Footage of a full-grown polar bear with “T-34” spray-painted in black on its side has left wildlife experts in Russia scratching their heads as to who or why branded the animal this way.

The T-34 was a legendary Soviet tank that played a crucial role in Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2, which has led some experts to believe that the text spray-painted on the polar bear spotted in Arctic Russia was nothing more than a poor military-themed joke. As to who would stoop so low as to spray-paint a polar bear and thus affect its ability to hunt for prey by virtually making it impossible for it to blend with its environment, that’s even harder to answer. On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that scientists would ever do such a thing, and on the other, whoever did it must have tranquilized is beforehand.

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Square Off, the world’s smartest, most connected chess board, gives the centuries-old sport of chess a 21st century touch by allowing players halfway around the world to interact with physical pieces without actually touching them.

Chess has been available as a digital game for years, but true fans know that there’s nothing like playing on a high-quality physical board. That’s hard to do when your opponent is thousands of miles away, or at least it was until someone came up with away to allow people halfway around the world to play chess on a physical board made of rosewood. It looks like a magical set out of a Harry Potter movie, but it’s actually a wonder of technology that harnesses robotics and internet connectivity to make the impossible possible.

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A Mexican family recently discovered that their pet cat had been leading a double life, meaning he had a second home, a different name and another family just a few blocks away.

Cats like to be independent, so whenever her cat Pixi went away for longer than usual, Mary Lore Barra assumed that he was out chasing birds on rooftops and going on all sorts of feline adventures through the streets of Tamaulipas, in Mexico. The one thing she never imagined was that Pixi was actually spending time with another human family, who in turn thought they were the cat’s sole owners. But Pixi’s double life was accidentally revealed last month, when he came home to the Barra residence wearing a new collar around his neck.

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Morris Villarroel, a Spanish scientist at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, wanted to have a more detailed and complete record of his everyday life, so he could figure out how to live more effectively. Ten years ago he started writing down all the things he did every day, and he’s been doing it ever since.

Villarroel had just turned 40 in February of 2010, when he decided to embark on an epic experiment of self-knowledge and self-improvement. He decided to keep a detailed record of everything going on in his life by meticulously writing all the experiences, the places he was in, the people he met, every 15 to 30 minutes of every day. He thought that this would not only help him better remember everything, but also help him better manage his time and day-to-day life. Nine years and nine months later, the scientist says that he was right.

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A 71-year-old pensioner from Saitama, Japan, was recently arrested and charged with obstruction of business after allegedly calling the toll-free number of his telecom provider a whopping 24,000 times over the last two years, to complain about the service and demand apologies.

In the month of October alone, Akitoshi Okamoto, a 71-year-old man from Kasukabe City, allegedly called the toll-free number of Japanese telecom giant KDDI 411 times in a single week to complain about his phone not being able to pick up radio broadcasts. Over the last two years, KDDI registered around 24,000 calls from Okamoto, which works out to an average of 33 phone calls a day, but the corporation had been reluctant to press charges until last week, when the frequency of complaints became too much to bear.

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Every once in a while, a health trend so unbelievably crazy comes along that it leaves us wondering if it’s nothing more than a parody. “Perineum Sunning”, or exposing your ‘back door’ to direct sunlight for a few minutes every week is one such trend, and unfortunately it’s no joke.

Did you know that exposing your butthole to direct sunlight for just 30 seconds every day is the equivalent of a full day of sunlight exposure with your clothes on? At least that’s what Instagram “healer” Metaphysical Megan claims in one of the viral social media posts that catapulted perineum sunning to health craze level. It also allegedly gives you more energy than chugging several cups of coffee and improves sleep, among other health and spiritual benefits. However, many medical experts warn that this bizarre practice can be dangerous, as the perineum area is particularly sensitive and exposing it to direct sunlight without protection could increase the risk of skin cancer.

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Heartbreaking news of a 10-year-old boy in rural Vietnam who refuses to be adopted after losing his whole family, instead living by himself and working in the fields all day, has melted the hearts of millions around the world.

While most 10-year-olds have nothing to worry about but going to school and enjoying their childhood, Dang Van Khuyen spends his days slaving in the fields around his modest home in a remote village in Vietnam, planting vegetables and foraging for things to fill his stomach with. His life has never been easy, losing his mother at a very young age and having to live with his grandmother while his father went away to find a job in construction. However, things got dramatically worse after his father died in an accident at work and his grandmother remarried in another village, as he was left with no support whatsoever.

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Dutch brand Vollebak recently unveiled what it calls the “world’s strongest jacket”. With an exterior made out of 100 percent dyneema, the strongest fiber known to man, the Indestructible Puffer can allegedly withstand whatever abuse you subject it to and last a lifetime.

