Although he’s been homeless for two years, this Sacramento man refuses to accept money from anyone. Instead, Frederick Callison gives people copies of his resume in crisp white envelopes outside Smart & Final store at Watt Avenue and Arden Way, asking them to help him find a job if they really want to help him.

Callison, a former line cook with years of experience at several restaurants, also carries a Food Handlers certificate and Social Security card, in a bid to show people that he’s serious about wanting to work. “I don’t like to beg,” he told CBS Sacramento reporters. “And I won’t. I am handing off my presentation of myself of what I’m trying to achieve and what I’m trying to do. Because I don’t want to be out here.”

A nearby business apparently allowed him to use their supplies to print copies of his resume, which he hands out to people willing to help. Apart from a list of restaurant he has worked at in the past and his various qualifications, the 52-year-old’s resume also reveals his work ethics. “I am a firm believer in proactive productivity rather than reactive,” the piece of paper mentions.

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It appears that in some parts of the world, prayers have legit market value. For example, a church in Russia is getting away with a $11,500 debt by promising to pray for the good health of the creditors instead.

The Nizhny Novgorod diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church owed 916,000 roubles to construction company Era for designing a heating system for one of their buildings. The church was only able to settle half the amount, and the company decided on taking legal action. But the owners of the company happen to be religious people, so the church was able to convince them to agree to a pre-trial settlement in which the loan would be written off and the church would pray for them in exchange.

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Worried American parents are resorting to extreme ways of finding out if their kids are into drugs – they’re actually hiring private K9 services to sniff out any narcotics that their kids might be hiding in their rooms, bathrooms or cars. These sniffer dogs are specially trained to find hidden narcotics such as meth, barbiturates, marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Some of the searches turn up empty, but in most cases the parents’ suspicions are confirmed.

Michael Davis, who runs The Last Chance (TLC) K9 Services in Louisville, Kentucky, says that 90 percent of the time his company’s dogs do find narcotics stashed away by teens. One of his German Shepherds recently found four grams of heroin tucked into a boy’s tube socks. Another teen had hidden marijuana inside his five-year-old brother’s cereal box, which was apparently a brilliant hiding spot because no one else in the family ate that brand.

In Floyd County, Indiana, a father freaked out when he spotted his 14-year-old daughter with new friends and picked up an unpleasant odor from her room. “I’m not a snooping parent,” he said, choosing only to reveal his first name, James, in order to protect his daughter’s identity. I want my daughter to be able to be able to trust me, but I gotta protect her.“ So James was pretty worried about his daughter’s activities when he came across a TLC billboard advertising their services to “worried parents”.

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In an attempt to combat the nation’s food wastage problem, Denmark has opened the world’s very first supermarket that sells expired or damaged products. Ever since the grand opening in Copenhagen last Monday, people have been lining up outside WeFood for a chance to purchase discounted items that would otherwise have ended up in the trash because of damaged packaging or very short use-by dates. Food, cosmetics, and other household items at WeFood are priced at least 30 to 50 percent lower than at regular stores.

“WeFood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world, as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food wastage produced in the country,” said project head Per Bjerre. “Many people see this as a positive and politically correct way to approach the issue.” The grand inauguration was attended  by Denmark’s Princess Marie, and former minister for food and environment, Eva Kjer Hansen.

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The deserted Greek village of Ropoto, in northwestern Thessaly, is slowly but steadily slipping out of existence. Located 15 miles from Trikala city, the hilltop settlement was once home to a charming and bustling community, but everything changed in 2012, when a landslide caused several homes and buildings in the village square to slide down the hillsides. As many as 300 families were displaced from their homes, turning Ropoto into the ghost town it is today.

Ropoto’s tragic story is narrated in detail by former village council president Yorgos Roubies, in a 12-minute documentary produced by GreekReporter.com. Roubies lead the film crew through the sinking village, pointing out to ruins – including a crumbling hotel and school, the site where a tavern used to stand, and the wreckage that used to be his home. Recalling the terrifying day that altered the fate of the villagers forever, he said: “The first major disaster occurred early on April 12, 2012. Every autumn we were pushing the waters out of the village, to the big stream, but in 2011 there were no machines to push the rainwater away. We also had groundwater and that’s how it happened.”

