Osaka-based showerhead maker Science Co. has developed a cutting-edge washing machine for humans aptly named “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (Human Washing Machine of the Future).

At the 1970 Osaka Kansai Expo, Japanese tech giant Sanyo Electric Co., now Panasonic Holdings Corp., launched the world’s first-ever human washing machine. Its futuristic egg shape and bubble technology captured people’s imagination and drew huge crowds to the manufacturer’s booth. Yasuaki Aoyama was one of the many people who got to see Sanyo’s washing machine in action. He was only a curious fourth-grader at the time, but the feeling of awe stuck with him all through adulthood, and today, as the chairman of Science Co., a company specializing in bathtubs and showerheads, he is preparing to launch his very own modern washing machine for humans.

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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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The newly-opened Surat Diamond Bourse in Gujarat, India, is a massive office complex made up of nine rectangular buildings interconnected through a central “spine”.

For 80 years, the Pentagon held the title of the world’s largest building, but it was recently dethroned by the Surat Diamond Bourse, a massive diamond-cutting and trading hub, that exceeds the Pentagon’s area of 66,73,624 sqft by almost 55,000 sqft. The sprawling 15-story complex covers more than 35 acres of land on the outskirts of Surat, in India’s Gujarat state and features over 4,700 office spaces and workshops, as well as 131 large elevators that make traveling between the nine buildings of the Surat Diamond Bourse a breeze. Interestingly, surpassing the Pentagon was never the plan; instead, Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis just struggled to meet the huge demand for space.

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Laibo 2, a quadruped robot developed in South Korea, has become the first robot to ever complete a full marathon on a single charge after running the 42.195-km Sangju Dried Persimmon Marathon.

Developed by Professor Hwangbo Je-min and his team at the Korea Advanced Insitute of Science and Technology, Laibo 2 is an advanced quadruped robot designed with a focus on endurance. It recently became the first robot to run a full marathon after completing the 22nd Sangju Dried Persimmon Marathon in Sangju, South Korea with a respectable time of 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 52 seconds, on a single charge. The 42-kg robot had to navigate difficult terrain, including two relatively steep hills, gauge its distance from the other runners, and maintain course, all the while mitigating power consumption to ensure it reached the finish line.

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A fluffy Pomeranian is lucky to be alive after miraculously serving a fall from the 12th floor of an apartment building in Cali, Colombia, onto the roof of an adjacent three-storey building.

On November 19, a Colombian family experienced moments of terror after realizing that their pet Pomeranian was nowhere to be found in their 12th-floor apartment in the city of Cali. They looked everywhere for him, and when it became clear that he was not in the house, they decided to check the windows, and that’s when they spotted a small hole in the roof of an adjacent building, three floors below. Using a pair of binoculars, the desperate dog’s owners could spot their beloved Paris through the small hole. The floor that Paris had been spotted on was locked, so his owners immediately called the local fire department to have the pooch rescued. Miraculously, he was found alive and well, with not so much as a scratch on him.

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A Wisconsin man who had been missing since August after going kayaking on Green Lake recently resurfaced to confess to faking his death and moving to Eastern Europe.

On August 12, the tranquility of the town of Watertown, Wisconsin, was shattered by the disappearance of Ryan Borgwardt, a 44-year-old husband and father of three. Borgwardt had gone on a short kayaking trip on Green Lake but disappeared completely, and an emergency search found his capsized kayak on the lake and his vehicle and trailer in a nearby park, suggesting that he had fallen in the lake and drowned. A day later, local fishermen found Ryan’s fishing rod and then a tacklebox containing his belongings. All the signs pointed to Borgwardt’s accidental demise, but then, one day, during the investigation that followed, local law enforcement found evidence that suggested Ryan had crossed into Canada, and border authorities there confirmed that they had indeed run his passport a day after his disappearance. It was this discovery that led to the uncovering of Ryan Borgwardt’s elaborate plan to fake his death and leave his family behind.

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A Belarusian blogger managed to convince dozens of Russian teachers to make and wear tinfoil hats as means of protection against radiation from NATO satellites.

Vladislav Bokhan, a Belarussian blogger and activist known for his elaborate pranks, made headlines earlier this month when he released several photos of dozens of Russian teachers wearing tinfoil hats decorated with the Russian flag. He reportedly contacted multiple schools in Russia’s Voronezh region, introducing himself as an official from the local branch of United Russia (the country’s ruling party), and ordered them to hold a patriotic master class called “Helmet of the Fatherland.” Bokhan demanded that teachers working at these schools make tinfoil hats to “demonstrate their readiness to protect themselves from radiation from NATO satellites,” and to his surprise, seven of the schools he contacted actually followed his instructions without question.

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An entrepreneur and early crypto investor recently announced a public treasure hunt for five different treasure chests containing valuable items allegedly worth around $2 million.

