Researchers studying various species of animals on Australia’s Kangaroo Island stumbled upon a colony of Polyrhachis femorata ants that they believed was dead until one of its members moved slightly.

Feigning death, also known as thanatosis or tonic immobility is a well-documented defense mechanism observed in dozens of animal species, from insects and lizards to birds and mammals. Some of these natural actors are better than others at playing dead, but what they all have in common is implying this particular defense strategy on an individual basis. However, in what many consider a world-first, a team of researchers encountered an entire colony of dozens of ants that all played dead at the same time when threatened. And they all played their part so well, contorting their bodies in unnatural positions and remaining completely still, that the team was convinced they were all dead.

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A Chinese man recently lost his life while performing a controversial type of exercise that requires practitioners to hang only by their chins to relieve neck and spine pain by reducing pressure on nerves.

Over the past decade or so, a bizarre form of exercise has been getting traction throughout China. It basically involves swinging one’s body while hanging in the air supported only by a leather chin strap. Reportedly invented around 2017 by Shenyang native Sun Rongchun as a way to relieve back pain, neck swings quickly became a familiar sight in parks and outdoor gyms all over the country. Although hanging in the air by one’s chin doesn’t sound like the safest thing in the world, paractiotioners swear by it, claiming it does wonder for neck and back pain. Still, doctors have been warning about the dangers of neck hanging for years and a recent tragedy suggests that when performed incorrectly, this type of exercise can be lethal.

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In what can only be described as an unconventional love story, an Indian man fell in love and ended up marrying his mother-in-law with his father-in-law’s blessing.

This bizarre tale begins with a tragedy. After the death of Sikandar Yadav’s wife, the father-of-two moved in with his in-laws in Bihar’s Heer Moti village. Over time, the relationship between 45-year-old Sikandar and his mother-in-law, Geeta (55), evolved into a romantic affair that they could only conceal for so long. As rumors of their secret affair started spreading through the village, Geeta’s husband became increasingly suspicious and one day caught the two lovebirds in a romantic embrace that confirmed his fears. Furious, the man brought the affair to the attention of the Panchayat (village council), demanding that the matter be resolved.

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The Hongyancun subway station in Chongqing, China is 116 meters deep and the difference in air pressure will often leave users with clogged ears when accessed via its elevator.

When the air pressure outside of the eardrum becomes different than the pressure inside, you experience ear barotrauma. It occurs most often during steep declines and descents and is usually associated with plane takeoffs and landings, or driving up or down mountains. Most subway stations don’t usually cause ear barotrauma, because they aren’t deep or steep enough for your ears to register a significant enough difference in air pressure. But using the elevator to reach the world’s deepest subway station might actually clog up your ears. That’s because it is located 116 meters below the surface, the equivalent of about 40 floors underground.

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After plastering the whole of Manhattan with fliers for several months, a mystery man known as Cheeseball Man gathered a crowd of hundreds to watch him eat a whole tub of cheeseballs.

Meet Cheeseball Man, the superhero New Yorkers never knew they needed. His superpower? Mesmerizing crowds with his insatiable craving for cheeseballs. It all started with some fliers showing a man with an orange ski mask holding a large tub full of cheeseballs and inviting everyone to come watch him devour the cheesy treats in Manhattan’s Union Square Park, on April 27th. The fliers went up months before the big day, and although Cheeseman didn’t really expect a large crowd to accept his invitation, he was blown away by the size of his audience. Close to 1,000 people gathered in Union Square Park to watch him gobble down his jar of cheeseballs, and videos of the big event have so far been viewed millions of times online.

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A UK man was recently arrested in Thailand for allegedly causing damage to a Phuket restaurant by posting a number of 1-star reviews online following an altercation with the restaurant owner.

The 21-year-old British national was arrested in Thailand earlier this month when police showed up at his apartment in Bangkok, but the incident that led to his arrest dates back to 2022 when he was staying in a rented property in Phuket. According to Thai media, the easiest way for the man, known only as Alexander, to reach his abode passed through an Italian restaurant and he didn’t hesitate to use it. Noticing that the man passed through his restaurant several times per day, the owner confronted him and asked that he use the public road instead because he wasn’t a paying customer and he was disturbing his guests. Shortly after the heated exchange, the restaurant owner noticed that the Google rating of his business had dropped from 4.8/5 to 3.1/5 because of a number of allegedly fake 1-star reviews. Suspecting Alexander was behind this online defamation campaign, he filed a complaint against him.

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A morbidly obese macaque named Godzilla who gorged on treats offered by passers-by in Bangkok, Thailand, succumbed to a myriad of weight-related illnesses at the tender age of six.

On May 6th, Godzilla breathed his last breath at the Crystal Pet Hospital in Bangkok as his master held its tiny hand in his. However, the man and his family are facing criticism for killing the young macaque with kindness, indulging his addiction to sweets and other fattening treats, and turning him into a popular attraction at their market stall. Tourists would pass by the vest-wearing primate and feed him all kinds of junk food, which led to him ballooning to over 19 kilograms, more than double the weight of an average macaque. Sadly, his condition never really improved after he was taken away, and a number of obesity-induced illnesses eventually claimed his life.

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An Arizona woman was recently sentenced to three years probation for trying to poison her husband by mixing bleach in his morning coffee.