“The churches, everything was gone, there’s not even a cafe here. If someone gets sick, they won’t even be able to find a glass of water. We had never seen such a disaster.”

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In light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris an other parts of the world, Scottish company Osdin Shield has come up with a new bespoke range of bulletproof sofas and chairs. These made-to-measure pieces will come with armor-plating sewn into the cushions, ensuring ballistic protection during a shooting.

“Unexpected gun attacks are becoming more and more frequent all over the world,” founder Darren Osdin said. “We designed the furniture with the natural human reaction to unexpected gunfire in mind: to duck and hide behind a barrier.” So in the event of a firearm attack in a hotel or any other indoor public space, people can immediately dive behind Osdin Shield sofas for cover.

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There is a mysterious river flowing deep through the Amazon rainforest in Mayantuyacu, Peru, that can literally boil small animals almost instantly. While water temperatures along the 6.4-km-long river range between 50 and 90 degrees Celsius, in some parts almost reaching the boiling point of 100 degrees. That’s hot enough to cause third-degree burns in a matter of seconds.

The local Asháninka people have known about the mysterious Boiling River for centuries, referring to it as ‘Shanay-timpishka’, which translates to ‘boiled with the heat of the sun’. Ancient legend has it that the hot water is unleashed by a giant serpent named Yacumama (mothers of the waters) and a large boulder shaped like a serpent’s head lies at the river’s headwaters, as a testimony to the primitive tale’s veridity.

For the rest of the world, however, this natural oddity was just that – a legend. Apart from a few references dating back to the 1930’s there was no scientific documentation of the boiling river and most geologists simply dismissed its existence based on the fact that it would take huge amounts of geothermal heat to boil entire sections of a river, which would be impossible because the Amazon basin is located 400 miles away from the nearest active volcano. Except for a few tourists who visit Mayantuyacu each year to experience the traditional healing methods practiced by the Asháninka people, the civilized world was oblivious to the existence of a real boiling river.

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Designer Susan McLeary is taking the jewelry world by storm with her incredibly stunning accessories made from living plants. She uses real succulents hand-picked from her family-owned greenhouse to craft intricate headpieces, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and other pieces of  bio-jewelry that literally grow on you.

Each piece from McLeary’s ‘Passionflower’ collection can be worn for two to four weeks before the plants begin to grow off their metal base. When this happens, wearers can simply remove the succulents from their metal base and re-pot them to keep in their homes. The brass jewelry bases can still be worn on their own. If the pieces are worn for special occasions like weddings, the potted succulents become all the more significant.

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A German Shepherd recently won the hearts millions with a stunning display of love and loyalty reminiscent of the legendary Hachiko. According to eye-witnesses in his Houston neighborhood, the dog spent weeks at the front gate of his apartment complex patiently waiting for his owner, not knowing he had been killed and would never return.

54-year-old Hatem Abuharbid was killed on February 7, when the convenience store where he worked was robbed. He was shot in the thigh by the two robbers, and the bullet pierced through an artery in his leg. He died later at the hospital due to heavy bleeding. Meanwhile, his German Shepherd back home kept waiting for Abuharbid to come back, as he did every evening.

“Of course he’s confused because he doesn’t know what’s going on,” said Cassandra Eubanks, a neighbor. “He hadn’t seen his owner in two weeks. You could just tell that he was a lost dog. He would follow the cars and when he would realise that it was not his owner’s car, he would just stand there and look helpless.”

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Chen Zhitong is an ordinary guy with an extraordinary hidden talent that he only discovered last year – he’s a master of arcade claw machines. You might think it’s a rather useless skill, but get this – he’s grabbed a whopping 3,000 toys in just six months, making him the ‘claw machine god’ of Jianghu shopping mall in Xiamen. He’s so good that claw machine owners actually invite him to dinner and try to convince him to stop using their machines!

“The first time I played was last year in July,” Chen told local media. “I saw the machine in the entrance of a supermarket. I didn’t think much of it, it was just a way to kill time.” He enjoyed himself, so he kept playing whenever he visited the mall, and within a month he got pretty good at it – so much so that people would gather around to watch him play. It wasn’t long before he cleared out an entire machine, and that’s when he knew he was gifted. His house is now filled with all the toys he’s won, over 3,000 of them. They’re all over his bed, couch, floor, dining table, and even in his kitchen.

