A Chinese marathon runner famous for chain-smoking during official running competitions has been banned by the athletic federation for two years for his “uncivilized” behavior.

Chen Mouxian, aka ‘Uncle Chen’, first made international headlines in 2022, when photos of him running in the Xin’anjiang Marathon went viral on social media. What drew people’s attention to the then-50-year-old experienced runner was that he always had a lit cigarette in his mouth, and kept lighting up as soon as he finished a cigarette. Dubbed “Smoking Brother”, Chen sparked controversy on Chinese social media, with some users praising his athletic abilities, and others criticizing him for promoting an unhealthy habit and also exposing other runners to harmful tobacco smoke. This month, Uncle Chen was banned from participating in marathons for two years after once again smoking his way through the 2024 Xiamen Marathon in Fujian on January 7th.

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An elderly Chinese woman has decided to leave her 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) fortune to her pet cats and dogs, claiming that they were always there for her, unlike her three children.

The woman, made her first will some years back, splitting all her possessions among her three children, but she recently had a change of heart after being neglected by her human offspring. She claims that her children never visited or at least arranged for her to be taken care of when she was ill, and they hardly ever contact her, so she has decided to leave all her assets to the only creatures that have always been by her side – her pet cats and dogs. The Shanghai-based woman has already changed her will to reflect her wishes that all her money be used to care for her pets and their offspring after her passing.

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A Colorado pastor accused of conning his own congregation out of millions of dollars by promoting a useless crypto coin claims that God Himself told him to do it.

Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn are being investigated for fraud after allegedly launching and peddling a useless cryptocurrency as a a low-risk, high-profit investment pegged to the average value of the top 100 cryptocurrencies. In reality, INDXcoin was “illiquid and practically worthless,” according to the Colorado Division of Securities, and only available through the Regalados’ proprietary crypto exchange, called Kingdom Wealth Exchange, which the pastor shut down last year, making the coin virtually useless. Now Regalado claims that the whole thing was God’s idea, although he admits that he may have “misunderstood” his message.

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A 26-year-old model who was born in Ukraine and moved to Japan at the age of five was recently crowned Miss Japan, sparking a heated debate regarding national identity.

Carolina Shiino speaks and writes impeccable Japanese, she spent most of her life in Japan and identifies as Japanese. But she wasn’t born in Japan and, most importantly, she doesn’t look Japanese, and for many, as the newly-crowned Miss Japan, that’s a big problem. Ukrainian-born Carolina is the first naturalized Japanese citizen to win the national beauty pageant, and while some accepted her win as a “sign of the times,” for others it is a tough pill to swallow. Everyone acknowledges the young woman’s beauty, but the fact that a European woman was voted Miss Japan is simply unacceptable.

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Leda Bergonzi, the so-called Healer of Rosario, is a popular faith healer who managed to capture the attention of an entire country and even gain the backing of Argentina’s Catholic Church.

Argentina has had its share of religious faith healers throughout history, but none with a meteoric rise quite like that of 44-year-old Leda Bergonzi, a former seamstress and mother-of-five who one day realized she had received the gift of healing from God and decided to put it to good use. According to the Catholic Church, there are over a dozen faith healers throughout Argentina these days, but Leda stands out both through her wardrobe – she favors skinny jeans, T-shirts, and high-top sneakers – her charisma, and the official support of the Catholic Church. She draws tens of thousands of people from all over Argentina to her home city of Rosario and spends days at a time trying to heal them of all sorts of ailments, from paralysis to terminal cancer.

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Chinese company Betavolt recently unveiled its BV100 battery which is smaller than a coin in size but has a lifespan of around 50 years and doesn’t require recharging.

Atomic batteries aren’t new. Both the United States and the USSR produced such power units during the 1960s, but these nuclear batteries were large, dangerous, and expensive to make. Plutonium was used as the radioactive power source for the first atomic batteries, but science has come a long way since, and Betavolt’s revolutionary battery now relies on a much safer isotope, nickel-63, which decays to a stable isotope of copper. The diamond semiconductor material in the battery allows it to run stably in environments ranging from -60 to 120 degrees Celsius. Measuring just 15mm x 15mm x 5mm, the new Betavolt BV100 constantly generates electricity as the isotopes degrade, unlike conventional batteries which simply store energy.

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Chinese researchers have sparked controversy in the scientific community after publishing a study on a mutant coronavirus-related virus that reportedly caused a 100 percent death rate in infected humanized mice.

The origin of the Covid-19 virus is still unknown, but conspiracy theories surrounding an out-of-control Chinese lab experiment are once again gaining traction online thanks to a controversial study recently published by Chinese scientists in Beijing. They apparently experimented with a mutated strain of GX_P2V, a coronavirus “cousin” discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017, three years before the Covid-19 pandemic, using it to infect genetically modified mice engineered to reflect similar genetic makeup to people. The controversial study is the first of its kind to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected by the GX_P2V, far surpassing the findings of previous research.

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For the past eight months, a mysterious man dubbed ‘Flexman’ by his motorist fans has been disabling speed cameras in several Italian regions by cutting their supporting metal poles with an angle grinder.

