Life-size Fire-Breathing, Three-Headed Dragon Statue Draws Crowd to Russian Village

In recent years, the village of Kamenka in Russia’s Lipetsk region has become famous as the home of Zmei Gorynich, a giant three-headed statue of one of the most iconic villains of Slavic folk stories.

The “Kudykina Gora” family park on the outskirts of Kamenka village has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Lipetsk largely thanks to a single exhibit – the statue of Zmei Gorynich, an “extremely realistic” and “frighteningly attractive” rendition of the main antagonist in dozens of Russian folk stories and legends. Created by Ukrainian sculptor Vladimir Kolesnikov, the impressive statue stands about 15 meters high and is about as large as you’d expect a fearsome three-headed dragon to be. Did I mention it also breathes fire and screams menacingly from time to time?

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Olive Wagyu – The World’s Rarest Type of Steak

With only about 2,200 heads of cattle bred specifically for it, of which only a few are harvested every month, olive wagyu is regarded as the rarest type of steak in the world.

The history of olive wagyu is closely tied to that of Shodoshima Island, in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture. Also known as “Olive Island”, because of its microclimate, which is comparable to that of the Mediterranean, Shodoshima is the native home of Japan’s olive cultivation. It’s also a place where Wagyu cattle have been raised since the 8th century, mainly as animals of burden, cultivating rice paddies and hauling heavy loads thanks to their ample energy reserves. But until one local farmer came up with a way of incorporating Shodoshima’s main export into the cattle’s diet, Wagyu couldn’t stand the bitter taste of olives.

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Influencer Raffles Brand New SUV, Sparks Controversy When Her Mother Wins It

Mexican influencer Lore Garza caused quite the controversy online last week when she announced that the winner of the brand new KIA SUV she was raffling was her own mother…

Lore Garza, a popular Mexican social media personality with over 140,000 fans on Instagram alone, has been getting a lot of attention from news outlets over the past couple of weeks because of her latest attempt of “giving back” to her fans. In one of her most daring promotional efforts yet, Garza announced a raffle for a brand new KIA SUV. Anyone could enter for a chance to win, as long as they bought one or more tickets worth 350 pesos ($17). The raffle generated a lot of interest, so a lot of people tuned in to see who won the car, only to be left with their mouths opened when it was announced that Lore Garza’s own mother was the winner…

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Woman Convinces Husband He Has Alzheimer’s to Cover Up $600,000 Theft

A Connecticut woman has been accused of stealing over $600,000 from her husband’s bank account over the last 20 years and trying to cover it up by making him think he has Alzheimer’s disease.

Donna Marino was arrested last week for reportedly stealing money in the form of pension checks, workers’ compensation payments, and Social Security income from her husband of 20 years. When the man’s daughter discovered paperwork related to credit cards her father knew nothing about, she notified the police, convinced that her stepmother had taken control of the family finances. It was at that point that the unnamed man admitted to leaving Marino in charge of finances, because she had convinced him that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

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Wild Sparrow Refuses to Leave the Human Couple That Raised Her

A young couple in Koper, Slovenia are the proud parents of a wild sparrow that refuses to leave their side, even though she always has the freedom to go anywhere she wants.

Alesh and Janja, a young couple from Koper, in Slovenia, adopted their “child”, Chibi, when she was about 10-days-old. A friend of theirs found her while walking her baby. She was lying on the ground next to another dead sparrow, and her parents were nowhere to be found, so the woman took the baby sparrow home. Unfortunately, she had her own baby and couldn’t take care of another, especially one from a species she knew nothing about. That’s where Alesh and Janja came in; they didn’t know anything about sparrow chicks either, but there was plenty of information online, and they were willing to put in the work.

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This French Bookstore Is a Cat-Lover’s Dream Come True

You know what a good book goes great with? Well, apparently cats, and this new bookstore in Aix-en-Provence, France is all the proof you need.

Mon Chat Pitre opened its doors in June of this year, and it has already become somewhat of a local attraction in Aix-en-Provence, especially among cat lovers. It has a nice selection of books to choose from, but what really sets it apart from other bookstores in the city, or anywhere else in France for that matter, is the “decor”. As you walk around the bookstore looking for your next read, you have the opportunity, nay, the privilege, to stroke six furry felines that love nothing more than to lay on the books on offer and beg visitors’ attention.

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Treasure Hunters Claim They Are “on the Brink” of Finding $20 Billion Trove

A group of treasure hunters that has been searching for the fabled “Lemminkäinen Hoard” treasure in Finland since 1987 claims that they are finally just “meters away” from finding it.

Known as the Treasure Twelve, the group of treasure hunters has spent every summer since 1987 looking for the Lemminkäinen Hoard, the whereabouts of which were revealed to them by a mystic just before their death. Apparently, a labyrinthine cave complex near Helsinki is home to the most valuable treasure the world has ever known, with an estimated value of over $15 billion. Now, 34 years after their search for the Lemminkäinen Hoard began the Treasure Twelve are closer than ever to finally getting their hands on it.

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Dog Learns to Walk Like a Human After Losing Leg in Accident

Dexter, a 6-year-old Brittany Spaniel dog, has become famous for his ability to adapt by learning to walk only on his hind legs, after losing one of his front legs in a car accident.

