The Lifelike Digital Portraits of Irakli Nadar

28-year-old Irakli Nadar is considered one of the most talented digital artists of our time. Using only digital painting tools, he is able to create photo-like portraits from scratch. His works are so good that many in the digital art world accuse him of simply applying various filters to digital photographs and passing them off as paintings.

You could say that Irakli Nadar’s amazing skill is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, his breathtaking artworks have brought him worldwide fame and legions of adoring fans on various social networks, but his success and enviable skill have also made him the target of criticism from both rival artists and the average internet trolls. Luckily, he has learned to live with both, and says that tough as it sometimes is, he just ignores the haters and focuses on the positive.

Read More »

Ukrainian Shelter Rescues Dog That Had Been Stuck in Underground Heating System for Three Years

A dog shelter in Nikopol, Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast region, recently received a call from a concerned animal lover begging them to help her rescue a dog that had fallen down an exposed drain and had been stuck there for three years.

The shocking story was shared on July 2nd, on a public dog-themed Facebook group, by Elena Omelchenko, a volunteer at the Nikopol dog shelter. Apparently, a girl named Lena called the shelter and practically implored them to rescue a dog that had fallen down an uncovered drain, into a complex central heating system, three years ago, and had been living there ever since. Lena and other kindhearted people had been throwing the dog food, but, so far, they had been unable to rescue it.

Read More »

16-Year-Old Boy Marries 71-Year-Old Woman in Indonesia (No Joke!)

Selamat Riayadi, a 16-year-old boy from South Sumatra, Indonesia, recently married his sweetheart, 71-year-old Rohaya. The two are apparently so in love with each other that they threatened to take their own lives if their families didn’t give their blessing for the controversial union.

It’s not exactly clear how and when Selamat and Rohaya fell in love, but what we do know is that the two have become husband and wife on Saturday, during a wedding ceremony held at the house of their village chief, in Karangendah Village, South Sumatra. The wedding was held at night, to keep the number of visitors to an acceptable number, because their controversial love story had already attracted curious visitors from neighboring villages. Even so, hundreds of people attended the special wedding.

Read More »

Vegetarian Cattle Farmer Who Can’t Kill His Cows Gives Away Whole Heard to Animal Sanctuary

When his father died, in 2011, Jay Wilde inherited the family cattle farm, in Ashbourne, UK. He has been constantly sending cows to the slaughterhouse ever since, but he recently decided he couldn’t do it anymore, so he gave away his heard of 59 cows to an animal sanctuary, where they will live out the rest of their natural lives in peace.

59-year-old Wilde has been a vegetarian for 25 years, so having to sell animals to be killed for meat was particularly difficult, but he had promised his father that he would take over the family farm. Having to send off the animals to the slaughterhouse after seeing them grow under his eyes and spending time with them was extremely unpleasant, and the farmer recently decided that he couldn’t bear to do it anymore.

Read More »

Indian Villages Allegedly Send the Elderly into Forests as Tiger Prey, to Receive Government Compensation

In a horrifying trend recently reported by Indian media, poor villagers near the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve are allegedly sending their elderly relatives into the jungle as tiger prey, so they can then claim compensation from the government.

The disturbing tactic was discovered by officials at the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in Uttar Pradesh, who, upon inspecting several mauling sites near the tiger reserve, noticed evidence of foul play. In the most recent case, reported on July 1st, the mauled body of a 55-year-old woman was found in a field near her village, but bits of her clothes were found one kilometer away, in the tiger reserve, and tractor tracks leading into and from the jungle showed that the body had been relocated.

Read More »

The “Forest Man of Bangladesh” Has Been Planting a Tree Every Day for the Past 48 Years

They say that one man can’t make a difference, but Abdul Samad Sheikh, a 60-year-old rickshaw driver from Bangladesh, is living proof that small contributions over a long period of time can mean very much. He has planted at least one tree every day since he was 12-years-old, which means that he has so far planted a small forest of over 17,500 trees. Imagine if everyone followed his example.

Abdul Samad Sheikh, fondly known as “Tree Samad” in his native town of Faridpur, central Bangadesh, has worked as a rickshaw driver for most of his life. The modest job earns him about 100 taka ($1.25) per day, which is barely enough to put food on the table for his family, but he somehow manages to also buy at least one tree from the Faridpur Horticulture Centre, every day. He considers it his duty to the world, and claims he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he didn’t plant a tree that day.

Read More »

Chinese Woman Spends $900,000 Building Her Very Own “Palace of Ceramics”

Yu Ermei, and 86-year-old woman from Jingdezhen, Eastern China, has spent around $900,000 and five years of her life building a “palace” completely decorated with ceramic pieces. Most people consider her insane for spending so much time and money on this project, but she says that her life would be incomplete without it.

When Yu came up with the idea for her unique porcelain palace, six years ago, her family thought she had become senile, but she tried to explain that this was her life’s dream. Jingdezhen is considered “China’s porcelain capital” and having lived here since age 12, the woman wanted to leave something behind in honor of the city that had shaped her existence. She had worked in the ceramics business for most of her life, first as an apprentice in a porcelain workshop, then as a worker in two state-owned factories, before gaining enough experience to open her own kiln and porcelain factory, which ended up making her a sizable fortune. This palace would be her way of giving back to Jingdezhen and a tribute to ceramics.

 

Read More »

The Old Motorcycle Worshiped as a Deity in India

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, some 50 km from the city of Jodhpur, along National Highway 65, there is a temple. That, in itself, is not unusual, as temples are virtually everywhere in India, but what is strange is that the deities worshiped here are an old Royal Enfield 350cc motorcycle and its deceased owner.

