Begging is reportedly going digital in Indonesia, with street beggars posting clips on TikTok asking for virtual gifts instead of actually going out on the street.

TikTok begging has reportedly become such a widespread phenomenon in Indonesia that the Government has been forced to step in to reign it in. The Asian country’s social minister has asked her staff to increase efforts of preventing begging, both online and offline, and Muslim groups have appealed to the general public in an attempt to stop “begging and asking for free goods and money,” which they claim “demean human honor” and are forbidden in Islam. However, there is little they can do against the wave of beggars enticed by TikTok’s gift-offering features, which allow them to exchange virtual gifts for real money.

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A man known as Tarzan of Barcelona has been drawing a lot of attention with his monkey-inspired tree-climbing classes taught in the Spanish city’s Parque de la Ciudadela.

Ever wish you could climb trees and leap from branch to branch like Tarzan, the protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous novel and the many big-screen adaptations it inspired? Well, you’re in luck, because all you need to do is travel to the beautiful city of Barcelona and pay 10 euros (~$10) for a “Tarzan Movement” class with the city’s very own Tarzan. You’ll likely need more than one class to master all of Tarzan’s skills, but you’ll become part of a community of like-minded people who love monkeying around just as much.

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Photos and videos of people walking futuristic robot dogs instead of actual canines have been going viral in China lately, signaling a trend among the younger generations.

Robotic dogs inspired by the impressive creations of Boston Dynamics have been available on Chinese shopping platforms for a while now, but they’ve only recently started actually becoming popular. Although they are sometimes being described as soulless machines that can never compare to real dogs who love their owners unconditionally, there is no denying the advantages of robot pets, and judging by the increasing number of people spotted walking their robot dogs in China lately, they may one day rival the animals they emulate.

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“Remote cohabitation” has become a hot topic in Japan over the past couple of days, after a popular TV show reported that young couples prefer to live separately and keep in touch using free video call apps.

On July 21st, TV Asahi’s ” Hatori Shinichi Morning Show” featured remote cohabitation as a growing trend among young Japanese couple who either prefer or are forced to live separately. It involves the use of free video call apps like Line or Skype to keep in touch for hours on end, even all through the night. A couple used as an example during the show, said that they leave the app open during the night so they can “wake up together”, and only turn it off when they are at work. This way they feel like they are together, even though one lives in Tokyo and the other in Ibaraki Prefecture.

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Knee makeup isn’t really a thing, but a century ago it was the hottest trend in the beauty industry. It started out as knee rouging and eventually turned into full-on knee painting.

Fashion has always been a reflection of the spirit of the times, and the knee makeup and painting of the 1920s was no exception. The “flappers” were wearing skirts shorter than ever before (hemlines just under the knee were the ’20s version of a miniskirt), they were rolling down their stocking bellow the knee or giving up on them altogether, and knee rouging became just another way to attract attention to an area of the female body that had never been as visible before. Women of the generation had a number of blush formulas to choose from including cream, powder, and liquid formulas, which they used for an added “look at me” effect.

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Einstein Café, a popular coffee chain operating in several middle-eastern countries has come under fire for sparking a controversial trend of replacing paper cups with baby bottles.

It all started with Einstein Café, a dessert chain with branches in countries like the UAE, Kuwait or Bahrein. One day, allegedly inspired by pictures of trendy-looking bottles shared on social media, it changed the paper cups it usually served its drinks in with plastic baby bottle complete with transparent silicone teats. No one expected the change to have a huge impact on the business, but according to company management, everyone wanted to try the new bottles, even calling to book tables in advance.

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Amazon contract delivery drivers in Chicago are allegedly hanging their smartphones outside warehouses and delivery points to boost their chances of getting delivery orders.

Major news outlet Bloomberg last week reported on a strange new trend among Amazon and Whole foods contract drivers in Chicago – hanging their smartphones in trees close to the companies’ warehouses and parking their cars nearby to get first dibs on accepting new delivery orders. Amazon’s system allegedly chooses drivers based on who is closest to the pickup location, so even the slightest advantage over the stiff competition among drivers can boost chances of getting access to the offers first. The phones in the trees have the Amazon Flex app installed and are synched with other phones belonging to other drivers, to make it harder for Amazon to detect offenders.

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Plastic surgery is more popular than it’s ever been, but women looking for a less invasive way of getting a perfect nose are turning to a special wax that lets them mold their noses into the desired shape.

Microcrystaline wax has been used in Asia – particularly in China – for a while now, but it has recently been gaining popularity in the western world as well thanks to makeup enthusiasts and influencers showing off their temporary nose jobs on Instagram. Videos of women applying bits of white, clay-like material on their nose to drastically adjust its shape, and later deconstructing their work have been going viral on the popular social network lately, leaving people scratching their heads.

