Women and some men in South Korea are paying big bucks for shoulder filler injections to get so-called “perfect 90-degree shoulders” popularized by K-pop idols.

When Blackpink’s Jennie launched her song ‘Like Jennie,’ she probably didn’t mean it as an encouragement for her fans to go to any lengths to be like her, but that didn’t stop people from doing just that. According to recent media reports, the South Korean artist is one of the several K-pop idols who inspired a controversial plastic surgery trend that has people injecting fillers into their shoulders to achieve a sharply angled look. Some opt to enhance their look with another procedure called Barbie Botox or Trap Botox, which relaxes the trapezius muscles and makes the shoulder and neck lines look longer and slimmer.

Read More »

An Irish High Court Justice recently appointed a guardian ad litem to represent the best interests of a farmer who sold his property and gave most of the money to the poor because God told him he would go to Heaven.

Giving to charity is commendable, but some people’s generosity can seem suspicious in certain situations. Take the case of an Irish farmer in his 40s who sold his property a few months ago for about €600,000 ($700,000) and has already given more than half of that money to the poor. The farmer, whose name has not been revealed by the media, had allegedly been told by God to give away all of his money, and if he did so, he would get to heaven. Taking that heavenly message to heart, he sold his farm and has been busy giving away his fortune ever since. Justice Michael Twomey heard that just last week, the farmer gave €1,000 cash to a homeless woman he met, and that in a matter of weeks, his bank account balances had dropped significantly.

Read More »

A 28-year-old Malaysian woman recently shared the dramatic transformation she suffered during her pregnancy, when her face became inflamed and full of wrinkles, like an old woman’s.

Farah Faizal, a marketing manager living in Malaysia, caused a stir on social media when she posted an image of her incredibly deformed face while pregnant at the end of June. Her face looked like that of an old woman, with deep wrinkles, an enlarged nose and ears, and pustules everywhere. The skin routine she had relied on for years was completely ineffective, and things worsened in the later stages of her pregnancy. Every morning when she woke up, new pustules appeared on her face, and her skin was itchy and inflamed. The whole experience was deeply traumatic, and Farah credits her husband for helping her overcome it while maintaining her sanity.

Read More »

A Chinese man was recently scammed by a Hangzhou gym into spending more than 870,000 yuan ($121,000) on hundreds of years of gym memberships and private lessons.

The average life expectancy in China is around 78 years, but one Hagzhou man will have to figure out a way to live a lot longer if he plans to take full advantage of the 300-years-worth of gym memberships he was scammed into paying a fortune for. The victim, referred to only as Jin by Chinese media, had been training at the Ranyan Fitness gym in his home city for three years, when he was approached by a salesperson with an offer he simply couldn’t refuse. Mr. Jin was told that Ranyan was launching a special offer for loyal members only, selling them cheap long-term memberships that they would then resell to new members for double the price. As it often happens, it all turned out to be too good to be true.

Read More »

Scientists at China’s Zhejiang University have developed a new type of thin, transparent glass that can clean itself with the help of built-in electrodes that create an electric field.

Surface particle pollution has long been a problem that science has struggled to solve. From dirty windows in inaccessible places to photovoltaic panels in the middle of the desert, dealing with dust, sand, and other particles is often difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. But what if glass surfaces could simply clean themselves regularly? It sounds like the kind of technology you’d expect to see in a sci-fi blockbuster, but a team of researchers in China claims to have invented a type of self-cleaning glass that can remove up to 98% of surface particles in just a few seconds, without the use of water and chemicals.

Read More »

Because car AC units break down too often and repairs are too expensive, Afghan taxi drivers often turn to handmade roof-mounted rudimentary cooling units.

Driving through Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, you’re likely to see taxis with large rectangular boxes mounted on the roof and large tubes extending from them and into the cabin, through a rear window or through a hole cut into the roof. They are handmade cooling devices meant to replace the cars’ built-in air-conditioning systems, which tend to break down when they are most needed and cost a fortune to repair. Similar to industrial evaporative air cooling installations, these boxes can lower temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius through water evaporation, they are less noisy than air conditioning systems and consume way less power. They’re just not meant for vehicle installation.

Read More »

There is a bizarre stress-relief trend sweeping through China these days – thousands of grownups are relying on adult pacifiers to mitigate stress symptoms like anxiety and insomnia.

From work-related stress and financial burdens like mortgages and car payments, to complex interpersonal relationships, modern life is full of anxiety-inducing problems, but who would have thought that the humble pacifier could help mitigate these issues? Well, apparently, Chinese adults have, because the popularity of adult pacifiers has turned into a full-blown craze in the Asian country, with thousands of young adults spending between 10 and 500 yuan ($1.40 and $70) on plastic pacifiers. They are often sold as stress and anxiety relief products or sleep aids, and for many people overwhelmed by daily life, these simple marketing phrases are enough to trigger a buying impulse. Chinese e-commerce platforms are full of offers for adult pacifiers, and the most successful stores sell thousands of them every month.

Read More »

A new Dutch snack brand is trying to draw attention to itself by launching the world’s first 9-volt battery-flavored tortilla chips, a flavor most 90s kids will surely remember.

