Father Sergei Romanov, a controversial, ultra-conservative Russian priest, has taken control of the Sredneuralsk convent outside the city of Yekaterinburg and challenged authorities to force him out.

Romanov,  a former policeman who reportedly spent 13 years in a prison colony for murder before repenting and dedicating his life to religion, has been very vocal about the social distancing measures taken in Russia in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, accusing church leaders of “working with the forerunners of the Antichrist” by closing churches. Because of his controversial rhetoric, the Russian Orthodox church suspended Romanov and prevented him from preaching, and in May he was forbidden to wear a cross, after he continued to encourage people to disobey public health orders. Last Tuesday, he entered the Sredneuralsk convent, which he helped found in the early 2000’s, and seized control with the help of several armed militiamen.

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Board shoe racing is the traditional sport of the Zhuang people of China’s Gunaxi province, a unique discipline that has three people sharing the same “shoes”, which requires perfect coordination and concentration.

Board shoe racing can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, when legend has it that a famous heroine of the Xhuang people used it as a way to train soldiers against invading Japanese pirates. The legendary Mrs. Wa used long pieces of wood to teach the men to march together in perfect synchronization, which greatly improved their combat qualities and boosted their fighting spirit, helping them repel the invaders. The traditional sport has been passed on from generation to generation since then.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you’ve probably seen pictures of Japan’s square watermelons doing the rounds online. I know I have, but what I never knew was that these weird-looking fruit are basically inedible.

Perfectly sized and shaped fruits are big business in Japan, and it’s not uncommon for the rarest and most coveted varieties to sell for thousands of dollars a piece. Back in 2016, a supermarket owner made international news headlines after paying $11,000 for a bunch of Ruby Rose grapes, the world’s most expensive grape variety. But it’s not just grapes, specialty fruit shops charge hundreds, even thousands of dollars for fruits of all types, which may seem strange, but it is closely tied to Japanese culture. Rare and expensive fruits are traditionally offered as gifts to clients, business partners or relatives, and people will gladly spend a small fortune on a single fruit just to show their respect for someone. But while most of these expensive fruits can be savored by the recipient, there is one that has a purely decorative purpose – square watermelons.

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The county of Staffordshire, in central UK, is home to a mysterious and rather eerie attraction – an old oak tree with branches shackled in heavy metal chains tied to a creepy local legend.

The story of the Chained Oak near the village of Alton is the most famous legend in Staffordshire. It is said that one day during the 1830’s, as the Earl of Shrewsbury was returning home to his home at Alton Towers estate a beggar woman stopped his carriage in the middle of the road and asked him if he could spare a coin or two. The earl cruelly dismissed her and urged the driver to move on, at which point the woman allegedly cursed him to lose a member of his family whenever a branch fell off a magnificent oak on the side of the road.

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A haunted house tour operator in Japan has announced the world’s first horror drive-through experienced as a responsible way of providing horror enthusiasts with summer scares during the Covid-19 pandemic.

While restaurants remain the most affected business by the devastating coronavirus, haunted house attractions and events aren’t fairing much better either. It’s hard scaring someone out of their wits without getting up close and personal, but some companies are starting to adapt to the situation and trying out new things. Case in point, haunted house design company Kowagarasetai, which has created what it calls the world’s first haunted house drive-through experience.

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Scientists at Johns Hopkins University recently reported the strange case of a man’s whose rare degenerative brain disease left him unable to distinguish basic numbers from 2 to 9.

After studying an engineering geologist diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease called corticobasal syndrome for eight years, researchers published a study which they claim suggests that a brain response to a picture or a word does not necessarily mean that person is aware of it. The protagonist of their research had suffered neurological damage to such an extent that he could not distinguish or reproduce numbers between 2 and 9, nor pictures or words with such digits embedded in them. And yet, electroencephalography (EEG) results showed that his brain was able to properly identify all pictures and words, even id he wasn’t aware of it.

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A 40-year-old man in China reportedly suffered three bladder tears after drinking ten beers and then holding pee in for a shocking 18 hours.

Earlier this month, the man, referred to only as Mr. Hu, had reportedly consumed 10 beers during a night on the town, before coming home and crashing into an inebriated sleep. Somehow he never woke up to urinate after drinking that many beers. He just went to sleep and didn’t empty his bladder once for a total of 18 hours, which doctors later explained could be tied to alcohol’s capacity to suppress the nervous system. It is possible that Hu just didn’t feel the sensation of needing to empty his bladder while he slept. That all changed when he woke up, though.

