Although she graduated from Florida State University four years ago, theater major Stephanie Ritter has yet to find a decent job in her field. Fed up of the situation, she’s actually put up her diploma for sale on eBay for $50,000 – $10,000 more than her student loan debt. She says that the drastic solution is the only way for her to validate her “use of time between 2007 – 2011.”

“I thought this piece of paper has so much worth to so many people, but for a theater major, it couldn’t mean less,” she said. “I’m doing the exact same things and probably getting paid the exact same amount as people that dropped out halfway through freshman year, except I’m still $40,000 in debt and they’re, well, not.”

So for $50,000 – or the best offer she can get – Stephanie is offering her original diploma in mint condition, which has “never been used to get a job before.” The price also covers her college experience in a nutshell. The buyer will be treated to a tour of the university, “including everywhere you would have gone/eaten/partied in your four years at FSU.” She’s adding access to all of her college memories and Facebook albums for six months, a show at the FSU School of Theatre, and a tour of all her favorite Publixes including sweet tea at each location.

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Loki is the internet’s newest feline sensation – her pictures have gone viral and people can’t stop gushing over her evil vampire face. With over 50,000 followers on Instagram already, her distinctive appearance is only making her more popular by the minute.

Loki’s owner Kaetlyn Koch, from Portland, Maine, says that in real life, Loki is just as adorable as any other cat. She loves to to hide under bath towels and lay on her back for a rub. Her murderous stare only seems to emerge when she’s confronted with a camera lens. She looks downright scary with her fangs jutting out, even when she’s peeking out from under towels or lazing in Kaet’s lap. Loki’s eyes never seem to close, which is a bit of a mystery.

Kaetlyn didn’t know about the vampire look when she adopted the Siamese-mix cat from a shelter two years ago. “They didn’t give me many details about her looks,” she said. “They said it was healthy but she wasn’t able to close it (her eyelids). She’s been to the vet three times in the last year, and no one has made mention of her teeth or why she looks the way she does. Still a mystery.”

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A team of six undergrads in the Netherlands have come up with a brilliant use for wasted fruit – they’re converting it into leather!

The eco-friendly project – titled ‘Fruitleather Rotterdam’ involves transforming rotten fruit into a durable, malleable, leather-like material. It started off as a school assignment at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, in which design students were supposed to set up a flash retail event. After brainstorming, this particular team decided to tackle the problem of food wastage as well.

“The academy gives us a perfect view over Binnenrotte Square in Rotterdam, where they have a market each Tuesday and Saturday,” said Hugo de Boon, one of the students involved. “We saw how the square would be completely littered with food waste (at the end of the day), so we realised this was a problem we would want to solve from a designer’s point of view.”

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Chinese doctors are baffled by a bizarre, five-inch growth on an elderly woman’s head. They aren’t able to explain what it is exactly, but it bears an uncanny resemblance to a unicorn’s horn! 

It all started when ‘Unicorn Woman’ Liang Xiuzhen developed a mole on her head about seven or eight years ago. “My mother complained about this mole-like growth on her head that itched all the time,” said her son Wang Chaojun. “We found ways to cure her itch using traditional Chinese medicine, and then left it be.”

But matters got out of hand a couple of years ago, when a tiny horn-like mass erupted out of the mole. It was quite small up until this February, when Liang accidentally broke it. Since then, a new horn has been rapidly growing in its place, now measuring a whopping five inches in length. “Now the horn hurts my mother and prevents her from sleeping. It also bleeds from time to time,” Wang Chaojun said. Read More »

Although he claims to be 95 years old, Turkish yoga guru Kazim Gurbuz looks like he’s closer to 50 than 100! In a recent interview, he revealed the secrets behind his youthful appearance – regular yoga practice and a diet consisting of specific superfoods.

Born in 1920, Gurbuz believes that everyone has the potential to live to the age of 130 if they do the right things. In fact, he believes that life starts at 65. “We can live to be 130 years old,” he said. “I have such an intention… everyone has the power if they take good care of themselves. Then they will live to age like me.”

