A 29-year-old man who has been living in a tent in an abandoned parking lot for 200 days has become the newest symbol of China’s increasingly popular ‘lying down’ culture.

At the end of 2018, Li Shu quit his job in Sichuan Province and began spending most of his time chilling in his rented apartment. The 29-year-old quickly realized that, with no income whatsoever, he would quickly go through all his savings, so he cut his daily expenses to just 10 yuan ($1.5) per day. Even so, after years of having to pay rent, it became painfully obvious that he would either have to find a way to make money or move out. Since the first option wasn’t even considered, he sold most of his belongings, bought a 400 yuan ($57), and decided to continue his relaxed lifestyle in the great outdoors, among the debris of an abandoned parking lot. He has been living there for 200 days, and has no plans of joining the rat race of life anytime soon.

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Kambo is an ancient Amazonian ritual that involves putting the poisonous secretions of a frog into your body for a supposed detoxifying and health-boosting effect.

Named after the poisonous, waxy substance harvested from the backs of giant monkey frogs found throughout the Amazon, Kambo has always been a controversial cleansing ritual because of the severe side-effects od coming into direct contact with the poison of the giant monkey frog. That controversy recently reached new heights due to Australia’s investigation into the deaths of two unrelated people who had died shortly after attempting kambo. Although symptoms associated with kambo vary in severity, in some cases, they are enough to cause serious health concerns, even death.

The shamanistic ritual known as kambo has been used by the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to heal and cleanse the body for centuries, and it has been promoted by naturopathic practitioners for its detoxifying effects. However, unlike other, more mild methods of cleansing the body, kambo can be pretty brutal. Side effects of the ritual involve nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of bladder control, dizziness, heart palpitations, and abdominal pain, among others.

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After wearing masks in public for three long years, many Japanese are signing up for smiling classes to learn how to smile again without looking awkward.

Smiling used to be a natural response, but apparently, three years of hiding behind a mask have left many Japanese unable to smile naturally. Some of them are now paying so-called smiling educators to teach them how to display their pearly whites again without looking awkward. They participate in specialized classes where they are taught how to stretch and flex various parts of their faces and even their neck muscles to smile properly and actually convey happiness without looking weird.

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A Mexican court of law recently sparked outrage by sentencing a young woman to six years in prison for “excessive use of legitimate defense”, because she killed the man who was raping her.

The sentencing of Roxana Ruiz, a 23-year-old single mother from Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, on Monday has been making international news headlines all week. The young woman was charged with homicide with an excess of legitimate self-defense after she strangled the man who was raping her in her own home, and is now facing six years in prison, as well as an obligation to compensate her assailant’s family financially. Ruiz, who has already served nine months behind bars after her initial arrest in 2021, claims that she would have most likely been killed by the man raping her if she didn’t kill him first, but the judge ruled that a simple blow to the head would have been enough to incapacitate the assailant.

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A businessman from southern Thailand recently went viral for claiming that the secret to his good health is to drink crocodile blood mixed with alcohol twice a day.

Rojakorn Nanon, a 52-year-old man from Thailand’s Trang province, starts his day with a glass of crocodile mixed with a Thai spirit called lao khao, and has another such cocktail before bedtime. The businessman claims that he used to be physically weak and exhausted all the time, but ever since he started drinking crocodile blood, things took a massive turn for the better, and now he swears by the stuff. He believes the blood does wonders for several organs, for the blood, and for the nervous system.

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A family in Sidney, Australia is being praised for resisting the urge to sell their property to developers who have bought all the land around it, despite being offered tens of millions of dollars for it.

The Zammit family home has become one of the most famous properties in Sydney both because of the way it stands out among the dozens of cookie-cutter homes surrounding it and the resilience of its owners. While every one of their old neighbors agreed to sell their land to housing developers, the Zammits have refused every offer so far, and have no plans of moving away anytime soon. The Australian family has been praised for refusing to sell out and continuing to live on their five acres of land despite the financial temptation and pressure from developers.

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An IT specialist who has been on sick leave with no obligation to work since 2008 recently tried to sue their employer for not giving them a pay raise.

Ian Clifford, a ‘medically retired’ IT specialist who has been paid a £54,000 ($67,500) yearly salary as part of his disability plan with his employer, tech giant IBM, recently tried to sue the American company for ‘disability discrimination’, claiming that his salary was not ‘generous enough’ to keep up with inflation. Mr. Clifford has not done any work for the company in the last 15 years but will continue to receive his yearly salary until retirement or death, as per IBM’s disability plan. Despite this, the IT worker feels that he has been treated unfairly by his employer, and he is attempting to take the company to court for a pay raise.

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A 16-year-old teenager from South Korea has been accused of forcefully practicing his tattooing skills on two younger schoolmates that he had allegedly been bullying for years.

