Australia’s strawberry industry has been brought to its knees after reports of sharp needles found in store-bought strawberries have been coming in from all the six of the country’s states. So far, no one knows who is behind this act of “agroterrorism” or what their motives are.

What started as an isolated case in Queensland, earlier this month, has gradually turned into a nation-wide panic, as more needles were found all around the country. Things have reportedly gotten so bad that some growers have recalled much of their strawberries and turned to metal detectors to restore customer confidence. The only problem is that no one knows at one point from the growers to store shelves the needles are being inserted, and until more information about this aspect becomes available, there’s no clear way to solve the problem.

Read More »

A Russian pensioner recently made national news headlines after stripping two tall pine trees on his neighbors’ property of all their branches and using them as supports for a wooden tree house. He never asked for permission to do this, instead taking advantage of the fact that they were away on vacation.

Irina Chukanova and her family have been living on a small plot of land near the city of Nizhny Tagil for 10 years, and they’ve never had any problems with their neighbor, Yuri Stepanov. That all changed this spring, when the pensioner started complaining about the two pine trees growing on the Chukanovs’ property, claiming that all the needles and cones ended up on his land, and he was sick of having to clean up the mess. He repeatedly asked his neighbors to cut down the trees, but they were reluctant to do so, and instead promised to come up with a solution in the fall. Only Stepanov apparently got sick of waiting, and decided to take matters into his own hands.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

English artist Anna Brownsted left 100,000 pennies in an abandoned public fountain in Cambridge, over the weekend, in a bid to explore human nature. The money was all stolen in just one day.

The coins worth £1,000 were placed in the fountain at Quayside, in Cambridge, at 8 am on Saturday, and were supposed to be left there for 48 hours. However, by 9 am on Sunday, over 99% of the coins had been removed from the fountain, despite clear signs informing passers-by that the fountain was under constant CCTV surveillance. Only £1.66 worth of pennies were left, but organizers didn’t consider it theft, but a “provocative outcome”.

Read More »

Ever wish you could play a game of catch at night, without needing a powerful light source? Well, with the new SparkCatch LED-illuminated baseball, now you can.

SparkCatch, aka Meteor Baseball, is the brainchild of two Chinese baseball enthusiasts who spent over four years trying to come up with a solution that would allow like-minded baseball fans play the beautiful game anytime, even in the dead of night, without proper lighting. After years of researching materials and concepts, about 100 tests and three generations of prototypes, the two young entrepreneurs managed to come up with an illuminated baseball that can actually withstand being hit with a baseball bat.

Read More »

Think you can move small objects using only the power of your brain? Can you find water using a simple divining rod, or maybe just transmit thoughts telepathically? If you can prove your superpowers, a group of scientists in Germany would love to reward you with €10,000 ($11,700).

The Society for the Scientific Investigation of Para-Sciences (GWUP) is a group of German physicists, biologists and psychologists who believe that people who claim to have super-powers like telekinesis, telepathy or divining abilities should not be dismissed as mere charlatans, but actually studied and allowed to prove their abilities in controlled laboratory conditions. Every year, they invite candidates to the University of Würzburg, in Würzburg, Germany, to show off their super-powers and potentially win a cool €10,000 prize. Over 60 people have been tested in recent years, but none of them have been able to claim the coveted prize.

Read More »

The average energy consumption for 30 minutes of walking in regular sneakers is around 75 – 150 calories, depending on pace, but with the new Muscle Trainer sneakers you can apparently increase energy consumption to 300 calories in the same interval.

So what makes Muscle Trainer sneakers so special? Well, it’s the increased weight. The average sneaker weighs between 200 and 400 grams, but Muscle Trainer sneakers will add between 1,200 grams (for women) and 1,400 grams (for men) of extra weight to each foot. All the extra weight is concentrated in the internationally-patented sole, which contains hundreds of small iron balls. However, thanks to their high-cut design that protects the ankles, and high-quality materials, the sneakers are very comfortable while at the same time working your leg muscles.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

Armyansk, a city on the Russian-occupied Crimea Peninsula, has been left without any kind of birds after a mysterious chemical incident at the nearby Crimean Titan plant.