Gurbuz claims that he greets the sun every morning before going for a swim, claiming that it is a great source of energy. He also practices more difficult yoga positions, like the ‘knot pose’ for up to 48 hours, and can hold his breath for four to five minutes. He says he’s sexually active too, enjoying three to five orgasms a day. “I am the same as I was when I was 25-30 years old,” he said. “They challenged me to prove it in Europe, so I did.”

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‘The Drinkable Book’ is a new invention that could potentially save millions of lives around the world. Its pages are made of treated paper that can purify water when passed through, killing over 99% of bacteria.

The book is the result of postdoctoral researcher Theresa Dankovich’s hard work. For several years, she developed and tested the technology, working at McGill University in Canada and at the University of Virginia. The pages of the book contain nanoparticles of silver or copper, which are responsible for killing bacteria. The microscopic organisms absorb the silver or copper ions as they percolate through the page.

“Ions come off the surface of the nanoparticles, and those are absorbed by the microbes,” Dr. Dankovich said. “All you need to do is tear out a paper, put it in a simple filter holder and pour water into it from rivers, streams, wells, etc. and out comes clean water – and dead bacteria as well,” she explained.

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Male nipples don’t really get much attention, mostly because a lot of people even consider them gross. But believe it or not, there’s a magazine in Japan that’s actually dedicated to ‘mipples’!

The magazine is a fan-made dojinshi, which is a Japanese term for self-published magazines, novels, or manga. Its title literally translates to “Everyone Loves a Man Nipple: Photobook.” And it stays true to its name – the cover carries a close-up shot of a male nipple, along with the names of all the nipple-models used in the issue. The inside is filled with nipple-shots too, clicked from every angle imaginable. Read More »

In a controversial move, tech companies in China are now hiring young and pretty ‘programming cheerleaders’ to help motivate their male staff. The idea, apparently, is to create a ‘fun work environment’ for programmers around the country.

According to social media website ‘Trending in China’, the job involves buying programmers breakfast, indulging in small talk, and playing ping-pong with them. ‘Talented’ young women are specially trained for the job by a senior employee.

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Most people tend to lose interest in fashion as they age, but an elderly gentleman from Germany is stunning the world with his sartorial elegance. Through his impeccable sense of style, Gunther Krabbenhoft is proving that fashion and charm are not limited to the young.

Gunther was recently photographed in Berlin, near the Kottbusser Tor station, and his pictures have created quite a stir online. His choice of clothes is simple, yet artistic, with clean lines and clever use of color. He regularly dons turned up jeans, corduroy jackets, classic bowties, waistcoats, brogues, hats, and braces – effortlessly nailing the look that modern day hipsters try so hard to emulate.

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Although he grew up believing that homosexuality was a sin, in 2010 Timothy Kurek, of Nashville, Tennessee, spent the entire year pretending to be gay in an attempt to truly understand and empathize with what homosexual people go through.

Kurek’s social experiment is extraordinary, given the kind of upbringing he had as a conservative Christian deep in America’s Bible belt. “You learned to be very afraid of God,” he said. “The loving thing to do is to tell my friend who is gay, ‘Hey, listen, you are an abomination and you need to repent to go to heaven.’ I absolutely believed in that lock, stock, and barrel.”

In fact, Kurek was so devout as a teenager that his parents’ friends would routinely ask him to set their kids straight for misbehaving. “I would be on the phone until four in the morning, asking them to repent for their sins,” he said.

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The appearance of a cloaked person outside an apartment complex in North Carolina has spooked not just local residents, but the whole internet as well. Pictures of the pale figure dressed in a black hooded cloak surfaced online earlier this week, creating panic among social media users.

The ‘creepy’ figure was photographed outside a building off Hudson Boulevard in Gastonia. No one knows what it was trying to accomplish, and its gender and identity remain unknown. Naturally, there are tons of rumors doing the rounds – some believe it was a witch performing a ritual, while others say it was just a prankster trying to fool people. A bizarre theory even suggests that the figure dropped raw meat on the ground to poison stray dogs!