Dexter hadn’t even turned 1-year-old when he broke out of his owners’ yard in Ouray, Colorado to follow a scent. Focused on his goal, the pup accidentally ran out in front of a moving van and got hit pretty badly. Luckily, he was found moments later by his owner’s husband, Tim Pasek, who immediately took him to a vet. One of his front legs had to be removed, and the other turned out to be more badly damaged than originally thought. But the important thing is that after a 45-minute procedure, Dexter’s life was saved, and he has since adapted perfectly, relying only on his hind legs to get around, just like a human.

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Nigerian Man Arrested for Trying to Sell Himself for $50,000

A 26-year-old man in Nigeria was recently arrested by the Islamic police known as Hisbah for trying to sell himself to anyone who would pay the 20 million Nigerian nara ($49,000) fee.

Aliyu Na Idris first made national news headlines at the end of October, when he was spotted walking through the city of Karo with a cardboard sign that read “this man is for sale, 20,000,000N”. At the time, the 26-year-old man, who works as a tailor, told news reporters that he had first tried selling himself in the city of Kaduna, but couldn’t find a buyer, so he moved to Karo. He also explained that he had resorted to selling himself because of what he called poverty, claiming that he planned to give most of the money to his parents and keep the rest for daily expenses.

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“Shocked” Man Seeks Divorce From Wife After Seeing Her Without Makeup

An Egyptian man is reportedly seeking a divorce from his new wife, claiming that he can’t get used to her natural look after seeing her without makeup.

In what seems like the script of a hilarious sketch or an article on The Onion, an Egyptian man reportedly filed for divorce from his wife-of-one-month, because he just couldn’t get used to her appearance without makeup. Apparently, the two met on Facebook, where the woman always posted attractive photos of herself, but even after going out with her a few times, the unnamed man still found her attractive and decided to marry her. The problems began on the morning after the wedding night when the man saw his bride without makeup for the first time.

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The World’s Narrowest River Is Only a Few Centimeters Wide

The Hualai River, in China, is apparently the narrowest river in the world, measuring only a few dozen centimeters at its widest point.

At its widest point, the Amazon is more than 6 miles wide during the dry season, and a whopping 24 miles wide during the wet season. It’s by far the widest river in the world, but although there are plenty of other rivers at least a mile-wide at their widest point, width is not a defining characteristic of a river. In fact, there’s actually a river in China so narrow that you can easily step over it. Hualai River, on the Inner Mongolia Plateau in north China, is over 17-kilometers-long but has an average width of just 15 centimeters. At its narrowest, it is just 4-cm-wide.

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Parents Are Strapping Corrective Helmets on Babies to make Their Heads Round

In what is being reported as a disturbing new trend, Chinese parents are allegedly resorting to corrective helmets and molds to ensure that their babies have aesthetically pleasing round heads.

The latest craze to hit China involves parents taking advantage of their babies’ soft skulls to make sure that they have round heads, instead of dreaded flat ones. A number of companies have taken advantage of the bizarre head shape preference by offering a variety of head-correcting products, from helmets to special mats and pillows designed to prevent the flattening of babies’ heads. Ironically, flat heads were once considered so lucky that children were forced to sleep with their heads on books, but the shape has fallen out of style…

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The New York Earth Room – An NYC Apartment Filled With 140 Tons of Dirt

The New York Earth Room at 141 Wooster Street is a unique NYC attraction created in 1977 by local artist Walter De Maria by filling an apartment with 140 tons of dirt.

Consisting of 250 cubic yards of fertile dirt covering the floor of an apartment located on the second floor of a building on Wooster Street, The New York Earth Room is one of NYC’s most unusual artsy attractions. The Dia Art Foundation commissioned local artist Walter De Maria to create it in 1977, and it was opened to the general public in 1980. De Maria had previously created two other earth rooms in Germany, but the one in New York is the only one in existence today. Art lovers can visit the unusual attraction, gaze upon the mass of dirt and take in its earthy fragrance, but they are forbidden from stepping on the dirt or even touching it.

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Beer-Loving Artist Creates Beautiful Beer Bottle Cap Mosaics

A French graphic designer managed to mix his love of beer with a passion for art by creating beautiful beer bottle cap mosaics of various pop icons.

You could say Paris-based graphic designer Jean Marie Lambert drinks in the name of art. Having noticed that the various beers he loved so much had different colors and designs, he one day decided to combine them into an original mosaic, and the result was so impressive that he decided to turn it into a whole series. Inspired by famous artworks like the Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, and icons like Han Solo or football superstar Maradona, Lambert creates mosaics that a just detailed enough to be familiar and attract viewers’ attention.

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Frugal Woman Saves Up To 90% of Her Monthly Salary, Buys 2 Homes in Nine Years

A Chinese woman has sparked controversy online with her extremely frugal lifestyle, which involves spending as little money as possible, even if it means giving up on some of life’s small pleasures.

Consumerism may be at an all-time high in the developed world right now, but the minimalist lifestyle trend is also becoming increasingly popular. In China, hundreds of thousands of people share “money-saving tips” on private social media groups, with some members standing out through their frugal lifestyles. One such individual is Wang Shenai, a 32-year-old woman from Nanjing and member of a 400,000-strong online group called Frugal Women’s Federation. She has achieved celebrity status among her peers for her extreme money-saving techniques, but also sparked controversy among the general public, after a recent interview she gave went viral.

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