An Australian distiller has taken the concept of recycling to a whole new level by taking the spat-out wine at a wine tasting conference and turning it into a spirit aptly named Kissing a Stranger.

Peter Bignell, of Tasmanian Belgrove Distillery, was first struck by the idea at the Rootstock festival in Sydney, a gathering of winemakers from all over the world promoting sustainable practices in the winemaking industry. He was in a group tasting wines, and as per tradition in wine-tasting, the majority of it was spat out in a bucket. This practice enables tasters to experience a lot of different wines while avoiding drunkenness. Bignell, however, saw it as wasteful.

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A Taiwanese dentist was recently ordered to pay $1 million to his mother in order to honor a contract that he had signed growing up, in which he agrees to pay 60 percent of his net profits until he can cover the cost of his upbringing and education.

The mother, known only as “Luo”, had to raise her two boys by herself, after divorcing her husband. At one point she became worried that despite all her sacrifices, her children would fail to look after her in her old age, so she decided to get some insurance. In 1997, when her sons were studying to become dentists, she asked them to sign a contract which clearly stipulated that they agreed to pay her part of their earnings until they covered the sum of roughly $1.7 million, as compensation for the money she had spent on their studies and upbringing. They both did, but one of them failed to honor the deal, so the mother took him to court.

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In order to avoid a liquor ban that was in effect during New Year’s celebrations, a group of resourceful New-Zealanders built their own tiny island  in an estuary on the Coromandel peninsula. This allowed them to enjoy a few drinks in peace as they were technically in “international waters”, and not subject to the public drinking ban.

Public drinking was banned on the entire Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand during New Year’s Eve celebrations, in order to deter violence, and would-be offenders faced fines of up to $250. Police reportedly patrolled on Saturday and Sunday to enforce the ban and make sure everyone got the message, but they couldn’t really do anything about a group of young revelers casually enjoying a drink or two on a small island that they had built themselves just a few feet from shore, in the town of Whangamata.

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An unnamed Thai woman has shared photos of a botched nose job online to warn others not to undergo the risky procedure without first doing some research on the clinic. She underwent surgery in Thailand’s southern city of Hat Yai at an unidentified clinic offering cheap rhinoplasty.

The procedure involved inserting a silicone implant, similar to those used in breast enhancement surgery, into her nose with the intention of creating a more pronounced look. The woman suffered an infection which caused massive inflammation at the site of the operation. Her body was rejecting the procedure, and shockingly, the implant began to emerge from the skin above her nose. She went back to the clinic seeking help, but they refused her, saying to the local media that it ‘took no responsibility’ for the botched job and ‘refused to help her.’

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“Flat-earthers”, people who believe that the Earth is flat, have been catching a lot of flack for their ridiculous claims, but their’s is not the craziest theory regarding our planet’s shape and structure. Some people actually believe the Earth is hollow and that a race of superior humans live inside it.

The hollow Earth theory was first proposed in the 17th century by some of the leading scientists of the time. Unlike their predecessors, however, the modern hollow Earth theorists also believe that a race of superior humans, Vikings, and Nazis live in paradise at the center. These residents of the core frequently send UFOs, via holes in the North and South poles, to spy on us surface dwellers in an attempt to prevent a nuclear war.

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Greek eco-terrorists claim to have started injecting hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance, into supermarket foods and drinks. The anarchist group even posted photos of themselves injecting soda, milk, and meat with acid, on social media.

Several Greek supermarkets were forced to withdraw specific products from their shelves after the threats of contamination. Authorities urged citizens in Athens and Thessaloniki not to buy or consume Coca-Cola, a local milk brand, and packaged meat for fear of them being contaminated with the dangerous substance. The two cities have a combined total of about 1 million residents affected by these precautionary measures.

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The World Health Organisation recently recognised video game addiction as a mental health condition, and while that decision may seem strange to some, stories like the one presented here could serve as an explanation.

Tencent’s insanely popular mobile video game “King of Glory” is once again getting some bad publicity in Asian media, after allegedly getting one 25-year-old Malaysian man so addicted that he decided to divorce his wife of six years because she sold his account in the hopes that he would spend more time with her and their daughter. In the past, King of Glory was linked to the death of a popular Chinese streamer who allegedly spent most of his nights playing the game, and to the blindness of a woman who played the popular MOBA for three days straight.

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Most of us can barely wait to open our Christmas presents every year, but one Canadian man has managed to keep one unopened for the past 47 years.

