Indonesian officials are offering a monetary reward to whoever manages to remove a motorcycle tyre from the neck of a 13-foot-long crocodile.

The full-grown crocodile has reportedly been wearing the tire around its neck since 2016, but authorities in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, are worried that it may end up strangling the reptile, so they are turning to the public for help. In 2018, conservationist and “animal whisperer” Muhammad Panji tried to remove the tire, and later that year the local conservation office tried luring the 4-meter-long crocodile with food. Both attempts proved unsuccessful so Palu officials are now hoping that brave locals can do the impossible for an unspecified cash prize.

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Nyakim Gatwech is a Sudanese-born fashion model known primarily for her melanin-rich skin, which has earned her the nickname ‘Queen of Dark’.

As a refugee growing up in camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, Nyakim Gatwech was never ashamed of her super dark skin and her South Sudanese heritage, but when her family immigrated to the United States when she was 13-years-old, her different appearance made her the target of bullies. Some of the kids at her school in Buffalo, New York, could be very mean, and having never had to deal with racism before, she was confused. Some middle-schoolers were afraid to her, while others made fun of her dark skin tone, and she would come home crying unable to explain to her parents what was going on. Things improved when she moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota for high school, and became with other Sudanese and Somali kids, but she never really felt like she belonged. Even today, some of the things people say about her skin make her feel uncomfortable, but she has learned to take them in stride and educate instead of complaining.

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Man vs Fat is a weight-loss phenomenon sweeping the United Kingdom and helping soccer fans lose weight and improve their fitness by getting involved in their favorite sport.

Soccer, or football, as we Europeans call it, is the most popular sport in the world, but nowhere is it more loved than in its birthplace – England. To say people there are crazy about soccer would be an understatement; with over 140 individual leagues, containing more than 480 divisions, and around 7,000 professional clubs, it’s safe to say that soccer truly is at home in England. People love to play it, love to watch others playing it, either in stadiums or from the comfort of their own homes, love to talk about it in pubs, it’s just a big part of daily life. So I guess it makes sense that soccer be so effective in helping to curb the country’s very serious obesity problem.

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A professor of experimental psychology recently unveiled a wearable patch infused with bacon flavor that is supposed to help curb meat cravings.

Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, teamed up with plant-based food company Strong Roots to create a patch that, when scratched, produces a smell similar to that of cooked bacon. The idea behind this strange invention is that the human mind is connected to our senses of taste and smell, and that certain smells can significantly reduce food cravings.

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A 16-year-old Indonesian boy suffered a horrific injury to his neck after a needlefish suddenly jumped out of the water and literally pierced his neck clean through, knocking him out of the boat he was fishing from.

The freak accident occurred on January 18, when 16-year-old Muhammad Idul and his friend Sari decided to go on a late-night fishing trip. The boys went out to sea in Buton, off the South East Sulawesi province, and everything went according to plan until Sari turned on his flashlight, which allegedly caused a needlefish to suddenly leap out of the water and lodge its pointy, long jaws in Muhammad’s neck, piercing it from his chin to the base of the skull. Not only did the force of the attack knock him out of the boat, but the thrashing fish, which remained dodged in his neck, almost made him drown.

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A 61-year-old postal worker from the Japanese city of Yokohama was recently arrested for hoarding around 24,000 pieces of mail that he had failed to deliver since back in 2003.

Officials at Japan Post, the government-owned mail service, noticed there was something peculiar about the unnamed postal worker’s activity last year, and he was let go. However, the cache of hidden mail was discovered later, because it was located in his home, “which is beyond the confines of an internal inspection”. The 61-year-old admitted to failing to deliver the tens of thousands of letters and parcels, claiming that doing his job “was too much bother”. But he didn’t want his younger colleagues to think he was less capable than them, so he just hid the mail at home.

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Vernon Kruger, a 52-year-old man from Dullstroom, a small town in South Africa, hasn’t set foot on the ground in 73 days, ever since he climbed into his “home in the sky”, a small barrel at the top of a 25-meter-tall pole.

The first time Kruger climbed into his now famous barrel was 22 years ago, as a dare. He was on a an exotic island, during a vacation, when one of his friends said ‘why don’t you break the record for sitting in a tree?’. It was a joke  at first, than it became a dare, so Vernon started looking into it. He learned that an Indonesian man had already broken the record by sitting in a tree for 28 days, but instead of letting it go, his friends suggested he try pole sitting instead. The record stood at 54 days at the time, so the South African set up his own pole and stood on it for 64 days. That was in 1997, and since no one managed to break his world record since, he decided to do it himself.

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A Houston woman recently took to social media to complain about her daughter’s Elsa doll, which not only starts singing on its own even when switched off, but has also returned after being thrown away multiple times.

