A team of Japanese researchers recently won the satirical lg Nobel Prize for a study that showed painting cows with zebra-like white stripes significantly protects them against biting flies.

The lg Nobel Prize is a satirical award designed to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” But while it might be mistaken for a silly parody, receiving an lg Nobel Prize does require genuine scientific work. For example, this year, one award went to a Japanese team of researchers from the Aichi Agricultural Research Center who carried out a wacky experiment that showed how zebra-like stripes painted on cows with pater-based paints could protect them from biting flies. The researchers observed a reduction in biting flies by as much as 50 percent on the animals given white stripes compared to those given black stripes or not painted at all.

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According to a report by Chinese media outlet Guangming, tooth tattoos are emerging as a new trend among China’s younger generations.

Engraving symbols and images on your teeth sounds like a bad idea if you value oral health, but tooth tattoos are not quite as stupid as they sound. They are not tattooed directly on the teeth but on the surface of a crown made using 3D printing technology and then placed over the real tooth. One of the main appeals is that, unlike skin tattoos, which can’t easily be removed, tooth tattoos can be changed by simply replacing the crown. While some believe that skin tattoos are outdated and tooth tattoos are a new and cool way to express oneself, others simply opt for it when offered as a service by dental clinics. Instead of a bland crown, they can get a personalized model that makes them stand out or brings them luck.

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An Indian YouTuber with over half a million followers was recently arrested for defaming a key infrastructure project by claiming that a Goa airport was haunted.

Akshay Vashisht, a YouTube personality with over 572,000 subscribers, was arrested earlier this week in New Delhi for allegedly inciting fear and spreading lies about a key state infrastructure project. The owner of a YouTube channel focusing on paranormal activity, Vashisht claimed that Manohar International Airport, the newest airport in Goa, was built on the site of a cremation ground and had been plagued by paranormal activity. After his video, titled ‘Evil Haunted Goa Airport’, was discovered by Goa Police’s Social Media Monitoring Cell, the popular content creator was arrested and brought to the Mopa Police Station for interrogation.

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An 11-year-old boy in Changsha, China, required medical attention after doing homework and studying for 14 hours straight under the supervision of his parents.

China’s obsession with curricular excellence is no secret, but in some extreme cases, it can literally put kids’ lives in danger. Case in point, an 11-year-old boy was recently hospitalized after doing homework from 8 am to 10 pm without any rest. By 11 pm, the boy became agitated and developed rapid breathing, dizziness, headaches, and numbness in his limbs. His parents, who had been supervising him all day at the family home in Changsha, panicked and took him to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with respiratory problems due to hyperventilation.

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In a controversial social experiment, a young Russian woman signed away her soul for 100,000 rubles ($1,180), which she used to buy a Labubu doll collection and a concert ticket.

It all started as a joke from a marketing expert who identified himself as Dmitri on the Russian social network Telegram. He posted an ad offering to pay 100,000 rubles to whoever agreed to sell their soul and make it official by signing a contract with their own blood. He didn’t expect anyone to accept the bizarre offer, but to his surprise, a 26-year-old woman replied to his ad, declaring her interest in selling her soul. Dmitri kept up his part of the bargain, posting the receipt for the soul sale and a photo of the young woman holding the blood-signed contract, with her personal information blacked out.

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An elderly shopkeeper in Turkey almost lost his left arm after his hand became seriously infected as a result of a human bite during an attempted robbery.

Doctors frequently warn that another human’s bite is often more dangerous than that of a dog or a cat, but a 60-year-old man in Istanbul, Turkey, found that out the hard way after nearly losing his arm. The case occurred last year, but it was only reported by Turkish media this year, after it was published in a scientific journal by the doctors who treated the patient. In early 2024, a 60-year-old shop owner was robbed while working at his store in Üsküdar, a district of Istanbul. Two masked men entered the shop after closing with the clear intention of stealing, so the owner tried to stop them. In the physical struggle that ensued, the 60-year-old managed to immobilize one of the thieves, who bit his hand hard in a desperate attempt to escape. 

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Vitomir Maričić, a freediver from Croatia, managed to hold his breath for 29 minutes and three seconds at the bottom of a 3-meter-deep pool, shattering the previous world record by a whopping five minutes.

Most of us can only hold our breath for a few seconds to a couple of minutes, but with the right training, some people can hold their breath underwater for such long periods of time that they might as well be superhumans. These people are called freedivers. After undergoing extensive physical and mental training, including diaphragmatic breathing, cardiovascular exercise, and meditation, they are able to perform extreme feats that seem impossible to most humans. Vitomir Maričić, an experienced freediver from Croatia, recently set a new world record for the longest oxygen-assisted breath-hold ever – 29 minutes and 3 seconds – surpassing the previous world record by approximately five minutes.

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An Indiana bankruptcy lawyer named Mark Zuckerberg has filed a lawsuit against the Meta CEO whose name he shares for repeatedly banning him on his social platforms.

