Russian Mayor Loses Reelection Race to His Personal Driver’s Wife

The mayor of Berezovsky shockingly lost the recent local elections to a “puppet candidate” who happens to be his subordinate and the wife of his personal driver.

Russian media has been reporting on the surprising outcome of the mayoral race in Berezovsky, a satellite city of Yekaterinburg, in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region. The reelection of Yevgeny Pistsov, who was trying to secure a fourth consecutive term as mayor, seemed little more than a formality, as he was running against a fellow member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia political party who also happened to be a subordinate of his and the wife of his personal driver. No one expected Yulia Maslakova to win, she even told reporters that she ran as a “sparring partner” for Pistov, but the impossible happened and now she is doing everything in her power to avoid being sworn in as mayor.

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Man Arrested for Testing Friend’s Bullet-Dodging Abilities with Fatal Consequences

A Utah man was arrested and accused of manslaughter after allegedly shooting his friend in the chest because the latter claimed he could dodge bullets.

23-year-old Ashton Jonathan Mann was arrested yesterday on one count of second-degree felony manslaughter and one third-degree felony charge related to firearms for a bizarre incident involving guns and marijuana use. In the early hours of Sunday, February 2nd, first responders were called to a home in Kearns, Utah, where they found an unresponsive young man with a gunshot wound to the chest lying on the floor. The victim was quickly taken to a nearby hospital, but doctors there couldn’t save his life. Mann later told police that he had shot his friend after he bragged that he could dodge a bullet.

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Woman Tricks Husband into Selling His Kidney, Steals Money And Elopes with Lover

An Indian woman stands accused of tricking her husband into selling his kidney on the black market to fund their daughter’s education only to then steal the money and run away with her lover.

A woman from West Bengal allegedly spent months trying to convince her husband to sell one of his kidneys in order to fund their daughter’s higher education and arrange her marriage in the future. Although reluctant at first, the man eventually grew to believe that his sacrifice would improve the family’s financial situation and secure his child’s future. He spent a year looking for a buyer on the black market, as selling human organs has been illegal in India for over three decades, but he finally found one about three months ago. After going through the painful procedure, he entrusted the money for his kidney (1 million rupees or $11,500)to his wife, only to have her steal the money and elope with another man.

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Influencer Films Herself Vandalizing Public Property, Cries After Getting 5 Years in Prison

Colombian influencer Daneidy Barrera Rojas, known as Epa Colombia, was sentenced to five years behind bars after filming herself vandalizing public property during a protest.

In November 2019, Colombia was rocked by violent protests against the government of former president Iván Duque. It was during this time that popular influencer Daneidy Barrera Rojas posted a video of herself vandalizing a public transportation station in Bogota, smashing windows, card readers, and access registers with a hammer, and painting the walls with spray paint. The video quickly went viral, getting her tons of attention online, but it also became the topic of an investigation that culminated in an initial prison sentence of three and a half years for property damage and disruption of public transportation. Epa Colombia later apologized for her actions, but that didn’t help much, as the Prosecutor’s Office appealed the sentence and secured a 5-year prison sentence and a fine equivalent to 493 monthly minimum wages.

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Man Has $227,000 “Unstealable” Car Stolen Less Than 60 Hours After Buying It

An Englishman who had his luxury SUV stolen from his driveway less than 60 hours after driving it home claims the dealership assured him that the vehicle was “unstealable”.

John, a 45-year-old man from Warwickshire, UK, bought a £183,000 ($227,000) Range Rover 2024 SV Edition One from a dealership in Coventry on December 14, last year. The limited edition SUV (only 550 units were released in the United Kingdom) featured £10,000 graphite wheels, a luxurious high-tech interior, and all sorts of interesting features, like seats that vibrate to the sound of music playing inside the car. John knew that it would attract unwanted attention in a country where the number of luxury vehicle thefts have been increasing in recent years, but he claims the dealership told him that the car featured a new Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) security upgrade that made it unstealable. Less than 60 hours later, John’s car was stolen from his driveway.

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Car Abandoned at Airport for a Year Racks Up Over $200,000 in Parking Fees

A VW Golf abandoned in the short-term parking area of a Berlin airport for a whole year has made international news headlines after racking up a whopping 201,480 euros ($209,124) in parking fees.

Airport parking fees are notoriously high, and Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport is no exception. The first ten minutes in the facility’s short-term parking area is free, after which it costs $11 for 30 minutes, $23 per hour, and $552 per day to park your car there, a significant chunk of change for any motorist. Now imagine parking a car there for a whole year. Unless you’re talking about an ultra-expensive luxury vehicle, you’d probably be better off just leaving the vehicle there than paying the ludicrous parking fees. Which is probably what the owner of a gray Volkswagen Golf told himself after leaving the car parked there since January of last year.

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Engineer Turns Old Yamaha Motorcycle into the World’s Fastest Penny-Farthing

An English engineer spent almost 750 hours turning an old Yamaha R6 motorcycle and several hundred pounds of spare steel into the world’s fastest penny-farthing bike.

Popular during the 1870s and 1880s, the penny-farthing bicycle is considered a symbol of the late Victorian period and the ancestor of the modern bicycle. Its odd name was inspired by the size difference between its front and rear wheels, with the British penny coin being considerably larger than the farthing. The iconic bicycle was only in style for about a decade, until the invention of the modern bike, which proved much safer, more comfortable, and easier to ride, but there’s just something about the odd look of the penny-farthing that still fascinates people. Case in point, this young engineer from Swindon, England, who spent hundreds of hours converting a 20-year-old motorcycle into the world’s fastest penny-farthing.

