A 28-year-old nurse from the Russian city of Irkutsk has been dubbed the “Russian Rapunzel” after it was revealed that her ankle-long hair hasn’t been cut for 23 years.

Anzhelika Baranova was only five when her hair was last trimmed. Neither she nor her parents planned to let her hair grow for over two decades, it just sort of happened, as if it was meant to be. She was always very proud of her hair, and taking care of it was never much of a chore. She claims she doesn’t do anything special to maintain her locks, she just washes it twice a week with regular shampoo and conditioner and gently brushes it with a comb to ensure she doesn’t break knotted strands.

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Jala, a small town in the Mexican state of Nayarit, is famous as the home of the world’s largest ears of corn. The same species can be cultivated in other parts of the country, but it just doesn’t grow as big.

In 2019, the grower of the world’s largest ea of corn, a farmer named Jesús Nazario Elías Moctezuma, won the annual corn cob competition in Jala, Nayarit with a cob that measured 39.5 centimeters long. The runner-up lost by only half a centimeter, and most of the other participants weren’t far off either. They all compete with ears of corn from the Jala landrace, a “giant” species known for producing some truly humongous ears of corn. Unfortunately, as impressive as its cobs are in terms of size, the Jala landrace has been losing out against more mainstream species and is in danger of being lost forever.

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An Ohio man tried to sue his wife for leaving her shoes in an inappropriate place and causing him to trip and tumble down a flight of stairs, suffering multiple bone fractures.

An appeals court recently rejected John Walworth’s lawsuit against his wife, Judy Khoury, over an incident that occurred in February of 2018. Walworth was helping his then-fiancee by carrying some jugs of vinegar to her basement when he tripped over a pair of her shoes and fell down the basement stairs, breaking bones in his leg, arm, and hand. He later sued Judy, claiming that it was her carelessness that cost him $80,000 in medical bills and another $18,000 in lost income because his injuries caused him to miss work.

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Route 36 is an illegal pop-up bar in the Bolivian capital city of La Paz notorious for being the world’s first and only cocaine bar.

South America is home to many popular tourist attractions, like the ruins of Machu Pichu, the Salar de Uyuni salt desert, or Angel Falls, but when it comes to drug tourism, there’s one place that everyone puts on their must-visit list. Route 36 is probably the only place in the world where you can walk in and order cocaine from the bar without having to worry about the legal consequences. Aimed exclusively at foreign tourists looking to indulge in some high-purity cocaine – no Bolivians allowed – Route 36 has been around for at least 12 years, during which time it has become famous as the world’s only cocaine bar.

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Boji, a stray dog from Istanbul, Turkey has become so familiar with the local public transportation system that he casually uses several means of transportation (bus, subway, train, and even the ferry) every day.

Dogs using public transportation is not unheard of. Back in 2011, we wrote about Moscow’s impressive subway-riding dogs, and three years ago we featured Eclipse, Seattle’s famous bus-riding canine. But in both cases, the animals used a specific means of transportation that they had become familiarized with. Boji the stray, on the other hand, is comfortable using several types of public transportation every day, including the ferry, to get around the ancient Turkish city and even travel between continents…

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Raizel Calago is only 16-years-old, but you would never guess just by looking at her. She suffers from a rare condition called progeria which makes her look four times her age.

In only two years, Raizel Calago went from a beautiful young girl who attended beauty pageants, to an old-looking woman that many people mistake for a grandmother. The young Filipina says that she started noticing wrinkles in her skin just days after rashes erupted all over her body. Red, itchy patches that were painful to the touch appeared on her body, and when she went for a checkup, she was told that they had been caused by an insect. She was given medication, but that didn’t help, and soon she started noticing physical changes to her appearance. Now, it’s hard to believe she is just 16-years-old…

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Doctors recently reported the case of a 56-year-old patient who experienced chest pain and breathing difficulties because of a piece of cement that had pierced his heart and lung.

So how does one get cement stuck inside their heart? Well, in this particular case it was as a direct consequence of a procedure that the patient had undergone a week earlier. Doctors had treated what is known as a “vertebral compression fracture,” a painful condition in which part of a vertebra collapses into itself, most commonly as a result of osteoporosis. They had performed kyphoplasty, a procedure in which a special type of cement is injected into the vertebra to restore its normal height and keep it from collapsing further. Only in this case, the cement didn’t stay in the bone…

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Kiska, the last living killer whale at the Marineland marine park, has been dubbed the world’s loneliest orca after it was revealed that she has spent the last 10 years of her life alone in a concrete tank, with little to no stimulation.

Orcas, dolphins, and whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals; they are social creatures that require a lot of interaction and stimulation which those raised in captivity, unfortunately, don’t receive enough of. In one extreme case, a lonely orca that has spent most of her life in captivity and the last decade completely alone in a concrete tank, at a marine park in Ontario, Canada has been showing signs of extreme distress, like floating listlessly and banging her head against the sides of her enclosure.