The story of “Om Bana” or “Bullet Baba” temple dates back to an accident that occurred almost three decades ago.  On December 23rd, 1988, Om Singh Rathore, the 23-year-old son of a village elder in Chotila, Pali district, was riding home on his motorcycle when he lost control, hit a tree and was catapulted into a 20-foot, where he died on the spot. His body was discovered the next day, and the broken “Bullet” motorcycle was taken to the police station. And that’s where things start to get weird.

Read More »

Kenyan Lawyer Tries to Sue Israel and Italy for the Killing of Jesus Christ, Again

An experienced Kenyan lawyer recently filed a petition with the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the countries of Israel and Italy, as well as historical figures that have been dead for over 2,000 years, for the unlawful trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

If you somehow feel that you’ve heard something like this before, you probably have. Kenyan lawyer Dola Indidis first tried to sue Israel and Italy over Jesus’ death in 2007. His petition to a Nairobi court was dismissed, but the persistent man didn’t give up. In 2013, he turned to the International Court of Justice for the first time, arguing that Jesus’ “selective and malicious prosecution violated his human rights through judicial misconduct, abuse of office bias and prejudice.” Unfortunately, his case was thrown out, but in March of this year, Indidis once again appealed to the ICJ, hoping to finally make it to an actual trial.

Read More »

Taiwanese Sisters and Their Mother Stun the World with Their Incredibly Youthful Looks

Lure Hsu, a 41-year-old interior designer and fashion blogger, had already been attracting lots of attention online for her incredibly youthful looks, but people recently discovered that eternal youth runs in her family. Lure’s two sisters, 36-year-old Sharon, and 40-year old FayFay, both look like they are in their early 20s, and their 63-year-old mother looks like their older sister.

Just when people were starting to come to terms with the fact that Lure Hsu is actually in her 40s, photos of her sisters and mother starting showing up in Taiwanese media, and everyone lost their minds once again. The four Hsu women are now being called “the family of frozen ages” by the media in their country, while some people claim that they must be descendants of vampires. Truth be told, they do all look suspiciously young for their age.

Read More »

Mexican Man Tells Wife He’s Going Out to Buy Cigarettes, Flies to Russia for Football Match

In what many are calling the lie of the century, a die-hard football fan from Puebla, Mexico, told his wife that he was stepping out to buy a pack of cigarettes, but ended up boarding a plane to Germany, and then driving to Russia, to see his national football team play in the Confederations Cup.

Antonio Garcia recently got his five minutes of fame on the internet, after news of his escapade to Mexico’s match against Russia, in Kazan, went viral on social media. The man had reportedly told his wife that he was going out to buy a pack of cigarettes, buy he actually travelled to Monterey, where he got on a plane to Wolfsburg, Germany, where some of his relatives live, and from there he drove to Kazan, Russia, where he joined hundreds of other Mexican fans in supporting the national football team.

Read More »

Company Creates Virtually Indestructible Hoodie Designed to Last 100 Years

A hoodie isn’t really the kind of thing you ever consider passing on to your children and grandchildren, but then again, most hoodies aren’t made from Kevlar or designed to outlast their wearer.

Adventure clothing brand Vollebak has been in the business of creating “cutting edge adventure sports clothing using insights and discoveries from fields as diverse as neuroscience, physiology, material technology and space exploration” for years. Their previous products include a fabric that uses nanotechnology to camouflage things like sweat, salt, dirt and even blood, and an abrasion-resistant jacket able to scar rock and tolerate high-speed falls of up to 120 km/h. But their latest invention is easily the most impressive – an ultra-durable hoodie designed to outlive its wearer.

Read More »

Japanese Professor Claims That Crows Respect Written “Do Not Enter” Signs

When a friend and “crow expert” told Katsufumi Sato to hang some “do not enter signs” on the outside of a building to keep pesky crows a way, the Japanese professor thought he was only kidding, but after three years of employing the bizarre strategy, he says it works perfectly.

Sato, a professor of ethology, hanged his first “crows do not enter” signs at a university research center in Otsuchi, Japan’s Iwate Prefecture, in 2015, at the the advice of his friend, Tsutomu Takeda, who he regards as an expert on crows. The birds had been targeting the insulation material covering the building’s pipes, ripping it with their beaks and flying away with bits of it to use for their nests. He was desperate to keep them away, so even though he though the idea of hanging written signs for crows funny, he was willing to give it a try.

Read More »

Panasonic to Launch High-Tech Deodorizing Coat Hanger

There’s no escaping technology, not even for the centuries-old coat hanger. Japanese company Panasonic has unveiled a high-tech hanger that not only keeps your clothes wrinkle-free, but also removes any odors from them.

If you don’t feel like doing the laundry or taking your clothes to a dry-cleaner, or if you simply want to get rid of a nasty smell like that of sweat or cigarette smoke, Panasonic’s new $180 hanger can make your life a lot easier. All you have to to is plug it in a power supply, hang your smelly clothes on it and turn it on. The gadget allegedly takes between 5 and 7 hours to neutralize even the most stubborn odors.

Read More »

23-Year-Old Man Stuck in the Body of a 13-Year-Old Boy Due to Rare Condition

A lot of people look younger than their age, but 23-year-old Tomislav Jurčec, from Zagreb, Croatia, is an extreme case. Due to a fault in his pituitary gland, which controls growth and ageing, he remains stuck in the body of a 13-year-old kid.

Tomislav admits that looking 10 years younger than his actual age does have disadvantages. like having to produce an ID when buying restricted goods like cigarettes and alcohol, but he always prefers to look at the glass half full. And he has plenty of reasons to do so. For starters, his youthful looks and diminutive stature have helped him land an acting gig on HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones, where he worked as Peter Dinklage’s stand-in and as the uncredited “Hero Corps Child”.

Read More »