Known as the Garbage Mountain of Delhi, Ghazipur Landfill covers an area of about 70 acres (over 50 football) and is almost as tall as the iconic Taj Mahal. Established in 1984, on the outskirts of Ghazipur, in the eastern district of Delhi, Ghazipur Landfill reached its maximum capacity in 2002, but it has since grown into a small mountain up to 72 meters high. It is already one of the world’s largest landfills, but it continues to receive hundreds of tons of garbage from Delhi every day and is expected to grow even more. Consisting of more than 14 million metric tonnes of waste, Ghazipur Landfill has long been a plague on the millions of people who call Delhi home. The stench it emanates is almost unbearable, especially in the summer, fires routinely break out engulfing the surrounding area in a thick, toxic smoke, and its winding slopes sometimes collapse burying people and vehicles under millions of tons of garbage. Read More »

Tourists Looking to climb China’s sacred Mount Tai, in Shandong Province, can now do so with the help of a lightweight AI-powered exoskeleton that makes hiking a breeze. Clips of elderly tourists climbing up Mount Tai, one of the five sacred mountains in China, while wearing bizarre gear around their hips have been going viral on Chinese social media, sparking all kinds of strange theories. In reality, the tourists are wearing light exoskeletons offered by the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group on a trial basis. Weighing only 1.8 kg (4lbs), these advanced exoskeletons are reportedly fitted with a series of sensors that allow them to detect and analyze every movement of the wearer’s lower limbs and provide just the right amount of assistance in a timely manner, effectively reducing the burden on the legs. Read More »

The ThinKing by Russian watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin is only 1.65 mm thick, making it the world’s thinnest mechanical wristwatch. The “arms race” for the world’s thinnest wristwatch has been in full swing for a few years now, with some of the most prestigious watch brands on Earth trying to one-up each other with ingenious designs. The latest to claim the coveted title is independent watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin with its ThinKing prototype, a 1.65-thick masterpiece that is so incredibly thin it needs a special wristband. The ThinKing’s case is so delicate that the simple pressure from being worn is enough to damage it, so the special strap made of alligator leather and elastic inserts with titanium has to absorb some of the shocks, twisting and bending. Read More »

A Harvard medical student recently completed an intriguing “eggxperiment” by eating a total of 720 chicken eggs over 28 days to test their effect on his bad cholesterol. Eggs have long had a bad reputation for raising LDL (low-density lipoprotein) or ‘bad’ cholesterol, and even though that perception of the protein-rich food has changed in recent years, many health experts still warn that eggs should be consumed in moderation. However, the results of a recent experiment are bound to once again spark a heated debate around the effects of consuming eggs on a daily basis. Nick Horowitz, a Harvard medical student with a PhD in metabolic health, set out on an extreme experiment to find out what the effects of eating an egg every hour for 28 straight days would have on his health. Not only did he survive the challenge, but the results of his tests during the unusual diet were surprising, to say the least. Read More »

A Chinese woman went viral on social media last week after uploading a short clip of herself with her young granddaughter, leaving people gushing over her youthful appearance. The Tianjin-based beauty caused such a stir on Chinese social media that multiple outlets sought her out for an interview about her incredibly youthful looks. The unnamed woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that she was shocked by the attention her short video got on Weibo and other social networks, claiming that she just wanted to show off her beloved granddaughter. She never imagined that her appearance would cause such a stir online. The woman said that she was in her 40s, and that she had her daughter at a very young age, which allowed her to become a grandma at an age when many women today are only starting to consider having a baby. Read More »

An Indian woman recently filed for divorce from her husband of only 40 days, claiming that he only bathed once or twice per month. The unnamed woman from Agra, in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, approached the local family counseling center to complain about her husband’s poor personal hygiene, claiming that he rarely ever bathed, wore dirty clothes, and suffered from bad breath. She could barely stand close to the man, let alone be intimate with him. As a result, after only 40 days of marriage, the woman asked for a divorce. When questioned by the counseling center, the husband, Rajash, admitted to bathing only once or twice a month and cleansing by sprinkling his body with Gangajal (holy water from the river Ganges) once a week. Read More »

A Japanese supermarket that implemented an extra-slow checkout where customers are never rushed recently reported a ten percent increase in sales. Most supermarkets these days are constantly looking for ways to speed up the checkout process, and for good reason – with time being such a valuable commodity, many customers feel pressured by their peers to pack their groceries and pay as quickly as possible, so as not to hold up the line too long. Unfortunately, some people just can’t be that fast, either because of their age, various disabilities, or even being pregnant. Some of these individuals are often left feeling guilty about moving too slowly, so much so that they avoid going to the supermarket altogether. However, one supermarket in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture seems to have solved the problem with an extra-slow checkout register where people can spend upwards of 20 minutes without feeling pressured in any way. Read More »

Researchers studying various species of animals on Australia’s Kangaroo Island stumbled upon a colony of Polyrhachis femorata ants that they believed was dead until one of its members moved slightly. Feigning death, also known as thanatosis or tonic immobility is a well-documented defense mechanism observed in dozens of animal species, from insects and lizards to birds and mammals. Some of these natural actors are better than others at playing dead, but what they all have in common is implying this particular defense strategy on an individual basis. However, in what many consider a world-first, a team of researchers encountered an entire colony of dozens of ants that all played dead at the same time when threatened. And they all played their part so well, contorting their bodies in unnatural positions and remaining completely still, that the team was convinced they were all dead. Read More »

