The World’s Oldest Grape Vine Has Been Around For Nearly 500 Years
The Slovenian city of Maribor is home to the world’s oldest grapevine still producing fruit, a resilient plant that dates back to the year 1570, when the city was facing an Ottoman invasion. The Old Vine is the only plant in the world with its own dedicated museum, the Old Vine House, once part of […]
Groom Suffers Fractured Spine After Being Dropped By Friends at His Own Wedding
What was supposed to be the best night of his life turned into a nightmare for a young Romanian man, after being thrown into the air and dropped by his friends during his own wedding, and suffering spine fractures. 31-year-old Liviu Filimon was enjoying his wedding party in Baile Felix, north-western Romania when some of […]
Kynam – The World’s Rarest, Most Expensive Wood
When you think of the rarest, most precious materials on Earth, things like diamonds, platinum, or gold probably pop into your head, but did you know that a special type of wood is actually more expensive than any of those? Kynam, or “kyara” as it’s known in Japan, is an extremely rare type of agarwood […]
Indian Man Seeks Divorce From Wife Because She Doesn’t Bathe Daily
A Muslim man from India’s Uttar Pradesh reportedly tried to divorce his wife of two years because she doesn’t bathe daily, and they fight every time he asks her to. Personal hygiene is an important part of a relationship, and in some cases, it can become a serious enough issue to warrant the end of […]
Translucent Caterpillar Has Eerily Visible Insides
The caterpillar of the Brazilian Skipper Butterfly has translucent skin that offers an eerily clear view of its insides, especially the circulatory system. Brazilian skipper butterflies are larger than most skipper butterflies, but it’s not their size that sets them apart as a species, it’s their appearance during the caterpillar stage. What really makes this […]
Japan Starts Selling World’s First Genome-Edited Tomato
Sicilian Rouge High GABA is a special type of tomato designed to contain high levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid believed to aid relaxation and help lower blood pressure. Tokyo-based startup Sanatech Seed Co. teamed up with scientists at the University of Tsukuba to develop a new variety of tomatoes using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology. […]
The Jumping Mailmen of Lake Geneva
Every year, athletic youths in Wisconsin’s Woworth County try out for a unique summer job – mail jumping. They need to prove that they can jump off of a moving boat onto a private dock, deliver the mail and then jump back on the boat before it has passed by. The residents of Lake Geneva […]
Buffalo Horn Cupping Makes Users Look Like a Super Mario Character
The benefits of cupping as a way to relieve stress, improve athletic performance and overall health have been debated at nauseam, but did you know cupping could help you cosplay as popular Nintendo villain Bowser, aka King Koopa? Although modern cupping is usually associated with the use of glass cups, the practice can be traced […]
Pleń – When Thousands of Tiny Larvae Move as One Giant Unit
The larvae of a certain species of gnats have been known to migrate by assembling into a large snake-like shape numbering tens of thousands of individuals and crawling on the ground as one. The bizarre phenomenon is known as “Pleń” in Poland and “Heerwurm” in Germany. As far back as the 17th century, the larvae […]
The Dancing Mangrove Trees of Sumba Island
Indonesia’s remote Sumba Island is famous for a great many things, but above all its uniquely shaped mangroves, dubbed “dancing trees” for the way they seem to sway with the setting sun in the background. Calm waters, a white sandy beach, and inviting waters are all things you can expect to find at Walakiri Beach, […]
Competitive Pillow Fighting – How a Children’s Game Became a Popular Sport in Japan
Every year, dozens of teams from all over Japan travel to the Japanese town of Ito to compete in one of the world’s most unique sporting events – All-Japan Pillow Fighting Championships. Pillow fighting is an age-old pastime practiced by children of all ages all over the world. Japan is no different, only here the […]
Man Turns Himself In 30 Years After Escaping From Prison
An Australian man who had been on the run for nearly three decades turned himself in recently, after being rendered homeless by the pandemic and struggling to find work. On the night of August 1, 1992, 13 months into his three-and-a-half-year sentence for growing marijuana, Darko “Dougie” Desic escaped from the Grafton Correctional Centre in […]
YouTuber Documents Raising Piglet for 100 Days Before Allegedly Eating It on Camera
A Japanese YouTuber recently sparked controversy after apparently cooking and eating a piglet that he had raised on camera for the previous 100 days. In May of this year, a Japanese man started a peculiar YouTube channel named “Eating Pig After 100 Days“. True to its name, the channel was all about raising a small […]
Gaet’ale Pond – The Saltiest Body of Water on Earth
Located near the Dallol crater in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression is Gaet’ale Pond, a small pool of water with a salinity of 43%, making it by far the saltiest body of water on Earth. To put into perspective just how salty Gaet’ale actually is, you should know that the Dead Sea, the world’s most famous hypersaline […]
The World’s Rarest Flower Only Grows in Two Locations Around the World
“Middlemist’s Red,” also known as the spring rose, is widely regarded as the world’s rarest flower, as just two of these precious plants exist, one in New Zealand and another in the UK. Named after John Middlemist, who collected it in China in 1804, the Middlemist’s Red camelia was always a rare flower that could […]