Many people struggle to hike using their legs, but one Chinese man has become famous for climbing his country’s most popular mountains on his hands.

38-year-old Sun Guo Shan only started practicing handstand climbing in May of 2023, but last year he embarked on a monumental challenge – to climb the 50 most popular mountains in China by Spring 2025. Previously employed in the education system, Sun realized the importance of health during the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to convey a message of health training but also honor his country’s mountainous scenic spots in a unique way. Sun Guo Shan began his unusual challenge in May 2024, but he only went viral in November 2024, when a clip of him tackling Haibat – the highest peak of Wudang Mountain at 1,612 meters – using his hands went viral.

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For more than a year, at the start of every month, the people of Beeston, a town in the United Kingdom, have been finding a plate of peeled bananas in exactly the same place.

Between the first and second day of each month, a plate stacked with 16 to 20 peeled bananas always shows up on the corner of Abbey Road and Wensor Avenue in Beeston and residents have no idea who is behind the strange custom or its meaning. All everyone can say is that the banks have been appearing in the same spot for more than a year, and despite several signs asking whoever puts them there to stop, it doesn’t look like the mysterious fruit is going away anytime soon. Some have speculated that the plate of honey-drizzled bananas has some sort of religious meaning, while others believe that it’s just someone feeding the local wildlife, although no animal ever touches them. So far, no one has come up with a real answer to this quirky mystery.

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A Singaporean man got fined thousands of dollars for forging his grandfather’s death certificate so he could get paid leave from his workplace.

Earlier this month, 29-year-old Barath Gopal was fined $4,000 after pleading guilty to forging a relative’s death certificate with the intention to commit fraud. In November 2023, while working as a security financing operation analyst, Gopal learned that his then-girlfriend had cheated on him and he was allegedly so devastated that he couldn’t focus on his job. But instead of applying for one of the several days of annual leave offered by his employer, the Singaporean asked for paid compassionate leave from Nov 8 to Nov 10, claiming that his grandfather in India had died in his sleep. His request was granted, but when his supervisor asked for his grandparent’s death certificate, things got complicated.

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Japanese coastal containership operator Imoto Lines operates a number of feeder vessels with a unique look inspired by the nose of large passenger airplanes.

In 2015, the Kyokuyo shipyard in Yamaguchi, Japan, completed the first SSS-feeder (Semi-Spherically Shaped-feeder) commissioned by Imoto Lines. It was one of the largest feeder vessels ever built in Japan, but what really separated it from other ships in its class was the unusual design. The 600-TEU Natori featured a hemispherical bow that looked very similar to the nose of a large Airbus passenger jet that no one had dared implement before. But this wasn’t just a design option to make the vessel stand out, it had functional aspects that won the Natori the title of “Ship of the Year” from the Japan Society of Naval Architects and Oceanographers as well as numerous other awards in the small cargo vessel category.

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Scientists at China’s Zhejiang University recently announced that their Black Panther robot has achieved a constant speed of 10 meters per second, a world record for quadruped robots.

Black Panther has been in development at Zhejiang University’s Hangzhou International Science and Technology Innovation Center since 2018, but over the first six years, scientists struggled to exceed the speed of 6 meters per second. In early experiments, once the robot went over this speed threshold, it suffered severe damage, such as ruptured “calves” and in some cases, the entire torso disintegrated. However, after numerous trials and attempts to mimic the joint and muscle structures of various animals and even humans, researchers managed to make important modifications, such as adding springs between the leg joints to cushion impact, and earlier this year Black Panther reached a record speed of 10m/s.

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Standing 185 cm (6 feet and 0.8 inches) tall from hoof to withers, 3-year-old King Kong is the world’s tallest water buffalo.

Water buffalos are among the biggest bovine species, but even among them, King Kong, a 3-year-old specimen born on a farm in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, stands out as exceptionally tall. Measuring a whopping 6 feet and 0.8 inches from hoof to withers, he is about 20 inches taller than the average water buffalo, according to Guinness World Records. Owner Suchart Booncharoen said that the animal’s name is no lucky coincidence, as his potential to grow into a huge frame was obvious from birth. Still, despite his massive size, King Kong is a gentle giant who loves playing and being around people.

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An Italian doctor is currently being investigated for using hospital equipment to diagnose his injured pet cat and then operating on her in order to save her life.

Gianluca Fanelli , head of the simple structure of Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology at the Parini Hospital in Aosta, Italy, recently split his home country into two camps – one that considers him a hero who values life over rules and regulations, and another that thinks he should face the consequences for knowingly breaking the rules of his workplace. On the evening of January 27, after taking his injured cat to a veterinarian and receiving a dire diagnosis, the radiologist took his feline, Athena, to Parini Hospital and put in the CT scanner to get an idea of the internal organ damage she had suffered. He then performed pneumothoracic surgery on her in the unit’s angiography room in order to save her life.

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Tourists Looking to climb China’s sacred Mount Tai, in Shandong Province, can now do so with the help of a lightweight AI-powered exoskeleton that makes hiking a breeze.

