A Chinese woman reportedly spent the last decade of her life writing hundreds of bogus Wikipedia entries on Russian history and contributing to hundreds of others.

Wikipedia is nothing less of an online treasure! Whether you’re looking up general information out of pure curiosity, or you’re writing an important paper, Wikipedia almost always delivers the best results. But it’s not a perfect system, and this recent story from China is a perfect example of that. According to online reports from several established news sources in China, a mysterious woman is allegedly responsible for one of the biggest hoaxes in Wikipedia’s history – over 200 made-up articles on Russian medieval history, complete with fake locations, events and characters created over a period of 10 years.

This bizarre story began a while back, when Yifan, a Chinese fantasy novelist, started browsing Chinese Wikipedia as a source of inspiration for his new book. Focusing on Russian medieval history, the writer stumbled over the great Kashin silver mine, originally owned by the Tver, an independent state from the 13th to 15th centuries, and then by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, until it closed down in the 18th century, due to its resources becoming exhausted.

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A Chinese premium ice-cream company has sparked controversy on social media because its products allegedly don’t melt even when kept at high temperatures for long periods of time.

Last week, Zhongxuegao, a Chinese ice cream company known for its high-quality products, went viral on social media, after someone posted photos and videos of a Zhongxuegao ice cream next to a thermometer that showed 31 degrees Celsius. The original poster claimed that the frozen treat had been kept at that temperature for around an hour and a half, but it had clearly not melted one bit. The post got a lot of attention and inspired other people to conduct their own experiments, including taking an open flame to the ice cream to see if it melts. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

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Tired of seeing his family’s money being donated to the local church, an exasperated Russian man set the place of worship a blaze in a feat of rage.

On the morning of June 26, a fire broke out at the Church of St. Basil the Great in the village of Pargolovo, Russia’s Saint Petersburg district. The fire quickly engulfed the wooden roof and walls of the building, and the entire place would have probably burned to a crisp until the firefighters arrived, if the parishioners didn’t put the fire out themselves. Still, the damage was considerable, and local news outlets reported that many of the locals had tears in their eyes as they looked at their local place of worship. But that sadness quickly turned to anger directed at the man responsible for the devastation.

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A Japanese company is selling hyper-realistic dragonfly-shaped pendants that it claims can keep mosquitoes and other pesky insects away without any chemicals.

Did you know dragonflies are among the most successful predators in the animal kingdoms? It’s true, they have a predation success rate of about 95%, and insects apparently fear them so much that the mere sight of a dragonfly causes them to run or fly for their lives. At least that’s what the makers of this popular dragonfly-shaped pendant want their clients to believe. That’s because they are not selling it as a cool accessory for insect enthusiasts, but as a mosquito and bug repellent. Just put the pendant around your neck or somewhere where it’s very visible, and you won’t have to worry about pests anymore.

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Tired of always buying new pairs of gym sneakers, a UK man had his favorite pair of Nikes permanently tattooed onto his feet.

Dean Gunther, a popular tattoo artist from Manchester, in the United Kingdom, recently went viral on Instagram and TikTok after sharing a short video of himself tattooing a pair of sneakers onto a client’s feet. Although drawn exclusively by hand, seen from a certain angle, the design really does create the illusion that the person is wearing a pair Vibram FiveFingers sneakers with built-in toe slots. The man apparently prefers Nikes, but they don’t make that design, so…

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Barbara Humbert, an 82-year-old great-grandmother from Val d’Oise, France, recently set a new world record after running a whopping 125 km (78 miles) in 24 hours.

At the end of last month, during the French Championships held in Brive-la-Gaillarde, 82-year-old Barbara Humbert broke the world record for the longest distance run in 24 hours for her age category. A German woman had run 105 kilometers (65.2 miles) on tarmac a few years back, and Barbara had her sights on improving that record by about 15 kilometers. She exceeded her own expectations, though, smashing through the old world record with a recorded distance of 125 kilometers covered in 24 hours. Not bad for an 82-year-old great-grandmother, is it?

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A North Carolina pest control company is offering to pay homeowners $2,000 if they agree to let it release 100 American cockroaches into their households so it can test a new extermination technique.

If you live in the continental United States and want to make a quick couple of grand, go to The Pest Informer website and sign up for their ongoing experimental program. The pest control company is looking to test a new cockroach extermination technique in real-life conditions, so it wants to release 100 roaches into people’s homes, so it can try to exterminate them all for 30 days. The deal requires the written approval of the homeowner to have 100 cockroaches released on their property and to have the entire experiment filmed by technicians.

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Prism Courage, a 134,000-tonne commercial tanker, recently sailed from the Gulf of Mexico to South Korea while controlled mostly by an artificial intelligence system called HiNAS 2.0.

