Japanese Company Launches Vertical Pods That Let You Sleep Standing Up

The Giraffenap is a new style of sleeping pod that encourages power naps during the day as a way of improving concentration and work efficiency.

Japan is a notoriously hardworking country that emphasizes extreme dedication to one’s work even at the cost of that person’s health or general wellbeing. Working conditions can get so bad that the Japanese language actually has a term for ‘death by overwork’ (karoshi). In order to put up with this kind of grueling schedule and stress, some Japanese workers turn to short power naps. These are known to boost energy levels and concentration, as long as the person doesn’t go into deep sleep. In order to make it easier for people to get power naps pretty much anywhere, one company has begun installing vertical sleeping pods called ‘Gireaffenap’ in cafes all over the country.

Read More »

Oldest Goldfish Ever Was So Old Its Scales Turned Silver

Tish, the oldest goldfish in recorded history, lived to the ripe old age of 43. In his later years, his scales actually started changing from gold to silver.

The average lifespan of a common goldfish (Carassius auratus), is 10-15 years, but the current Guinness Record for the oldest goldfish ever was set by a male goldfish named Tish that remarkably reached the age of 43. He spent his life in a fish bowl in North Yorkshire, UK, under the care of Hilda Hand and her son Peter. The latter won Tish as a prize at a fairground roll-a-penny stall in 1956, when he was only 7 years old, and after he left the family home, his mother continued looking after the aging goldfish. No one really expected Tish to reach his 40s, considering that most goldfish barely make it past a decade, but somehow he did, and, 24 years after his death, he still holds the record for the oldest goldfish ever.

Read More »

Woman Under Investigation After Serving Deadly Mushrooms to Former In-Laws

An Australian woman believed to have invited her former in-laws over for lunch only to serve them highly poisonous mushrooms claims she knew nothing about the poisonous ingredients and had no reason to hurt her guests.

Two weeks ago, Erin Patterson, a 48-year-old woman from Leongatha, near Melbourne, invited her ex-husband’s parents to her house for lunch. She and her ex had reportedly split on ‘amicable’ terms, so she and her former in-laws still maintained a friendly relationship. Gail and Don Patterson arrived with another couple, Heather, Gail’s sister, and her husband Ian. The meal was uneventful, but a few hours later, the two elderly couples started complaining about gastrointestinal problems. Around midnight, the symptoms had become so severe, that they were taken to a hospital in Melbourne. Unfortunately, a few days later, three of them passed away, while Ian Wilkinsons was left fighting for his life, awaiting a liver transplant. Meanwhile, Erin Patterson exhibited no symptoms whatsoever.

Read More »

City Mistakenly Tears Down Man’s Home Then Charges Him $68,000 in Demolition Costs

An Atlanta man who lost his house after the city tore it down by mistake is now facing a lawsuit to have the entire property foreclosed unless he pays the $68,000 demolition costs.

Everett Tripodis’ property in Atlanta’s historic West End is now an empty lot, but until a few months ago he actually owned a home there, one that the city demolished without so much as a warning. Technically, they did send out letters notifying the owner that the property had been labeled unfit for habitation, but they sent them to the wrong address, in a different zip code, about 1.4 miles away. Tripodis and his mother had bought the century-old house as an investment and had been working on remodeling it when the city decided to tear it down. To make matters worse, the city of Atlanta is now suing the owner of the property and threatening to foreclose on the empty land unless he covers the cost of the demolition, $68,000.

Read More »

Boy Allows Himself to Be Bitten by Black Widow to Become Spider-Man

An 8-year-old Bolivian boy ended up in the hospital after allowing himself to be bitten by a dangerous black widow spider in order to become like his favorite superhero, Spider-Man.

The incident occurred in the municipality of Vichuloma, near the city of Oruro, in Central Bolivia. The 8-year-old child, whose name has not been revealed by the media, was reportedly playing near a river close to his house when he turned a big rock and discovered a black widow spider. Without realizing the consequences of being bitten by a highly-poisonous spider, he grabbed the arachnid and put it on the back of his hand, in the hopes of being bitten. He got his wish, and then headed home, where he began experiencing symptoms like body aches and intense muscle spasms. Initially, the boy didn’t say anything to his mother about the spider bite, but after about three hours of agony, he said that he had been bitten by a colorful spider.