Clips of elderly tourists climbing up Mount Tai, one of the five sacred mountains in China, while wearing bizarre gear around their hips have been going viral on Chinese social media, sparking all kinds of strange theories. In reality, the tourists are wearing light exoskeletons offered by the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group on a trial basis. Weighing only 1.8 kg (4lbs), these advanced exoskeletons are reportedly fitted with a series of sensors that allow them to detect and analyze every movement of the wearer’s lower limbs and provide just the right amount of assistance in a timely manner, effectively reducing the burden on the legs.

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Unable to offer attractive wages, a Japanese tech company has been trying to attract new talent by offering ingenious benefits such as free alcoholic drinks at work and hangover leaves.

Since the burst of the Japanese economic bubble in the early 1990s, the Japanese economy has been stagnating along with employee salaries. Even though some corporations have announced plans to increase starting wages in hopes of attracting new talent, small and medium-sized companies simply don’t have that option because their budgets don’t allow it. In order to compete with big players, they have to think outside the box and offer appealing and sometimes unorthodox benefits to potential employees. One small technology company in Osaka recently went viral in the Land of the Rising Sun by offering its staff free alcoholic drinks during work hours and hangover leaves to clear their heads.

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A family of European beavers has become an overnight sensation in the Czech Republic after taking just two days to build a series of dams that the Czech Government had been struggling to build for 7 years.

A project to restore water areas in the Brdy Nature Park began in 2018, but authorities had taken years to get all the right permits and finally get construction of necessary dams underway. The cost of the dams needed to restore the wetlands of the area to their original condition was estimated at around 30 million Czech crowns, but thanks to a family of diligent beavers, the Government doesn’t have to spend a single dime anymore. Environmentalists monitoring the Brdy area recently reported that a few beavers took just two days to build functional dams in just the right areas, sparing us humans the trouble.

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A viral video shot at the Mekong Underwater World in Yunnan, China, shows a young mermaid performer getting attacked by a giant aquarium fish during a live show.

A popular tourist attraction in Xishuangbanna, China’s Yunnan Province, recently attracted a lot of criticism for allegedly trying to cover up an incident involving a mermaid performer and a giant fish that attacked her during a live performance. Halfway through “The Mermaid Show”, an underwater ballet performance, the young Russian woman known only as Masha gets her head swallowed by a huge sturgeon that had crept up behind her. Luckily, the 22-year-old woman maintains her composure and manages to swim to the surface and get help. Although the show was reportedly stopped for at least an hour and a half, management at Mekong Underwater World allegedly offered the dancer a meager compensation for “moral damages” and specifically asked her not to talk about the incident.

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Built from six 1976 Cadillac El Dorado limousines, The American Dream is over 30 meters long and has enough interior space to fit up to 75 people. It’s not the easiest vehicle to maneuver, though.

Originally built in 1986 by renowned car collector and customizer, Jay Ohrbeg, The American Dream measured “only” 18.28 meters (60 feet) and was powered by a pair of V8 engines, one at the front and another at the rear. Ohrberg later extended his unique vehicle to a whopping 30.5 meters (100 feet) long. Guinness acknowledged The American Dream as the world’s longest car in 1986, and the giant limousine was featured on the cover of several magazines, on television shows and even in movies, but its meteoric rise to fame was followed by an abrupt drop in popularity. It ended up abandoned at the back of a New Jersey warehouse for decades until a pair of automotive enthusiasts bought it and restored it to its former glory.

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The mayor of Berezovsky shockingly lost the recent local elections to a “puppet candidate” who happens to be his subordinate and the wife of his personal driver.

Russian media has been reporting on the surprising outcome of the mayoral race in Berezovsky, a satellite city of Yekaterinburg, in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region. The reelection of Yevgeny Pistsov, who was trying to secure a fourth consecutive term as mayor, seemed little more than a formality, as he was running against a fellow member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia political party who also happened to be a subordinate of his and the wife of his personal driver. No one expected Yulia Maslakova to win, she even told reporters that she ran as a “sparring partner” for Pistov, but the impossible happened and now she is doing everything in her power to avoid being sworn in as mayor.

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A Utah man was arrested and accused of manslaughter after allegedly shooting his friend in the chest because the latter claimed he could dodge bullets.

23-year-old Ashton Jonathan Mann was arrested yesterday on one count of second-degree felony manslaughter and one third-degree felony charge related to firearms for a bizarre incident involving guns and marijuana use. In the early hours of Sunday, February 2nd, first responders were called to a home in Kearns, Utah, where they found an unresponsive young man with a gunshot wound to the chest lying on the floor. The victim was quickly taken to a nearby hospital, but doctors there couldn’t save his life. Mann later told police that he had shot his friend after he bragged that he could dodge a bullet.

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An Indian woman stands accused of tricking her husband into selling his kidney on the black market to fund their daughter’s education only to then steal the money and run away with her lover.

A woman from West Bengal allegedly spent months trying to convince her husband to sell one of his kidneys in order to fund their daughter’s higher education and arrange her marriage in the future. Although reluctant at first, the man eventually grew to believe that his sacrifice would improve the family’s financial situation and secure his child’s future. He spent a year looking for a buyer on the black market, as selling human organs has been illegal in India for over three decades, but he finally found one about three months ago. After going through the painful procedure, he entrusted the money for his kidney (1 million rupees or $11,500)to his wife, only to have her steal the money and elope with another man.

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