South Korean parents are increasingly turning to “uncle service” providers to make sure their children don’t have to put up with bullying in schools. Such services are apparently a pricey but efficient alternative to having schools handle the matter.

Earlier this month, Korean media reported on the growing business of leasing intimidating uncles to either protect children from bullies, gather evidence of bullying for filing an official complaint with the school, or even contacting the bully’s parents at their workplace. Most companies offer different packages to meet clients’ needs, and business is reportedly booming. But while many South Koreans view this type of service in a positive light, there are those who see it as simply answering bullying with another type of bullying.

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For the past seven years, a family from Taiwan’s Chiayi county had only been able to access their kitchen with rubber boots on or risk getting electrocuted. Even turning on the faucet with their bare hands was a risky affair as current could be running through it.

The man of the house, known only as Mr. He, was recently featured in a short news segment on the bizarre phenomenon affecting his household. Seeing him getting ready to enter his kitchen, one would assume that he’s dealing with a flooded room, but in fact the rubber boots he always puts on are supposed to protect him from the electricity running through the kitchen. Every time he touches the metal walls of the kitchen, or even the water faucet with his bare hand, He claims to get an electrical shock. To avoid that, he always operates the faucet with a soup spoon equipped with a wooden handle.

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They are known as “McRefugees” or “McSleepers”, homeless or lonely people in Hong Kong who spend their nights at 24h McDonald’s restaurants, and their number is apparently growing at an alarming rate.

Hong Kong is notorious for its obscenely expensive housing market and the inhumane cage-like dwellings that some of the island’s inhabitants are forced to sleep in. Some of these housing units lack basic amenities like running water and private toilets, not to mention air conditioning, so it’s no wonder that some people prefer to spend their nights at 24/7 McDonald’s restaurants. There were around 256 such “McRefugees” in Hong Kong in 2015, but data released earlier this year shows that their number has grown by 50% in the last three years and is predicted to keep on growing.

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A high-school in the Chinese city of Shangqiu, Henan Province, recently attracted criticism for removing cafeteria chairs to motivate student to eat faster and dedicate more time to their studies.

Students returning from their summer break were shocked to learn that they would have to start eating standing up after their school’s administrators decided to remove the chairs and benches to deter students from lingering around after finishing their meal. A spokesperson for the Shangqiu school told reporters that management also plans to implement assigned spots for each student to stand in, to further discourage them from wasting time instead of studying.

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A 21-year-old woman from Hong Kong who though she was undergoing a ‘mock wedding test’ to secure a job as a wedding planner ended up officially married to a total stranger from mainland China.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told authorities that her ordeal began in May of this year, when she saw a social media posting about a job as a make-up artist apprentice. It offered a monthly salary of HK$14,000 (US$1,800) as well as free training, and required no previous work experience at all. Most people would call that “too good to be true”, but the young woman decided it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Turns out she was wrong.

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Men often go to great lengths to fulfill their loved ones’ wishes, but this story is a bout a guy who went to extremes to ensure that he wouldn’t have to fulfill a promise he had made to his girlfriend, while at the same time making sure that she didn’t blame him for it.

Earlier this month, a man surnamed Tang, from Chengdu, China, promised his girlfriend that he would buy her a brand new luxury car, and she made sure to constantly remind him of his promise ever since. The problem was that Tang didn’t have the money, and with time running out, he had to come up with a way out of this mess that he had put himself in. His solution, though undoubtedly original, was pretty extreme.

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Vending machines are very popular in Asia, with businesses using them to sell just about anything, even live crabs. However, one Honk Kong entrepreneur has found a way to take vending machines to a whole new level, by designing one that sells dates to singles looking for a low-tech alternative to online dating services like Tinder.

The “Fate Capsule” vending machine outside BT Reptile, a small pet store in Kowloon’s Shek Kip Mei neighborhood, received worldwide attention earlier this year, when word of the original concept went viral online. It’s basically a multi-tiered vending machine with separate compartments for men and women which dispenses colored plastic capsules containing the contact details of singles looking for love. All you have to do is insert HK$20 ($2.5) in coins, and it will spit out a fate capsule with the description and contact information of a prospective date.

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The so-called “fish in collarbone challenge” has women filling their collarbone indentation with water and put one or more live fish into it to show off how skinny they are.