A disturbing school bullying case has been making news headlines in South Korea and sparking outrage among parents. The Incheon Nonhyeon Police Department has confirmed that it is currently investigating a bullying case in which the assailant is accused of forcefully tattooing at least two younger teenagers, both as a way of branding them and practicing his tattooing skills. The parents of the first victim filed a complaint in March, after accidentally discovering a large and amateurishly-inked tattoo on their son’s leg. After confronting the boy, they learned that he had been forcefully tattooed by a schoolmate who had been terrorizing him for at least two years.

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A young Venezuelan woman recently went viral on social media after announcing that she had befriended her cheating boyfriend’s lover and accepting to share him with her.

Sofía Gutiérrez, a young woman from Lecheria, Venezuela, recently sparked controversy on Facebook after posting a photo of herself and another woman, who she claims is her boyfriend’s mistress and her ‘friend’. Gutiérrez reportedly learned of her partner’s infidelity by checking his WhatsApp messages, only instead of confronting him, she decided to contact his secret lover, and the two ended up becoming good friends. Sofia tagged the girl in the photo, a certain Sarahy Gill, and announced that she had gained all her affection by “accepting my boyfriend as hers” and giving him the attention he needs when she is not able to. As you can imagine, the unusual post went viral almost instantly.

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A gang of eight was recently apprehended just as they were about to reach their goal – an oil pipeline – after spending a whole month digging a secret tunnel to it from their hotel.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency recently reported the capture of eight criminals who had rented an entire hotel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and spent an entire month digging a secret underground tunnel from it to a nearby oil pipeline. The plan is believed to have been masterminded by a former employee of Korea’s state-run pipeline operator Daehan Oil Pipeline Corporation who had been previously fired for attempting to steal oil from another pipeline. They had rented a hotel near their target under the pretext of wanting to acquire it, and spent most of their day digging using rudimentary tools in order to avoid attracting attention with loud noises.

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The marriage between a 22-year-old Malaysian man and his 48-year-old former teacher has been making news headlines in South-East Asia.

Muhammad Danial Ahmad Ali first met his future wife, Jamilah Mohd, in 2016, in the classroom, as she was his Malay teacher in junior high school. There was nothing romantic about their relationship last the time, although the 22-year-old claims that he still remembers Jamilah’s caring attitude and closeness to students. The two lost contact during Muhammad’s Form 4 class, but they met again by chance when he had to go to the headmaster’s office and noticed his former teacher. He said hello, but that was about it until Form 5, when Muhammad started noticing Jamilah more and more. She texted him a birthday message that year and they started chatting. Eventually, Muhammad confessed his feelings for Jamilah, but she rejected him, because of his age and the 26-year age gap between them. But he didn’t let a simple number stand in the way of love.

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A 72-year-old man in China melted the hearts of millions after it was reported that he spends most of his time promoting makeup and other beauty products online in order to treat his sick grandson.

People will do all sorts of crazy things for their loved ones, and 72-year-old Zhu Yunchang is a perfect example. The Chinese pensioner has been dedicating a lot of his time to his unusual job, that of makeup-wearing beauty blogger, for which he applies all sorts of beauty products, from creams to lipstick and mascara for fans all over the country. It’s not exactly typical behavior for a man Zhu’s age, but then again, his is not a typical story.

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With just $3 million in assets, two employees, no ATM, no website, and no transaction fees, Kentland Federal Savings and Loan is the smallest bank in America, and it’s been around for over 100 years.

You’ve most likely heard of America’s banking giants – JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and the Bank of America – but what about the smallest fish in the pond, so to speak? Well, at the opposite end, we have Kentland Federal Savings and Loan, officially the smallest bank in the United States of America. Founded back in 1920, by the great-grandfather of its current CEO, this tiny financial institution has only ever had one branch in Kentland, Indiana, and has only offered three services – obtaining a home mortgage, opening a savings account, and opening a certificate of deposit.

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A young security guard who suffered multiple injuries while trying to catch a girl who had jumped from a building ended up losing his job and getting criticized by the woman’s family.

28-year-old Qu Yan was working as a security guard at a hospital in China’s Jilin Province in 2022 when his life took a tragic turn. He was on duty when he received reports that a young girl had climbed onto a fourth-floor balcony and was threatening to jump to her death. He quickly ran outside and saw the young woman preparing to take her own life. Firefighters had not yet arrived, and a number of hospital employees were scrambling to improvise a net to catch the woman when she jumped. They never got the chance to do so, as the woman leaped from the balcony before they were ready, so Qu Yan reacted instinctively, rushing forward and trying to catch the woman in his arms.

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A trio of Peruvian thieves managed to make international news headlines after pulling off one of the dumbest heists in history – 220 sneakers from various brands, all for the right foot.

The hilarious crime occurred on April 30th, at a sports goods store in Huancayo, central Peru. At around 03:30 am, three men managed to cut the padlocks at the back of the store and steal three large crates filled with sneaker boxes from various brands. What the thieves didn’t realize was that all the shoeboxes they stole only contained sneakers for the right foot, as the owner had prepared the three crates to have the footwear displayed at a local sports goods fair. Authorities suspect that the thieves have hidden their haul, as there is no way that they can sell the sneakers on the black market without their pairs.

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