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Gongbang is the name of a growing live-streaming trend in South Korea, where people broadcast themselves studying in almost total silence for hours on end to dozens, sometimes hundreds of viewers who love nothing more than to watch them do it.

Ask most popular streamers and they’ll tell you that the keys to a successful live-streaming career are providing entertaining and exciting content, and viewer engagement. That’s what makes the Gongbang live-streaming trend, which has been growing in the Asian country over the last decade, so fascinating. Gongbang streamers almost never connect with their audience, and as for providing exciting content, the most excitement they offer is turning a page every once in a while. They simply broadcast themselves studying for many hours at a time, and, for some reason, people love watching them do it.

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In the past, plastic surgery patients would bring in photos of celebrities to show their surgeon what they wanted to look like, but in recent years, this is becoming less common. Patients are now more likely to present surgeons with their own selfies that have been enhanced using apps such as Snapchat or Facetune. It has been suggested that wanting to look identical to your perfected Snapchat selfies is a new psychological phenomenon scientists are calling “Snapchat dysmorphia”.

According to Dr. Neelam Vashi, director of the Boston University Cosmetic and Laser Centre: “A new phenomenon called ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ has popped up, where patients are seeking out surgery to help them appear like the filtered versions of themselves.”

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Having your blood tested, getting a nutritional breakdown of every piece of food you out in your mouth and talking about high cholesterol and vitamin deficiencies sound more like a hospital visit than an enjoyable dinner party, but they are at the core of a new trend among health freaks – health optimization parties.

Keeping track of your calorie intake, drinking kale smoothies and eating quinoa salads are all fine and dandy, but if you’re really serious about your health, you’ll want to take things to the next level. That’s where health optimization parties come in. These social events allow health conscious friends and family to get an in-depth analysis of their actual health, while enjoying healthy foods and drinks and talking about the things that really matter, like cholesterol, vitamins and fitness routines.

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Park Eunkyung, a popular nail technician from South Korea, may have just kickstarted the next big trend in nail art – multi-colored LED disco nails, perfect for drawing attention in the club.

Eunkyung, who has quite a following on Instagram, recently posted a series of photos of her latest nail art idea – fake clear nails with LEDs attached to them. Sounds pretty cool, but tough to implement, at the same time. Those LEDs may not need a lot of power, but they do need some power to light up, and unlike those cool LED eyelashes we featured a while back, hooking them to a hidden battery via invisible wires doesn’t really work. Park did come up with a solution, although I dare say it’s not the most practical.

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Otona Maki, or ‘adult wrapping’, is a Japanese therapeutic method of correcting posture and alleviating body stiffness by wrapping the human body in a large piece of cloth that emulates the comfortable feel of a mother’s womb.

Well-known for their long work hours, many Japanese people develop posture problems and body stiffness. For a long time, getting massages and stretching have been the most popular ways of dealing with these issues, but now someone claims to have come up with an even better solution. Otona Maki is a new and intriguing way of improving posture and making your body more flexible than ever, while at the same time helping practitioners relax by recreating the comfortable feel of a mother’s womb.

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For most Vietnamese women, white skin is synonymous with feminine beauty, sophistication and high social status, and many of them cover themselves completely even in the middle of summer in order to protect their fair complexion from the sun’s rays.

In Vietnam, as in the majority of South East Asian countries, dark skin has always been associated with poverty and peasants working in paddy fields exposed to the mercy of the elements. So while in the Western world tanned skin is seen as healthy and beautiful, in countries like Vietnam, Japan or Indonesia, it is so frowned upon that it can sometimes be enough to drive away potential suitors in arranged marriages among middle-class families.

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It’s quite natural for lizards and snakes to lie on hot rocks in the scorching sun, because they have to thermoregulate, but when middle-aged and elderly women in the Chinese city of Xi’an started doing it, people started raising their eyebrows in surprise.

It turns out lying on large stone boulders in the hot sun is this year’s summer health trend among the women of Xi’an. Elderly and middle-aged women can be seen hugging rocks or simply lying on them with towels on their faces all around the city, from parks to squares and pretty much wherever else large, sun-heated rocks can be found.

At first, people thought the women were engaging in some mysterious artistic performance, but local reporters approached them, they said it was a traditional medical treatment to help them cure various illnesses. One woman, identified only by her surname, Lo, said that she started lying on hot rocks to treat her synovitis and stiff muscles, after a relative suffering from similar ailments did it for an extended period of time and got cured. Apparently, the best time to practice laying on rocks is between 3 and 4 p.m., when the sun burns the hottest.

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