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A 40-year-old Indian man tragically lost his life recently after his visiting family allegedly unplugged the ventilator keeping him alive in order to plug in an air cooler, after the hospital turned on air conditioning to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The unnamed man was suspected to be suffering from COVID-19 and admitted to the ICU at Maharao Bhim Singh (MBS) Hospital in Rajasthan, India, on June 13. Two days later, after another patient there tested positive for the virus, he was moved to an isolation ward as a safety precaution. That same day, the man’s family came to visit, and because it was extremely hot in the Kota district of Rajasthan (41 degrees Celsius), they brought an electrical air cooler. Under normal circumstances, the hospital’s air conditioning would have made the air cooler redundant, but because of the Covid-19 threat, the air conditioning system had been turned off to stop the spread of the virus.

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Emil Egan was born and raised in Essex, United Kingdom and speaks no foreign language, but hearing her speak you could swear she is a Russian immigrant or tourist, because of her Eastern European accent. But the funny thing is that she sometimes sounds French, Italian or even Polish, depending on how tire she is.

31-year-old Emily’s life changed dramatically in January, when a mysterious condition left her unable to speak for two months. She had complained about headaches for two weeks before one day developing a deeper voice out of the blue. Her colleagues at a children’s home she was managing in Bournemouth then noticed that her speech had become slow and slurred, both indicators of a stroke. By the time she was rushed to the hospital Emily had lost her ability to speak completely, but after running some tests, doctors ruled out the strike, instead blaming her voice loss on some sort of brain injury.

After spending three weeks in the hospital, Emily Egan was still unable to speak and relied solely on basic sign language she had picked up at work and a text-to-speech app on her phone to communicate. Emily was discharged to a neurologist who encouraged her to go on a vacation in Thailand she and her partner Bradleigh had already booked, and to try and relax as much as possible. She did just that and a few days into the vacation, she started to speak again.

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A photo of what looks like a creepy zombie foot peeking from under a log has been doing the rounds on Twitter this week, confusing a lot of people and blowing the minds of others.

Believe it or not, this picture shared online by Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda isn’t taken out of a horror movie, nor is it showing the toes of an actual zombie or a real-life White Walker. Nanda actually challenged his followers to identify the animal, which was just as misleading as the photos, because what you’re looking at isn’t an animal but a fungus aptly named “Dad Man’s Fingers”.

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Slope Point is known for being the southernmost tip on New Zealand’s South Island, but also for hosting some of the strangest-looking trees in the world. They are shaped by the relentless winds that constantly pummel this place.

Trees don’t usually grow in the Slope Point area. It’s not that the soil isn’t fertile enough, but the winds blowing through the slopes and fields of this place make it an inhospitable place. Still, the farmers that bring their sheep here for grazing planted patches of trees as shelter for the animals. Only instead of growing upright, like other specimens, most of these trees are twisted and crooked, with their canopy looking like windswept hair. They look unlike anything else in the world, and they have made the otherwise unremarkable Slope Point famous around the globe.

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Thai social media has been abuzz about a particular skin whitening cream after a number of online promoters published before and after photos which suggested that the cream worked a bit too well.

Skin whitening creams are big business in South-East Asia, with many brands competing to attract the millions of people obsessed with having a fairer complexion. One of the best ways to do that is social media promotion, only some so-called influencers often try too hard when pitching a product to their audience, as was recently the case with a whitening cream called Milk Lotion Whitening Skin. Before-and-after pictures doing the rounds online this past week showed some pretty dramatic changes, with users’ skin going from light brown to a macabre white.

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could just get rid of that unattractive double chin without dieting, exercising or going under the knife? Well, it turns out you can, all you have to do is wear a weird-looking ‘face bra’ for a while and the double chin magically disappears.

Similar to the chin straps used after plastic surgery to keep the tissue tight during recovery, the Face Bra relies on compression to allegedly sculpt wearers’ faces and help them get rid of drooping facial fat. It works for “slimming down your face” or getting rid of a double chin, and the Australian company selling it claims that even a one-time use can help you lose up to one centimeter of fat…

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A financially-burdened businessman from Delhi, India who wanted to end his own life, but was too scared to do it himself hired four hitmen to kill him so his family could receive a considerable insurance policy.

40-year-old Gaurav Bansal supported his family by operating a ration shop, but because of he Covid-19 lockdown, he was under immense financial burden. The poor state of his business had taken a toll on the man’s mental state, and he was plunged in a deep depression. Unable to see hope at the end of the tunnel, Bansal took out a personal loan of RS 6 lakh ($7,900) and planned to have himself murdered. He originally intended to end his own life, but couldn’t muster the courage to do it, so he contacted four other people to do it, for a price.

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Pastor Charles Osazuwa, the general overseer of Rock of Ages Assembly Inc. in Nigeria, called upon his followers to build or buy their own homes, as having a landlord is tantamount to having another Lord but Christ.

During a controversial sermon that has been doing the rounds on social media over the last week, the Nigerian pastor told his congregation that being a tenant is technically a sin. He said that the first advice he always gives someone who has a job is to buy their own house, so they can liberate themselves from their landlord. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate or luxurious place, especially if it’s their first house, but as Christians they should not have two Lords…

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