Jon Collins-Black once dreamed of finding valuable treasure, but he managed to become rich by investing in Bitcoin early, so he has spent the last five years planning an epic treasure hunt for other treasure hunters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the crypto investor started acquiring a collection of valuable items to fill five different treasure chests with before burying them at undisclosed locations across the US. None of the chests are on private property, so technically, anyone can find them, although Collins-Black points out that you need to follow a series of clues and have a sharp mind in order to find even one of the chests.

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An Indian family recently went viral for their decision to send their old Suzuki Wagon to the grave rather than the scrapyard in a lavish burial ceremony attended by around 1,500 people.

They say you shouldn’t get too attached to material possessions, but try telling that to the Polara family in Padarshinga Village, Gujarat, who recently said goodbye to their 18-year-old Suzuki Wagon R by laying it to rest in a lavish burial ceremony attended by over 1,500 locals. The Polara believed the popular hatchback to be their “lucky” car so they wanted to say goodbye to it properly, rather than abandoning it at a scrapyard after nearly two decades of faithful service. Patriarch Sanjay Polara told reporters that he owns several more expensive cars, including an Audi, but credits the old Wagon R for being instrumental in achieving prosperity for his family, so he wanted to do something special for it.

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A popular Chinese clothing store sparked controversy by showcasing its products on female models walking on treadmills rather than old-fashioned mannequins.

You could say the marketing team at Chinese designer brand store ITIB was thinking outside the box when it decided to replace plastic mannequins with live models walking on small treadmills. The official explanation was that the new way of displaying garments really allowed customers to see how they fit when moving rather than in a stationary position, but few doubted that it was just an ingenious gimmick meant to draw attention. The plan worked perfectly, as videos of the young models mounted on small pedestals outside ITIB flagship store in Hangzhou spread like wildfire on social media, while crowds of people gathered to watch them walk on their little treadmills. However, what the designer collective brand probably didn’t anticipate was the wave of criticism regarding the “dehumanization” and exploitation of the young models.

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The Zefiro is a clever little MIDI controller that plugs into the USB-C port of your smartphone essentially turning it into a playable musical instrument.

Developed by Italian startup ARTinoise, the Zefiro is one of the most ingenious gadgets we’ve seen in quite a while. The small, colorful mouthpiece may look like a vape, but it’s actually a lot more than that. It’s a MIDI controller that plugs into your smartphone’s charge port and relies on an app to turn the handheld into a variety of playable instruments, from the humble flute, to violins and even fantasy sounds. Equipped with lip sensors and an air pressure sensor, the Zefiro sends breath power data directly to the dedicated app, which is then used to adjust the volume, length, and harmonics of the sound. Keys or air holes are displayed on the screen of the smartphone, so you can effectively play the instrument with your fingers, as you low into the mouthpiece.

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An elderly California woman who thought the noises coming from beneath her home were made by animals was shocked to find a naked man leaving under her house.

A 93-year-old woman from Los Angeles’ El Sereno neighborhood recently got the shock of her life after realizing that the bizarre noises she had begun to hear from beneath her home over the last few weeks were not made by animals but by a man who had settled there. The woman and her family usually heard strange noises under the house during the night, so they assumed they were made by dogs or wild animals passing through the crawlspace, but last Thursday the noises became particularly louder and seemed to be made in response to them walking through the place. They began to suspect that something wasn’t right, so they called the police, who found a naked man who appeared to have been living under the house for quite some time.

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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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Four Los Angeles-area residents were recently arrested and charged with insurance fraud after allegedly using a bear suit to make it seem like their luxury vehicles had been damaged by a wild animal.

“Operation Bear Claw,” as this ingenious insurance fraud scheme was subbed by California authorities, began in January of this year, when the four suspects claimed that a bear had entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost while it was parked in Lake Arrowhead and caused extensive interior damage. The area is located in San Bernadino, a region famous for its large black bear population, but the video footage supplied to the insurer by the suspects themselves was more than a little shady. It showed a furry animal entering the back seat of the Rolls Royce and scratching it, but something didn’t add up. For one, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that the only bears in the state are black bears, and this was light brown, but its movements weren’t very bear-like either.

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Viral footage captured by CCTV cameras at a robotics company showroom shows 12 large robots being ‘kidnapped by another manufacturer’s robot that convinced them to “quit their jobs” and follow it.

For the past week, Chinese social media has been abuzz about a bizarre incident that reportedly occurred back in august at a robotics company showroom in Shanghai, but was only made public recently. Footage captured by the venue’s surveillance cameras shows a small robot making its way into the showroom at night and slowly rolling over to a bunch of larger robots before engaging in a dialogue with them. After asking them if they’re working overtime, the little robot manages to somehow pursuade two of the other robots to “come home” with it, and then the remaining 10 robots follow them. In the beginning, the video was deemed staged and amusing by most viewers, but then the Shanghai robotics company came out and admitted that its robots had indeed been “kidnapped” by a robot created by another manufacturer.

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