Family Spends Over $4,500 on Lavish Funeral for Faithful SUV

An Indian family recently went viral for their decision to send their old Suzuki Wagon to the grave rather than the scrapyard in a lavish burial ceremony attended by around 1,500 people.

They say you shouldn’t get too attached to material possessions, but try telling that to the Polara family in Padarshinga Village, Gujarat, who recently said goodbye to their 18-year-old Suzuki Wagon R by laying it to rest in a lavish burial ceremony attended by over 1,500 locals. The Polara believed the popular hatchback to be their “lucky” car so they wanted to say goodbye to it properly, rather than abandoning it at a scrapyard after nearly two decades of faithful service. Patriarch Sanjay Polara told reporters that he owns several more expensive cars, including an Audi, but credits the old Wagon R for being instrumental in achieving prosperity for his family, so he wanted to do something special for it.

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Designer Store Replaces Mannequins with Live Models on Treadmils

A popular Chinese clothing store sparked controversy by showcasing its products on female models walking on treadmills rather than old-fashioned mannequins.

You could say the marketing team at Chinese designer brand store ITIB was thinking outside the box when it decided to replace plastic mannequins with live models walking on small treadmills. The official explanation was that the new way of displaying garments really allowed customers to see how they fit when moving rather than in a stationary position, but few doubted that it was just an ingenious gimmick meant to draw attention. The plan worked perfectly, as videos of the young models mounted on small pedestals outside ITIB flagship store in Hangzhou spread like wildfire on social media, while crowds of people gathered to watch them walk on their little treadmills. However, what the designer collective brand probably didn’t anticipate was the wave of criticism regarding the “dehumanization” and exploitation of the young models.

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Smart Mouthpiece Turns Your Smartphone into a Playable Musical Instrument

The Zefiro is a clever little MIDI controller that plugs into the USB-C port of your smartphone essentially turning it into a playable musical instrument.

Developed by Italian startup ARTinoise, the Zefiro is one of the most ingenious gadgets we’ve seen in quite a while. The small, colorful mouthpiece may look like a vape, but it’s actually a lot more than that. It’s a MIDI controller that plugs into your smartphone’s charge port and relies on an app to turn the handheld into a variety of playable instruments, from the humble flute, to violins and even fantasy sounds. Equipped with lip sensors and an air pressure sensor, the Zefiro sends breath power data directly to the dedicated app, which is then used to adjust the volume, length, and harmonics of the sound. Keys or air holes are displayed on the screen of the smartphone, so you can effectively play the instrument with your fingers, as you low into the mouthpiece.

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Woman Who Heard “Animal Noises” from Under Her House Had Naked Man Living There

An elderly California woman who thought the noises coming from beneath her home were made by animals was shocked to find a naked man leaving under her house.

A 93-year-old woman from Los Angeles’ El Sereno neighborhood recently got the shock of her life after realizing that the bizarre noises she had begun to hear from beneath her home over the last few weeks were not made by animals but by a man who had settled there. The woman and her family usually heard strange noises under the house during the night, so they assumed they were made by dogs or wild animals passing through the crawlspace, but last Thursday the noises became particularly louder and seemed to be made in response to them walking through the place. They began to suspect that something wasn’t right, so they called the police, who found a naked man who appeared to have been living under the house for quite some time.

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Swedish Minister’s Bizarre Banana Phobia Makes International News Headlines

Sweden’s minister for gender equality and work life allegedly suffers from an irrational fear of bananas that prevents her from coming anywhere near the popular fruit.

Paulina Brandberg first mentioned her banana phobia in a since-deleted 2020 tweet, describing it as “the world’s weirdest phobia,” but the issue recently resurfaced and made national news in Sweden after The Expressed newspaper published a series of leaked emails that revealed the strength of her aversion to the yellow fruit. Brandberg’s staff have been going to great measures to ensure that the 41-year-old politician does not come into contact with the fruit, messaging people and venues she was scheduled beforehand to inform them about her phobia, and making sure no rogue bananas make an appearance.

