Staff at a popular zoo in Guanxi, China, have been accused of animal cruelty and trying to swindle visitors, after it was revealed that they had glued a basket to the carapace of a large tortoise so superstitious people could throw coins in it.

Throwing coins at specific objects, from temple bells and statues to airplane engines before a flight, is believed to bring good luck, but this superstition sometimes crosses certain boundaries. Case in point, this African spurred tortoise at Nanning Zoo, in the provincial capital of Guangxi, that had a straw basket glued to its carapace for people to throw coins into. Photos of the animal crawling around in its enclosure with the basket sticking up went viral on Chinese social media and attracted criticism both from animal lovers and those who saw the gimmick as a way to swindle zoo visitors.

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Japanese Police arrested a man suspected of assaulting a young pop star he was obsessed with, after allegedly figuring out where she lives by analyzing her social media photos, specifically the reflections in her pupils.

Hibiki Sato, a 26-year-old unemployed man from Saitama, a city north of Tokyo, has been arrested for allegedly attacking Ena Matsuoka, a 21-year-old pop singer with the group Tenshi Tsukinukeni Yomi. It is believed Sato was able to narrow down the area of Tokyo Ms. Matsuoka lived in by going through her social media profiles, enlarging her photos and analyzing the reflections in her pupils. He was thus able to recognize some Tokyo scenery and a bus stop, which he then located using Google Street view. Some sources claim that the alleged stalker had even approximated the storey Matsuoka lived on based on the windows and the angle that sunlight hit her eyes.

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A limited edition Nike Air Max 97 sneaker with its transparent sole filled with “holy water” from the Jordan River sold out within minutes of its official release, despite a prohibitive price tag of $3,000 per pair.

Officially named “MSCHF x INRI Jesus Shoes”, the white sneakers had their soles injected with 60 ccs of water from the Jordan River and were allegedly blessed by a priest. It’s been reported that although the limited edition footwear was designed from the all-white Nike Air Max 97s, Nike itself is not affiliated with this project. MSCHF are said to have bought the Nike sneakers at retail value and then applied their original design ideas to create a metaphor of “walking on water”.

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A 61-year-old man from Tokyo’s Ota Ward was recently arrested by Japanese police for allegedly stealing no less than 159 bicycle seats, as a bizarre way of taking revenge for having his own seat stolen last year.

Earlier this month, Akio Hatori was apprehended for the alleged theft of a bicycle seat on August 29. Surveillance camera footage showed him casually removing the seat of someone’s bike, placing it in the basket of his own bicycle and pedalling away. Unfortunately for him, the victim called the police and they started investigating the minor theft. However, when officers identified Hatori and raided his house last week, they only expected to find the one seat, not a stash of 159 of them.

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Nori, an adorable Aussiepoo mix from Seattle has become an internet sensation thanks to his expressive eyes and cute smile, which many have described as eerily human-like.

When they see Nori’s almond-shaped eyes and pink lips that curl into an almost human smile, most people can’t help but do a double-take. His owners, Kevin Hurless and Tiffany Ngo, say that, over the years they have gotten used to people’s reactions when they notice Nori’s human-like facial features, but the attention has become overwhelming since photos of their pooch went viral on social media, about a week ago.

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The mayor of a town in Mexico has come under fire from members of his community for deploying cutouts of himself at events that he can’t physically be present at.

Moisés Aguilar Torres, the mayor Pichuclaco, a town in the Mexican state of Chiapas, managed to outrage his constituents by sending a cutout of himself to a local health services event that he didn’t bother attending. Photos of actual attendees posing for pictures with Torres’ cardboard cutout have been doing the rounds on Mexican social media for days, sparking both criticism and hilarious comments.

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A Japanese student of ninja history was recently commended by her teacher for handing in a blank sheet of paper on an assignment that required her to write an essay on ninjas.

Ninjas were famous for their covert operations, so when Eimi Haga’s ninja history teacher at Mie University asked her to write an essay about a visit to the Ninja Museum of Igaryu, she decided to do it in a way that would reflect her passion for everything ninja. Plus, the teacher said he would reward students for creativity, so she had extra motivation to come up with something that would make her assignment stand out. Her essay was so ingenious that it left even her teacher scratching his head for a while.

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An Indian man recently shocked airport staff in Abu Dhabi, because his passport showed he was born in 1896, which would make him 123, the oldest human to have ever lived.

Swami Sivananda’s passport shows him to be a year older than France’s Jeanne Louise Calment , who holds the Guinness Record for the oldest verified person in history -122 – but the problem is that the only proof he has comes from an old temple register.  Mr Sivananda also looks decades younger than his alleged age, but he credits his youthful appearance and good health to leading a simple and balanced life, yoga, and a frugal, spice-free diet. His celibacy may have something to do with his longevity as well, he figures. He’s been trying to have his name included in the Guinness Book of Records for three years, but he has been having trouble proving his age.

