Located in Antarctica’s McMurdo’s Dry Valleys, the shallow Don Juan Pond is the world’s saltiest body of water. With a salt content that puts the Dead Sea to shame, it remains liquid even at -58 degrees Celsius (-50 Fahrenheit).

At four inches deep, Don Juan Pond looks more like a large puddle than an actual pond, but it has fascinated scientists for decades. A liquid puddle of this size in an alien-like environment where temperatures can drop to -50 degrees Fahrenheit was bound to draw attention at one point, and the tiny body of water has been buzzing with scientists since it was discovered in 1961. A quick analysis revealed its salt content to be around 40%; to put that into perspective the world’s oceans have a salinity of 3.5%, the Great Salt Lake varies between 5 and 27 percent, and the famous Dead Sea is 34% salt.

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A 22-year-old man spent three days trapped at the bottom of a 12-meter-deep well because villagers who heard his cries for help thought he was a wailing ghost and wouldn’t approach the well.

It’s unclear what Liu Chuanyi, a young Chinese national, was doing in the forest on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, but he somehow fell into an abandoned well on the outskirts of a small village. Authorities believe he was trekking through the woods when he fell into the 12-meter-deep hole, sustaining serious injuries, like a fractured wrist and cerebral concussion. At first, he started shouting for help as loudly as he could, but as the hours passed, he realized he would exhaust himself quickly and diminish his chances of being rescued. He was right, he spent the next three days and three nights at the bottom of the well, with no food or water, and had he not saved his energy, he would have probably died there.

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An Argentinian man was wrongfully imprisoned after police mistook 18 containers of talcum powder for cocaine and it took three weeks to analyze the true nature of the substance.

In early October, Maximiliano Acosta got on a bus in the town of Mendoza towards the capital, Buenos Aires. Shortly after, the bus was stopped in La Paz for what was supposed to be a routine check by a team of gendarmes. Upon checking the passengers’ baggage, the gendarmes discovered that Acosta had 18 containers of talcum powder and questioned him about it. Despite the man’s explanation that the containers actually contained talcum powder for personal use, the gendarmes detained him on suspicion of drug possession. The tests that followed the arrest, allegedly showed that the 18 containers were full of cocaine, and Maximiliano was put behind bars without so much as alerting his family about his situation.

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Shikoku Bank’s leadership has come up with a bizarre way of reassuring clients of its commitment – promising to pay with their lives if found guilty of ‘financial irregularities’.

Banking executives are always held to high ethical standards, considering that they handle the wealth of thousands, sometimes millions of people, but while they face serious punishment in case of fraud or embezzlement, they aren’t quite expected to pay with their lives. That is not the case with the management of Shikoku Bank, a financial institution whose top 23 executives, including President Miura, signed a blood oath requiring them to commit seppuku if found guilty of engaging in financial irregularities, embezzlement or other fraudulent activities. Rooted in the code of honor of Japan’s samurai era, the bizarre pledge posted on Shikoku Bank’s website went viral sparking reactions varying from admiration to disbelief.

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A 26-year-old South Korean man was recently sentenced to one year in prison for deliberately binge eating in order to become obese and be declared unfit for mandatory military service.

Military service is no trivial matter in South Korea. It doesn’t matter if you’re a globally-known singer, a successful actor, or a billionaire; if you’re a healthy adult male between the ages of 18 and 35, you have to spend at least 21 months in the army. The most you can do is postpone the compulsory service, but you’ll have to go through it at some point. However, if you are declared unfit for service because of health issues, you’re off the hook. One young South Korean man allegedly tried to avoid serving in the military by binge eating and becoming obese. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite as he had planned and he now has to spend a year behind bars.

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A middle-aged Russian man suffering from diabetes and poor blood clotting tragically lost his life after being scratched on the leg by his pet cat.

On November 22, Dmitry Ukhin, a 55-year-old man from the Kirishi district, in Russia’s Leningrad region, went looking for his pet cat Styopka around the neighborhood. The feline had an independent streak and liked nothing more than to walk around the neighborhood freely. Eyewitnesses later told police that Ukhin found his beloved pet and took it home with him, but couldn’t really explain why or how the cat scratched his leg so badly that he bled to death in a matter of minutes.

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Sweden’s minister for gender equality and work life allegedly suffers from an irrational fear of bananas that prevents her from coming anywhere near the popular fruit.

Paulina Brandberg first mentioned her banana phobia in a since-deleted 2020 tweet, describing it as “the world’s weirdest phobia,” but the issue recently resurfaced and made national news in Sweden after The Expressed newspaper published a series of leaked emails that revealed the strength of her aversion to the yellow fruit. Brandberg’s staff have been going to great measures to ensure that the 41-year-old politician does not come into contact with the fruit, messaging people and venues she was scheduled beforehand to inform them about her phobia, and making sure no rogue bananas make an appearance.

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Popular Douyin streamer Kong Yufeng recently sparked controversy in China by eating pig feed on camera as part of a challenge to live on the cheapest food she could find.

