A Japanese boy allegedly spent three weeks piecing back together a 10,000 yen bill like a jigsaw puzzle after it had been accidentally put through a paper shredder.

Japanese Twitter user ‘Tomo’ recently completed one of the hardest puzzles he’s ever done – putting back together a 10,000 yen ($65) bill that had been shredded into thousands of pieces. Apparently, his father accidentally shredded an old envelope at work after forgetting that he had put a 10,000 yen bill in it months ago. Realizing his mistake, the man decided to use his mistake as a challenging project for his son. He took home the entire shredder waste basket and told his son that if he could piece together the shredded bill and exchange it for a new one at the back, he could keep it. It was a daunting project for even the most avid jigsaw puzzle enthusiast, but one the boy gladly accepted.

Read More »

K. Padmarajan has been dubbed the “Election King” and the “World’s Biggest Election Loser” after participating in 238 political elections and losing every single time.

K. Padmarajan’s story is one of perseverance. The 65-year-old repairman from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has participated in hundreds of elections over the past three decades and spent thousands of dollars on registration fees. The closest he has ever come to winning an election was in 2011 when he ran for the general assembly in the town of Mettur and got 6,273 votes. He was way behind the winner – he got over 75,000 votes – but it gave him hope that he could one day win. That day is yet to come, but Padmarajan recently pointed out that winning is the secondary goal. Resilience and accepting defeat are key and no one is better at it than him.

Read More »

Haementeria ghilianii or the Amazonian Giant Leech is the world’s largest leech by quite a significant margin, growing up to 18 inches (46 cm) long.

Leeches are found in wet and humid areas all over the globe, and while most are smaller than the average person’s index finger, a few can grow a lot longer than that. But one particular species of leech can get so big that it is considered the stuff of nightmares. Haementeria ghilianii, also known as the Amazonian Giant Leech, is an elusive leech that can only be found in French Guyana and certain nearby areas in Brazil, so you’re unlikely to run into one unless you live there, but photos of this slimy critter should be enough to send shivers down your spine. While most specimens measure between 30 and 35 centimeters, exceptional specimens can grow up to 46 cm long.

Read More »

Casa du Currivu, aka ‘House of Spite’, is a bizarre-looking house in the Sicilian village of Petralia Sottana that holds the unofficial title of ‘world’s narrowest house’.

Petralia Sottana, a small village of about 2,000 people in the heart of the Madonie mountains in the province of Palermo, is home to one of Italy’s most unusual tourist attractions – a two-storey house with a normal ground floor and an upper level that is only around 3-feet, or one meter thick. It is known as Casa du Currivu, or the House of Spite, mainly due to the local legend surrounding its purpose. Seeing as it isn’t wide enough for two people to pass by each other, let alone live inside it full time, the thin edifice was allegedly only designed to block a neighbor’s window view following an argument.

Read More »

Tiffany and Grégory, a couple from Belgium’s Wallonia region, have been sharing their home with Oscar, a rescued wild boar, for more than a year now.

It all started about a year ago, during a hunting trip, when Grégory Guiot brought home a 700-gram boar cub that his dogs had found. It was December 6th, Saint Nicholas Day, and Gregory didn’t have the heart to just leave the helpless animal in the wild, where it would have likely perished on its own Instead, he took hit home to his partner, Tiffany Pierre. Neither of them even entertained the idea of keeping the boar at first, instead focusing on caring for it until they found another arrangement. However, Tiffany and Grégory found themselves becoming more and more attached to the little bundle of joy with each passing day, so when they finally decided to take little Oscar to an educational farm where he would be well taken care of, they both had tears in their eyes…

Read More »

Serge Feeleenger is a self-taught Belarussian artist who gained notoriety in the art world for allegedly inventing the ‘ten brushes’ painting technique, where he attaches a brush to each of his fingers and uses them simultaneously.

Guiding a single paintbrush on a canvas to produce a somewhat decent work of art is virtually impossible for most people, but can you imagine painting with ten brushes at the same time? Sounds pretty messy, but there is one man who has been perfecting this unique technique for over a decade. Serge Feeleenger apparently got the idea for painting with multiple paintbrushes at the same time after becoming annoyed with having to regularly change brushes during the artistic process. First, he found a way to attach three brushes to the fingers on his right hand, and after getting used to them, he added two more brushes to his left hand. Before long, he had a brush attached to every finger on both his hands.

Read More »

A Chinese company has replaced its year-end employee bonus program with another scheme designed to promote exercise – enticing financial rewards for employees who exercise on a daily basis.

Guangdong Dongpo Paper, a paper company in Guangdong Province, China, recently made international headlines for replacing its traditional performance-based employee bonus scheme with one based on athletic performance. To promote a healthy lifestyle among its 100 employees, management decided to reward them based on how much they exercise. For example, an employee will be eligible for a full monthly bonus if they run 50 km a month. They will get 60 percent of the bonus for running 40km, and 30 percent for 30km. Running enthusiasts stand to get a 30% bonus if they can prove they ran over 100 km in a single month.

Read More »

Baorisa hieroglyphica, also known as the Picasso moth, is a species of moth named after the famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso because of its unusually artistic wing patterns.