The bizarre fitness challenge originated in China around three years ago, but recently went viral on social media in other countries around Asia. This sort of challenges have become really popular in China in recent years, as people started taking to social media to show off their physique, but this one has to be one of the dumbest yet. Not only is the depth of a person’s clavicle indentation a poor way of measuring their fitness level – not with so many different body types anyway – but it’s also cruel to the fish.

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Photos of a small house on the Vietnamese island of Hon Thom have getting a lot of attention on social media for its unique fence made exclusively out of discarded old television sets.

The unusual house is reportedly located on the road to Hon Thom cable car and is very popular with tourists, for obvious reasons. After all, it’s not every day that you pass by a fence constructed out of old, but somehow intact television sets. How those old cathode ray tubes haven’t been shattered by strong winds or vandals is a mystery, as is the reason why the owner decided on this particular material for the fence. Perhaps a television repairman lives there, or perhaps someone just hoarded them and one day decided to put them to good use. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that the fence is a good way to attract attention.

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As a very insular society, Japan has developed a culture that can be very interesting and sometimes bizarre to the outside observer. For example, in recent years, many Japanese have become infatuated with moss. Nature excursions centered around observing the thousands of species of Japanese moss have exploded in popularity to the point that the demand for a place on these trips far exceeds availability.

Selling moss-related products like moss-containing jewelry has also become a lucrative market. You can buy rings that have tiny containers holding moss instead of stones. For many young women in Japan, love of these plants has become a part of their identity. These young enthusiasts call themselves “moss girls” and organize moss-themed events such as viewing parties, where they make drinks inspired from the plants.

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A Malaysian company has recently come under fire for selling simple cotton caps as miraculous healing accessories for up to 1,200 ringgit ($295) a piece.

Called “Brain Synchronization Caps” the controversial accessories are supposed to cure wearers of various health conditions, like insomnia, migraines and even cirrhosis, as well as treat mystical conditions like spells and curses. Johor-based company Sihulk is currently selling the caps for 1,200 ringgit ($295) or 1,000 ringgit ($246) for registered members. Considering that they are basically simple cotton caps with the Sihulk logo on them, many have accused the company of taking advantage of gullible people for a profit.

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Online entrepreneurs in China have found an ingenious way of profiting off of couples paranoia – renting out ‘love testers’ who do their best to try and seduce one of the partners in order to check how faithful they really are.

China is well-known for its bizarre online services, which range from renting fake girlfriends/boyfriends to trick one’s family that they are in a relationship, to hiring mistress dispellers that teach scorned wives how to get rid of problematic mistresses, and even renting professional bridesmaids to endure all sorts of humiliation during traditional Chinese wedding. And entrepreneurs are constantly on the look out for new ways of profiting off of human relationships – case in point, an increasingly popular service that allows couples to rent ‘love testers’ to check their partners’ fidelity.

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Most dog owners who lose their beloved pets try to convey just how much they want the returned in the flyers they post, but one Chinese man just let everyone know that if they find his runaway Husky, they can just keep him, because he’s tired of chasing after him.

Last Sunday, Wang Wei, a property agent from Chongqing, was walking his pet dog named Huazhu when the animal spotted another dog, slipped out of its leash and ran after the other canine. Wang ran after his pet, but lost sight of him at one point and just couldn’t find him after that. So he went home and drafted some unusual flyers that he later posted around the area where he lost Huazhu. They basically said that the dog was sort of a canine escape artist and that he was tired of having to constantly run after him, so whoever found him was welcome to keep him.

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A Thai man recently incurred the wrath of his friends and relatives after faking his own death on Facebook and having his wife ask them for financial contributions for his burial.

Tachawit J.’s Facebook friends thought him to be in good health, so they were left in shock on Sunday, when his wife posted a series of photos of his dead body – complete with cotton balls in his nostrils – on his account, with the caption “Last photo before deactivating his Facebook, love you!”. Tachawit’s most concerned friends and colleagues left comments asking what had happened to him, to which his wife replied that he had died of cancer and asthma – a truly killer combo – after suffering for a long time.

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The story of a couple from China’s Shanxi Province who gave birth to eleven daughters and only stopped having children after finally birthing a son recently went viral on Chinese social media, sparking controversy about male preference in the Asian country.

The original story published by Chinese newspaper The Paper highlighted the dedication of 11 sisters to their baby brother, who recently got married. The women not only took care of all of the arrangements for their brother’s big day, but also chipped in enough money to buy him and his new bride a house, because their parents were too sick and poor to help him. However, the sisters’ generosity and the mystery of how the parents were able to have 12 children during China’s infamous One Child Policy sparked a heated debate online.

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