The Russian Republic of Chechnya recently banned Russian dance music deemed either too fast or too slow, in a bizarre attempt to fight the Western “pollution” of its conservative values.

Musa Dadayev, Chechnya’s Minister of Culture, recently put out a statement that effectively criminalizes most modern dance music genres that are typically played in clubs all over the world, from house and techno to dubstep or drum’n’bass. Dadayev said that “all musical, vocal and choreographic works should correspond to a tempo of 80-116 beats per minute,” in order to conform to Chechen mentality and sense of rhythm. Russian media reports that Chechen artists have until June 1st to rewrite any music that does not conform with the new requirements.

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A California teen became the subject of a recent medical paper after getting a metal coin vertically stuck between his vocal cords like in a slot machine.

In a medical report published in this month’s New England Journal of Medicine, a team of doctors detailed the bizarre case of a 14-year-old boy who showed up at the emergency room of a hospital with a hoarse throat and swallowing difficulties. He told the staff that he had accidentally swallowed a quarter, but reported no difficulties breathing and no drooling. However, after performing an X-ray scan of his chest and neck, doctors immediately recognized the severity of the situation, as the metal coin had become stuck in a vertical position between his vocal cords and could damage them if left there for too long.

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A former University of Iowa Hospital employee admitted to stealing another man’s identity and using it for the last 35 years, thus causing that person to be arrested and committed to a mental hospital.

On April 1st, 58-year-old Matthew David Keirans pleaded guilty to federal charges that he had stolen another man’s identity and used it for the last 35 years. At the time of his arrest, Keirans was working at the University of Iowa Hospital under the name William Donald Woods, an alias he had adopted in 1988, after working with the real Woods at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s unclear how the 58-year-old man was able to use Woods’ identity in every aspect of his life, but court documents revealed that in 1990 he was able to a fraudulent Colorado identification card with Woods’ name and birthday, and in 1991 he bought a car in Woods’ name with two checks that eventually bounced.

After driving the stolen car to Idaho, Keirans abandoned it and used all his money from the Colorado bank using an ATM to leave the state. An arrest was issued in Woods’ name for the car theft, but court documents don’t show whether it was actually enforced. Keirans went on with his adopted life, marrying a woman in 1994 and even fathering a child whose last name is Woods.

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Iran’s Shazdeh Garden, also known as the Prince’s Garden, is a surprisingly lush garden full of greenery and water fountains surrounded by arid desert.

Located 6 kilometers from the city of Mahan, in Kerman Province, Shazdeh Garden is a historical Persian garden built by the Qajar Dynasty, at the end of the 19th century. The rectangular complex is surrounded by stone walls that shield the green paradise inside from the harsh desert surrounding it. Seen from the air, Shazdeh Garden looks like a welcoming oasis in the middle of an arid sea, and it’s photos like the ones below that attract thousands of people to this place every year. It features five impressive water fountains supplied through the Qanat technique of transporting water from a well through an underground aqueduct.

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An employee of the Pinakothek der Moderne art museum in Munich, Germany, reportedly hung up his own paintings next to works by Pablo Picasso or Franz Marc without asking anyone for permission.

The 51-year-old unnamed man was reportedly working in the museum technical department, which gave him access to the premises outside of visiting hours. He was thus able to casually drill holes into an empty wall and hang up his own paintings next to those of acclaimed painters from all over the world. It is unclear how long the paintings were up for between someone noticed that they weren’t supposed to be there, but according to a museum spokesperson, they couldn’t have been up for too long because “supervisors usually notice something like that immediately”. As for the man’s motivation, one can only assume that he believed showing his work in the museum would lead to future opportunities.

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Osama Vinladen is a 22-year-old football player from the Peruvian first division who has been making more headlines because of his controversial name than his professional career.

Osama Vinladen Jimenez Lopez’s name first raised eyebrows in his home country of Peru in 2017, when he was called up to be a part of the South American country’s U-15 (Under 15) team. He made his debut for a professional football club in 2018, when he was signed by second-division club Union Comercio. Last year, the club made it into Peru’s first division, and Osama once again found himself in the news because of his name. Despite his namesake’s terrible reputation, the young football player has always said that he doesn’t have a problem with it, adding that his brother is named Saddam Hussien and that his father wanted to name his third son George Bush. He didn’t get the chance, because his third child turned out to be a girl.

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A Kentucky man is facing several years behind bars for illegally accessing the online death registry system and faking his own death to avoid having to pay over $100,000 in child support to his ex-partner.

39-year-old Jesse Kipf admitted to accessing the death registry system in Hawaii using login details he had stolen from a doctor in the same state in January of last year. According to investigators, he created and assigned a file to himself in the system and impersonated the doctor to certify that he had died. Court documents show that Kipf also admitted to illegally accessing various websites run by the States of Arizona and Vermont, along with GuestTek Interactive Entertainment and Milestone, Inc., which led to him being listed as dead in several government databases. In a plea agreement, the defendant claimed that he committed these crimes, in part, to avoid paying outstanding child support to his former wife.

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On Easter Sunday, someone managed to access the GardaWorld cash storage facility in Sylmar and steal a whopping $30 million in what is considered the largest heist in Lost Angeles history.