If you grew up during the 1990s, you probably remember the metallic tang and slight buzz you got when you touched the metal tip of a battery with your tongue. It was a silly but very popular trend among kids back in those days, and  Dutch snack brand Rewind is betting that nostalgia or pure curiosity will draw a lot of people to its new 9-volt battery-flavored tortilla chips. Recreating that childish experience in a way that leaves the chips palatable must have been very challenging, but Rewind assures everyone that no battery components were used in the making of its unusual snack, clarifying that all the ingredients are entirely safe and food-grade.

Read More »

A South Korean student’s mother and her tutor were recently arrested after trying to break into the girl’s school in order to steal exam papers and ensure that she aced her tests.

South Korea’s education system was recently rocked by a scandal involving illegal tutoring, breaking and entering, as well as attempted theft of exam papers by a parent and a teacher with the goal of maintaining a student at the top of her class at any cost. On July 4, at around 02:00 in the morning, the alarm went off at a girls’ school in Andong, North Gyeongsang, and security camera footage showed two women trying to access an office where printed copies of school exams were being stored. The perpetrators were arrested the following day, and an investigation found that one of them was the mother of a valedictorian student at the school, and the other was a former teacher there who had been tutoring the same student for years.

Read More »

An Argentinian man recently won a legal battle against tech giant Google after being photographed naked in his own yard and then posted on Google Street View for everyone to see.

Although the lawsuit filed by the unnamed man only recently ended, the incident goes back to 2017, when a Google Street View car passed through  Bragado, a small Argentinian town about 200 kilometers from Buenos Aires, right when a local man was out completely naked on his property. The photos taken by the car’s advanced camera system caught him from behind, showing his derriere in all its glory, and even though the man’s face wasn’t visible, the very clear street address in the captures made him the laughing stock of the town. Sick of putting up with the mockery, the man took Google to court for violating his privacy.

Read More »

A sizeable population of tropical fish native to Venezuela and Guyana has been thriving in the polluted sewer system of Kyiv, in Ukraine, since the 1980s.

The ability of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to adapt to various environments is well documented, but few people would expect to find a full-blown colony of the popular aquarium fish living in the sewer system of Ukraine’s capital city. And yet, a scientific study found that the little tropical fish native to South America has not only been surviving, but actually thriving in the dirty sewers of Kyiv. Guppies were first observed in the Bortnicheskaya treatment plant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital in the 1980s, and have been able to breed there despite the high level of pollution and unpleasant odor.

Read More »

The Chinese-made Walker S2 humanoid robot is the world’s first industrial robot that can replace its own battery, allowing it to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Unveiled earlier this month by Chinese robotics company UB Tech Robotics, the Walker S2 has been attracting a lot of attention because of its unique ability to replace its own batteries to ensure it never runs out of power. Conventional robots need to be plugged in or have their batteries replaced, which means they have to stop working for a certain period of time, but the Walker S2 is equipped with a dual battery system that allows it to replace each battery itself, one at a time, to ensure that it essentially never runs out of power. This simple yet ingenious feature is said to be a first among bipedal robots.

Read More »

A 16-year-old girl from Central China’s Hunan province almost lost her life after attempting a dangerous diet of just vegetables and laxatives to lose weight fast.

In a desperate attempt to fit into a new birthday dress, the Chinese teenager, identified only as Mei, adopted a crash diet that landed her in the hospital. For two weeks, Mei only consumed small portions of vegetables and laxatives and was eventually rushed to the hospital after suddenly losing strength in her arms and legs, and developing shortness of breath. Emergency blood tests showed that Mei’s blood potassium levels had dropped to dangerous levels, resulting in a condition called serious hypokalaemia. If left untreated, the life-threatening condition can cause respiratory failure and sudden cardiac arrest.

Read More »

Indian police have arrested a man accused of running a fake embassy in a rented building in Ghaziabad and impersonating an ambassador of made-up countries like ‘Seborga’ or ‘Westarctica’.

Ever dreamed of working in exotic countries like Ladonia, Westarctica, Seborga, or Poulvia? Unfortunately, you’re not the only one. An Indian scammer managed to defraud dozens of individuals and companies by posing as an ambassador of made-up micronations, promising employment and lucrative business deals in exchange for hefty fees. Harshvardhan Jain had set up a fake embassy in a lavish bungalow in Ghaziabad’s upscale Kavi Nagar area, where he presented himself as a wealthy and well-connected diplomat, using fake documents, forged car plates and made-up foreign connections to trick his victims.

Read More »

Japanese authorities are on high alert after up to 16,000 plastic toy guns used as prizes in claw machines across the country were deemed able to fire live ammunition.

Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) recently issued a warning that thousands of illegal firearms were being offered as prizes in claw machines all around the Asian country, adding that authorities were scrambling to recall them. The ‘Real Gimmick Mini Revolver’ was imported into Japan from China as prizes in crane games, but although the brightly-colored plastic toy seemed harmless, its technical specifications suggested that ot was capable of being used as an actual firearm. The toy comes with eight plastic bullets that can be used to ping various objects or even prank people, but the NPA found that the gun could also potentially be used to fire live ammunition.

Read More »