Conch Island – A Man-Made Island Built Out of Millions of Conch Shells

Conch “Island” isn’t technically an island, but a mountain of conch shells discarded by fishermen in the same place over hundreds of years.

Located just east of Anegada, the second largest of the British Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean, Conch Island is both a stunning tourist attraction and a testimony to the popularity of conch meat in this part of the world. For centuries, local fishermen have been diving in the shallow waters on this side of Anegada in search of these, slow-moving, edible marine snails and many of them have been throwing their large shells in the same spot. The shell mountain that is Conch Island is a result of their perseverance.

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55-Year-Old Body Builder Hailed as “Real-Life Master Roshi” for His Impressive Physique

Nhon Ly, a 55-year-old Vietnamese-born professional bodybuilder from California has been dubbed the “real-life Master Roshi” for his uncanny resemblance to the popular Dragon Ball Z anime character.

Ly certainly doesn’t look like your typical 55-year-old man. In fact, he looks a lot better than most guys in their 20s, with his lean, toned muscles and youthful attitude. But he’s definitely not the only ripped 50-something man in the world. What really sets Nhon Ly apart from all the rest is his uncanny resemblance to Dragon Ball Z character Master Roshi, aka the Turtle Hermit, in his “final form”. And he apparently liked the comparison so much that he even set his Instagram handle as @master_roshi_real_life.

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Japanese Man Turns Himself into a Caucasian Living Doll

Artist and model Matt Kuwata is mostly known as the son of Japanese legendary baseball player Masumi Kuwata, but in recent years he has attracted a lot of attention for his dramatic physical transformation. Somehow, the 24-year-old went from looking like a Japanese teenage boy, to a Caucasian, doll-like man.

Matt’s appearance has been a hot topic on Japanese social media for the last couple of years, with some people simply admiring his “foreign prince” or “anime character” looks, and others speculating that he had undergone extensive plastic surgery to achieve the shocking transformation. Even though the young man’s face has been constantly changing over the last two years, the photos he started posting on his Instagram at the beginning of last year left a lot of people in shock. He looked nothing like his former self, and frankly he didn’t even look Japanese anymore. Instead, his face resembled that of a Caucasian human doll.

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Dozens of Polar Bears Invade Remote Russian Town, Entering Homes and Chasing Locals

The small town of Belushya Guba, in northern Russia, is in a state of emergency, with locals afraid to leave their houses because of dozens of polar bears roaming the streets in search of food.

Located on one of the two islands that make up the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, Belushya Guba is home to roughly 3,000 people, many of whom are terrified to leave their homes and send their kids to school, because of the dozens of bears running around in the streets and even entering buildings in search of food. While polar bear sighting aren’t exactly uncommon in the remote town, the scale of this invasion is reportedly unprecedented. Over 52 sightings have been reported in only three days, with up to 10 bears seen in the settlement at any given time.

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Canadian Town Plagued by Unbearable Smell of 17-Year-Old Seafood Sauce

For the past 17 years, the people of St. Mary’s, a small town in Canada’s Newfoundland, have had to put up with the pungent smell of fermented seafood sauce at an abandoned nearby factory. In the summer, the stench gets so bad that some residents bar their homes and leave to stay with their relative, because it’s so hard to breathe.

In 1990, a Vietnamese immigrant opened the Atlantic Seafood Sauce factory near St. Mary’s, with the goal of producing a kind of fermented seafood sauce that is very popular in Vietnamese cuisine. Things were off to a good start, but just 4 years down the line, the owner, a man named Sanh Go, started complaining that Canadian regulations were killing his business. In the year 2000, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspected the factory and concluded that the sauce was produced in unsanitary conditions. Two years later, the Atlantic Seafood Sauce factory closed for good, but its giant vats of fermenting fish parts and seafood sauce have remained there ever since, causing a big stink.

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Tajikistan, the Democratic Country Where Celebrating your Birthday in Public Is Considered Illegal

The democratic Republic of Tajikistan is probably the only country in the world where celebrating a birthday outside the family home can earn offenders a hefty fine.

The recent case of Tajik pop star Firusa Khafizova, who got fined 5,000 somoni ($530) for celebrating her birthday in the company of friends outside her home, has once again drawn attention to one of Tajikistan’s most bizarre laws. According to the “Regulation of Traditions and Customs in the Republic of Tajikistan” the celebration of birthdays anywhere except in the privacy of the family circle is strictly forbidden, with offenders risking hefty fines. As strange as that may sound, the law is actually enforced, with authorities going as far as using social media pictures and videos as proof against suspected offenders.

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Controversial App Allows Saudi Men to Track Women And Prevent Them From Leaving the Country

Tech giants Google and Apple have come under fire for hosting a controversial smartphone app that allows Saudi men to monitor how and where women travel and effectively prevent them from leaving the country without permission.

Developed by the government of Saudi Arabia, Absher has been around for a while, but it only started making waves in western media after an article in ThisIsInsider highlighted one of its most controversial features – allowing male “guardians” to track and restrict women’s movements via their smartphones. In Saudi Arabia, women are placed under the authority of a male guardian regardless of their age. Women must ask the permission of their guardians to get married, open bank accounts and travel to certain places, and thanks to Absher, tracking an restricting the travel options of women is easier than it’s ever been.

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Man Disguises Himself as a Woman to Take College Entrance Exam on Her Behalf

A male student at the Universidad Mayor de San Miguel, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, was recently apprehended while trying to take the college entrance exam on behalf of a female applicant, disguised as a woman.