On October 30, Kong Yufeng, aka ‘King Kong Liuke’, posted a controversial video on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, in which she announced a self-imposed challenge to live on the cheapest food she could find for at least one week. The popular streamer told her fans that she had browsed Zhihu, a Chinese forum known for sharing budget-friendly tips, and found pig feed to be the best option. A large bag of pig feed cost only 100 yuan (US$14) and was allegedly high in protein, low in fat, and “healthier than takeaway food,” so she decided to try it in front of her fans. According to Kong, the pig feed contained natural ingredients like soybeans, peanuts, sesame, corn, and added vitamins, but the taste was an acquired one.

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A 12-year-old Massachusetts boy has tragically lost his eyesight to a nutrient-poor junk food diet that caused his optic nerves to atrophy beyond any hope of reversal.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently documented the case of a 12-year-old boy suffering from autism who ultimately went blind because of a junk food diet based mostly on burgers, fries, ranch dressing, donuts, and boxes of sugary juice. The boy had been diagnosed with autism and suffered from an extreme phobia of certain food textures, so his parents found it impossible to introduce vital nutrients into his diet. Earlier this year, the unnamed boy began experiencing vision problems in the hours of the morning and in the evening, but his eyesight was fairly normal during the day. However, his vision started degrading at a rapid pace, and in six weeks’ time he could only move around if his parents helped him navigate obstacles. Then, one night, he woke up screaming that he couldn’t see.

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A 28-year-old Greek man was recently convicted of causing a disturbance by repeatedly trespassing on his neighbors and smelling their shoes.

The unnamed man was arrested on October 8th after one of his neighbors in Sindos, a small town about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Thessaloniki, spotted him in their yard just before dawn sniffing the shoes they had left outside to air. This was not the man’s first time trespassing on private property for the same bizarre reason, so the neighbor called the police. Upon hearing the 28-year-old man’s explanation and the testimony of one of the neighbors, the Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Thessaloniki issued a suspended sentence of one month in prison, with three years of probation.

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Doctors at a hospital in New Delhi, India, were shocked to find a live 3-centimeter cockroach in the small intestine of a patient complaining of stomach ache and indigestion.

A 23-year-old man recently came to the Fortis Hospital, Vasal Kunj, to complain about stomach problems that he had been experiencing for about three days. He complained of severe abdominal pain, and difficulty in digesting food which resulted in frequent bloating. The man had consumed street food at a night market a few days prior and suspected that to be the cause of his health problems. Doctors decided that the best course of action was to conduct an Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy, a procedure that examines the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract, to hopefully discover the cause of the man’s symptoms. What they certainly didn’t expect to find was a live cockroach chilling in the man’s small intestine.

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A 58-year-old Ontario woman is facing a charge of assault with a weapon after allegedly spraying a neighbor in the chest with a water gun by accident while playing with a child.

On September 1st, Wendy Washik, an educational assistant from Simcoe, Ontario, was playing with children during a backyard barbecue when she accidentally sprayed a neighbor who was cutting grass in the chest with a water gun. She claims that she apologized immediately, but the man kept screaming at her and at one point went into his home to call the police and report that he had been “physically assaulted”. Ontario Provincial Police officers answered the call and determined that two people had been involved in a “dispute” that resulted in a victim being physically assaulted. Washik told reporters that police didn’t even ask to see the water gun before charging her.

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A 38-year-old Japanese man was recently arrested for phone-stalking his own wife, calling her over 100 times a day anonymously and saying nothing until she hung up.

On July 10, a 31-year-old woman from Amagasaki, in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, started receiving strange phone calls from someone who would just remain silent until she hung up in frustration. This went on for weeks, because the calls came from an anonymous phone number, so the young woman couldn’t just block the calls. On most days she would get dozens of phone calls, but sometimes, the phone stalker would ring over 100 times per day. Luckily, the phone never rang during the night or when she was playing video games on her husband’s phone, which ultimately got her thinking about who the mystery caller could be…

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An Austrian neurosurgeon is currently under investigation for allegedly allowing her 13-year-old daughter to drill a hole in a patient’s skull during a brain operation.

In January of this year, a 33-year-old man had to be flown to the University Hospital Graz, in the Austrian city of Graz, following a serious accident in a forest that left him with head trauma. The female neurosurgeon on call, whose name has not been made public to protect her privacy, allegedly allowed her 13-year-old daughter to not only sin in on the procedure but actually drill a hole into the unconscious patient’s skull. Luckily, the operation was a success and the injured man was able to go back to leading a normal life. No one outside the operation room knew about the young girl’s active role in the procedure, but the cat was let out of the bag in July when an anonymous complaint was lodged with the public prosecutor’s office in Graz about the minor’s involvement.

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A Taiwan court of law sentenced a man to three months in prison for invading his adulterous wife’s privacy by installing hidden cameras around their home.

Chinese media recently reported the unusual story of a Taiwanese man surnamed Fan who managed to land himself behind bars for daring to expose his wife’s cheating by installing cameras around their home. The couple had reportedly been married for several years and had two young children in 2022 when Mr. Fan began suspecting that his spouse was having an affair. He installed a camera under the piano in the living room of the family home and another one next to the computer in the master bedroom. About two weeks later, the cameras caught Fan’s wife and a mystery man having intimate relations in the family home, footage that the husband later used as grounds for a divorce.

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