Melody Felicano Johnson was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder but ended up pleading guilty to two counts of the lesser felony charge of adding poison or a harmful substance to food or drink. She admitted to putting bleach in her husband’s coffee, although it is still unclear as to why. Her husband told investigators he “believes she was trying to kill him to collect death benefits,” but he explicitly told the court that he did not want her to spend time in prison, which apparently had a major influence on the final verdict.

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The backbend is considered a crucial move in Chinese folk dancing, but it is also the main cause of severe spine cord injuries in children as young as five, leaving thousands of them paralyzed for life.

Ironically, the vast majority of parents pushing their beloved children towards folk dancing have their offspring’s best interest in mind, hoping to improve their physical fitness and overall health, but studies have found that one particular move taught in folk dancing schools is putting children’s lives at risk. Data analyzed by the Chinese Orthopaedic Association showed that the percentage of spinal cord injuries caused by the backbend exploded from just 4% between 1992 and 2002 to a whopping 33.9% of all pediatric spinal injuries between 2015 and 2019. Other reports show that, since 2005, over 1,000 children have been left paralyzed after doing backbends in dance classes, making this move the single greatest paralysis threat for young Chinese children.

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A homeless Michigan woman was found living in the rooftop sign of a Family Fare supermarket in Midland. She had been staying there for about a year without anyone noticing her.

The 34-year-old unnamed woman was found living inside the business sign when contractors curious about an extension cord on the roof of the Family Fare supermarket in Midland decided to follow the wire. It led them inside the rooftop advertising sign where the clandestine guest had set up a cozy nest complete with flooring, a computer, and a coffee maker. Police officers were called, and the woman told them that she had a job elsewhere but had no home and had been living there for about a year.

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Muluwork Ambaw, a 26-year-old woman from Ethiopia, claims to have gone the last 16 years of her life without eating or drinking anything.

Most people can hardly last a few hours without munching on something, but Muluwork Ambaw insists that she shunned food forever one day when she was only 10 years old, after her appetite vanished out of the blue. Apart from her complete lack of sustenance, Ambaw reportedly has a normal life, she is in good health and has plenty of energy to perform her daily tasks, which include cooking for others and running various errands. The young woman has undergone several medical tests in Ethiopia, but none could really confirm if she spoke the truth, although doctors at a hospital in Addis Ababa did confirm that there was no evidence of any food in her intestines at the time of the examination.

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A 149-mile-long stretch of highway connecting two towns in Saudi Arabia holds the title of the world’s longest straight road.

Saudi Arabia’s Highway 10 stretches 916 miles (1,474 km), connecting the town of Al Darb, in the southwest, to Al Batha, in the east. It’s quite a busy road, most traversed by trucks shipping goods from one side of the country to the other, but it is most famous for a 149-mile stretch through the Rub-al-Khali desert. This particular piece of infrastructure was originally built as a private road for King Fahd (SAU), but ever since it became part of the public road system, it claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s longest straight road, also known as ‘the most boring road in the world’, due to its complete lack of bends, almost completely flat terrain, and bland, featureless surroundings as far as the eye can see.

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During the month of May, camel riding is such a popular pastime at the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring scenic spots in China’s Kumtag Desert that local authorities use camel traffic lights to avoid traffic jams.

One of the last things you would expect to find in the middle of a desert is a functional traffic light, but you can find several of them in the sand dunes of the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake Nature Park, in northwestern China’s Gansu Province. During the annual holiday at the beginning of May, thousands of people flock to these natural tourist spots and engage in a variety of activities, the most popular of which is undoubtedly camel riding. In 2023, there were around 2,400 camels available for riding, as well as tens of thousands of tourists per day at the Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring scenic spots alone, which resulted in serious traffic congestion problems. Luckily, local authorities came up with an ingenious solution – camel traffic lights.

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Ox Horn, a sprawling research and development complex built by Huawei in Shenzen, China, features 12 towns and 100 separate buildings, all inspired by European architecture.

If someone were to be teleported in the middle of Ox Horn and made to guess where they were, China would probably be at the bottom of their answer list. That’s because the Chinese tech giant’s new campus is heavily inspired by European architecture, including both replicas of well-known Western landmarks and buildings heavily influenced by various European architectural styles. Completed in 2019 at a cost of a whopping $1.5 billion, Ox Horn houses Huawei’s main research and development offices and features its own tram transportation system, but has come under fire for its obvious European inspiration.

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A Chinese nanny has been forced to take care of a toddler for months without any compensation after the child’s parents disappeared without a trace with money they had borrowed from her.

Ms. Yu, the victim in this bizarre case that has been making headlines in China for over a month, claims that she was hired by a couple in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, to take care of their newborn son for a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan (around $1,000). Shortly after striking a deal, the parents told Ms. Yu that they needed to travel to Tianjin to receive a sizeable inheritance, including property and luxury goods, and asked if she could help them out with a loan for lawyers and paperwork. As insurance that they would pay her back, the couple showed her photos of the goods they had allegedly inherited, as well as of the ownership papers for a hotel. Furthermore, they decided to leave their child with the nanny while they sorted everything in Tianjin, so Ms. Yu assumed that there was no reason to worry. She was wrong!

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