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Chechen men are considered some of the most masculine in the world, and this is an image that authorities are keen to maintain, so anything that threatens to damage that hard-earned image of fearlessness is frowned upon. A young man recently learned that first-hand, after crying at his sister’s wedding.

According to historian Zelimkhan Musaev the public display of emotions at Chechen wedding parties is unbecoming, even among women, so when a video of a young man shedding tears at his sister’s wedding went viral on social media, it angered a lot of people. And seeing as the nation’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov – who boasts a very manly public image himself – had also criticized the violation of Chechen customs and traditions, the offender was identified and forced to apologize for showing excessive emotion.

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An Argentinian man desperate to have his tattoo removed just a week after having it done, used a cheese grater to scratch it off, even if it meant letting go of some of his skin in the process.

The 21-year-old man, who preferred to remain anonymous, opted for the unusual and most likely painful tattoo removal method two years ago, but a video and pictures of his arm, before and after, only just went viral, after one of his friends decided to post them online. A resident of the Argentinian city of Mendoza, the protagonist of the viral footage was located by local media reporters and was happy to share his motivation for using a cheese grater to remove a fresh tattoo he had had done on his wrist.

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Developed by Spanish fashion brand Sepiia, the Ultimate Smart Shirt 3.0 is a special men’s garment that can allegedly reduce the wearer’s stress, improve blood flow and increase energy levels.

Sepiia has been developing smart clothing for years now. Its first generation garments incorporated staining-resistant fabric around the cuffs and neck, thus requiring less frequent washing, while the second generation introduced a more breathable fabric that prevented excessive perspiration and sweat patches, while also being odor resistant. For its latest generation of smart clothing, Sepiia introduced the concept of wellness, by developing a fabric that has all the characteristics of previous generations, as well as new bioceramic nanoparticles that improve the wearer’s well-being.

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Remember Vitaminwater’s “scroll free for a year” challenge that dared people to go smartphone free for a whole year to win $100,000? Well, this New York woman is eight months into her smartphone-free year, and just four months away from claiming grand prize.

Vitaminwater made news headlines last December when it announced its unique challenge. Thousands of people applied to be chosen as the perfect candidate to spend a year without touching their smartphone, but in the end, the only person who got to try and survive for an entire year without a handheld was Elana Mugdan, a 29-year-old fiction writer from Queens, New York. Eight months into the challenge, she claims it’s been a freeing and eye-opening experience that showed her just how dependent she had become to her smartphone. Even though there are times when she misses her handheld, she plans to go on living without it even after the challenge ends.

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Chinese media recently reported the unusual case of a girl who reached puberty at age seven, presumably because of sleeping with the lights on every night for the last three years.

At age 7, Dandan (pseudonym) is already 1.20m-tall, towering over most girls her age. When she first started growing, her mother was delighted, and didn’t even stop to wonder why the girl had grown by about 10 cm in a single year. It wasn’t until one day, when she was giving Dandan a bath, and she noticed that she had developed breasts, that the woman realized something was wrong. She took the 7-year-old to the hospital and was shocked to learn that her daughter had reached puberty at least three years earlier than usual.

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Dan Price, a former photojournalist from Kentucky, gave up his successful career to live in a dugout on the side of a hill in rural Oregon. He’s been living there for over 20 years and has no interest in going back to his old life.

Once a successful but stressed out photojournalist and family man, Dan Price got tired of the never-ending rat-race in 1990, after reading a 1974 book called Payne Hallow, about the rejection of modernity in favor of a primitive, more simple lifestyle. Up to that point he had considered waking up and going to work just to pay the bills a normal life, but after reading Harlan Hubbard’s book, he realized he wanted more, or rather, less. So he just quit his job, left his family behind and returned to his home state of Oregon to live by himself, in a meadow.

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A Russian iPhone user recently filed a one million ruble lawsuit against Apple, accusing the American corporation of indirectly turning him gay.

In a court filing that went viral on Russia’s internet, the plaintiff alleges that he became “mired in a same-sex relationship” after receiving the wrong kind of cryptocurrency on a virtual wallet app that he installed on his iPhone in 2017. The man, identified as one D. Razumilov claims that he received 69 GayCoins – a cryptocurrency designed for member of the LGBT community – from an anonymous sender. The mysterious transfer was accompanied the message “don’t knock it till you’re tried it”, which kind of made sense to Razumilov and eventually pushed him to become involved in a gay relationship.

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