Prism Courage, a 134,000-tonne commercial tanker, recently sailed from the Gulf of Mexico to South Korea while controlled mostly by an artificial intelligence system called HiNAS 2.0.

Avikus, a subsidiary of South Korean technology giant Hyundai, recently announced that Prism Courage, a tanker designed to transport natural gas, had become the first large ship to make an ocean passage of over 10,000 km (6,210 miles) autonomously. The key to this incredible achievement was HiNAS 2.0, an AI-powered system capable of analyzing different kinds of sensor readings in real-time and responding to them swiftly, efficiently, and, most importantly, in accordance with the rules of maritime laws.

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A Vietnamese street food stall owner has become known for his fascination with gold jewelry. Every day, he walks around Ho Chi Minh City with up to 5 kilograms of gold on his body.

34-year-old Đỗ Ngọc Thuận, aka ‘Seven Ball’, has been fascinated with gold for as long as he can remember. When he became an adult, he started buying his own bling and flaunting it on the street. Having people stare at him as he walked on the street or when he stopped at traffic lights only encouraged him to up his jewelry game so he invested most of his money in it. Later on, when he opened his own hotpot and snack stall in Ho Chi Minh, he put on an absurd amount of gold to attract more attention to his business, and with the advent of social media, he gained even more attention from the masses.

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A middle-aged newspaper salesman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was recently arrested for “hacking” dozens of credit cards and using them to make small purchases.

When crime-fighting authorities in Argentina received a complaint about hundreds of unauthorized purchases, they were sure they were dealing with an organized hacking group. However, all leads pointed to the house of a 56-year-old newspaper salesman in the Buenos Aires town of Villa Madero. Judging by the scale of the security breach, it seemed unlikely that one person, let alone one that operated a newspaper stand, could have pulled it off. And yet, upon searching the man’s house, they found a small notebook containing a hand-written algorithm that had apparently allowed him to figure out the CVC (Card Verification Code) of his victims.

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An Australian couple is seeing their retirement plans threatened by a 130-year-old deed error that makes it impossible to sell their property.

Peter and Cheryl Plowman have been living in the same house on Bega Street, in Candelo, on the New South Wales South Coast for 20 years. A few years back, they purchased the house next to them from their neighbor with the intention of fixing it up and selling it for a profit to fund their retirement. Now, after investing their savings in it, the Plowman’s were shocked to learn that they won’t be able to sell their property to anyone, because the paperwork drafted over a century ago, when the lots were first registered, states that their new house is built on a different lot.

Mr. and Mrs. Plowman live in the fourth house along their street, which would logically make it Lot Four, only in the original deed it is marked Lot Three. When the lot deeds were originally drafted, sometime in the 1800s, the five lots on Bega Street were numbered ‘one, two, four, three, five,’ but the Plowmans had never bothered to check.

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A Thai man recently underwent emergency surgery to have a spiky fish removed from his throat, after it allegedly jumped out of the water and straight into his open mouth.

It sounds like the plot of a scene in a goofy comedy, but according to Thai news sources that have since been picked up by international media outlets, an angler fisherman almost choked to death after a small fish randomly jumped into his open mouth and got lodged in his throat. The unnamed man was reportedly spearfishing in a river, and just as he came up for a breath of air, a spikey Anabas fish randomly jumped out of the water and straight into his mouth. As he was in the process of inhaling, the fish got all the way into his throat where it became lodged.

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Intimate wellness brand INTIMINA recently released Period Crunch, a unique uterus-shaped breakfast cereal that also colors milk red.

Did you know that 82% of people are unable to correctly identify where the uterus is? That probably has a lot to do with the fact that we rarely talk about the female uterus, at least when compared to other, more well-known organs, like the heart or the liver. Well, Intima, a company that specializes in menstrual products, such as environmentally-friendly period cups and Kegel muscle training devices, would like to change that, and they’re going about it in an interesting way. Last month, the company announced its latest product, Period Crunch, a breakfast cereal that’s supposed to act as a conversation starter about menstruation in the average home.

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Over the past couple of days, news headlines in the South American country of Paraguay have been dominated by “Gordito lindo” (Cute fatty), an inmate who managed to walk out of prison by dressing as a woman.

On Sunday, César Ortiz, a supposed leader of the Rotela crime gang, escaped Tacumbú National Penitentiary by simply walking out through the front gate. Along with his freedom, he also earned the nickname “Gordito Lindo” or “Cute fatty”, because he disguised himself as a woman in order to fool the guards. Photos and video footage released by Paraguayan authorities show the convicted criminal wearing a long hair wig, fake eyelashes, lipstick, fake fingernails and women’s clothing. His disguise made such an impression on the public that the “Gordito Lindo” nickname stuck.

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A team of scientists recently announced that a giant meadow of seagrass covering an area three times the size of Manhattan consists of clones of the same exact plant, making it the world’s largest plant.

Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia, and her team had been studying cool water seagrasses in southern Australia for a while, hoping to understand more about their genetic diversity. They took samples from 10 locations across a giant seagrass meadow in Shark Bay in 2012 and 2019, but when they sequenced DNA from the samples, they were shocked to find that it was the same plant.

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A young German has recently been found guilty of creating a fake COVID screening center and illegally pocketing 5.7 million euros ($6 million) in state payouts for tests that were never performed.

At the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in Germany, the demand for tests was so great that the state reimbursed centers for conducting COVID tests based solely on an invoice. Most private healthcare providers benefited greatly, but some managed to rake in small fortunes without actually providing any kind of service. Such was the case of a young German student who figured out that all he had to do was create a COVID test center on paper, and then invoice thousands of tests every day to collect sizeable payouts from the Government. The young man, who was only 17-year-old when he came up with the idea in 2020, managed to pocket a whopping $6 million without actually doing any work.

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A Brazilian man has been accused of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and tattooing his name on the side of her face, as revenge for breaking up with him.

Tayane Caldas, an 18-year-old woman from the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, was on her way to school last Friday, when she was approached by her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Coelho, who forced her to get into his car. Afraid she would be attacked if she didn’t comply, the young woman got into the vehicle and was taken to her ex’s home in the municipality of Taubaté. There, the 20-year-old Coelho tattooed his full name on the girl’s right side of the face, from her ear, down to her chin. Although he doesn’t deny doing the tattoo, Gabriel Coelho claims that Tayane was more than happy to let him do it.

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Scientists in Chile believe that an ancient Patagonian cypress known as ‘Gran Abuelo’ (Great Grandfather) could be over 5,000 years old, which would make it the world’s oldest living tree.

The Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides), known in South America as ‘alerce’, is a conifer native to Chile and Argentina. They belong to the same family as giant sequoias and redwoods, and can reach heights of up to 45 meters (150ft). They grow at a very slow rate and are known to live for hundreds, even thousands of years, but one particular specimen may be the oldest tree ever discovered. If the findings of a Chilean team of researchers are to be believed, Great Grandfather, an ancient Patagonian cypress in the Alerce Costero national park, is 5,484-years-old, a whopping 600 years older than Methuselah, the current world’s oldest tree.

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A number of Taiwan sushi fans who legally changed their name to include the characters for the word ‘salmon’, as part of a restaurant promotional stunt, have now become stuck with it.

Taiwanese legislators are currently debating the possibility to change a law that only allows citizens to legally change their names a maximum of three times as a way to mitigate the aftermath of an event known as “Salmon Chaos”. In March of 2021, international news outlets covered the bizarre promotion of Taiwanese restaurant chain Sushiro, which offered sushi at discounted prices or totally free to people who legally changed their names to include the characters for ‘salmon’. Over 300 people reportedly took Sushiro up on their offer, and while most managed to switch back their old names days after taking advantage of the promotion, some have been stuck with hilarious names like ‘Handsom Salmon’, ‘Dancing Salmon’ or ‘Salmon Dream’.

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Medico Life Partner, an Indian dating site that only accepts doctors, recently sparked controversy online, with many claiming that it promotes classism.

Ever wish you could find a significant life partner that shared your profession? Well, if you happen to be a doctor, you’re in luck! Medico Life Partner is an online matchmaking service that aims to help male and female doctors find “hi-quality partners” who share their profession. The website claims that doctors of all religions, castes, and geography can register, but it seems to be particularly popular in India, where the vast majority of users come from.

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A trio of origami and paper plane building enthusiasts recently obliterated the world record for the farthest paper plane flight by achieving a jaw-dropping distance of 77.134 m (252 ft 7 in).

On April 16, 2022, at an indoor sports venue in Daegu, South Korea, Kim Kyu Tae managed to shatter the world record for the longest paper plane flight with each one of his eight throws. The previous record of 69.14 m (226 ft 10 in) set by Joe Ayoob and John M. Collins had been standing for a decade, but Kim managed to break it on all of his eight measured attempts (71.813 m being the shortest and 77.134 m being the farthest). But Kim was just one part of a trio who worked hard on designing and building this simple-looking but remarkable paper plane.

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A single dad in the Philippines recently made international news headlines after it was revealed that he named his only son after popular anime protagonist Naruto and his parents.

Jamesey Bolivar Maribojo, a 29-year-old anime buff from Davao City in the Philippines, is a big fan of Naruto, the mischievous teen ninja whose adventures have fascinated several generations of anime enthusiasts. He loves Naruto so much that when his girlfriend became pregnant he worked hard to convince her to name their son after the popular character. She agreed, but Jamesey did not stop there. Once he got his foot through the proverbial door, he pushed hard to have the surnames of Naruto’s parents written on the boy’s birth certificate. His son’s full name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze Maribojo.

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