The Gresham Lumberjack – Oregon’s Mysterious ‘Tree Serial Killer’

Authorities in Gresham, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, are trying to catch the infamous “Gresham Lumberjack”, a person who is suspected to have cut down around 700 trees in the area for no apparent reason.

A special task force put together by Gresham Police and the Parks & Recreations has been scouring thousands of photos of a forest in Gresham, looking for clues that could help them identify and finally catch the Gresham Lumberjack. The elusive ‘tree serial killer’ has been felling trees for over a year now, and seems to be getting bolder. Unfortunately, so far, all they know is that the culprit seems to prefer trees along a segment of the trail between the Seventh Street Bridge and Towle Avenue, and cutting them with a hand saw or a bow saw.

Read More »

Japanese “Plastic Surgery Twins” Stun the Internet With Their Transformation

Twin sisters Chie and Chika Yoshikawa are famous in their home country of Japan for turning to plastic surgery repeatedly to attain their desired looks.

Comparing photos of Chie and Chika Yoshikawa from their early twenties and now – at age 34 – you could swear they were completely different people. It’s fair to say that makeup plays a big part in their transformation for Instagram and Twitter pics, but there is no question that the shape of their eyes, their nose, and even their faces are noticeably different. The two sisters have reportedly invested around 40 million yen ($275,000) in cosmetic procedures, ranging from filler injections and face lifts to multiple nose jobs and double eyelid surgery. Nut despite putting up with pain and long recovery times, the two sisters have no regrets and have embraced their roles as plastic surgery ambassadors.

Read More »

Crossed Letters – A Vintage Way to Save Money and Paper

Back when paper and postage charges were prohibitively expensive, people developed a technique to convey as much information as possible on as little paper as possible.

We’re privileged to live in an age when paper, writing supplies and postage fees are generally affordable, so much so that most of us take them for granted. But things weren’t always like this. Back in the Civil War era and up until the 1900s, the paper that letters were written on and the postage charges were so expensive that people had to write on a piece of paper in multiple directions in order to save money. The technique was called cross-writing, or cross-hatching, and despite seeming unreadable, back in the day everyone was used to it and could read every word with ease.

Read More »

Tarzan of Barcelona Teaches Monkey Climbing Classes in Public Park

A man known as Tarzan of Barcelona has been drawing a lot of attention with his monkey-inspired tree-climbing classes taught in the Spanish city’s Parque de la Ciudadela.

Ever wish you could climb trees and leap from branch to branch like Tarzan, the protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous novel and the many big-screen adaptations it inspired? Well, you’re in luck, because all you need to do is travel to the beautiful city of Barcelona and pay 10 euros (~$10) for a “Tarzan Movement” class with the city’s very own Tarzan. You’ll likely need more than one class to master all of Tarzan’s skills, but you’ll become part of a community of like-minded people who love monkeying around just as much.

Read More »

Man Who Has Never Been on a Date Tries to Find Love With Billboard Ad

A 23-year-old English man who has never been on a date in his life is trying to find a girlfriend by advertising himself on a large highway-side billboard near his home city.

Ed Chapman claims to have spent his teenage years and his early 20s trying to find a girlfriend using more conventional means, like socializing and using dating apps, but with no success. So the 23-year-old man from Leeds, in the UK, decided that it was time for desperate measures. He put up some serious money to rent a large advertising banner next to the M621 motorway that goes into Leeds and crossed his fingers. He has already had more success with it than he did in his entire life, as he claims to have been overwhelmed by the number of messages from potential girlfriends.

Read More »

Walking Robot Dogs Is Apparently Becoming a Trend in China

Photos and videos of people walking futuristic robot dogs instead of actual canines have been going viral in China lately, signaling a trend among the younger generations.

Robotic dogs inspired by the impressive creations of Boston Dynamics have been available on Chinese shopping platforms for a while now, but they’ve only recently started actually becoming popular. Although they are sometimes being described as soulless machines that can never compare to real dogs who love their owners unconditionally, there is no denying the advantages of robot pets, and judging by the increasing number of people spotted walking their robot dogs in China lately, they may one day rival the animals they emulate.

Read More »

YouTuber Becomes World’s Blackest Man With the Blackest Commercially-Available Paint

Hajime, Japan’s most popular YouTuber, recently surprised his millions of subscribers by covering his body with the world’s blackest commercially-available paint.

Musou Black, a special type of paint developed and sold by Koyo Orient Japan, isn’t the world’s blackest paint. That title belongs to Vantablack, an incredibly black coating capable of absorbing up to 99.965% of visible light. It makes everything look like a black hole, but it is obscenely expensive and currently unavailable on the open market. Musou Black, on the other hand, absorbs a respectable 99.4% of visible light, making it the world’s second blackest paint, and it is available on Amazon for $17 per 100ml. So it was the ideal choice for someone wanting to become a walking shadow, or the blackest man on Earth.

Read More »

This Man-Made Mound in Rome Consists of Millions of Ancient Amphorae

Monte Testaccio, an artificial mound in Rome composed almost entirely of broken pottery, might be the largest trash heap in the ancient world.