On August 23 – 24, an unknown substance spewed into the atmosphere, covering everything in a rust-like plaque and emanating a foul odor. Social media was buzzing with reports and photos of houses, cars and even plants covered in the mysterious substance, but occupation authorities ignored them for several days. At first, people started noticing that, apart from the occasional crow, there were no more birds in Armyansk, but then things got progressively worse. More and more residents of the Crimean city began experiencing breathing problems, but local authorities and the media completely ignored them.

Read More »

Scientists at Newcastle University recently discovered three new species of deep-sea snailfish that are so well-adapted to their extreme environment that they would “rapidly melt” if brought to the surface.

The squishy fish were discovered during an international expedition to explore the depths of the Atacama Trench, one of the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean, located near the coast of Peru. Researchers lowered special cameras to a depth of approximately 7,500 meters, where temperatures are just above freezing and pressures are fire higher than any human could survive. Despite these extreme conditions, the bottom of the Atacama Trench was teeming with life, including three new fish species currently known as the pink, purple and blue Atacama snailfish.

Read More »

An Egyptian man working as a hotel receptionist in Saudi Arabia was recently arrested after posting a short video of himself having breakfast with a fully-veiled female co-worker on social media.

The man, known only as “Bahaa”, was arrested on Sunday after a video of himself having breakfast with a female co-worker at a Jeddah hotel attracted a lot of unwanted attention on social media. The short clip shows only Bahaa and a fully-veiled woman eating breakfast, but that was apparently a clear violations of a Saudi law that states that workplaces and eateries should have separate spaces for men and women. It drew condemnation from the vast majority of Saudis, who saw this behavior as incompatible with Saudi culture.

Read More »

The Temple Institute, a religious organization dedicated to “every aspect of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem”, recently announced the birth of a completely red heifer in the Holy Land – the first one in the last 2,000 years – which is an essential element of a biblical prophecy that theologians believe will bring about the second coming of Jesus and Judgement Day.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the events leading up to the apocalypse should play out like this: Jews would return to Israel after 2,000 years – the Holy Temple would be rebuilt – billions of people would perish during seven years of natural disasters – the antichrist would rise and rule the world – the battle of Armageddon would commence somewhere near Israel – Jesus would return to defeat Satan’s armies and then preside over Judgment Day. The Jewish people may have returned to Israel, but in order for this prophecy to move forward, a perfectly red heifer is needed.

Read More »

A Chinese man recently had an inch-long leech yanked out of his nose after hatching and living there for at least three months.

The man, surnamed Pan, went to Dongguan Chang’an Hospital, in China’s Guangdong province, after experiencing constant nose bleeds for 10 days. Liu Yuxing, an ear, nose and throat doctor at the hospital, immediately suspected that a leech was the. He had never once found one in a patient’s nose, but had read about similar cases in medical journals. It turned out that his hunch was right, as an endoscopic investigation revealed a bloodsucker firmly attached to the man’s nostril.

Read More »

Australian food scientists are scratching their heads about an orange that turned bright purple just hours after being sliced open. The bizarrely-colored fruit has been collected as forensic evidence but so far no one can explain what caused the coloring.

The mysterious orange was purchased last week by Neti Moffitt, a resident of Brisbane, from a fruit and vegetable market. She planned to use it as a snack for her two-year-old son and claims that the fruit looked and smelled normal. It was only after leaving a piece of it out overnight that she noticed the bright purple coloring spreading on the orange pulp. After searching online for answers, Moffitt stumbled on a 2015 article that mentioned a similar case, where someone had bought an orange from a fruit market only to see it turn purple hours after being cut.

Read More »

For the past couple of years, the people of Bexhill-on-Sea, in the UK, have had to put up with the antics of an “evil” paraglider who likes nothing more than to intimidate them by flying super low over their heads and shouting all kinds of obscenities.

Last week, Sussex Police and the Civil Aviation Authority launched a joint investigation into the behavior of the so-called “Bexhill Birdman”, who many have described as a social nuisance. Police have received more than a dozen complaints regarding his behavior in the past two years, and have urged the public to come forth with any information they may have on this issue. The paragliding man is suspected of acting hostile to members of the public, flying really low over their heads to intimidate them and shouting insults and obscenities from the air. Some locals have become so wary of him that they avoid going up Galley Hill, where he usually takes off from.

Read More »