Every winter for the past three years, 80-year-old Mette Kvam, from the Norwegian town of Aurland, has been getting two daily visits from a very special friend – a majestic stag who seems to love her tasty snacks.

It all started three years ago, when Mette first saw her friend “Flippen” hanging out in her yard, on the edge of the nearby forest. She opened the window and offered the beautiful animal a crunchy cookie. To her surprise, the animal came closer and stretched its neck to grab the treat. Flippen must have liked it very much, because he has been coming back for more ever since. He visits Mette every morning and evening, from early November to April, when he and his deer friends head higher up into the mountains for the warm season. But as soon as they come back down, he starts coming by the woman’s house again.

Read More »

Kayashima Station, in Neyagawa, a north-eastern suburb of Osaka, is one of the most unusual-looking train stations in all of Japan. Despite being located on an elevated platform, Kayashima has a giant broccoli-like tree pocking out through a rectangular hole in its roof.

The Big Kusu Tree of Kayashima, as the camphor tree is commonly known in Japan, is older than most records, but officials estimate that it has been around for at least 700 years. In 1910, when Kayashima train station was originally opened, the tree stood right next to it, offering travelers some much needed shelter on both sunny and rainy days. It didn’t bother anyone for the next 60 years, but as Japan’s population increased at an accelerated rate, overcrowding became a problem and local authorities decided that the train station needed to be expanded. Plans were approved in 1972, and the old camphor tree was going to be cut down.

The stories about how the ancient camphor tree of Kayashima cheated its fate vary, but they all border on the supernatural. Spoon & Tamago reports that the tree had long been associated with a local shrine and deity, and news of its removal caused an uproar in the community. Rumors about the tree being angry about the authorities’ decision also coincided with a series of bizarre events. People reported seeing a white snake slithering through the branches of the tree, others claimed to see smoke rising up from the tree, and a worker who cut off one of the tree branches developed a fever later that day.

Read More »

When Andy Poineau of Boyne City, Michigan, posted a set of photos showing him seemingly levitating on the clear water of Lake Charlevoix, he had no idea he would soon become an overnight internet sensation. But looking at the photo below, it’s easy to see why people went crazy over it.

At first glance, this photo of Pointeau, a 63-year-old architect, sitting on what looks to be still water, looks like a classic case of botched Photoshop. It just looks like someone cropped him and his shovel out of another photo – probably of him shoveling snow – and just placed him in the middle of the lake. But as several photo-editing experts have already pointed out on social media, this image has not been altered in any way. It’s just a rare photo of a brave man sitting on the perfectly clear ice of a frozen lake.

Read More »

A migrant worker hoping to make it back home for the Chinese New Year realized he had been riding his bike the wrong way for over a month, when a police crew stopped him for cycling on the side of an expressway.

The unnamed man was apparently working in Rizhao, China’s Shandong province, but after spending most of his money in internet cafe, he didn’t have enough to by a train ticket to his native city of Qiqihar, in north-east China. Determined to spend the holidays with his family, the guy decided cycling all the way home was his best option, so he hopped on his bike and started what he thought was a nearly 1,700 kilometer journey. The problem was that he didn’t really know the way, and since he was also unable to read the road signs, he decided to rely on the directions of total strangers. That turned out to be a very bad idea.

Read More »

Maid cafes have been a big part of Japanese pop culture for a while now, but the maid phenomenon is transitioning into other areas as well. For example, a new gym near Tokyo’s famous Akihabara district offers patrons the chance to work out while assisted by beautiful trainers wearing maid costumes.

Can you imagine pumping some iron with a cute maid spotting you and cheering you on? Well, apparently a lot of Japanese guys can and they’re loving the idea. So much so that they’ve helped successfully crowdfund the MID GYM project thought up by a couple of young Japanese entrepreneurs. With more than a month to go to the deadline, the campaign to make the unique maid gym a reality has already met its 700,000 yen goal, on Japanese crowdfunding site CampFire. It’s not clear exactly when the Mid Gym will open its gates, but it’s definitely coming soon.

Read More »

Donald Trump has one of the most popular accounts on Twitter, with over 33 million followers, but a piece if produce in a plastic zip bag wants to prove it can do even better than the President of the United States.