The angle grinder was invented in 1954 by a German company called Flex, and even today, in many European countries, the angle grinder is popularly known as a ‘flex’. Little did the creators of this useful tool know that many decades later, the flex would inspire the nickname of a vigilante specializing in disabling speed traps on the roads of Italy by taking an angle grinder to the metal poles supporting them. Flexman first made news headlines in May of last year, when he took down his first speed trap on a road near Bosaro, in Italy’s Rovigo region. Since then, he managed to disable at least seven other cameras in Rovigo and Veneto using his signature angle grinder, and authorities still have no idea who he is or how to stop him.

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Lexi Love is a busty blonde AI model designed to attract not only with her stunning physique but also by engaging her paying subscribers in 30 different languages, 24 hours a day.

The AI model business is booming, and Lexi Love is only the latest example. We’ve already written about similar projects, with Aitana Lopez and Emily Pellegrini, the ‘world’s hottest model’, being among the most popular. Love recently made international news headlines, with her creators – UK-based startup, Foxy AI – claiming that she generated around $30,000 in monthly subscriptions and that she has already gotten over 20 marriage proposals, despite only being active since June 2023. Apparently, Lexi owes her success to the fact that she was designed as more than just a pretty face and amazing body, as she is able to “flirt, laugh, and adapt to different personalities, interests, and preferences.”

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A young New York musician recently sparked controversy after allegedly getting five different women pregnant at about the same time, and hosting a joint baby shower with all of them.

22-year-old New York City musician Zeddy Will has been getting a lot of attention for his latest “achievement” – allegedly impregnating five young women and somehow convincing them to take part in a joint baby shower. The bizarre news was announced by Lizzy Ashleigh, one of the mothers-to-be, on TikTok. The 29-year-old woman posted invitations to the baby shower scheduled for January 14 which featured a photo of Zeddy Will and all the five women. The invitation read “Welcome little Zeddy Wills 1-5”.

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Georgeta, a 35-year-old truck driver from Romania, has been dubbed the Romanian Barbie for surrounding herself with the color pink,  which dominates both the outside and inside of her truck.

Female truck drivers are definitely not the norm, but Georgeta really stands out with her pink outfits, pink truck, and very colorful personality. The so-called ‘Romanian Barbie’ went viral in her home country this week after photos of her and her pinked-out trucks started circulating on social media. The young woman has been driving a truck for 12 years, working mostly in Spain, but she recently came home, bought her own truck, and began working for herself. She spends most of her time in the truck, which is why she spent a lot of time and effort turning it into a cozy space that reflects her passion for the color pink.

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The hairworm might not look like much, but it is a sinister parasite that steals its host’s genetic code to manipulate it into deep water, so it can reproduce and start the cycle all over again.

During its larval stage, a hairworm’s first goal is to get eaten by a tadpole or a mosquito. It then lies dormant until this initial host is itself eaten by a larger creature, such as a cricket, grasshopper, or mantis. Once its Trojan horse is digested by the new host, the hairworm breaks out and begins sapping the poor insect of nutrients. This only takes about three months, after which the hairworm somehow manipulates its drained host toward water, where it would never go on its own, to drown. Hairworms breed in water, so after their host dies, they swim to the nearest ball hairworms to reproduce and start the cycle once more. Scientists have known about the worm’s ‘mindsnatcher’ trick for years, but a team of researchers claims to have finally figured out how hairworms actually brainwash their hosts.

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Frank Hayes is believed to be the only jockey in history to win an official horse race while dead. He suffered a heart attack while competing at New York’s Belmont Park in 1923.

According to Frank’s mother, the young stable boy and apprentice jockey had always been fond of hoses and dreamed of one day becoming a full-time race jockey, so when finally given the chance to prove himself in a 2-mile, 12-jump race at Belmont Park, he leaped at the opportunity. Frank Hayes loved training horses, and one of his favorites was Sweet Kiss, a 7-year-old unremarkable mare that wasn’t well thought of even by her owners. She had 20-1 odds in the big race and wasn’t expected to pull off anything extraordinary, but Frank believed she could win, so Sweet Kiss’ owners gave him the chance to prove it. This would be their only race together, but one that would be remembered a century later.

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A Chicago man is suing 27 women for $75 million after they posted negative comments about him on a Facebook dating group, calling him “very clingy” and a ghoster.

32-year-old Nikko D’Ambrosio claims that his reputation was tarnished after several women who claim to have dated him posted their negative experiences on a private Facebook group called ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy’. The popular group originated in New York, but has since branched out to other major cities and is mainly used by women to share their experiences with men and ask for advice about various red flags. In D’Ambrosio’s case, dozens of women wrote derogatory comments, labeling him as clingy or accusing him of ghosting them after getting what he wanted. Now, the Chicago man is suing several of these women, as well as moderators of the Facebook group and parts of the social network’s parent company for $75 million.

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Don’t you hate it when you can’t remember if you locked the front door when you last left your home? It’s a dreadful feeling that you don’t have to experience again thanks to a cool little accessory called CheckKEY.

Developed by Japanese lock manufacturer company Miwa, the ChecKEY is a sleeve-like accessory that goes over the top part of your regular key and features a small window that indicates whether you locked your door or not. The ChecKEY comes with a built-in mechanism that detects when you turn the key clockwise or counterclockwise and changes color accordingly. When you turn the key into a lock clockwise, the little window on the ChecKEY turns white, and when you turn it counterclockwise, it turns orange. The mechanism is entirely mechanical, so it never runs out of batteries. This way, when in doubt, you can just look at your key and tell if you really locked your door on your way out.

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