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A restaurant owner in Paris is thoroughly miffed with bankers, so much so that he’s banned them from entering his establishment. A sign outside the place reads: “Dogs welcome, bankers banned (unless they pay an entry fee of €70,000).”

Alexandre Callet’s obvious displeasure towards bankers stems from the fact that many of them turned down his request for a loan of €70,000 ($77,273) to open a second restaurant. He said that he felt humiliated because the amount he asked for is “nothing” compared to the €300,000 turnover of his Michelin-ranked restaurant, Les Ecuries de Richelieu. In fact, most of the bankers who turned him down know Callet and have actually dined at his place.

“I believe in reciprocity,” the 30-year-old said. “They have treated me like a dog, so I have denied them access. As soon as I see a banker that I recognise I won’t let them enter my restaurant. This is not just a kebab shop. My restaurant is in the Michelin guide and film stars come in.”

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In a rather extreme display of patriotism, a Turkish truck driver is suing his own wife for insulting the nation’s president. He told reporters that she would say “unspeakable obscenities” whenever President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared on television, despite knowing that it bothered him.

The latest incident occurred a few days ago during one of Erdoğan’s televised speeches. Ali Dinç repeatedly warned his wife Gülcan not to curse the man, but she did it anyway and even dared to change the channel, earning his wrath.

The wife apparently went ahead with the insults, telling Ali to “record and lodge a complaint” if it upset him so much. So he did just that – he recorded the insults as evidence and then lodged a complaint with prosecutors in Izmir city. “I kept on warning her, saying why are you doing this?” he said, speaking to Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. “Our president is a good person and did good things for Turkey.”

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Ruslan Shchedrin, a teenage gamer from Russia, has won a bizarre prize for being the 100,000th visitor to a website that sells in-game weapons and gear. He is being rewarded with a month-long stay at a Moscow hotel in the company of an X-rated film star!

The unusual contest was held in celebration of Defender of the Fatherland Day, a Russian holiday held every year, on February 23rd. Young Ruslan turned out to be the 100,000th person to visit the website that day, hitting the jackpot. “At first I did not believe it, but when I realized that this is true, I thanked the site,” he said. “I am overjoyed and my friends are also happy for me, although there is some envy.”

His family, however, is furious. They believe he’s already wasted too much time on the video games and this prize will now be another colossal waste of his time. “I am totally against it,” said his mother, Vera Shchedrin. “He has exams, what do you mean a month with a porn star? Even a week is too much! They should just give him 100,000 rubles instead, we would be happy with that.”

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We’re used to reading about people struggling to find a decent job, or any job, really, but this story is about a small town clinic that has been unable to attract any applicants for a job that pays over $400,000 a year.

While the people of Norman Wells are struggling to find a hairdresser willing to move in and tend to their needs, another small town halfway across the world is dealing with an even more pressing problem. Tokoroa, town in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North island, is finding it hard to attract young doctors willing to work for a salary most people would kill for – $400,000.

Dr Alan Kenny, co-owner of Tokoroa Family Health clinic, has been trying rather desperately to fill the position of GP, but he hasn’t received a single application in four months despite the huge salary he’s offering. He’s also promising no weekend or night duties and co-ownership of the clinic, but that hasn’t gotten anyone interested either.

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Canadian software engineer James McGowan is so passionate about McDonald’s that he’s traveled to 53 different countries just to sample their regional dishes. In the past four years, he’s reviewed over 300 items from the chain’s wide-ranging regional menus on his blog, Traveling McD’s.

James started his McDonald’s tasting trips in 2005, sharing pictures of every meal with friends and family and posted his first review of a McD’s regional treat in October 2011, when he wrote about a taro and Oreo McFlurry he had tried in Macau. Since then he’s reviewed exotic McDelicacies from countries like Russia, Malaysia, Tahiti, Greece, Germany, and Qatar. Interestingly, he doesn’t always have to wait until he travels to a country to try their McD’s menu, as fans of his blog sometimes send him food to try to Bangkok, where he currently resides. 

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