First described by British entomologist Frederic Moore in 1882, the Picasso moth is native to Southeast Asia and Northern India. Like most moths, Baorisa hieroglyphica is a nocturnal insect that feeds mostly on the nectar of various plants. Arguably the most beautiful of the Noctuid moths (Noctuidae family), this stunning-looking insect has been dubbed the most interesting moth in the world. The species’ scientific name ‘hieroglyphica’ refers to the striking geometric lines and shapes on its fore wings, while its common name was inspired by the blotches, strips, and dots of color that hint at the work of a talented painter.

Read More »

Every year, Germany hosts the Stapler Cup, a competitive event that sees hundreds of forklift drivers from around the world going head to head in a series of difficult challenges for the title of world’s best forklift operator.

Competitive forklift driving probably doesn’t sound like the most exciting competitive event in the world, but that’s probably because you’ve never heard of the Stapler Cup. This yearly event organized by Linde Materials and Handling (Linde MH) is not only regarded as the ultimate test for certified forklift operators but also as an entertaining event that draws tens of thousands of spectators. Thousands of forklift drivers attempt to qualify for the Stapler Cup in national events, so only the very best get to showcase their skills on the big stage in a series of tests aimed at pushing their talent, coordination, and reflexes to the limit.

Read More »

China’s hospitality sector routinely holds bed-making competitions that both showcase the skill and dedication of hotel employees and motivate others to achieve the same level.

In order to provide guests with the best hospitality services, Chinese luxury hotels require their staff to undergo intensive bed-making training, and the very best of them get to participate in bed-making competitions hosted by the hotel chain, or held at a regional or national level. And these contests are no joke! Participants need to be masters of their trade to stand a chance of convincing the jury that they deserve to win. Apart from speed – the first contestant to finish gets bonus points – competitors have to abide by certain rules and make sure that they pay great attention to detail.

Read More »

Western Poland’s Notecka Forest is home to one of the country’s most controversial buildings, a medieval-style complex known as Stobnica Castle.

The construction of Stobnica Castle began in 2015, but it didn’t start attracting nationwide attention until 2018, when people started wondering what this gargantuan structure rising up at the edge of a well-known nature reserve, on what looked like a man-made island on Lake Stobnica, was. Aerial photos of a 15-storey medieval-like castle rising up in the middle of a pristine natural paradise about 50 km from the city of Poznan started going viral online and piqued people’s curiosity. What was this building, who was the owner and how had they obtained a building permit for it, considering its location at the edge of a Special Protection Area for Birds (20 species) within the Natura 2000 network?

Read More »

Scientists at South Korea’s Chung-Ang University have created an ultra-light exosuit that can help runners cover short distances faster.

They may not be mainstream yet, but exoskeletons have been a part of our world for a while now. We’ve seen some that make carrying heavy loads a breeze, and others that help physically disabled people move around with ease. But wearable technology that helps people run faster has been pretty rare, especially in the super-light form recently presented by scientists at Chung-Ang University’s School of Mechanical Engineering in South Korea. They created a contraption that only weighs around 2.5 kg (5.5lbs) but can help the average person run a 200-meter sprint almost a second faster than without the suit.

Read More »

Wisconsin’s Lake Chippewa is home to a giant floating island that sometimes moves around blocking a critically important bridge and needs to be moved by local boat owners working in unison.

Lake Chippewa, aka the Chippewa Flowage, was created in 1923, by flooding a large swamp. Soon after that, many of the peat bogs started rising to the surface and became perfect growing spots for plant seeds carried by wind and wild birds. As the years passed, plants from grasses to trees began to grow and their roots actually caused these floating bogs to grow. Today, they vary from the size of a parking space to several acres, with the largest of them, the so-called “Forty Acre Bog” on the west side of the lake featuring mature trees. Almost every year, dozens of local boat owners team up to push it away from a bridge connecting the East and West sides of the lake.

Read More »

A New Zealand woman who had a small chicken bone lodged in her throat claims that she was prescribed an interesting remedy by an emergency room doctor – lots of Coke.

Beth Brash recently sat down with New Zealand magazine Stuff to tell the unusual story of how she managed to get rid of the chicken bone stuck in her neck. It all started when she visited her favorite Wellington restaurant and tried their new chicken dish. To be fair, the staff there asked if she was ‘alright with bones,’ and having visited multiple countries where serving meat on the bone was considered normal, she wasn’t put off by it. Unfortunately, while eating the spicy dish, the young woman started experiencing a kind of tickling in her throat, which turned out to be a small piece of chicken bone.

Read More »

The Speed Project is a relay-style ultramarathon unlike any other. It is an unofficial race for which runners have to receive an invitation, and it has but one rule – no running on freeways.

You’ve probably never heard of it, but within the ultramarathon community, participating in The Speed Project is somewhat of a Holy Grail. Running across the Death Valley, from the Santa Monica pier all the way to the Las Vegas welcome sign in a 340-mile ultramarathon with no rules and no set course has proven unusually appealing to runners looking for something new and exciting. It has been called the running world’s equivalent of “Fight Club”, because of the secrecy and mystery surrounding it, but it was precisely these characteristics that have massively boosted its popularity in recent years. However, despite big brands’ desire to be associated with The Speed Project, it remains exclusive to participants selected by the ultramarathon’s founders.

Read More »