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Four People Arrested for Using Bear Suit to Fake Bear Attacks on Their Vehicles and Claim Insurance

Four Los Angeles-area residents were recently arrested and charged with insurance fraud after allegedly using a bear suit to make it seem like their luxury vehicles had been damaged by a wild animal.

“Operation Bear Claw,” as this ingenious insurance fraud scheme was subbed by California authorities, began in January of this year, when the four suspects claimed that a bear had entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost while it was parked in Lake Arrowhead and caused extensive interior damage. The area is located in San Bernadino, a region famous for its large black bear population, but the video footage supplied to the insurer by the suspects themselves was more than a little shady. It showed a furry animal entering the back seat of the Rolls Royce and scratching it, but something didn’t add up. For one, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that the only bears in the state are black bears, and this was light brown, but its movements weren’t very bear-like either.

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Robot Manufacturer Has 12 Robots ‘Kidnapped’ from Showroom by Another Robot

Viral footage captured by CCTV cameras at a robotics company showroom shows 12 large robots being ‘kidnapped by another manufacturer’s robot that convinced them to “quit their jobs” and follow it.

For the past week, Chinese social media has been abuzz about a bizarre incident that reportedly occurred back in august at a robotics company showroom in Shanghai, but was only made public recently. Footage captured by the venue’s surveillance cameras shows a small robot making its way into the showroom at night and slowly rolling over to a bunch of larger robots before engaging in a dialogue with them. After asking them if they’re working overtime, the little robot manages to somehow pursuade two of the other robots to “come home” with it, and then the remaining 10 robots follow them. In the beginning, the video was deemed staged and amusing by most viewers, but then the Shanghai robotics company came out and admitted that its robots had indeed been “kidnapped” by a robot created by another manufacturer.

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Researchers Develop Way to Detect Spoiled Milk with a Smartphone

Australian scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have developed a method of accurately checking if milk has gone bad by using the vibration motor inside every smartphone.

The modern smartphone has been a jack-of-all-trades for a while now, but the ubiquitous gadget is getting new functionalities virtually every day. On of the most ingenious ways you’ll probably be able to use your handheld in the near future is to test if milk has gone bad, either in the comfort of your own kitchen, or at the store,without even having to open the container. Reserachers at UNSW Computer Science and Engineering recently developed a new smartphone sensor called VibMilk that relies on the gadget’s vibration motor and inertial measurement unit (IMU) to check the freshness of milk without having to open the container. The high-tech method could one day curb the current waste of 20% of dairy products.

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Artist Spends a Year Cutting World’s Longest Strip of Paper from Single A4 Sheet

Chinese origami artist Pei Haozheng spent a whole year painstakingly cutting an A4 sheet of paper into a 108-meter-long strip to set a unique world record.

Pei, also known as Hotz Pei, is no stranger to Guinness world records. He once folded the most origami flowers made from a single sheet of paper(100), and then created the largest origami snail ever, but this year he embarked on his most challenging record attempt yet – cutting the longest continuous strip of paper from a single A4 sheet. Technically, it should have been a walk in the park for this master of paper art, as the length to beat was a modest 2.5 meters, but he challenged himself to cut the longest strip possible, so he spent about a year experimenting with different types of paper, cutting techniques and instruments. In the end, he managed to cut a thin, continuous strip 108.15 meters in length.

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Woman Spends 27 Years Tracking Down Brother’s Killer, Chats with Him Online for 3 Years to Confirm His Identity

A 47-year-old Chinese woman who spent most of her life searching for her young brother’s cruel killer recently reached her goal, putting her target in prison after nearly three decades.

Li Haiyu’s heartbreaking tale of revenge began in December of 1992 when the woman’s father and another man started arguing about wages. Things got so heated between them that at one point, the other man decided to get back at Haiyu’s father by kidnapping his 9-year-old son, Li Huanping, as he left school. Police were called and a search for the boy and his kidnapper was organized in the area around their village in Hunan Province. Li Huanping’s clothes were found on the outskirts of a nearby village, but his body was only found in February of the following year, by which time his kidnapper had disappeared. The police report concluded that he had been stabbed and abandoned in a sugarcane field, but his father didn’t tell his wife and five daughters the truth until his dying day, letting them hold on to the hope of one day being reunited with Li Huanping.

