An entomologist from the University of Melbourne lets thousands of mosquitoes bite his arm regularly in order to keep them fed for research on eradicating Dengue fever.

Dr Perran Stott-Ross has been involved in mosquito research at the University of Melbourne for many years now, trying to find effective ways of curbing the spread of the Dengue virus, passes between humans via mosquitoes. One of the most promising strategies has been infecting swarms of mosquitoes with Wolbachia, a bacteria that naturally blocks the transmission of dengue fever and is passed on over generations of mosquitoes. But in order to further this research, Dr. Stott-Ross has to monitor thousands of blood-sucking bugs, and as part of that monitoring he offers his own arm as an all-you-can-eat buffet…

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Heat tourism is a thing, with some people driving thousands of miles to Nevada’s Death Valley for a selfie with the thermometer listing one of the hottest recorded temperatures on Earth.

While most people see extremely high temperatures as a perfect excuse to stay indoors and turn up the air-conditioning, for some it’s a perfect opportunity for a memorable selfie. Last month the Death Valley National Park recorded the hottest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, and so-called “heat tourists” have been flocking there ever since hoping to snap a picture with the now famous thermometer at Furnace Creek Visitor Center as is shows some of the highest temperatures ever recorded.

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A 30-year-old Mexican man allegedly reported his own mother to the authorities for kicking him out of the house, because he didn’t want to get a job or at least help with chores.

Last Wednesday, Mexican media reported the case of one Christian Uriel, a 30-year-old man who denounced his own mother and aunt to the before the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office, accusing them of assault and harassments. The young man claimed that he was beaten out of the house by the two women, who also threw water on him. What he failed to tell the authorities was that he had been living at his mother’s house for months, free of charge, without contributing to the family budget or even helping out with chores.

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Mikishi, a 25-year-old girl from Japan, has been getting a lot of attention on Asian social media lately, because of her drastic plastic surgery transformation.

Ever since taking to Twitter to confess that her appearance is the result of several bouts of plastic surgery, back in March of this year, 25-year-old Mikishi has become somewhat of a poster-girl for early plastic surgery. She had her first cosmetic procedure, a facial reshaping, on the first day after graduating high-school, and she has since turned to plastic surgery several more times, spending about 4 million yen ($40,000) in the process. But she considers it money well spent, as plastic surgery changed her life, giving her back her self-esteem and helping her lead a happy life, instead of sinking into a depression. Today, Mikishi actually advocates for plastic surgery for people who really feel like they need it, and she has even founded a company that provides consultancy  services to such individuals.

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UK-based supermarket Waitrose has been slammed by social media users for selling bouquets of “autumn seasonal foliage” at £6 ($7.5) apiece.

Photos of various tree leaves packaged in transparent plastic foil and arranged as flower bouquets went viral on social media this week, sparking controversy because of the product’s price, six British pounds, of seven and a half dollars. Considering tree leaves can literally be picked up from the street this time of year, it’s understandable that some people went after Waitrose, accusing the supermarket of trying to make money by selling something that is actually free.

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A Chinese woman who underwent a CT scan following a minor car accident learned that she had two metallic needles embedded deep in her brain.

The 29-year-old woman from Zhengzhou had been involved in a car accident and was advised to get a CT scan to make sure that there was no damage to her head. Luckily, the investigation showed no trauma related to the accident, but it did reveal something much stranger: two needles, approximately 5cm in length and 4.9mm in diameter embedded deep in her brain. The strange thing was that the needles were not related to the car accident, as there was no visible skull or scalp injury, and the woman had no recollection of any serious head trauma at any point in her life.

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A 15-year-old Brazilian girl has baffled doctors after allegedly crying blood from her eyes for over a week, for reasons that doctors cannot understand.

The girl, identified only Doris, started feeling sick on September 12, and her mother took her to a hospital in her home city of Sao Paolo. She complained of pain in her abdomen and doctors diagnosed her with kidney stones. She was given medication for the pain and was sent home shortly after. However, on Sunday morning she was again rushed to the emergency room with blood coming out of one eye. Doctors examined Doris, but couldn’t determine the cause of the blood tears, and since she reported no pain or discomfort, she was once again sent home.

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Sylvain, a heavily tattooed school teacher from Essonne, in France, risks losing his job, because some parents don’t approve of his full-body tattoo, which includes his face.

The 35-year-old teacher, who goes by Freaky Hoody on social media, recently went on French television channel BFM TV to complain about the threat of losing his job strictly based on his appearance. He claims that his superiors have asked him to no longer teach kindergarten children, after receiving complaints from parents regarding his unconventional looks. Apparently, these people don’t even have children in the classes he teaches, but they have an issue with his tattoos, which cover the vast majority of his body, including his face, and even his eyeballs.