Read More »

Family Tries to Survive Off the Grid Using YouTube Tutorials, Fails

Two women and a teenage boy were found dead after they ventured into the mountains to live off the grid using only knowledge from YouTube tutorials.

The partially mummified bodies of 42-year-old Rebecca ‘Becky’ Vance, her 14-year-old son, and her sister Christine, 41, were recently discovered by a hiker at a camp site in Gunnison National Forest. Last summer, Becky had convinced her son and her sister to go live off the grid, in the wilderness, disconnected from a society that she no longer felt they belonged to. Unfortunately, despite having watched hours of off-grid survival videos on YouTube and on TV, they had very little experience in outdoor survival and did not really prepare enough before venturing into the wilderness. When they were discovered, they had not managed to build a shelter other than a tent and had little more than canned food and ramen noodles for supplies.

Read More »

Woman Shatters World Record with 107-Decibel Burp

An American woman recently set a new world record for the world’s loudest burp by a woman after belching at a measured 107.3 decibels.

The previous Guinness record for the loudest burp by a woman dated back to 2009 when Elisa Cagnoni of Italy managed a 107-decibel belch. It was an impressive achievement, but now her record is history. Kimberly “Kimycola” Winter, a young woman from Maryland who has mastered the art of burping, recently visited a “dead room” at iHeartRadio where she managed to release a monstrously-loud burp that beat Cagnoni’s record by 0.3 decibels. Before her historic attempt, Kimycola prepared her body by eating breakfast and drinking coffee and beer. The tried and true combination apparently played a pretty big part in breaking the 14-year-old record.

Read More »

Company Accidentally Pays Employee 367 Times His Salary, He Refuses to Pay Money Back

A Hungarian man temporarily became a rich man, after the company he worked for accidentally paid him 367 times more than he had actually earned. And when the employer asked for the money back, he refused to pay.

The unnamed man, who hails from Hungary’s Somogy County, briefly worked for a company in Kaposvár but his employment was terminated during the trial period. For his short stint at the company, he stood to earn 92,549 forints, which amounted to 238 euros ($260), but in a feat of incredible generosity, his employer wired him 367 times that amount. Actually, it was just a huge mistake caused by the fact that the man had provided an Austrian bank account, so the salary had to be paid in the local currency, euros. Only instead of converting the forints to euros, they sent the lucky man 92,549 euros instead…

Read More »

Vietnamese Artist Sculpts Papaya Fruits into Realistic Flowers

Nguyen Thi Thu is one of the few remaining artists practicing and constantly enhancing the traditional Vietnamese art of sculpting realistic-looking flowers out of papaya fruits.

Thu became enamored with carving various flowers from papaya fruits at the age of 15, when, like many other parents during the 1980s, her family registered her for an exclusive class on the art of sculpting the tropical fruit. She was fascinated by the traditional art form, but then she had to move to Russia for 15 years, where, because she was too busy working and had no access to green papayas, she couldn’t practice her favorite art form. She tried it with all sorts of other fruits and vegetables, including watermelons, but nothing was quite like the papaya she knew. When she went back to Hanoi in 2009, she immediately got back into papaya sculpting, and she has been practicing the craft ever since.

Read More »

Mayor Comes Under Fire for Hiring Strippers for Father’s Day Celebrations

The mayor of Huehuetán, a town in the Mexican state of Chiapas, has come under harsh criticism for hiring strippers to entertain his male constituents during this year’s Father’s Day celebrations.

It’s been over a month since this year’s Father’s Day, and while most of us have already forgotten all about it, the men of Huehuetán will probably remember this year’s festivities for a very long time. And it’s all because of a surprise from Mayor Manuel Ángel Villalobos, who decided that it would be a good idea to offer the men of his town something truly memorable – a lewd strip show. A poster promoted online before Father’s Day invited the males of Huehuetán to the local auditorium on June 17 for a special event featuring “a show, surprised, and presents,” but mentioned in red lettering that “no children” and “no women” were invited.