At first glance, Monte Testaccio looks like an ordinary greenery-covered mound, the likes of which can be found all over the world. But underneath all that shrubbery and the thin layer of dirt that supports it lies the largest pile of discarded pottery in the history of the ancient world. Covering an area of 2 hectares and with a volume of approximately 580,000 cubic meters, Monte Testaccio consists almost exclusively of millions of broken ancient pottery containers known as amphorae. It is estimated that this man-made mound consists of  53 million amphorae, which would make it the largest trash heap in the ancient world.

Read More »

Self-Taught Artist Paints Photo-Like Hyperrealistic Portraits

Emel Espiritu, a young, talented artist from the Philippines, has been drawing a lot of attention because of his hyperrealistic portraits which are almost indistinguishable from photographs.

As a young boy, Emel Espiritu loved to draw, so his father taught him the basics. However, as he grew up, his interest for drawing only grew, but his father didn’t want him to pursue an artistic career and pushed him toward a more practical profession. Emel studied “fisheries” in college, but he never really got over his passion. He never stopped drawing. Instead, he honed his skills by watching YouTube tutorials and working odd jobs so he could afford painting supplies. Luckily, it all paid off, as the young artist is now famous for his ultra-realistic painted portraits.

Read More »

Glow-in-the-Dark Road Lines Make Driving Feel Like the Movie TRON

Australian company Tarmac Linemarking is trying out a new glow-in-the-dark type of road line that makes every road appear straight out of the classic sci-fi movie TRON.

Tarmac Linemarking recently made news headlines in its home country, with multiple high-profile media outlets covering its latest trial run of photoluminescent line markings on a one-kilometer-long stretch of road in rural Australia. Created in collaboration with two other companies – OmniGrip and Vic Roads – this ingenious product uses the natural science of photoluminescence to absorb light during the day and emit it in low-light conditions, making the road markings very visible.

Read More »

The Highest Tides in Europe Are Quite a Sight to Behold

Saint Malo, a historic French port on the English Channel coast, is famous for having the highest tides in Europe, with breakwater defenses barely keeping giant waves from slamming into residential buildings.

Seeing Saint Malo at low tide and then again at high tide is like looking at two completely different towns. The buildings and the way they are laid out are the same, but the existence of a beach as wide as the eye can see at one point, and the complete lack thereof just a few hours later is truly strange. And not only does the ocean come in hard at high tide, but it’s strong as well, with giant waves pounding against the waterfront and splashing up to the top of exposed buildings.

Read More »

Woman Helps Husband Marry Ex-Girlfriend, The Three of Them Now Live Together

After hearing that her husband and his ex-girlfriend still had feelings for each other, an Indian woman facilitated their religious marriage and agreed to the woman moving in with them.

This bizarre love story comes to you from Tirupati, a city in India’s Andhra Pradesh state.  Kalyan, a local video content creator, married a woman named Vimala, after the two hit it off on social media. Everything was fine until the woman learned that her husband had a romantic relationship with another Indian influencer from Visakhapatnam who had just moved into their locality and was looking to patch things up with Kalyan. But instead of trying to get the man to leave his current wife, the ex-girlfriend wanted to join their family.

Read More »

Ukrainian Artists Create the Most Amazing Glass Spiders

Glass Symphony, a Ukrainian family-owned company specializing in hand-made glass sculptures, has become famous for its anatomically-correct arachnids.

Using a centuries-old technique known as lampworking, the artisans at Glass Symphony, use glass rods, extreme heat and fine wrist movements to manipulate colored glass into intricate miniatures. A gas burner is used to heat the glass to a temperature of 1800 degrees, after which trained artisans shape the glass into various animal-inspired shapes, from different species of spiders and locusts to snails and octopuses.

Read More »

The Broken Wheel – The Netherlands’ Unique Waterside Suburb

Het Brekkense Wiel, Dutch for “The Broken Wheel”, is a unique waterside residential area and tourist attraction in the Netherlands.

Located between the Frisian Lakes and IJsselmeer, the largest lake in the Netherlands, the aptly-named Het Brekkense Wiel is a suburb made up of several properties on small plots of land resembling broken wheels and surrounded by water. Every building consists of several homes, each accessible both by car and by both, which makes this place very popular with water sports enthusiasts. Because of its unique layout and visually-impressive design – especially when seen from above – Het Brekkense Wiel is often considered an example of ingenious waterside urban planning.

Read More »

YouTube Village – The Indian Village Where Almost Everyone Is a YouTuber

Tulsi, a small village in India’s Chhattisgarh state, has become known as ‘YouTube Village” because a third of its population makes videos for a living.

Online video content is more popular than ever, and it’s no wonder that millions of people around the world are working hard trying to build careers as video creators. But nowhere is the concentration of would-be YouTubers than in Tulsi Village, a small rural settlement in Chhattisgarh, where over a third of the 3,000-strong local population is actively making videos and posting them on YouTube for profit. Many of these creators used to be farmers, but after hearing that some of their peers had doubled, even tripled their income making YouTube videos, they decided that it was time for a career change.

Read More »