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A 28-yeear-old married man from India recently made international news headlines for lying to his family about getting infected with the new coronavirus as an excuse to run away with his lover.

On July 24, Manish Mishra called his wife to say that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that he didn’t want to live anymore. He then proceeded to shut off his phone, which caused his family to panic. His wife called her brother for help after receiving the bizarre call, and he advised her to file a missing persons report with the Navi Mumbai police. The investigation that followed showed that the 28-year-old supervisor had actually used the dreaded illness as a pretext to leave his family and elope with his mistress.

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A Japanese self-described “nerd” has been playing Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch for over six months, and he claims it helped him go from overweight to impressively chiseled.

“This is the result of a nerd doing Ring Fit for half a year,” Japanese Twitter user ‘kzm’ posted, along with a picture of his toned torso. The post got a lot of attention back in late July, getting almost 24,000 retweets and nearly 400 comments, mostly from people congratulating him on his resolve. Apparently, kzm has been playing Ring Fit Adventure every day since November of last year, and relied on it to keep himself in shape during the Covid-19 lockdown. Only it helped him do much more than that, as a photo of him from November 2019 shows him looking overweight, at least compared to his new sculpted physique.

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Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci has sparked controversy with its new line of products for Fall 2020, which includes distressed jeans with what looks like grass stains on them.

Distressed jeans have been around for a long time, but fashion companies have been pushing the envelope in this area for a while now. Back in 2017, fashion retailer Nordstrom made news headlines for selling jeans caked in fake mud for a whopping $425 and the Onomichi Denim Project boutique has long been selling premium jeans that have been pre-worn by someone for at least a year. Now, Italian fashion house Gucci has released a pair of jeans and a pair of jeans overalls “specifically treated for a stained-like, distressed effect” They cost $765 and $1,400 respectively…

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Chinese media recently reported the fascinating story of a young boy who, after witnessing his father’s murder at the hands of a neighbor, when he was 9-years-old, spent the next 17 years trying to catch the culprit.

Looking back on that fateful day of August 9th, 2000, Xiang Mingqian wishes he had never thrown that stone that eventually got his father killed… He was only 9 at the time, playing with his neighbor, Zhang Jun in a ditch, by the side of an old road in Changba Town, Zhenxiong County. Jun had thrown a stone into a puddle, and the splash had hit Xiang Mingqian, so he decided to return the favor by throwing an even bigger stone into the water. It was just a childish game, but the quarrel that erupted between the two boys would eventually involve both boys’ families and result in a tragic death…

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A fifteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl in Indonesia were reportedly forced to marry after breaking a local custom that forbids dating after sunset.

Child marriage has been a controversial issue in Indonesia for a long time, and last week it was once again brought into the limelight by the story of a young teenage couple forced to marry after only four days of dating. According to multiple media reports, 15-year-old Suhaimi and his 12-year-old girlfriend, Nur Herawati, were pressured into the marriage by the girl’s parents, after allegedly breaking customary dating laws, which forbids young couples to return home after dusk. Since the teenage boy brought his young girlfriend home after 7:30 pm earlier this month, her parents gave them no choice but to marry…

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Laungi Bhuiyan, a pensioner from the Indian state of Bihar, has become known as “Canal Man” after it was revealed that he spent 30 years of his life digging a 3-kilometer-long water canal, all by himself, using hand tools.

The remote village of Kothilawa, in the Lahthua area of Gaya district, had always suffered water shortages, with most of the rainwater falling in the nearby hills flowing into the river, instead of towards the village. This was one of the reason that some residents decided to move away and start anew, but one man decided to stay behind and fix the problem instead of running away from it. 30 years ago, local man Laungi Bhuiyan decided to take matters into his own hands and dig a canal to bring the water from the hills to a pond near his village. No one offered to help, so for three long decades he dug the 4-feet wide and 3-feet deep canal himself, using only whatever hand tools he had available.

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According to his birth certificate, Denis Vashurin was born in 1987, but looking at him you would swear he was still in his early teenage years.

Denis became one of the hottest topics on Russian social media after doing an interview with popular YouTube personality “Vasya na sene”. People can’t seem to get over how incredibly young he looks for a 32-year-old man, and Denis himself admits that whenever he reveals his age to people he doesn’t know he almost always gets reactions of disbelief. That’s why he prefers living in a small village in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, instead of moving to the city. Everybody knows him there, and he gets to spend time alone doing what he likes – hunting, fishing and spending time with his girlfriend.

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