The hairworm might not look like much, but it is a sinister parasite that steals its host’s genetic code to manipulate it into deep water, so it can reproduce and start the cycle all over again.

During its larval stage, a hairworm’s first goal is to get eaten by a tadpole or a mosquito. It then lies dormant until this initial host is itself eaten by a larger creature, such as a cricket, grasshopper, or mantis. Once its Trojan horse is digested by the new host, the hairworm breaks out and begins sapping the poor insect of nutrients. This only takes about three months, after which the hairworm somehow manipulates its drained host toward water, where it would never go on its own, to drown. Hairworms breed in water, so after their host dies, they swim to the nearest ball hairworms to reproduce and start the cycle once more. Scientists have known about the worm’s ‘mindsnatcher’ trick for years, but a team of researchers claims to have finally figured out how hairworms actually brainwash their hosts.

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Frank Hayes is believed to be the only jockey in history to win an official horse race while dead. He suffered a heart attack while competing at New York’s Belmont Park in 1923.

According to Frank’s mother, the young stable boy and apprentice jockey had always been fond of hoses and dreamed of one day becoming a full-time race jockey, so when finally given the chance to prove himself in a 2-mile, 12-jump race at Belmont Park, he leaped at the opportunity. Frank Hayes loved training horses, and one of his favorites was Sweet Kiss, a 7-year-old unremarkable mare that wasn’t well thought of even by her owners. She had 20-1 odds in the big race and wasn’t expected to pull off anything extraordinary, but Frank believed she could win, so Sweet Kiss’ owners gave him the chance to prove it. This would be their only race together, but one that would be remembered a century later.

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A Chicago man is suing 27 women for $75 million after they posted negative comments about him on a Facebook dating group, calling him “very clingy” and a ghoster.

32-year-old Nikko D’Ambrosio claims that his reputation was tarnished after several women who claim to have dated him posted their negative experiences on a private Facebook group called ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy’. The popular group originated in New York, but has since branched out to other major cities and is mainly used by women to share their experiences with men and ask for advice about various red flags. In D’Ambrosio’s case, dozens of women wrote derogatory comments, labeling him as clingy or accusing him of ghosting them after getting what he wanted. Now, the Chicago man is suing several of these women, as well as moderators of the Facebook group and parts of the social network’s parent company for $75 million.

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Don’t you hate it when you can’t remember if you locked the front door when you last left your home? It’s a dreadful feeling that you don’t have to experience again thanks to a cool little accessory called CheckKEY.

Developed by Japanese lock manufacturer company Miwa, the ChecKEY is a sleeve-like accessory that goes over the top part of your regular key and features a small window that indicates whether you locked your door or not. The ChecKEY comes with a built-in mechanism that detects when you turn the key clockwise or counterclockwise and changes color accordingly. When you turn the key into a lock clockwise, the little window on the ChecKEY turns white, and when you turn it counterclockwise, it turns orange. The mechanism is entirely mechanical, so it never runs out of batteries. This way, when in doubt, you can just look at your key and tell if you really locked your door on your way out.

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An Indian man has been caught trying to take an exam at a Punjab university on behalf of his girlfriend by wearing lipstick, makeup, and female clothes.

Officials at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Punjab’s Faridkot district recently caught a young Indian man using a disguise and fake documents in order to take the exam of multi-purpose health workers on behalf of a woman believed to be his girlfriend. The youth, identified as Angrez Singh from Fazilka, showed up at the examination center in Kotkapura on January 7  dressed in full female attire, complete with red bangles, bindi, and lipstick, and carrying documents in the name of the woman he was trying to impersonate, one Paramjit Kaur. While his disguise may have fooled the staff, they couldn’t trick the biometric scanners when his data didn’t fit the one in the database.

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A Chinese advertising agency is being accused by former employees of moving its offices from the city to a remote mountain area to force them to quit and avoid paying them compensation.

In what has been described as one of the most extreme tactics to convince employees to resign, an advertising company based in downtown Xi’an City, China’s Shanxi Province, allegedly moved its offices to a rural mountain area with very limited transport options. The accusations were made by a former employee who claimed to be part of a large part of the staff to leave the company due to the new working conditions. The man, known only as Chang, said that the company notified them that they would have to travel to a new location in the Qinling Mountains, which required a two-hour commute (one way), with very limited options for those without a personal car.

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A South Korean model who became known as the “Angel Box Girl” for walking around in a cardboard box and letting strangers grope her is being prosecuted for obscene exposure.

A few months ago, Ain, a self-proclaimed attention-seeking South Korean model, went viral for a risqué stunt that made international headlines. Videos of the young woman wearing only a cardboard box with four holes for her arms and legs, and two more for groping went viral, making Ain one of the most popular topics on social media. the young woman paraded herself on the streets of Hongdae, a vibrant nightlife district of Seoul, asking random people to put their hands through the holes in the “Angel Box” and grope her naked or scantly clothed body. As word of the Angel Box Girl spread through the streets, she ended up attracting large groups of curious people that the police had to disperse.

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An Indian man who had been pronounced dead by doctors allegedly came back to life when the ambulance transporting him home to his family hit a deep pothole.