Avikus, a subsidiary of South Korean technology giant Hyundai, recently announced that Prism Courage, a tanker designed to transport natural gas, had become the first large ship to make an ocean passage of over 10,000 km (6,210 miles) autonomously. The key to this incredible achievement was HiNAS 2.0, an AI-powered system capable of analyzing different kinds of sensor readings in real-time and responding to them swiftly, efficiently, and, most importantly, in accordance with the rules of maritime laws.

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A middle-aged newspaper salesman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was recently arrested for “hacking” dozens of credit cards and using them to make small purchases.

When crime-fighting authorities in Argentina received a complaint about hundreds of unauthorized purchases, they were sure they were dealing with an organized hacking group. However, all leads pointed to the house of a 56-year-old newspaper salesman in the Buenos Aires town of Villa Madero. Judging by the scale of the security breach, it seemed unlikely that one person, let alone one that operated a newspaper stand, could have pulled it off. And yet, upon searching the man’s house, they found a small notebook containing a hand-written algorithm that had apparently allowed him to figure out the CVC (Card Verification Code) of his victims.

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Ever wish you could turn rock-hard ice cream from the freezer into soft-serve ice cream without having to wait for it to melt? Well, now you can, thanks to this bizarre-looking utensil from Japan.

Is it a fork? Is it a spoon? Is it a mixer whisking attachment? Well, it’s a little bit of all of those things. This is the アイホイスプーン (Aihoi Spoon), a special tool designed by a soft-serve ice cream lover for the sole purpose of turning hard tub ice cream into velvety-smooth soft-serve as quickly as possible. And while it may look like just a modified fork, after reading the inventor’s description, you’ll be surprised how much thought went into making the Aihoi Spoon.

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Over the past couple of days, news headlines in the South American country of Paraguay have been dominated by “Gordito lindo” (Cute fatty), an inmate who managed to walk out of prison by dressing as a woman.

On Sunday, César Ortiz, a supposed leader of the Rotela crime gang, escaped Tacumbú National Penitentiary by simply walking out through the front gate. Along with his freedom, he also earned the nickname “Gordito Lindo” or “Cute fatty”, because he disguised himself as a woman in order to fool the guards. Photos and video footage released by Paraguayan authorities show the convicted criminal wearing a long hair wig, fake eyelashes, lipstick, fake fingernails and women’s clothing. His disguise made such an impression on the public that the “Gordito Lindo” nickname stuck.

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A former secretary turned confectioner has been making a name for herself on social media by creating ultra-realistic cakes shaped as everyday objects.

29-year-old Marian Sarkisian used to work as a secretary in Los Angeles, but after a week-long course in Britain, she fell in love with the art of cake-making and decided to turn her passion into a career. It all started in 2016, after a birthday cake made for her sister got a lot of attention from friends and family. Marian started a cake business and as her creations became more and more elaborate, she started getting flooded with requests for special events like weddings, birthdays and christenings. But just as things were starting to pick up, the pandemic hit and the young confectioner found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. That’s when she started experimenting with edible illusions.

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Medico Life Partner, an Indian dating site that only accepts doctors, recently sparked controversy online, with many claiming that it promotes classism.

Ever wish you could find a significant life partner that shared your profession? Well, if you happen to be a doctor, you’re in luck! Medico Life Partner is an online matchmaking service that aims to help male and female doctors find “hi-quality partners” who share their profession. The website claims that doctors of all religions, castes, and geography can register, but it seems to be particularly popular in India, where the vast majority of users come from.

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Japan is home to a variety of weird shops, from ones offering magic love-granting apples to others selling hoof sandals, but when it comes to services, this hard-disk crushing shop definitely stands out.

Dark Past Final Disposal Site is a unique shop where anyone can safely destroy their potentially sensitive digital data by crushing their old drive in a special machine, for just 100 yen ($0.80). The Akihabara-based shop introduced the service in 2020, when a growing number of personal computer owners began raising questions about what happened to their personal data when they changed their PCs. The owners of Dark Past Final Disposal Site bought a professional hard drive destroying machine and began offering people the chance to safely dispose of their potentially compromising data.

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Bera, a small town in the Indian state of Rajasthan is famous for being the only place on Earth where humans and leopards live in perfect harmony.

India is one of the most densely-populated countries on Earth, and as humanity continues to encroach on the still-uninhabited woodlands and mountains, conflicts between leopards and humans are inevitable. In fact, with human expansion at peak levels and the number of leopards higher than they’ve been in decades, tensions between the two species are growing. But there’s one place where humans and leopards have allegedly been living in peace and harmony for at least a century. Known as “leopard country”, the town of Bera is said to contain the highest concentration of leopards on the planet.

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