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Humans to Compete Against Humanoid Robots at Upcoming Half-Marathon

China’s capital city of Beijing is all set to host an interesting half-marathon that will set thousands of human runners against dozens of bipedal robots developed by some of the world’s leading robotics companies.

This coming April, the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town) will be hosting an interesting running event for both humans and human-like robots. 12,000 people are expected to take part in the event alongside dozens of bipedal robots developed by major robotics companies, including Tesla, Boston Dynamics and 1X, making this one of the strangest half-marathons in history. Participating robots will need to have a human-inspired appearance, be between 0.5 and 2 meters tall (so no giant mechs allowed), and have the ability to run or at least walk on two legs. The winners, be they human or robot, will receive prize money depending on their performance.

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Man Launches ‘Villain for Hire’ Service That Lets Clients Pose as Heroes

A Malaysian man has sparked controversy on social media by announcing an ingenious service where he rents himself out as a “villain” that harrases clients’ partners, allowing the latter to pose as heroes by confronting him.

Earlier this month, 28-year-old Shazali Sulaiman took Malaysian social media by storm by announcing a “villain for hire” service that would allow clients to show off their masculinity and make a big impression on their partners or romantic crushes. After being told that his unkept long hair and biker clothing make him look like a gang member, Sulaiman was inspired to start a service that relied on his physical appearance to make a profit. For a fee, clients can set up a time and place where he would show up to pick on their partner, thus giving them a chance to intervene and pose as a hero or a knight in shining armor.

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Chinese Influencer Sparks Adam’s Apple Cover Craze

A female Chinese influencer has been urging men to wear Adam’s Apple covers to highlight gender inequality and promote women’s rights.

Zhu Miaolin, better known as Ah Miao on Chinese social media, recently sparked a bizarre craze in her home country, urging her male friends to wear Adam’s Apple covers to protect what she describes a “sensitive area” of the male body, in the same way that women wear bras to conceal their breasts. Proposed as a unique way to empower women and shine a light on gender inequality in China, Ah Miao’s initiative went viral and spurred the production and sale of Adam’s Apple covers.

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Homeowner Who Refused to Relocate Now Lives in the Middle of a Motorway

A Chinese man who refused the Government’s generous offer to buy his property for the construction of a new motorway now finds himself living in the middle of said motorway.

A few years ago when Chinese authorities knocked on his door in Jinxi, a town southwest of Shanghai, offering to buy his two-storey house for a fair bit of money and three other properties, Huang Ping decided to play hard-to-get in hopes of getting an even better deal. Unfortunately, his bet didn’t pay off, as the Government simply decided to build around his property instead of giving in to his absurd demands. In the end, all the other property owners in the area sold their land to the Government, leaving Huang isolated in the middle of a soon-to-be-inaugurated highway.

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Meet China’s Most Popular ‘Robot Girl’

A young Chinese woman has been getting a lot of attention for her ability to act as an android using a special costume, robotic movements and an expressionless face.

At a time when companies are investing billions into robotics and artificial intelligence to make robots appear more human, one young woman is trying her best to impersonate a robot. Known as “robot girl” on Chinese social media, the young woman first attracted attention last August, during the 2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where along with another female model she posed next to a hyper-realistic humanoid robot, confusing the hell out of the audience, most of whom didn’t know which one of the exhibits was human and which was a robot. She has since gained a lot of notoriety in China and is now a popular content creator and the country’s leading “robot girl”.

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Boy Scolded for Not Doing Homework Reports His Father for Drug Use

A 10-year-old boy reprimanded by his father for not completing his homework took revenge on his parent by calling the police and telling them that his father was hiding forbidden drugs.

The bizarre incident took place earlier this month in China’s Yongning County. After being severely scolded by his father for not completing his homework on time, a 10-year-old boy stormed out of the house and went straight to a nearby store and asked if he could use the phone. The fifth grader dialed 110, China’s emergency number, and asked to speak to the police, claiming that he had proof his father was concealing poppy shells, considered an illegal drug, at home. Then he waited calmly for the police to arrive and let them home so they could conduct a search and confirm his story.

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Man Has 3-Inch Chopstick Stuck Behind Eyeball, Doesn’t Notice for Three Weeks

A Vietnamese hospital recently reported the extremely rare case of a 24-year-old man who had a wooden chopstick lodged in his eye socket for three weeks without noticing.

The unnamed man was admitted to the Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Vietnam’s Can Tho Province when he came in with symptoms of pain and swelling in his left eye. The 24-year-old patient told doctors that he had been experiencing the symptoms for about three weeks but they had gotten worse in recent days. He had previously sought medical help at another facility in his hometown, but after assessing his vision and checking for foreign objects, they prescribed medicine that proved ineffective. This led the man to the Can Tho University Hospital, where doctors once again confirmed that he had 10/10 vision, with no signs of eyeball injury. However, the left eye did appear swollen and there was a small pus discharge from the corner of his left eye. A subsequent CT scan showed that he had a 9-cm-long foreign body lodged in his eye socket.

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New Humanoid Robot Stuns Internet with Its Smooth Walking Ability

Chinese robotics startup Engine AI recently launched a new humanoid robot that stunned everyone with its natural human-like gait which many attributed to CGI.

Major robotic companies around the world have been trying to replicate the smooth human gait in their humanoid robots for decades, with relatively modest results, but last October, Chinese company Engine AI unveiled the SE01, its most advanced humanoid robot yet. Featuring an advanced end-to-end neural network system, the SE01 robot learns to walk like a human in a simulation, getting feedback for how well it does and constantly improving over time. It is powered by dual processors from Nvidia and Intel and features three stereo cameras that help it navigate and interact with complex environments.

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