“What if this account that is simply half an onion in a Ziploc bag ended up with more followers than @realDonaldTrump?” That was the tweet that signaled the rise of @HalfOnioninABag, a literal half an onion with big dreams. Set up on the day of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, the tongue-in-cheek account has already attracted over 490,000 followers, and while that’s nowhere near close to 22 million, it’s a surprisingly good start.

Read More »

A Slovenian designer frustrated with constantly having to re-tuck his shirt into his pants has created a garter-belt-like shirt holder for men that keeps the wearer’s shirt tucked in at all times. The S-Holder is work around the thighs and attaches to the shirt via metal clips.

“I came up with the idea because I hated having to re-tuck my shirt all the time,” said 21-year-old Nik Vene, the inventor of S-Holder. “I was always having problems with this, so I did some market research and did not find anything that would help me. This inspired me to create something new, which was beautifully designed and made from high quality materials.”

Vene claims he spent six month turning his idea into a reality, and another five months creating an improved version. The S-Holder has adjustable side straps, new clips and comes in different color options. the young entrepreneur is so confident that there is a real demand for something that saves men the trouble of having to constantly re-tuck their shirts that he has recently started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

Read More »

If you’ve always dreamed about an epic trip around the world, and have more money that you know what to do with, you might be interested in this offer from experiential travel boutique DreamMaker – a 20-day luxury tour of 20 cities across the globe for you and 49 of your closest friends, at the modest price of $13,875,000.

As you can probably imagine, this isn’t just another trip around the world, but an ultra-luxurious experience designed for a splurging  billionaire and his entourage. So what can you expect from a $14 million trip. Well, first of all the ultra rich client will be flying between the 20 cities on the itinerary in a private Boeing 767 jet, while his 49 family and friends follow in their very own Boeing Business Jet. That makes a lot of sense, we don’t want these guys feeling crowded on what’s supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, right? Anyway, DreamMaker claims that the lucky group will only be spending 12% of the time in the air and 88% on the ground, but they want to make every moment as pleasant as possible. So they’ve prepared a variety of in-flight surprises.

Dubbed ‘Experiental Aviation’, the time spent on board the two luxury jets is described as “the pinnacle of private aviation.” To ensure that everyone’s needs are catered to in a timely and professional fashion, the guest to staff ratio will be one on one, with a host of 50 other professionals – all experts in their respective fields – eager to make your flight as pleasant as possible. A master sommelier will treat guests to the world’s finest wines, a yoga instructor will conduct in-flight yoga sessions to help everyone relax, and renowned hypnotherapist April Norris has apparently been commissioned to develop “a holistic program that integrates cutting-edge wearable sleep technology with alternative wellness techniques such as hypnotherapy, Reiki healing, Ayurvedic medicine and acupuncture.”

Read More »

i-Creamy Artisan Gelato offers some of the most delicious ice-cream in Sydney, but it’s not their award-winning creations or the predominantly Asian flavors that set them apart from the competition. It’s the way they serve their ice-cream that has everyone talking about i-Creamy and their beautiful gelato flowers.

Who wants gelato scoops pressed onto a crunchy cone when you can feast on a delicious ice-cream flower instead? Judging by the crowd lining up outside the i-Creamy Artisan Gelato, in Sydney’s Central Business District, even on cold winter nights, and the popularity of i-Creamy’s Instagram page, nobody! Sure, turning an ice-cream into a work of art takes a bit more time than serving a regular gelato, but it makes people happy and they always come back for more.

Read More »

You probably didn’t even know that a government-approved Vladimir Putin calendar actually existed, but even more surprising is the fact that it is incredibly popular in Japan, where hundreds of thousands of copies have been snatched up by fans of the Russian president, in the last few months.

The official 2017 Vladimir Putin Calendar is produced by a St. Petersburg company called Mednyi Vsadnik, with authorization from the Russian government. It features a manly photo of Putin for each month of the year, along with some of his most popular quotes. The calendar is written in eight languages, including English, and is obviously very popular in Russia. But while the calendar’s domestic success was to be expected, its massive popularity in Japan was certainly not.

