar knew he had to find a way to make himself stand out. Then he saw a news report about a man who had commissioned a silver face mask, and realized that he could do the same, only he would get a mask out of his favorite precious metal.

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