A Japanese man who enjoys living as a dog recently unveiled a brand new hyperrealistic dog costume that not only looks cute, but also allows him to wag his furry tail. A couple of years ago, a Japanese man writing under the username ‘Taco’ on Twitter announced his unusual dream to the world – to live as a canine, experiencing the simple pleasures that man’s best friend enjoys on a daily basis – walking on all fours in the park, playing with plastic balls and frisbees, and rolling around on the floor. The man didn’t disclose his real identity, as he was embarrassed that his friends and family might find his passion a little weird, but he didn’t shy away from showcasing his life as a dog both on YouTube and Twitter. He recently got a new dog suit and one can easily pot the improvements over the old one – more realistic aesthetics and even a functional moving tail.

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One of the most controversial forms of entertainment in US history, dance marathons saw participants dancing continuously for days, weeks, and sometimes months for a chance to win food and money. Too much of a good thing can be bad for you, and apparently, that also includes a seemingly benign activity like dancing. During the 1920s, the revival of the Olympic Games sparked a massive interest in impressive feats of strength and endurance, which led to the rise in popularity of dance contests that lasted for extended periods of time. In 1923 the dance marathon craze saw world records for dancing without stopping being broken virtually on a daily basis, but things really got out of hand when the prosperous 1920s faded into the Great Depression of the 1930s. The harmless dance contest transformed into twisted spectacles where people literally died of exhaustion on the dancefloor for the chance to win much-needed cash prizes. Read More »

The simple mistake of a law firm clerk accidentally choosing the wrong file from a dropdown menu on an online portal led to the irrevocable divorce of the wrong couple. A senior judge recently refused to overturn the divorce of a couple who had accidentally been chosen from a dropdown menu by solicitors at leading London law firm Vardags, headed by Ayesha Vardag. The couple, referred to as Mr and Mrs Williams by the court, had been married for 21 years until 2023 when they separated. The couple was still in the process of arranging financial agreements for their separation when a Vardags clerk accidentally selected them for a final divorce order on an online portal, which saw them legally divorced in just 21 minutes. All attempts to have the error overturned by the judge were denied because the public trust in a truly final divorce order was more important. Read More »

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, a small rock in northern Africa conquered by Spain in 1564, holds the title for the world’s smallest national border, measuring just 85 meters in length. Spain has almost 2000 kilometers of land borders with Portugal and France, but it also has much smaller borders with countries like Andorra, the United Kingdom (Gibraltar), and Morocco. It is with the latter, the African nation of Morocco, that Spain shares the smallest land border in the world, an 85-meter-long stretch of land linking a rock about 19,000 square meters in size to the Moroccan coast. Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera has been Spanish territory since 1564 when it was conquered by Admiral Pedro de Estopiñán, and although Morocco has repeatedly laid claim to it, Spain has never agreed to return the land and actually has troops stationed there to enforce Spanish rule. Read More »

23-year-old Ganesh Baraiya is living proof that nothing is impossible. Despite facing discrimination because of his short stature, he managed to become the world’s shortest doctor. Ganesh Baraiya was born in the Talaja Thaluka area of Gujarat, India, and faced adversity from a very young age. He was born normal, but at the age of four, his parents noticed that his head was outgrowing his body, so they took him to a doctor. They learned that the boy suffered from an incurable condition and there was nothing anyone could do. Wanting to help her son, Ganesh’s mother put a tub-like helmet on his head to prevent it from growing and give his body a chance to catch up. In school, he was often ridiculed because of his large head and short stature, but he also had friends who stuck by him and he was able to focus on his studies. Read More »

A woman who had filed an insurance claim of $820,000 claiming that she had suffered debilitating injuries in a car accident has had her claim dismissed after it was proven that she won a Christmas tree-throwing contest a year after the accident. On February 3, 2017, Kamila Grabska was involved in a car accident on her way to work in the Irish town of Ennis. The car she was a passenger in was rear-ended, which allegedly left her with debilitating physical trauma. The 36-year-old mother of two recently told insurance company RSA Insurance for damages, claiming that the chronic pain in her back, neck, and thoracic spine made her unable to work, which resulted in a loss of income of more than €500,000 ($542,000). She told a High Court in Limerick that her pain kept her in bed on bad days and prevented her from carrying relatively light loads, like bags of groceries. However, they didn’t stop her from participating in, and actually winning Christmas tree throwing contests. Read More »

Stretching for 65 miles (105 km) between the towns of Of and Bayburt in Eastern Turkey, the D915 is an extreme road regarded by many motorists as the most diffcult in the world. For many years, Bolivia’s Yungas Road, aka the “Death Road”, held the unofficial title of world’s most dangerous road. Photos and videos of motorists navigating the gravel track winding its way through the Cordillera Oriental mountain range to an altitude of 4650 meters have made Yungas one of Bolivia’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing around 25,000 people every year. However, according to some adventurers, there is one less popular road that surpasses the Death Road in terms of difficulty. Linking Turkey’s Northeast Anatolia Province to the Black Sea, the D915 mountain road features a myriad turns and dangerous drop-offs that make it extremely perilous to traverse even for the most skilled drivers. Read More »