Manusia Silver, or “Silver Men” is a special type of beggar that has become a common sight on the streets of several Indonesian cities.

Beggars have been around for as long as anyone can remember, and Indonesia is no exception, but the South-East Asian country has recently seen the rise of a new type of beggar, the so-called Silver Men. Inspired by the street performers who used metallic paint to transform themselves into living statues and wow passers-by with their doll-like movements, the Silver Men or Manusia Silver, as they are called in Indonesian, simply adapted the look of these performers to their own skill – begging.

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Board shoe racing is the traditional sport of the Zhuang people of China’s Gunaxi province, a unique discipline that has three people sharing the same “shoes”, which requires perfect coordination and concentration.

Board shoe racing can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, when legend has it that a famous heroine of the Xhuang people used it as a way to train soldiers against invading Japanese pirates. The legendary Mrs. Wa used long pieces of wood to teach the men to march together in perfect synchronization, which greatly improved their combat qualities and boosted their fighting spirit, helping them repel the invaders. The traditional sport has been passed on from generation to generation since then.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you’ve probably seen pictures of Japan’s square watermelons doing the rounds online. I know I have, but what I never knew was that these weird-looking fruit are basically inedible.

Perfectly sized and shaped fruits are big business in Japan, and it’s not uncommon for the rarest and most coveted varieties to sell for thousands of dollars a piece. Back in 2016, a supermarket owner made international news headlines after paying $11,000 for a bunch of Ruby Rose grapes, the world’s most expensive grape variety. But it’s not just grapes, specialty fruit shops charge hundreds, even thousands of dollars for fruits of all types, which may seem strange, but it is closely tied to Japanese culture. Rare and expensive fruits are traditionally offered as gifts to clients, business partners or relatives, and people will gladly spend a small fortune on a single fruit just to show their respect for someone. But while most of these expensive fruits can be savored by the recipient, there is one that has a purely decorative purpose – square watermelons.

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A financially-burdened businessman from Delhi, India who wanted to end his own life, but was too scared to do it himself hired four hitmen to kill him so his family could receive a considerable insurance policy.

40-year-old Gaurav Bansal supported his family by operating a ration shop, but because of he Covid-19 lockdown, he was under immense financial burden. The poor state of his business had taken a toll on the man’s mental state, and he was plunged in a deep depression. Unable to see hope at the end of the tunnel, Bansal took out a personal loan of RS 6 lakh ($7,900) and planned to have himself murdered. He originally intended to end his own life, but couldn’t muster the courage to do it, so he contacted four other people to do it, for a price.

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An elderly Chinese couple sparked a heated online debate last week after it was revealed that despite being married for 30 years, they still split all their finances, house chores, even the food in their refrigerator.

In many parts of the world, going Dutch is considered perfectly normal on dates, but for a couple going on three decades of marriage and having been living together for all that time, it seems a bit strange. Still, for Mr. and Mrs. Chen, an elderly couple in Tianjin, China, splinting everything, from finances to the eggs in their fridge, has been the norm for as long as they can remember. The two have been featured in the news for their unusual “going Dutch” lifestyle before, and went viral once again, earlier this month.

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A Chinese woman was recently arrested for creating a money-making scheme by purchasing flight delay insurance and then raking in the claims.

Identified only as  Li, the 45-year-old woman from Nanjing reportedly used 20 other identities in addition to her own to take out almost 900 flight delay insurance policies from 2015 to 2019. However, rather than getting on all these planes herself, Li would use her past travel service work experience to select flights she expected to be delayed or cancelled, and then collect the claims. While some sources described her scheme as gambling, some Chinese outlets reported that the woman conducted research before deciding which flights to buy tickets on, checking for extreme weather or other delay-inducing events on flight routes, and consulting user reviews.

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The models in the photo below are not real, they are the result of artificial intelligence processing, but they can be used commercially by companies looking for 100 percent safe advertising solutions.

The controversial service is offered by Japanese company INAI Model, which is both an abbreviation for ImageNavi AI Model, as well as a literal translation for “model which does not exist”. Each of its “models” is based on an actual person that was hired by INAI Model and photographed. Those photos, were then processed through an AI-powered generative adversarial network and altered to the point where they no longer resembled the original. Stock photos of the AI-generated models can already be purchased from the INAI Model website.

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A 40-year-old Thai woman has been getting attention on Asian social media for her ingenious strategy of selling second-hand clothes online. Since most of her garments come from dead people, she decided to cosplay as a zombie during online livestreams.

40-year-old Kanittha Thongnak, had been selling second-hand clothes on the streets of Chon Daen, in northern Thailand, for three years when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and while she never made huge profits, she could at least support herself. Things changed drastically once the lockdown came into effect, so like many other vendors, she decided to try her luck online. Selling second-hand clothes, most of which were left behind by the deceased, was always a taboo niche, but the lockdown only made things worse. Kanittha only had a handful of viewers during her livestreaming sessions and hardly made any sales, but luckily she came up with a brilliant idea – to embrace the thing people feared the most about her job by becoming an undead.