“We don’t know if it’s one of our residents with an interesting way of presenting themselves, or if it’s a trespasser,” said Lance Calhoun, director of operations for Southwood Realty. Lots of people suspect that it could have been one of the residents of Hudson Woods apartment complex, where the sighting occurred, but the police haven’t been able to confirm that. “There’s no validation that it was Hudson Woods,” said Gastonia police spokesperson Donna Lahser. “It could have come from anywhere. We don’t know if this is some bogus prank somebody is playing.”

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Archaeologist-turned-entrepreneur Nancy Warner is making headlines for creating the world’s first jam made purely from beer. But before you get too excited, let me tell you it’s non-alcoholic, so there’s no real chance of getting tipsy at breakfast!

Nancy had already quit her job as an archaeologist to start a preserves company called ‘Potlicker’, when she stumbled upon the unique recipe by accident. She had run out of fruit to make jams and jellies one day, so she reached into her beer cupboard instead. After much experimenting, she managed to come up with a clear ‘Beer Jelly’. It is now so popular that she’s producing about 3,000 jars a week!

“I’m actually an archaeologist by trade and spent close to 10 years working in south eastern US archaeology before my husband Walter and I moved to Vermont,” the 34-year-old said. “I could not find archaeology work, so I developed a food blog hobby to keep me busy. The blog lead to a canning addiction, the canning addiction turned into a small business. I had bills to pay and lots of jam on the shelf so Walter packed me up and sent me to the farmer’s market.”

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The Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, is the world’s only diamond mine open to the public. Visitors get to go on a real-life treasure hunt and keep whatever they find!

According to park officials, over 600 diamonds of various colors and grades are found by visitors each year. Over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed since the mine was discovered in 1906 – 19,000 of them since the mine became a state park in 1972.

Scientists believe that these diamonds were formed three billion years ago in the earth’s mantle, 60 to 100 miles below the earth’s surface. The precious rocks were brought up to the surface about 100 million years ago, by a rising column of magma. A huge volcanic eruption resulted in an 80-acer crater, filled with fragments of mantle rock that contained diamonds. Over the years, the rocks have eroded, leaving the diamonds and other semi-precious gems loose in the soil.

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Tired of putting up with her landlord’s tantrums, a German student has decided to give up renting apartments altogether and live on trains instead!

“It all started with a dispute I had with my landlord,” said Leonie Müller. “I instantly decided I didn’t want to live there anymore – and then I realized: Actually, I didn’t want to live anywhere anymore.” So she purchased a special ticket that allows her to board any train in Germany at no charge. She now showers, changes, eats, sleeps, and even does her homework while traveling at speeds of up to 190mph. Sometimes she gets pizza delivered to the tracks at stopovers.

Leonie, 23, says that living out of trains has given her a lot of freedom and she’s enjoying every bit of it. “I really feel at home on trains, and can visit so many more friends and cities,” she said. “It’s like being on vacation all the time. I read, I write, I look out of the window and I meet nice people all the time. There’s always something to do on trains.”

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JT Network, a company that owns a chain of licensed DC Comics retail stores across Asia, has now ventured into the restaurant business. They’ve opened two new superhero-themed cafes in Malaysia which cater to comic-book fans in the country. A third ‘DC Comics Super Heroes Cafe’ is all set to open in Singapore on September 1.

“Fly, zoom or swoosh down to the DC Comics Super Heroes Cafe – yes, the official DC Comics cafe!” reads the description on Malaysia’s restaurant search website Offpeak. “Dine-in or chill out in our universe, surrounded by the awesome ambience that is home to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and other members of the Justice League.”

Every dish on the menu at these theme cafes has a popular DC Comics character’s name attached to it. Some of the treats include the Aquaman Justice Jumbo Prawn Cocktail, the Superman of Steel BBQ Chicken Burrito, and the Dark Knight Mini Wagyu Beef Burger – a black bun treat emblazoned with the iconic Batman logo.

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