Japanese chain franchise store Loft has been exclusively selling the 2017 Putin calendar since August last year, for around 90 cents apiece. News of the calendar being available at Loft stores apparently spread like wildfire on social media, with many fans of the Russian president scrambling to buy one for themselves or their friends. By October 2016, the Vladimir Putin Calendar, which comes in two sizes, was the the third and fourth most sold item out of some 3,500 different calendars.

Read More »

We’ve seen fire used as a way to cut hair before, but one hairstylist in Pakistan is literally setting his clients heads on fire just to make their hear easier to comb. It’s an impressive, albeit shocking, display, that has recently made him famous around the world.

Shafqat Rajput, was just another barber in the city of Bahawalpur, Pakistan’s Punjab province, but after a patron recorded a video of him practicing his unique fire treatment on a customer and posted it on Facebook, he instantly became an overnight internet celebrity. The short clip shows the young hairstylist sprinkling powder on the patron’s hair, followed by a healthy dose of an unknown flammable fluid before casually setting his head ablaze with a lighter. He proceeds to comb the hair while it’s burning, using a comb and brush. After putting the fire out with his fast brushing, Rajput repeats the procedure. All this time, the client sits calmly in the barber’s chair, looking at his burning hair in the mirror.

Read More »

Most people don’t pay any attention to grass and the way it grows, but British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey have always been fascinated by it and have found an ingenious way to incorporate it into their art. By manipulating the way grass grows, they are able to literally print detailed photographs onto a living wall of grass that develops according to how much light it receives.

The two artists start by covering a large canvas with water paste and rubbing germinated seeds all over it. They then cover the windows of their studio turning into a dark room, and making sure that the only light that reaches the canvas is projected through a slide of a negative photograph. They then let photosynthesis run its course, and in a few weeks time the grass-covered canvas grows into a living print of the photograph. The amount of light shining through different parts of the negative determines which parts of the canvas turn out a vibrant green, and which remain yellow and undeveloped, making the details of the image clearly visible from a distance.

Read More »

A German company recently sparked controversy after launching a line of women’s underwear that it claims can protect the wearer against sexual assault. Called ‘Safe Shorts’ the underpants are made of a slash and tearing-resistant fabric and feature a combination lock and a loud alarm system that goes off when the pants are tampered with.

Sandra Seilz, the creator of the Short Pants, says that as a frequent jogger she has been thinking about creating a protective garment for women for a long time. She revealed that she was once attacked by a group of three men who tried to pull her pants off, while she was jogging, and that this attack, as well as the wave of sexual assaults against women in Cologne during the last New Year’s Eve celebration inspired to create the Short Pants.

Read More »

Sébastien Charron doesn’t look like your average parkour enthusiast. Instead of a lean muscular physique, he sports a prominent belly and obviously high body fat percentage, features not usually associated with a sport that requires impeccable physical conditioning. But as soon as you see him in action, you are reminded of the old saying “you should never judge a book by its covers.”

Dubbed a “real-life Kung Fu Panda”, Charron is actually an inspiration for average guys everywhere that nothing is impossible. He started practicing parkour a decade ago, and became really good at it, but after five years he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the side effects of his prescribed medication forced him to take a break from what he loved doing most. The treatment and lack of physical activity also caused him to gain massive weight in a relatively short period of time, but he never gave up on his passion. He recently started training again, and although he admits that the thick layer of fat makes working on his jumps and vaults tougher than before, he somehow manages to make it work.

Read More »

After waking up one day to find that her popular Facebook page had been taken down by Facebook, and after getting no reply to her messages, a young girl from Belgium eventually got on a plane to San Francisco to confront Facebook about the issue in person.

23-year-old Jamilla Baidou is somewhat of a celebrity in Belgium. She was a contender on the Belgian version of The Voice, in 2014, when she managed to impress both the judges and the nationwide audience with her musical talent. People wanted to see more of her even after she was eliminated from the popular TV show, so she kept them up to date with her projects on social media networks like Facebook and YouTube. Up until December 2016, she had amassed more than 157,000 fans and many of the videos she posted had over one million times. Vlogging had become her profession, and her Facebook page was the most important platform, but one day disaster struck – her page suddenly disappeared.

Read More »