Colorado Family Accidentally Buys and Eats Cereal That Had Expired in 1997

You may want to check the expiration date the next time you’re out shopping for groceries. One Colorado family failed to do just that and ended up eating cereal from 1997.

On Monday, March 5th, the Carlese family, from Littleton, Colorado, bought a box of Quaker granola cereal, without knowing that they had actually picked up an edible relic that had expired way back in February of 1997. It wasn’t until Josiah and Anthea Carelse sat down for a serving of cereal that they realized something wasn’t right about it.

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Japanese Man Sets New Guinness Record for Spinning World’s Largest Hula Hoop

Yuya Yamada, a hula hoop street performer from Tokyo, Japan, recently managed to set a new Guinness record after successfully spinning a 5.14 m (16 ft 10 in) aluminium hoop using only his torso.

Also known as “Hoop Man Yu-Ya” in his native country, Yamada is famous for his hula hoop tricks. He can spin a hula hoop while running, spin it vertically using both his head and his backside and can also spin dozens of them at the same time. The guy has incredible coordination, which basically allows him to keep the hoops spinning with virtually every part of his body, but for his latest world record attempt, he needed a completely different approach.

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Australian Teen Left Quadriplegic After Swallowing Garden Snail as a Dare

Sam Ballard, an aspiring rugby player from Sydney, Australia, never imagined that a silly thing like swallowing a garden snail at a party would end up ruining his life and leave him quadriplegic.

Sam’s life took a devastating turn in 2010. He was at a friend’s party drinking red wine, when someone brought out a seemingly harmless garden snail and dared him to eat it. “Eat it, I dare you,” his friend said, and never one to back off from a challenge, Sam just swallowed it whole and, after having a good laugh with his mates, went back to the party. The teen didn’t give this silly dare a second thought, but he soon fell ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered that he had become infected with rat lungworm.

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Irish Company Builds Boat That Is Impossible to Capsize

The Thunder Child is a revolutionary search and rescue boat that is virtually impossible to capsize. Even when flipped upside down in the water, the vessel is able to right itself almost instantly.

Developed by Irish company Safehaven Marine for use by the Irish Navy in high-pressure situations, the XSV-17 ’Thunder Child’ can reach speeds of up to 54 knots (62 mph), fits a crew of up to 10 people, and is designed to absorb shocks from rough seas. But its most impressive feature is the ability to bounce back into an upright position in any situation, which makes it impossible to capsize.

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Japanese Artist Creates the Most Realistic-Looking Wearable Animal Heads You’ve Ever Seen

Whether you’re a passionate furry or just someone who appreciates cool headgear, you’re most likely going to love the incredibly realistic wearable heads made by Japanese modeler Kamonohashizokei (Platypus Modeling).

Looking at theses animal heads for the first time, you’re tempted to think they’re just that, creepy taxidermied heads, but in fact they are all synthetic hand-made renditions created by one of Japan’s most talented modelers. And the best part is that you can wear them on your head to freak people out.

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Recycled Landfill Meat Gives ‘Junk Food’ a Whole New Meaning

Life in the slums of Manila can be incredibly difficult, and putting food on the table every day is a big challenge. That’s what makes “pagpag” so popular. This Tarong term usually refers to the dust one shakes out of clothing or carpets, but in the slums it means meat picked out of the landfill, cleaned and recooked into cheap meals.

Pagpag has long been a staple of Filipino slum cuisine, but in recent years it has also become a lucrative business both for landfill scavengers and small restaurant owners who buy the discarded meat at cheap prices and recycle it into various dishes. Scavengers who were previously only interested in recyclable metal and plastic now focus on leftover and expired food coming in from fast-food chains and supermarkets, scouring for it alongside feral cats and rats, packaging it in plastic bags and selling it for a small profit.

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Scientists Develop Eye-Drops That Could Repair Eye Damage, Make Glasses Unnecessary

Scientists at Bar-Ilan University’s Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, in Tel Aviv, Israel, claim to have created some truly revolutionary eye-drops that can heal damaged corneas and improve vision.

Described as “a new concept for correcting refractory problems”, the nanodrops developed by ophthalmologist  Dr. David Smadja and a team of scientists from Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Bar-Ilan University have so far been tested on pigs with damaged corneas. During a recent presentation, Smadja said that the eye-drops repaired the pigs’ corneas, producing improvements in both short-sightedness and long-sightedness.

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Russian Politician’s Unusual Hairstyle Goes Viral

Russian senator Valentina Petrenko’s political career stretches back to the days of the former Soviet Union, and she’s since held various senior official jobs, but the thing she is most known for is her hair. Already the subject of countless memes on Russian social media, Petrenko’s glorious hairdo recently went viral internationally, and people just can’t stop talking about it.

Speculation regarding Valentina Petrenko’s bizarre hairstyle has been running rampant on Twitter ever since Alex Bruce-Smith, an associate news editor at Pedestrian Daily, shared some photos of the Russian senator representing the Republic of Khakassia. There’s just so much people want to know about her hair. Is it real or a wig? How does she make it stay up like that? Is that where all the Russian top-secret information is hidden? Unfortunately, all anyone can do at this point is speculate, as the Russian politician doesn’t seem very eager to talk about it.