Canadian security company GardaWorld offers cash storage and transportation services, ensuring that clients’ money is kept safe until it can be used or deposited in a bank. Such storage facilities are among the best-guarded places in the world, featuring dozens of guards, alarms, seismic motion detectors, and state-of-the-art surveillance, making would-be thieves think twice before attempting a heist. And yet, in what can only be described as a perfect script for an Ocean’s Eleven-style blockbuster, someone recently managed to breach a cash storage facility in Sylmar and disappear with up to $30 million in cash without anyone even noticing until a day later.

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An Illinois man made history last week when he set a new world record for the most number of squats in 24 hours, a whopping 26,100.

Tony Piraino of Decatur, Illinois, began his daring record attempt at 5 a.m. on April 5th and ended it at the same time on April 6th. He set out to do 26,000 squats during that 24-hour interval, thus beating the world record set by Joe Reverdes of Rhode Island in 2020 by 1,000 squats. To ensure that he had the stamina and energy to fulfill his goal, Piraino took 30-second breaks every 22 squats and made sure to take a few longer breaks throughout the day. He also made sure to have plenty of energy drinks and snacks rich in carbohydrates, and despite telling reporters that he was getting tired halfway through the attempt, he managed to beat his own expectations.

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A 40-year-old Italian man took a doctor and two medical clinics to court after paying for a penis enlargement procedure that he claims left him with “impotence and erectile dysfunction”.

The unnamed man from Tuscany, Italy, allegedly paid a cosmetic surgeon 5,000 euros ($5,400) for a penis enlargement procedure, but after about a month he ended up calling the doctor to complain about physical discomfort. This was only the beginning of a painful odyssey that saw the patient undergo a total of 12 procedures in an attempt to fix the initial botched surgery. According to court documents obtained by Italian news media, the man had two lipofilling operations, in which fat from various parts of his body was transferred to his penis in order to adjust its shape. Unfortunately, they did not have the desired effect, as the man’s genitals did not maintain the expected shape and volume.

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Experts are issuing warnings about the dangers of excessive vitamin D consumption after a UK man died of hypercalcemia, a rare condition caused by high levels of vitamin D.

David Mitchener, an 89-year-old retired businessman from the UK, died last year from hypercalcemia, a buildup of calcium in the body as a result of excessive levels of vitamin D. Michener was admitted to East Surrey Hospital on May 10, 2023, and was pronounced dead ten days later. According to a report from Jonathan Stevens, the assistant coroner at the hospital, the 89-year-old man’s vitamin D levels were at the maximum recordable level. Vitamin D toxicity was listed as one of the main factors in Michener’s death, along with Congestive heart disease, chronic kidney failure, and hypercalcemia.

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Australian supermarket chain Drakes recently started a trial of putting GPS locators on expensive meats in order to reduce losses caused by shoplifting.

A South Australian supermarket chain has become so exasperated with meat shoplifting that it is currently trialing a security system that involves putting cuts of expensive meat into transparent cases fitted with GPS locators that allow the product to be tracked. The polpolycarbonate cases are usually used to prevent theft of high-priced items in supermarkets, but Drakes is the first in Australia to use them on meat. Technically, high-quality meat like Wagyu qualifies as a luxury product, so Drakes believes the security measure is justified.

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A 68-year-old French woman diagnosed with Noah’s Syndrome has been given a one-year suspended sentence for keeping 159 cats and 7 dogs in her 80sqm (861sqft) apartment.

The unnamed woman and her 52-year-old male partner got into a dispute with neighbors in their Nice apartment building because of the mess and filth caused by their dozens of pets. Police were eventually called and the state of the woman’s apartment shocked them. There was animal excrement everywhere, over 150 cats and seven dogs, as well as at least two dead cats and two dogs in the bathroom. Many of the animals were dehydrated, suffering from malnutrition, or infected with parasites, and some of them subsequently died because of their health problems. The elderly woman admitted that she had “screwed up” while trying to take care of her many pets, but described the animals as “the love of her life”.

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K. Padmarajan has been dubbed the “Election King” and the “World’s Biggest Election Loser” after participating in 238 political elections and losing every single time.

K. Padmarajan’s story is one of perseverance. The 65-year-old repairman from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has participated in hundreds of elections over the past three decades and spent thousands of dollars on registration fees. The closest he has ever come to winning an election was in 2011 when he ran for the general assembly in the town of Mettur and got 6,273 votes. He was way behind the winner – he got over 75,000 votes – but it gave him hope that he could one day win. That day is yet to come, but Padmarajan recently pointed out that winning is the secondary goal. Resilience and accepting defeat are key and no one is better at it than him.

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Milbenkäse is a unique type of goat cheese ripened in wooden boxes infested with millions of tiny cheese mites and consumed with the tiny critters for added taste.

The history of Milbenkäse can be traced back to the Middle Ages when it was produced in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia regions of Germany, but the cheese-making tradition faded with time, and in 1970 the recipe for Milbenkäse was nearly lost forever. An elderly woman in the village of  Würchwitz remained the only person in the world who knew how to make this special cheese, and she passed on her knowledge to local science teacher Helmut Pöschel. He in turn partnered with Christian Schmelzer and together they managed to revitalize the production of the so-called “spider cheese”. Today, Würchwitz is the only place in the world where Milbenkäse is still produced.

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