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Chinese Influencer Eats Pig Feed in Extreme Attempt to Save Money

Popular Douyin streamer Kong Yufeng recently sparked controversy in China by eating pig feed on camera as part of a challenge to live on the cheapest food she could find.

On October 30, Kong Yufeng, aka ‘King Kong Liuke’, posted a controversial video on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, in which she announced a self-imposed challenge to live on the cheapest food she could find for at least one week. The popular streamer told her fans that she had browsed Zhihu, a Chinese forum known for sharing budget-friendly tips, and found pig feed to be the best option. A large bag of pig feed cost only 100 yuan (US$14) and was allegedly high in protein, low in fat, and “healthier than takeaway food,” so she decided to try it in front of her fans. According to Kong, the pig feed contained natural ingredients like soybeans, peanuts, sesame, corn, and added vitamins, but the taste was an acquired one.

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iPhone Stuck Under Ice Becomes Ice Skate Rink Attraction

A seasonal ice skating rink in Milton Keys, England, has been getting a lot of attention because of a bright pink iPhone stuck under two inches of ice.

Skaters at the Willen on Ice skating rink in Milton Keys will sometimes stop in the middle of the giant ice rink to stare at something under the ice – a bright pink iPhone. It has become a sort of tourist attraction after the BBC and other UK media outlets reported about it online. Apparently, one of the workmen setting up the rink this year lost their smartphone and had to borrow their daughter’s iPhone for a day only to forget it in the middle of the ice rink right before it was flooded with water and frozen overnight. The next day, some of his coworkers spotted it while inspecting the ice, but they could do nothing but laugh at his misfortune, as damaging the ice was out of the question.

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Mother Installs Jail Cell in Her House to Protect Herself from Addict Son

An elderly Thai woman desperate to keep her drug and gambling-addicted son away from temptation installed an iron jail cell inside her home.

After more than 20 years of living in constant fear of her drug-addicted son, a 64-year-old woman from Thailand’s Buriram Province took extraordinary measures to protect herself and her neighbors. She recently had contractors build a jail cell inside her home where she could confine the 42-year-old man when he became violent. She told police that she had tried everything to save her son over the years, including several rehabilitation attempts in over 10 different centers across the country, but nothing worked and he became increasingly violent as time went by. To make matters worse, at one point, the son became addicted to gambling as well, which only made things worse.

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Junk Food Diet Causes 12-Year-Old Boy to Go Permanetly Blind

A 12-year-old Massachusetts boy has tragically lost his eyesight to a nutrient-poor junk food diet that caused his optic nerves to atrophy beyond any hope of reversal.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently documented the case of a 12-year-old boy suffering from autism who ultimately went blind because of a junk food diet based mostly on burgers, fries, ranch dressing, donuts, and boxes of sugary juice. The boy had been diagnosed with autism and suffered from an extreme phobia of certain food textures, so his parents found it impossible to introduce vital nutrients into his diet. Earlier this year, the unnamed boy began experiencing vision problems in the hours of the morning and in the evening, but his eyesight was fairly normal during the day. However, his vision started degrading at a rapid pace, and in six weeks’ time he could only move around if his parents helped him navigate obstacles. Then, one night, he woke up screaming that he couldn’t see.

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Court Bans Woman from Entering Brother’s Room to Clean It Against His Will

A Singapore family court recently issued a partial domestic exclusion order against a woman who had allegedly been forcefully entering her adult brother’s room at odd hours of the night to clean.

On October 31st, two Singaporean siblings obtained court orders against each other following a bizarre legal dispute that left the judge scratching their head. A woman managed to get a protection order against her brother who had reportedly physically assaulted her, while he got a domestic order banning her from entering his room, which happens to be why he assaulted her in the first place. A third sibling told the court that tensions between the two had been rising for years, particularly because their sister would come into the brother’s room in the middle of the night to clean it, infringing on his privacy and preventing him from sleeping. One day, the man just snapped.

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