The Church of John the Baptist, an old monastery carved into a white mountain of chalk in Russia’s Voronezh region, is one of the world’s most visually-striking Christian places of worship.

Russia is home to some of the most beautiful and intricately decorated religious buildings in the world, but very few of them manage to impress by blending into their natural surroundings. One such rare edifice is the Church of John the Baptist, part of the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve in Voronezh. First mentioned in historical documents dating back to the 17th century, this unique monastery is carved in the side of a mountain of chalk, with its decorative bell tower sitting on the mountain itself.

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In what scientists are calling a world-first for the species, a”miracle” baby shark was born in a tank full of female smooth-hound sharks in Sardinia, Italy.

Parthenogenesis, or “virgin births,” have previously been observed in nature, from various species of plants, insects, reptiles, birds and fish, but never in smooth-hound sharks, which explains why the staff at Acquario Cala Gonone were shocked to see the young baby among all the females. The asexual birth of the miracle baby shark is yet to be officially confirmed, but the team at the Italian aquarium says no other explanation makes sense.

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Residents of Nordelta, Argentina’s most famous and arguably most beautiful gated community, have been battling hordes of capybaras, giant, adorable rodents that act like they own the place because technically they do…

A 1,500ha suburban development built on the wetlands of the Paraná, the second most important river in South America after the Amazon, Nordelta is home to some 40,000 people, many of whom paid a premium to own a home in what is a stunning location. Positioned just north of Buenos Aires, among picturesque lakes and streams. Nordelta is one of the most coveted places to own a home, but also one of the most contested by environmentalists, who contest its reason for existing. That’s because the wetlands it was built on were the home of various species of plants and animals, including capybaras, who have now returned to reclaim their rightful place.

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A near-vertical cliff wall in the mountains of Shennongjia Nature Reserve, China’s Hubei Province, is home to over 700 wooden boxes which make up one of the country’s last sanctuaries for native wild bees.

Beekeeping has been carried out in China since at least the 2nd century AD, and roughly half of the world’s supply of honey comes from the Asian country, but few know that over 80% of the native bee population is now extinct. The introduction of the European honey bee (Apis Mellifera) is considered the main cause of the drastic decline of native Chinese bees. It has brought viral diseases, has been known to attack Chinese honeybee hives, and interfere with its mating rituals. Today, the Chinese honey bee (Apis Cerana Cerana) is listed as an endangered species, and the cliff-hanging hives of the Shennongjia Nature Reserve make up one of the few protected sanctuaries in the country.

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Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Jesse Garcia has built a reputation on his ability to ink realistic-looking black widow spiders on virtually any body part.

Working out of his own private tattoo studio in Los Angeles, Garcia has been getting a lot of attention for his eerily realistic black widows, which look ready to jump off of his clients’ skin. While he is more than capable of tackling other designs, looking at the artist’s Instagram portfolio, it’s easy to see that the black widow is his signature element. Whether seemingly crawling out of someone’s ear, or on their legs and arms, it looks just as disturbing to an arachnophobe like myself.

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Riding rodeo bulls is dangerous by definition, but one bull, in particular, gave even the world’s best riders such a hard time that he became known as the meanest rodeo bull in history. This is the story of the legendary Bodacious.

According to statistics, bull riding is the world’s most dangerous organized sport, recording more catastrophic injuries and fatalities than any other contact sport. Getting thrown around like a ragdoll or stomped on by a 900kg bull is anything but safe, and some bulls are particularly good at injuring the cowboys attempting to ride them. There are many legendary bulls in this sport, but none as famous and as feared as Bodacious, a mighty beast that was retired by its owner while in his prime for fear that he might end up killing a rider.

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Panta Petrović has been living in a cave in the canyon of Serbia’s Gradašnička river for over 16 years, away from modern civilization and in the company of both domestic and wild animals, including a 200-kilogram boar named Mara.

Serbia’s most famous cave dweller recently made international headlines after Agence France Press reported that even he had gotten a Covid-19 vaccine, even though he hardly interacts with other people. But in his home country, Panta has been making headlines for at least the last five years. Everyone in the area around Petrovac city, in south-eastern Serbia knows who he is, because of his unique lifestyle. He has been living as a hermit for the last 15 years, spending half the year in a wooden treehouse in the middle of nowhere, and the other half in a 25-meter-long cave hidden in the canyon of Gradašnička river. All because he wanted to go back to the basics and get away from modern civilization.

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Chickens have been around for about 10,000 years, and they come in all shapes and sizes, but if you want to know what the world’s biggest chicken breed is then you’re in luck, because today we’re featuring the Jersey Giant.

As the name suggests, the Jersey Giant was developed in the state of New Jersey, and it is the largest and heaviest of all chicken breeds. It was created in the late 19th century by John and Thomas Black, with the specific purpose of replacing the turkey as the most popular poultry meat at the time. The two brothers produced the impressive breed by crossing Black Javas, Black Langshans, and Dark Brahmas, three other breeds of large chickens and for a while met the goal of creating an alternative to turkey meat.