19-year-old Bryan G. was already a Systems Engineering student at the Universidad Mayor de San Miguel, but on February 6th, he tried to once again take the entrance exam at his college, this time on behalf of a female applicant. To fool university staff, he put on a wig, applied makeup on his face and dressed in women’s clothing. Unfortunately, he was seated at the front of the exam hall where all the professors and assistants could see him, and because he looked more nervous than the other applicants, he quickly attracted their attention. Just as Bryan was about to receive his exam sheet, an assistant came over, asked him who he was, and when he answered “Jocelin C.”, the man told him “You are not that person”.

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Finnish Artist Creates Life-Like Crocheted Versions of People in Her Village

Knitting may not be the most exciting art from, but Liisa Hietanen’s knitted creations are nothing short of awe-inspiring. The Finnish artist makes crocheted life-size versions of people in her village, and the similarities are eerily uncanny.

Hietanen began crocheting and knitting when she was 10 years old and got so good at it that while attending art school she started making knitted sculptures. It all began with a life-size sculpture of her first-grade teacher which turned out so good that the artist felt inspired to create an entire series based entirely on the people in her village, Hämeenkyrö. She meets up with them to decide on the pose, takes photographs of them from all directions, takes some measurements and pays attention to their mannerisms so she can better capture their personalities in her artworks. A few months later, she introduces them to their knitted doppelgangers.

 

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Woman Wants to Hire Someone to Make Decisions for Her for a Month

We all make wrong decisions from time to time, but one woman in the UK feels like she’s made so many of them over the last year that she now wants to pay an “enlightened individual” $2,600 to make decisions on her behalf for a month.

After reportedly losing money by trusting a friend, becoming stranded and penniless in a foreign country, getting mugged and being in a toxic romantic relationship, all in the last twelve months, an anonymous woman from Bristol, in the UK, wants to hire a spiritual guide or clairvoyant to help her make decisions for a month and get her life back on track. She’s willing to pay the successful candidate a fee of £2,000 ($2,600).

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Millionaire Wants to Buy a Mountain So He Can Turn It Into His Own Mount Rushmore

If you happen to own a mountain or cliff that you’ve been struggling to sell, maybe you can strike a deal with this multimillionaire who wants to carve his family’s faces into it, Mount Rushmore style.

Online luxury marketplace HushHush.com recently revealed that a mysterious multimillionaire reached out to them with a very unusual request – he is looking to buy a mountain or a cliff  in the UK so he can turn it into a personal Mount Rushmore. The stone real-estate has to be large enough to fit the buyer’s carved portrait, as well as those of his wife, their three children and the family dog. The man is apparently willing to pay up to £12 million ($15.5 million) for the mountain itself, and has a separate budget for a team of stone carvers to create the family portraits.

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Online Store Sells $650 “Thought Box” That You Put Over Your Head to Just Think

With open offices being so popular these days and distractions pretty much everywhere you look, it can be difficult to find a personal space to gather your thoughts. But with the Thought Box, a $650 cardboard and fabric box that you put over your head, you can enjoy some personal place anywhere.

The Thought Box is exactly what it sounds like – a box to help you think. Just have a seat on the included Thought Stool, put the box over your head and use the earplugs that come with it to detach from everything around you and just think. If that sounds like the kind of thing you need in your hectic life, head on over to The Form Emporium online store and order one today. Just know that you’ll have to pay £495 ($650) for it.

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Dating Service Matches People Based by Their DNA Compatibility

We’ve seen a lot of interesting dating services in the last few years, like Hater, an app that matches people by things they both hate, Dating AI, a service that lets you date people who look like your favorite celebrities, or Trump Singles, a dating site catering exclusively to Donald Trump supporters. But if you prefer a more scientific approach to dating, you may want to try Pheramor, a unique dating service that matches people by chemical compatibility, by analyzing and comparing their DNA.

Pheramor’s approach to finding suitable matches for singles is a bit different than that of most dating services. For $29.99, the company will ship users a DNA kit containing a buccal swab that they have to return for analysis after swabbing the inside of their cheeks. Pheramor will then analyze the samples and sequence 11 genes allegedly linked to attraction and compares the results with others in its database to determine chemical compatibility. The company then sends the user three potential match in their area (with their photos blurred) every day, each graded from 0 to 100, based on estimated compatibility.

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Woman Hatches Duck Egg Bought from Restaurant, Ends Up with Adorable Pet

A Malaysian woman ended up with a pet duck after buying a fertilized egg from a restaurant and using a makeshift incubator to hatch it instead of eating it.

39-year-old Erica Lim, a creative professional from Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia, recently sat down with online magazine Star2 to talk about life with a pet duck in a high-rise apartment building. She spoke about Daisy’s love of water, her friendly and adventurous nature, and how she adapted to life in the big city, but Erica’s most interesting revelation was the story of how the duck came into this world. Apparently, she was meant to be eaten as “balut”, a controversial Asian snack that consists of a cooked partially-developed duck embryo.

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Man Has Been Digging His Basement with Radio-Controlled Miniature Machinery for the Last 14 Years

If you though excavating a basement was hard work, try doing it with R/C miniature construction machinery. One Canadian man has been doing it for 14 years and he’s still not done. Luckily, he’s in no hurry to finish.

Joe Murray, a farmer and radio-controlled construction machinery enthusiast from Saskatchewan, Canada, started excavating a basement under his house in June of 2005. In the beginning, he had a hands-on approach, using a pickaxe and an air chisel hammer, but then he started acquiring miniature radio-controlled digging machinery and he took a back seat, letting them do all the dirty work. By 2010, his fleet of trucks and excavators were already doing all the work, while he controlled them from a distance. But the problem with using miniature machinery to dig a life-size basement is that it takes a long time. And I mean a really long time.

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