India’s pothole problem is a well-documented one. It annoys and exasperates millions of people every day, and on occasion, it can cause serious injuries and even death, but according to the family of an 80-year-old man from Haryana, potholes can also be miracles in disguise. Darshan Singh Brar allegedly owes his life to a pothole. The man had not been feeling well for several days, so one of his grandsons decided to take him to a hospital near his home. He was diagnosed with a severe chest infection which also took a toll on his pre-existing heart condition, and despite doctors’ best efforts, he was pronounced dead after four days on a ventilator. But that’s only the beginning of our story…

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A Jehova’s Witness has taken the country of Spain to the European Court of Human Rights for administering her a blood transfusion during surgery against her will.

Rosa Edelmira Pindo Mulla, an Ecuadorian woman living in Spain, claims to be a victim of “medical paternalism”, due to her nationality and religion. In 2017, following a series of medical examinations, the 53-year-old woman was advised to undergo surgery. In 2018, before the procedure, Pindo Mulla was presented with three documents to fill out – an advance directive, a long-term power of attorney, and an informed consent form. She claims to have specifically mentioned in all three that she was a Jehova’s Witness and that she refused to receive any kind of blood transfusion (blood, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets or plasma), even at the cost of her own life. After suffering a life-threatening hemorrhage during surgery, she received a blood transfusion, and she has been seeking justice ever since…

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A Brazilian man tragically lost his life by plunging down a deep shaft he had dug in his kitchen after dreaming that there was gold buried deep under his house.

71-year-old João Pimenta da Silva’s dream of enrichment ended as a nightmare that claimed his life. His lifeless body was found at the bottom of an exceptionally deep well he and his neighbors had dug under his kitchen in Ipatinga, a municipality in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. The man had reportedly dreamt that there was gold deep under his home, and that all he had to do was dig to get to it. He even told his neighbor about his dream and even though he was laughed at in the beginning, da Silva was actually able to convince the man to assist him with the digging. Unfortunately, the treasure hunt ended in disaster when the 71-year-old plunged to his death while trying to exit the 40-meter-deep hole.

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Cosimo Caiffa is a talented Italian graffiti artist who uses spray cans to create some of the most fascinating street art illusions you’ve ever seen!

44-year-old Caiffa, who also goes by ‘Cheone’, paints most of his impressive artworks in his hometown of Nerviano, near Milan. Most of his street art projects not only integrate perfectly with their surroundings, but they also have this uncanny depth to them that often fools passers-by. Having grown up around art and artists in Gallipoli, Leece, Cosimo started painting on canvas at a very young age, but as soon as he discovered graffiti, he knew that was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He taught himself the 3D street art technique, and he has been using it for years to great effect to turn bland, boring urban spaces into outdoor works of art.

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American tattoo artist Amanda Graves has become famous for her glittering tattoos, which somehow appear to be shimmering on the skin.

Maryland-based Amanda Graves never claimed to be the inventor of the glitter tattoo technique, but when it comes down to it, she is universally considered the best glitter tattoo artist in the world. Her tattoos are so good that people often ask if she actually uses glitter ink to do them (spoiler – she doesn’t), or if her artworks interfere with X-rays. In reality, the glitter is an optical illusion expertly created by Graves using the painstaking pointillism technique. She creates each speck of glitter by overlapping colors with small gauge needles, but the end result is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

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Maisie Matilda, a 24-year-old artist from the UK, is being credited for shining a bright spotlight on the fascinating but dying art of book fore-edge painting.

Matilda had been painting for a long time, but she only started experimenting with fore-edge painting during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when she found herself with lots of time on her hands. The self-taught artist went viral at the end of 2021, after posting videos of her work on the fore-edge of a J.R.R. Tolkien book on social media. Her TikTok videos got millions of views, and the young artist found herself giving interviews to some of the world’s largest news outlets. She has been riding this wave ever since, and she currently has over half a million loyal fans on Instagram alone.

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Researchers at MIT created a high-tech pill that starts to vibrate once it makes contact with gastric fluid in the user’s stomach in order to stimulate receptors in the stomach and create the sensation of fullness.

VIBES, short for Vibrating Ingestible BioElectronic Stimulator, was only recently unveiled in a study published in the Science Journal, but it is already being touted by the media as the future of weight loss. Although it has yet to be tested on humans, trials on pigs have yielded very promising results. After about 30 minutes of VIBES activity, pigs consumed on average almost 40 percent less food in the next half hour than they did without the smart pill. Apparently, the revolutionary device works by activating stretch receptors in the stomach, simulating the presence of food. This in turn signals the hypothalamus to increase the levels of hormones that make us feel full.

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Japanese media recently reported the controversial story of a 35-year-old Japanese man who allegedly has four wives and three small children but hasn’t worked in over a decade.

35-year-old Ryuta Watanabe of Sapporo, on Japan’s Hokkaido Island, has become an overnight sensation in his home country due to an unconventional lifestyle. Watanabe reportedly lives with three of his four wives – who get along great with each other – and relies on them for most of the family’s financial needs, as he hasn’t had a job in the last 10 years. The polygamous family’s daily life was recently featured on Japan’s AbemaTV news program Abema Prime and sparked quite a heated debate in Japan, a country where polygamy is officially banned. To bypass Japan’s polygamy law, Ryuta’s four wives are currently in what is known as a ‘common-law relationship’ with him, but they plan to register their marriages and then divorce him, one at a time, so they can take the surname ‘Watanabe’ and pass it on to their children.

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