Emily Madonia recalls that the problematic Elsa doll became a part of her family’s life on Christmas 2013, as a gift for her daughter. It recited several lines from the Disney animation blockbuster “Frozen”, as well as the iconic song “Let It Go” when a small button was pushed on her necklace. Everything was fine for two years, but in 2015, she started alternating between English and Spanish, when before she had only recited lines in English. Then it started singing and speaking randomly, even when her switch was turned off, but the family brushed it off as some sort of glitch or wiring problem. But things got really weird lat December, when Emily decided to throw the doll out with the trash, and it somehow kept coming back…

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An Ecuadorian man was allegedly caught red handed cheating on his partner with another woman, when the half-time kiss cam showed them kissing in the stands during a soccer match.

Last Saturday, Barcelona of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s very own Barcelona soccer club, made its traditional yearly presentation during a friendly match against rivals Delfin, one of last season’s revelations. It was a good game, but it was surprisingly overshadowed by something that occurred during the half-time break. The kiss-cam showed a young couple making out in the stands, but things got weird when the man saw himself on one of the jumbo screens. He immediately removed his arm from around the young lady, his smile went away instantly, and the two just started looking in opposite directions, like they didn’t know each other.

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A tailoring shop in the Spanish city of Bilbao has sparked a heated debate online after it was reported that it started charging people 15 euros ($16.7) just for trying on clothes.

Camino Azula Pascual, co-owner of the Pascual Bilbao tailoring shop in downtown Bilbao, has been making custom men’s suits and tuxedos for 40 years, so she doesn’t even need a measuring tape anymore. As soon as someone walks through the door, she knows their measurements, and, if they’re in a hurry, she can even recommend something that would suit the special occasion perfectly. But this is a skill that she and her brother Carlos have  honed over four long decades, and wasting it all on people who don’t even want to buy anything is no longer acceptable. That’s why starting this year, Pascual Bilbao has implemented a 15 euro tax for everyone looking to try on suits in the shop.

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In a news story you would expect to read on websites like The Onion, a Ugandan holy man was suspended from his duties as imam, after it was discovered that he had unknowingly wed a fellow man.

27-year-old Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba, was recently suspended from his duties as a cleric at the Kyampisi Masjid Noor mosque in Kayunga, after his wife of two weeks was caught stealing a TV from a neighbour. The theft wasn’t what caused the imam’s suspension, but the shocking revelation that his wife, Swabullah Nabukeera, was actually a man. Mutumba is said to have been totally oblivious to his wife’s real gender, and was devastated by the news. His superiors at the mosque still decided to suspend him in order to ‘preserve the integrity of their faith.’

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A Kansas man made international news this week after it was revealed that he asked an Iowa court to approve a trial by combat so she could meet his ex-wife and/or her attorney on the field of battle.

David Ostrom, a 40-year-old man from Paola, in Kansas, asked the Iowa District Court in Shelby County to give him 12 weeks lead time to forge his own Japanese katana and wakizashi swords, so could he meet his ex-wife and her attorney “on the field of battle where (he) will rend their souls from their corporal bodies.” Ostrom, who doesn’t have any experience in sword fighting, told reporters that even though he doesn’t anticipate a favorable response from the court, he still wants an answer to his request.

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45-year-old Theresa Furrer, a lifelong knitter and crocheter, is helping pet owners keep their beloved animals close to their hearts by knitting their hair into garments and accessories they can wear.

Theresa is part of a community of artists that specialize in a form of yarn spinning known as “chiengora”  – ‘chien’, the French word for dog, and ‘angora’, from the yarn spun from the soft belly fur of the angora rabbit. They basically take dog and cat hair and spin it into yarn that can subsequently be used to make soft clothing or accessories for grieving pet owners. The 45-year-old Pittsburgh woman says that she understands how some people might find her craft somewhat creepy or even gross, but she is not fazed by it at all.

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A Moscow man made national news headlines this week for putting a drawing he made when he was only six-years-old on sale online for no less than 140 million rubles ($2.3 million).

41-year-old journalist Vladimir Mkrtchyan placed the ad for his old childhood drawing on Russian classifieds site Avito on Monday, and it quickly went viral due to its exorbitant price. 140 million rubles seems kind of steep for a childish drawing, but the seller considers it’s worth twice that much, because it reflects the realities of the Soviet era through the innocent eyes of a six-year-old boy.

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It’s hard saying goodbye to your favorite pair of jeans, even when they’re way beyond wearable, but English artist Ian Berry has found a way to avoid throwing away denim, by using it to create beautiful works of art.

Netherton-born artist Ian Berry, aka Denimu, has made quite a name for himself after his unique art took the art world by storm. It’s hard to believe the idea of using old denim as medium for his art came after a call from his mother, Christine, asking him to clean out his room.: “It was about six or seven years ago my mum was clearing out my old room and she wanted me to go through my things. I found loads of old jeans and denims and I noticed the different colors and shades. I kept hold of them but it was only about 18 months later I began to do something with them.” Little did he know his experiment would soon make him and his denim art famous all over the world.

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