Read More »

Coppelia Park – The World’s Largest Ice Cream Parlor

Located in Havana, Cuba, Coppelia Park is the world’s largest ice cream parlor. Also known as the ‘Ice Cream Cathedral, it serves around 30,000 customers per day and up to 600 at a time.

Built in 1966, Cuba’s ‘Parque Coppelia consists of a two-storey domed pavilion inspired by Oscar Niemeyer’s iconic Cathedral of Brasilia outside which people queue for ice cream every single day, and a lush park complete with hundreds of tables where up to 1,000 people can enjoy the frozen treats at a time. The story goes that Fidel Castro ordered the building of Coppelia Park shortly after the success of his Communist revolution. He reportedly ordered twenty-eight containers of ice cream from American producer Howard Johnson’s, and upon tasting it decided to respond by creating something bigger and better, but cheap enough that anyone could afford. His idea was a huge hit, and to this day thousands of people continue to enjoy subsidized ice cream at Coppelia Park, the world’s largest ice cream parlor.

Read More »

Unemployed Man Dresses as Cop, Works Alongside Real Traffic Policemen for 2 Months

An unemployed man in Russia managed to live out his dream of being a traffic policeman by putting on a fake police uniform and going on patrols with actual traffic inspectors for two months.

Tired of sitting around all day, Viktor, a 48-year-old unemployed man from Russia’s Stavropol Region, bought himself a realistic-looking police uniform and joined the ranks of law enforcement officers in the village of Pyatigorsky. Relying on his traffic inspector attire, great acting skills, and enviable self-confidence, the man patrolled the streets of Pyatigorsky, actively stopping negligent drivers and educating them on various traffic rules. It is unclear why Viktor chose this specific profession, or whether he actually took any bribes from motorists during his voluntary service, but his career was short-lived. Two months after joining the ranks of the Stavropol traffic police, his cover was blown.

Read More »

Pyramid-Shaped Mountain in Antarctica Sparks Online Conspiracy Theories

A pyramid-shaped peak in Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountain range has been fueling all sorts of conspiracy theories involving aliens and ancient civilizations for at least seven years.

Satellite images of a pyramid-shaped mountain peak in Antarctica first appeared on the internet in 2016. Measuring 2 kilometers square in each direction at its base, a design reminiscent of Egyptian pyramids, the geological structure instantly became the inspiration to all sorts of online conspiracy theories. Some claimed that it had been built by an ancient civilization 10,000 years ago when Antarctica was warm, while others said that it was the work of aliens. But while it’s true that a naturally-occurring pyramid of that size seems unlikely, geologists would tell you that this is actually just that, a mountain that happens to look like a pyramid.

Read More »

Finnish Company Develops Bizarre 18-Wheel All-Terrain Vehicle

18Wheels Inc., an aptly-named company in Finland, has developed a strange-looking electric 18-wheel all-terrain vehicle that it claims is vastly superior to the common ATV.

The millipede-inspired design of the 18Wheels Inc. all-terrain vehicle is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Basically, it consists of a snowmobile-like body and a set of 18 small wheels each with its own individual suspension system. One of the core ideas of the project was to make this unusual-looking vehicle soil friendly, so the wheels are specifically small so that they don’t damage the soil by leaving huge tire marks on it. The unique suspension system provides a special trajectory of movement and a much smoother ride over all types of rough terrain, which can’t really be said about traditional ATVs.

Read More »

Girl Keeps Cutting Power in Her Home Village to Meet Lover under Cover of Darkness

A young girl from the Indian state of Bihar kept cutting the power in her entire village so she could meet a boy from a rival village without anyone seeing them together.

The people of Bettiah, a village in Bihar’s West Champaran district, had been on edge for over a week due to the unusual power outages that seemed to occur almost every night. The total darkness created perfect opportunities for thieves, so people appealed to the electricity company to fix their network, but its representatives reported no infrastructure issues. No one could understand what was going on until one night, when some of the locals stood watch in the village and caught a young couple meeting under cover of darkness. It turned out that the local girl, Priti Kumari, had fallen in love with Rajkumar, a young man from a rival village, and she kept cutting the power in the while village to keep the relationship a secret.

Read More »