Adrian Pearce of Edmonton received the gift in 1970 when he was a 17-year-old student at George S. Henry Secondary School in suburban Toronto. It was from Vicki, his first serious girlfriend, who gave him the gift and then immediately ended their relationship. He was so angry and upset about the breakup that opening the present was the last thing on his mind. He simply threw it under the Christmas tree and when it remained the only unopened present on Christmas day, he told his family that he was never going to open it. Believe it or not, he managed to keep that promise.

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A Thai family received the shock of their lives this month when the man they had cremated 7 months before casually waked through the front door as if nothing had happened.

Sakorn Sacheewa, a 44-year-old man from Thailand’s Si Ka Ket province, returned home after two years working on a fishing boat, in a different part of the country. He had never once contacted his family during that time, so he didn’t really expect the warmest of receptions, but being treated as a ghost never crossed his mind either. Only that’s exactly how his family reacted when he walked through the door on December 17, touching him to make sure he was real. He later found out that to them he had been dead for 7 months.

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A suspected murderer who had evaded capture for 12 years by pretending to be a mute has allegedly lost his ability to speak, Chinese media recently reported.

The Chinese man, identified only by his surname ‘Zheng’, had been charged with murdering his wife’s uncle, a Mr. Cao, in a dispute over a 500 yuan ($76) rent, back in 2005. During one of their heated arguments, Zheng, then 33, allegedly stabbed Mr. Cai, then ran from his home in Hangzhou, China’s Zhejiang Province, before authorities could apprehend him. The runaway murder suspect adopted the fake name of Wang Gui and started pretending to be a mute beggar in order to make ends meet.

Zheng eventually settled in a small village in Anhui Province, 700 km north of Hangzhou, where he began working in construction, while staying true to his mute persona. He even got a new wife and fathered a child, but never spoke a word to them, for fear of saying something that could blow his cover.

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Cryptocurrency is all the rage right now, but while most people wish they that they had invested in Bitcoin and other altcoins in the early days, dozens of men are mining crypto and simply giving it away to a woman they’ve never met.

Theodora is a financial dominatrix, which basically means she receives money and other “tributes” from male clients who experience pleasure by being financially exploited. These tributes can range from a few dollars to tens of thousands. Some clients go so far as to give her complete control over their bank accounts, a.k.a becoming human ATMs. Theodora claims that she also runs crypto slave farms in which clients use their own cryptocurrency mining rigs to mine cryptocurrency 24/7 and then hand it over to her.

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If run of the mill disaster survival kits just don’t cut it and you can afford to splurge a few extra bucks on something more befitting your social status, try Preppi, a luxury doomsday kit supplier for the super rich.

Film director Ryan Kuhlman founded Preppi in partnership with costume designer Lauren Tafuri, and they run the business out of their downtown Los Angeles loft. The couple experienced a small earthquake in 2014 and realized that they should have supplies on hand for such emergencies. Today, their Prepster disaster kits are the most popular luxury survival accessories on the market.

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A group of fraternity members in Bethesda, Maryland recently gave the phrase “drink the air” a literal meaning, after staging a monster party so fueled by alcohol that the air in the venue tested positive on a police breathalyzer.

Last month, Montgomery County police officers raided a home in an upscale neighborhood of Bethesda after receiving several complaints from neighbors, and broke up what must have been one hell of a party. Court documents show that the officers found insulated windows, plastic bags full of beer cans and liqueur bottles, and the floors sticky with spilled booze. The ambient air inside the suburban house was tested with at least one breathalyzer and registered a positive result of 0.1.

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If you’ve ever wondered why washing your pillow case every once in a while is so important, this case may give you an idea. A Chinese woman who, for some reason, hand’t washed her pillow case in five years recently turned up at a hospital in Wuhan, where doctors discovered over 100 mites living on her eyelashes.

The woman, known only as Ms. Xu, told doctors that her eyes had been red and itchy for around two years, but that she just simply got used to their condition and relied on over-the-counter eye drops to alleviate the symptoms, instead of seeing an ophthalmologist. It was only when the problem got so bad that her eyelashes and eyelids started getting stuck together that she finally decided it was time to get some professional help.

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An entire Italian family suffer from a strange genetic mutation that makes them almost completely immune to pain. The condition is so rare that scientists have named it ‘The Marsili Syndrome’, after the family.

Letizia Marsili, 52, became aware of her immunity to pain in early childhood when she didn’t experience any particular sensation from burns or fractures. Five other members of her family, spanning at least three generations, also share this rare genetic anomaly that makes impervious to pain situations where an average person would require an anesthetic. The Marsilis have become the focus of researchers hoping to discover how their mutation works, in the hopes of developing new ways to treat pain.

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