Adventure clothing brand Vollebak has been creating cutting edge adventure sports clothes for years, and has become known for making some of the toughest garments on the planet. In the past, we’ve featured their virtually indestructible hoodie and a pair of pants designed to last at least 100 years, so we know than when they say their latest creation, the Indestructible Puffer, is the strongest jacket ever made, they mean it! Its outer layer is said to be 15 times stronger than steel and 40% stronger than high-strength aramid fibres, which makes it impervious to shearing, tearing, and blunt-force traumas.

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Västerbottensost cheese is known as the “Emperor of Cheeses” in Sweden. people there love its complex taste and creamy texture so much  that they use it on everything. When they can get their hands on it that is, because authentic Västerbottensost is only produced at a small factory in the village of Burträsk. People have tried producing it somewhere else several times, but it just doesn’t turn out the same.

The secret to why Västerbottensost cheese can only be produced in Burträsk has been dubbed one of Sweden’s most intriguing mysteries. Over the years, people have tried expanding production of this famous cheese in various parts of the northern country, but to no avail. They tried making it in Falkenberg, a municipality in southern Sweden, in Bollnäs, a settlement in central Sweden, and even in the city of Umeå, close to Burträsk village. but the resulting cheese just didn’t taste like the original. The same recipe and production protocol were respected to the letter, but the Västerbottensost cheese made in Burträsk always tasted better.

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Seoul chef Eo Yun-gwon has shocked the restaurant world after announcing that he is suing Michelin Guide for including his restaurant in their 2019 edition, despite him asking them not to.

Most chefs would kill to have their restaurant included in the famous Michelin Guide, and in fact some waste years of their lives and big money in pursuit of a Michelin star and never get it, so Eo Yun-gwon’s announcement that he not only explicitly asked the authors of the guide to remove his restaurant from this year’s edition, but that he also sued them for not honoring his request, came as a huge shock. Eo described the Michelin Guide as cruel and unfair, and vowed to continue his crusade against the publication.

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Doctors at a hospital in south-eastern China’s Fujian Province recently reported the unusual case of a man whose non-stop coughing had apparently been caused by a leech attached to his throat.

Last Friday, the unnamed man arrived at the Wuping County Hospital in the city of Longyan complaining of almost non-stop coughing over the past two months. He had become increasingly worried about his condition after coughing up phlegm and blood, so he finally decided to seek medical attention. Doctors at the hospital’s respiratory department initially recommended a CT scan, but when that didn’t reveal anything, they decided to try a more invasive procedure called “bronchoscopy”, which allowed them to inspect the patient’s air passages with a small camera. That’s how they found a leech living in his throat.

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Poor families in the Turkish city of Istanbul have been visited by a mysterious patron paying off their debts at grocery stores and leaving envelopes of cash on their doorsteps over the past year.

Last week, many poor people in Tuzla, a shipbuilding district on the Asian side of Istanbul ,were happy to find out that their debts at local grocery stores had been paid by an unknown male benefactor who claimed to be doing the selfless deeds “only to earn God’s blessing”. After the crash of the Turkish lira last year, food prices soared, as did the prices of utilities like electricity, and the unemployment rate. The rising cost of living has been hard to keep up with some people, but this mysterious benefactor is doing his best to help the poorest people in Istanbul.

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If the idea of having dozens of fish nibbling at your toes while you enjoy some traditional Indonesian cuisine sounds intriguing, you may want to check out this unique restaurant in Indonesia’s cultural capital of Yogyakarta.

Located far away from the city center, the Soto Cokro Kembang restaurant originally relied on a relaxing flower garden to attract patrons exhausted by the stress of urban life. However, when the owner’s father had the idea of turning the abandoned cow stalls nearby into a unique aquatic eating space, no one imagined that the quaint eatery would end up attracting people from all around the island nation. Owner Imam Nur says that the attention Soto Cokro Kembang is currently getting in the news and on social media is beyond what he ever imagined.

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Earlier this year, San Francisco businessman Richard Ma spent $10,000 on a dress created by The Fabricant, the world’s first digital-only fashion house. The problem is that the dress didn’t really exist outside the digital world.

Digital-only clothes are so new that most people haven’t even heard about them, but some experts believe they will one day be a flourishing industry. But why would anyone be interested in fashionable garments that don’t exist in the physical world? If you can’t put them on and show them off, what’s the point? Well, that’s what makes them so interesting, you can actually put them on (sort of) and show them off on social media, in fact that’s actually their main purpose.

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He may not have Ace Ventura’s charm or his iconic hairdo, but Sun Jinren is a real-life pet detective in all the ways that matter. When he takes on a lost pet case, he pours all his effort as well as thousands of dollars in expensive equipment in order to find them.

Dubbed China’s first pet detective by the country’s media, Sun Jinren launched his business seven years ago and has since reunited about 1,000 lost pets with their owners. He has a success rate of around 70%, and despite charging a whopping 8,000 yuan ($1,130) per case, clients know his services are worth it. He now has an entire team working for his company and uses all sorts of high-tech gadgets to increase his chances of finding lost pets, including heat detectors, thermal imaging cameras and even an endoscope.

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