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A small town in Guangxi is home to one of the strangest-looking buildings in all of China, a 10-storey behemoth combining an assortment of architectural styles from all over the world.

In recent years, Xinxu Town, a small settlement close to Beiliu City, has become known for a strange edifice towering over the dozens of predominantly commercial buildings in the area. Not only is it much taller than most other structures in the area, but it also doesn’t adhere to any particular architectural style. Most of its several spire-like towers feature Russian-inspired domes, the central spire is a Western-style bell tower, and there’s even a teapot-shaped fountain that doesn’t make any kind of sense. Still, the building’s creator, a local farmer, is willing to spend a fortune to see it completed.

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Oversized sunglasses have been around for a while, but Japanese company ZGHYBD has taken this fashion trend to the extreme with a pair of shades that cover the wearer’s entire face.

To be honest, it’s hard to tell whether the eyewear designed by ZGHYBD is a visor or a pair of sunglasses; on one hand, it covers the whole face, like a face shield, but then it features one giant polarized lens and features a frame that slides behind the ears, like traditional eyeglasses. Plus, it’s obviously designed as more of a fashion accessory than for practical use. Still, as far as eyeglasses go, this is one of the weirdest ones we’ve seen yet, concealing not just the eyes, but most of the wearer’s face, including the nose and mouth.

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Surgeons at a hospital in Lithuania spent over three hours saving the life of a man who, for some reason, had swallowed more than a kilogram of metallic objects over the last month.

Lithuanian media recently reported the shocking case of a man who arrived at the Klaipėda University Hospital in the Baltic port of Klaipeda complaining of severe abdominal pain but conveniently failed to mention that he had swallows over a kilogram of metal objects over the last 30 days. An X-ray examination revealed that the man’s stomach was full of metal objects of all shapes and sizes, including nails, screws, and blades. They prepped the man, whose identity has not been revealed, for emergency surgery and spent over 3 hours removing the metal objects.

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A North Dakota man had to take his Chevy Avalanche pickup apart in order to reach the hundreds of walnuts that a busy squirrel had filled it with after he left the vehicle parked under a walnut tree.

After coming home from a four-day work trip earlier this month, Bill Fischer, an insurance salesman from Fargo, North Dakota, found his Chevy Avalanche pickup full to the brim with walnuts. Apparently, a red squirrel that hangs out in Bill’s neighborhood finds the walnuts of a beautiful black walnut tree irresistible, and every autumn it goes about picking up and storing them for the winter. The problem is that, for some reason, it always seems to prefer Bill’s truck as storage, and this year was no different. In fact, it was worse than usual, with about 42 gallons-worth of walnuts crammed all throughout the car.

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Over two dozen people taking a national exam that could lead to a career in teaching were caught cheating Bluetooth-enabled flip flops to get an edge over the stiff competition.

Cheating has always been a big problem in India, especially during potentially life-changing exams. I remember watching surreal scenes of people climbing the walls of a school building in Bihar to hand cheat sheets to the students taking their year-end exams inside a few years ago, or army applicants forced to take exams in their underwear to prevent cheating. This year, authorities in Rajasthan went as far as cutting the internet connection in the state during the exam to prevent cheating, but they still couldn’t prevent savvy cheaters from trying to get a leg up through nefarious ways. The latest method of cheating reportedly involves Bluetooth-connected flip-flops sold by criminal gangs for up to 600,000 rupees ($8,000) per pair.

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Mr. Methane is a world-renowned entertainer who, as the name suggests, has a very special talent when it comes to passing wind.

Of all superpowers one could have, farting at will probably sits near the bottom of everyone’s list, and yet one of the few people known to be able to control their flatulence has managed to build a career around this ability. Paul Oldfield, aka ‘Mr. Methane’, discovered his unusual talent for farting in his teenage years, and eventually managed to use it as a way to make living, traveling the world and showcasing his somewhat repulsive ability to the world. The Macclesfield-born Englishman currently holds the record for most farts released in one minute, but is also known for performing popular songs by farting, and various other revolting tricks.

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You couldn’t tell by looking at its slender, rather frail frame, but the needlefish is one of the world’s most dangerous fish to humans, with multiple cases of injuries and even fatalities reported throughout the years.

A member of the family Belonidae, the needlefish is a piscivorous species whose most distinctive feature is the long, narrow beak filled full of sharp, saw-like teeth. But it’s not the teeth that should worry you – they’re only used to catch smaller fish – but the combination of an extremely pointy beak and incredible speed. Needlefish swim close to the surface of the water and like to jump over obstacles like shallow boats rather than go around them. The problem is that they jump at speeds of up to 60km/h (37mph), and since their obstacles sometimes happen to be humans out at sea, they literally impale them with their long beak, causing serious, sometimes fatal injuries.

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