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Every summer, around 400 hunters scour a small, remote island in Iceland’s Breizafjörzur Bay in search of an unusual treasure – the world’s most expensive feathers

The hunt for the world’s most precious feathers has been held almost every year for over a millennia. People have known that Eiderdown, the feathers of the Eider polar duck, is one of the warmest natural fibers on the planet for a really long time, and nowadays they use it to make the best duvets and quilts money can buy. A kilogram of Eiderdown sells for thousands of dollars, as the feathers are only used to make luxury products. Eider ducks shed the precious down from their breast and uses to line their nests to insulate them during hatching. It’s these nests that the hunters are after during their annual Eiderdown hunt.

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A talented makeup artist has been getting a lot of attention online thanks to her short TikTok clips where she apparently uses her skills to turn into stars like Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish.

We’ve seen makeup artists use tricks of the trade to transform into doppelgangers of celebrities and iconic characters before, but not in the way the artist posting under the @gilianisme TikTok handle does it. The end result, in most of the clips I’ve seen, is suspiciously realistic, which make me wonder if she is using some sort of digital manipulation to achieve this impressive result. No way to no for sure, really, but if she can pull this sort of transformations only with makeup, she is more of a sorceress than a makeup artist.

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The South American country of Uruguay is home to a unique eucalyptus plantation with a very distinct shape that can only by admired from high above.

Up until a few years ago, few people even knew that the Florida Goblet existed. It wasn’t until Google Earth became a thing that people discovered its unusual shape. To some, it looks like a goblet with a crown on top of it, while others see a chandelier, but the thing that everyone can agree on it its massive size. The plantation measures about 500 meters long by 235 wide and the lines that make up the top and bottom of the design are around 13-meters-wide. It’s so large that from the ground, you could never tell it has this peculiar shape.

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Xavier Bouget, an 80-year-old pensioner from France’s Brittany region, and Blanchon, a majestic white pigeon, have been best friends for two years, ever since the Frenchman rescued the bird from becoming a cat’s lunch.

Xavier first met his unlikely companion two years ago, while walking to his house in the town of Gommenec’h. He noticed this small, almost featherless pigeon chick fall out of its nest, in a desperate attempt to escape a hungry cat. He didn’t think to help it at first, but when he got home and mentioned it to his wife, Marie-Françoise, she asked him why he didn’t pick it up. So he went back to get the small pigeon chick, which had miraculously managed to escape the purring predator until his return. Xavier came home with the frail bird in his bird, not knowing that it would soon become his best and closest friend.

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Most 90-year-olds can barely walk, let alone exercise, but 90-year-old Takishima Mika not only conducts daily fitness regimens religiously, but she actually works as a fitness instructor at a gym.

For most of us, “age is just a number” is just a tired cliché, but people like Takishima Mika, aka “Takimika”, are proof that it doesn’t have to be. The sprightly pensioner, who turned 90 on on January 15, is more active than most 20-year-olds and probably fitter too. She is Japan’s oldest fitness instructor and has become somewhat of a minor celebrity in the Asian country, both because of her excellent physical shape, and her positive attitude and infectious smile. But Takimika wasn’t always like that. In fact, her transformation began late in life, when she was already in her 60s.

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If you feel like you’ve run out of body parts to accessorize, you may want to check out “Mundstück” a line of chin jewelry designed by German company MYL Berlin.

As you can see in the photos, Mundstück (Mouthpiece) is a piece of metal designed to be worn on the chin. Only it doesn’t require any piercing, instead it attaches to the inside of the wearer’s lower lip via two blunt hooks. It’s apparently quite comfortable to wear, doesn’t impede the wearer’s speech at all, and can even be worn when eating. And best of all, it helps you stand out, which is why anyone would wear something like this in the first place, isn’t it?

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Anand Dhawaj Negi, a retired bureaucrat turned desert farmer, spent over two decades of his life turning the cold wastes of northern India’s Himachal Pradesh into a vibrant oasis.

In 1977, the Indian Government kickstarted an ambitious program to mitigate the adverse effects of desertification in the Asian country’s cold and hot deserts. A. D. Negi  worked in the financial department in charge of the Desert Development Program and saw millions of dollars go down the drain with no real results to show for it. Whenever he asked scientists and officials involved in the program why there was no real progress, the answer would always be that they lacked the technology to develop any type of sustainable crops in the inhospitable environment that is the desert. A farmer’s son himself, Negi grew tired of excuses and took a leave of absence in 1999 to take a crack at it himself. By 2003, he had already permanently retired from his job to concentrate all of his energy on his growing desert oasis.

A native of Sunam village in Kinnaur, Negi took it upon himself to turn a barren patch of land in the cold desert of Himachal Pradesh into a green oasis just to show everyone, particularly the struggling farmers in the area that it could be done. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do in the world, but the former bureaucrat knew what he was getting into and had the ambition and patience to see it through.

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