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“Ghost Hitchhiker” Vanishes into Thin Air Leaving Burnt Footprints on Car Mat

An Argentinian man has been making news headlines all over South America for experiencing a bizarre paranormal phenomenon. A hitchhiker he picked up from the side of the road allegedly disappeared from the front passenger seat of his truck, leaving behind only a burnt smell and melted shoe marks in the rubber car mats.

Pedro Peirone, from the town of San Jose de la Esquina, in Santa Fe, was driving home on February 26th, when he saw a young man hitchhiking on the side of the road. As he often did on his business trips around the province, Peirone pulled over and offered to give the boy a ride. Although the hitchhiker was a bit shy and reserved, Pedro says he seemed to be a regular teen the likes of which he often picked up. But while he can hardly remember the faces of most of the people he given rides to throughout the years, the memory of this particular boy will probably stay with him for the rest of his life.

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Bolivian Townsfolk Put Mayor in Stocks for Doing a Poor Job Serving Them

In most countries, the only way you can punish politicians and civil servants for not doing a proper job is by not voting for them in the next elections, but in Bolivia, they have a thing called “social justice”.

The people of San Buenaventura, a small town in northern Bolivia, recently made good use of their constitutional right to social justice by putting their mayor, Javier Delgado, in stocks for an hour, to let him know that they are not satisfied with his service. Photos of the disgraced mayor sitting on the ground with one leg trapped in the medieval restraining device while surrounded by angry townspeople have been doing the rounds on South-American social media and news sites since late February.

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Someone Dropped a Life-Size Jason Vorhees Statue to the Bottom of a Lake to Freak Out Scuba Divers

Imagine scuba-diving in the peaceful waters of a picturesque lake and coming face to face with Friday the 13th killer Jason Vorhees. It’s not the plot of a horror flick, but an actual possibility, thanks to the clever prank thought up by a Minnesota diver.

Inspired by the ending of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, where Megan and Tommy manage to defeat the infamous Jason Vorhees by trapping him in the bottom of Crystal Lake, diver Curtis Lahr came up with one of the scariest pranks ever. In 2013, he created a life-size statue of Jason, complete with his iconic hockey mask and machete, and dumped it to the bottom of Crystal Lake, not the one in New Jersey, but Crosby, Minnesota. It’s been sitting there ever since, waiting to give unsuspecting divers a heart-attack.

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Malaysian Store Cancels Sale for 200 Apple Gadgets After 11,000 People Queue Up Outside

A Malaysian reseller of Apple products was recently forced to cancel its warehouse sale after 11,000 people lined up outside its store for a chance to buy one of only 200 discounted gadgets.

This past weekend, the Switch store at MyTown Shopping Mall, in Kuala Lumpur, was supposed to host a clearance sale of various Apple gadgets, including iPhone 5s for only $50, 64GB MacBook Air for $128, or 24-inch iMac for $255, among others. All in all, only 200 products were up for grabs, and even though the company expected to have a busy weekend, they definitely didn’t anticipate a queue of 11,000 people stretching out from the second floor of the mall, all the way to the parking lot.

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Cartoony-Looking Horse Sparks Selective Breeding Controversy

El Rey Magnum, a young Arabian colt bred to have an extremely dished face, wide flared nostrils and widely spaced eyes, features that combined make the animal look cartoon-like, has sparked a heated debate about extreme selective breeding.

The first photos and videos of El Rey Magnum were released by its owner, Washington-based Orrion Farms, late last year, and had quite a polarizing effect. While many equine enthusiasts were quick to call El Rey Magnum the most beautiful horse in the world, some experts declared themselves horrified by some of the animal’s extreme features, and warned that they could negatively affect its health.

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Vietnam’s Fake Wedding Industry Is Booming Thanks to Social Stigma

Vietnamese women looking to avoid the social stigma of having a child out of wedlock are increasingly turning to grooms-for-hire businesses that specialize in throwing fake weddings complete with fake grooms and guests for a hefty fee.

Becoming pregnant before marriage is usually frowned upon in Vietnam, particularly in the northern parts of the country, where traditional social norms are still very strong. With over 300,000 abortions recorded every year, Vietnam’s abortion rate ranks fifth globally and first in Asia. Data shows that most of these pregnancy terminations are caused by social pressure, as 20 to 30 percent of women seeking abortion are not married, while most of the rest are young students. But what happens when a mother wants to keep the baby while at the same time avoid disgracing herself and her family? Well, that’s where the grooms-for-hire businesses come in.

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Sweden Opens Fist Klingon Tourist Center in Our Part of the Galaxy

Star Trek Fans looking to brush up on their Klingon lore need not travel to distant worlds or even watch countless hours of their favorite sci-fi series. All they need to do is head to Stockholm, Sweden, where the first Klingon tourist center in Alpha Quadrant recently opened its gates to visitors.

Called “Visit Qo’noS” and hosted by Turteatern, an avant-garde theatre based in the Swedish capital, the world’s first Klingon tourist center is a place where fans of the ruthless alien race can learn about its history, take a virtual tour of their capital, First City, sample staples of Klingon cuisine like Gagh and blood wine, train in the deadly martial art Mok’bara, learn their fascinating language and even interact with actual Klingons.

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