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Indonesian media recently reported the bizarre case of a 31-year-old man who married a woman he met online only to find out that she was actually a man two days after their wedding.

The man, identified only as Muh, in order to protect his identity, reportedly met his wife, Mita, on Facebook about a month ago. After getting to know each other and establishing a romantic relationship online, the two decided to meet up in real life as well. They went out for coffee, and the 31-year-old claims that nothing about Mita’s appearance and voice felt suspicious. She looked beautiful and graceful, which made him fall in love with her instantly. He was staying up at night thinking about her, and after a few weeks of dating, he called Mita up one day and asked her to marry him.

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We all know many of the stars and online influencers we follow on social media use all kinds of tricks to enhance their image, but a recent Chinese duo revealed just how far digital editing can go, by comparing their altered social media photos to the original versions.

Exposing online idols has been a very popular pastime on Chinese social media lately, with dozens of reported cases of internet celebrities with thousands, sometimes millions of followers exposed as frauds after accidentally turning off their filters and revealing themselves as looking totally different than what their fans thought. But this story is about a peculiar case involving a pair of social media idols who recently exposed themselves, by comparing the original photos of themselves to the altered ones that they usually posted on their profiles.

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Numazu Port, in central Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, was more famous for its seafood dishes and arresting views of Suruga Bay, but ever since photos of a visually striking blue pudding started doing the rounds online the port town has become known for its gourmet desserts as well.

The Numazu Deep Sea Pudding Factory (Numazu Shinkai Purin Kōbō), opened its gates in July of 2018 and managed to make a great first impression with the help of an inspired selection of gourmet sweets, that included puddings, ice cream and uniquely-flavored soda. Right from the start, the owners set out to create a product that captured the essence of Numazu, and the adjacent Suruga Bay proved to be the perfect inspiration. Famous for hosting the deepest ocean pits around Japan, Suruga Bay was perfectly represented by a whimsical blue dessert named Deep Sea Pudding.

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Globetrotters looking for the world’s most exclusive accommodations will soon be able to add a new line on their list of must-visit  locations – a Hanoi 6-star hotel with a 24K-gold-plated exterior and interior.

After over a decade of development, the Hanoi Golden Lake hotel will be completed by the end of this year. The exterior is already almost one hundreds percent completed, with just the final details left to be added, and the building is already attracting attention because of its unusual decor. This 6-star hotel is completely covered in Japanese-imported ceramic tiles infused with real 24K gold, and according to developers, patrons can expect more shiny gold decor on the inside as well.

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Indian media recently reported the strange case of a man who allegedly filed a complaint against Google Maps for causing him serious marital problems.

R Chandrasekhar, a 49-year-old married man from India’s Mayiladuthurai district, claims he won’t stop short of taking tech giant Alphabet to court for ruining his relationship with his wife. The man basically blames Google Maps, particularly the app’s “Your Timeline” feature for making his wife question him about all the places he allegedly visits every time he goes out. Chandrasekhar claims that Google’s app routinely displays places he has never visited, and he has trouble explaining it to his wife.

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Photos of chicken eggs with a dark green yolk have been doing the rounds on social media these days, puzzling both veterinary experts and the general public.

Originally thought to be the result of digital image editing, the viral photos were eventually traced back to Ak Shihabudheen, a chicken farmer from Malappuram, who confirmed that some of his poultry do in fact lay eggs with green egg yolks. To prove his claims, the young farmer even posted a video of himself cracking open an egg and revealing the dark green yolk. He recently told reporters that journalists and veterinarians from all over India have contacted him about his strange eggs in recent days, but he declares himself just as puzzled as everyone else.

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Yartsa Gunbu, a fungus that infects ghost moth caterpillars on the Tibetan Plateau, is considered by far the most expensive parasite in the world, fetching up to $50,000 a pound.

A close relative of the tropical parasite that infects ants and turns them into zombies, Ophiocordyceps sinensis is only found on the Tibetan Plateau, where it infects the larvae of ghost moths while they are buried deep underground and feeding on plant roots. The larvae are most vulnerable in the summer, when they shed their skins, becoming more easily infected. The parasite slowly grows in its hose by consuming it during the fall and winter, and just when the snow starts to melt, it pushes its dying larvae host upward and grows a plant-like, spore-filled stalk that pierces the ground, becoming the way to spot the valuable Yartsa Gunbu. It is then harvested by local villagers and sold modest prices that turn into a fortune as the fungus passes through several middleman, costing the final client more that three times its weight in gold.

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