It’s not easy being Mark Zuckerberg. No, not the Facebook founder, but an Indiana bankruptcy lawyer whose life has been negatively affected by sharing the younger tech maven’s name. Not only does he get over 100 emails every day from people who think that they are writing to the Meta chief executive officer, but he can rarely make a reservation at a restaurant without getting hung up on because people mistake him for a prankster. But the thing that irritates him the most is getting banned on Facebook and Instagram despite investing tens of thousands of dollars in ads for the simple reason that his name is Mark Zuckerberg.

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Videos featuring smart toilet paper dispensers that require people to watch short ads to receive toilet paper strips in public toilets have gone viral in China.

Ever since it started its new era of booming national tourism, China has experimented with ingenious ways of preventing toilet paper waste. Back in 2017, international news outlets reported the introduction of facial scanners connected to toilet paper dispensers that only offered one 60-cm-long strip of paper per scan, or every nine minutes. It was reported that the system was implemented at popular tourism spots where people took as much toilet paper as possible for fear of not finding any when they came back later. AI technology was introduced in 2019, when toilet paper dispensers began dispensing strips of paper once every 10 minutes per individual user. But now, technology has evolved even more with toilet paper dispensers that play ads to release short strips of paper.

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A child in Shanghai, China, could not be issued a birth certificate and scheduled for vaccinations one year after his birth because the parents couldn’t settle on a name.

The Pudong New Area People’s Court in Shanghai recently heard a divorce case involving a couple who registered their marriage in 2023 and had a healthy baby boy the following year. Everything started going downhill from there because they couldn’t settle on a name for the child. Each party insisted on naming the child according to their own wishes and demanded that the other provide the original documents and a power of attorney, but neither of them gave in. Evidence presented in Court showed that they went to the hospital separately to try to have their preferred name registered for the child, but both attempts were rejected due to non-compliance with regulations.

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While treating a 65-year-old woman for knee osteoarthritis, doctors in South Korea discovered hundreds of pure gold threads inserted in her legs.

The unnamed patient had previously experienced severe pain and stiffness in her knees due to osteoarthritis and had been prescribed painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and even steroid injections directly into her knees, none of which proved effective enough to allow her to lead a normal, pain-free life. Not only did the pain not go away, but she developed negative side effects because of the drugs, including severe stomach pain, so she decided to give alternative medicine a chance, more specifically, a controversial procedure known as gold thread acupuncture.

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A Texas man has been charged with murder following a game in which he and his friend took turns shooting each other in the head with rifles while wearing Kevlar helmets.

On 17 August, good friends Sean O’Donnell (37) and Aaron Prout (34) were hanging out in the former’s home when they decided to play a very stupid and dangerous game – taking turns shooting each other in the head with a rifle while wearing a Kevlar helmet for protection. Kevlar helmets are used by modern soldiers because they are known to whithstand heavy impacts, but they are not completely bulletproof. In this particular case, the two friends, who had been drinking, were reportedly holding the Kevlar helmet above their heads while the other tried to aim at it with a rifle. All it took was for one of them to miss their shot by a few millimeters to turn their friendly game into a tragedy.

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An 80-year-old Japanese woman ended up sending around 1 million yen ($6,700) to an online scammer who posed as an astronaut stuck in space and in need of money to buy oxygen.

Hailing from  Japan’s northern Hokkaido island, the hapless octogenarian reportedly met the scammer on social media back in July. They claimed to be a male astronaut on a mission in outer space, and the woman apparently believed them. After earning the trust of their victim, the scammer told her they were “in space on a spaceship right now” but were “under attack and in need of oxygen.” Obviously, the only way the 80-year-old woman could was to send money to a bank account, so the astronaut could buy more oxygen and survive the ordeal.

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Brazilian football legend Neymar Jr. stands to inherit over $1.1 million after being named the only heir of a single, childless billionaire he has never even met.

You know the story – an anonymous billionaire leaves his fortune to a poor soul and changes their life forever. Most of us have dreamed of something similar happening at one point in our lives, but Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr. is actually living the dream, as he reportedly stands to inherit $1.14 billion from an anonymous man who passed away recently. Brazilian news outlet RIC reported that the will was formalised at an office in Porto Alegre and authenticated on June 12 with two witnesses present. The anonymous billionaire was reportedly single and childless, and selected Neymar jr as his sole heir because he identified with him at a personal level, even though they had never met.

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A Chinese man risks losing all his teeth after trying to make his own dentures with a special resin bought online, to save money on expensive dental procedures.

Ms. Liu, who runs a dental clinic in Tianjin, recently posted shocking photos of an elderly client who came in with both his upper and lower teeth caked in a hard, brown substance. He had allegedly been experiencing trouble eating because of his deteriorating teeth, so he decided it was time to get artificial dentures. However, he didn’t want to spend too much on them, and knowing that dental work was expensive, he decided to make his own dentures using materials he bought online. Unfortunately, he made a mess of his teeth and was left with no other option than to seek professional help. To his despair, so far, no one has been willing to remove the DIY dentures.

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