Colombian police recently announced the dismantlement of a Cali-based drug cartel that specialized in coercing women to get breast implants that were actually filled with liquid cocaine.

Drug trafficking organizations ae known for coming up with all sorts of ingenious methods of sending their products all over the world to minimize getting discovered at security checkpoints. You’ve surely heard of underground tunnels several kilometers long under the Mexico-US border, or of drug smuggling submarines, but did you know about the Colombian trafficking ring using women to ship drugs all the way to Europe? Aptly named “The Surgeons”, the cartel would recruit women and force them to get breast and calf implants for which they used prosthesis filled with liquid cocaine.

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A small family-owned factory that has been making soap since the 15th century sells claims to sell the world’s most expensive bar of soap, at $2,800.

The Khan Al Saboun brand of handmade soap created by Bader Hassen & Sons, a soap factory in Tripoli, Lebanon, makes a variety of luxury soaps and skincare products containing essential oils and natural fragrances. They are sold in some of the most exclusive shops in Dubai and the UAE, but its most expensive product is only offered to special guests and important personalities. First made in 2013, as a unique gift to Qatar’s first lady, the world’s most expensive bar of soap contains gold and diamond powder and reportedly costs $2,800.

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Pregnant women have reportedly been flocking to a restaurant in Excelsior, Minnesota, to try the famed “Labor Inducer” burger and hopefully go into labor faster.

The story of the Labor Inducer burger started back in April of last year, when Enrique, the chef at Excelsior restaurant ‘The Suburban’, was experimenting with burger recipes for the upcoming Twin Cities Burger Battle annual event. Co-owner Kelsey Quarberg, who was nine days away from her due date, happened to stop by, and was offered samples of the various experimental burgers. She loved one so much that she ordered a full-size serving, and lo and behold, just seven hours later she went into labor with her baby Sam. But that was just the beginning…

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South Korean television channel MBN recently introduced its viewer’s to the Asian country’s first ever AI-powered news anchor, an eerily realistic version of human anchor Kim Ju-ha.

Developed by MBN in partnership with artificial intelligence  production company Money Brain, South Korea’s first AI-powered news anchor was reportedly shockingly similar to her human inspiration. Not only did it have the exact same look and voice of the popular presenter, but she also mimicked the small gestures that Kim sometimes makes, like fiddling with a pen while reporting the news. During a broadcast on November 6, AI Kim even shared a conversation with real-life Kim Ju-ha to compare their voices, which apparently freaked out a lot of people.

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Kerstin Tristan, a 55-year-old woman from Leipzig, in Germany, reportedly spent around $35,000 over the last five years covering almost her entire body with colorful tattoos.

It all started in 2015, when Kerstin, who worked as a taxi driver for most of her life, decided to get her very first tattoo, to add a bit of color to her life. That very first piece of body art started what some would go as far as calling an obsession, as Tristan went from one tattoo on her arm to a colorful body suit in just five years. The German woman apparently spent a whopping 30,000 euros ($35,000) on her ink so far, and doesn’t plant to stop anytime soon.

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An Egyptian fisherman nearly lost his life after one of his catches got stuck in his windpipe, making it almost impossible for him to breathe or retrieve the fish.

Earlier this month, doctors at the emergency room of a hospital in Beni Suef, Egypt, were shocked to discover that a patient who had been brought in with symptoms like shortness of breath and speaking difficulties, had a fish stuck in his throat. Upon examining the man, they noticed that the fish was stuck at the entrance to the trachea, leaving just enough space for a little air to get through and prevent the man from suffocating before even reaching the hospital.

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Vietnamese social media has been abuzz with the story of a girl who went under the knife at age 19, after breaking up with her boyfriend because of her looks.

Nguyen Tuong Vy became an overnight hot topic in Vietnam after taking to social media to share photos of herself from a few years ago, before undergoing extensive plastic surgery to her face. The 21-year-old woman from Dak Lak province said that she made the decision to drastically change her looks after breaking up with her 11th grade boyfriend, when she was only 17. Apparently, they were very much in love, but even though he constantly told her that he liked her for who she was, not how she looked, her boyfriend never introduced her to his friends. It was only when one of his friends invited them to his birthday that she realized it was because of her looks.

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Makeup is an incredibly powerful tool in the right hands, and if you’re wondering just how powerful, this Japanese young man has been using it to cross the gender barrier and become a female cosplay idol.

Looking at the photos posted by @Makina_Jeanne, a popular cosplay enthusiast from Hokkaido, you could swear she was a young girl showcasing  her best assets in skimpy and tight outfits inspired by Japanese manga and anime, but in fact @Makina_Jeanne is a male who just happens to be fascinated by feminine cosplay. He uses makeup tricks, wigs and silicone breast prosthesis to make himself look like a girl, and most of the time, he does an amazing job.

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A 31-year-old Chinese woman who had recently undergone a rhinoplasty procedure at a hospital in Chengdu, was shocked to see that a chunk of her ear cartilage had been removed, allegedly without her consent.

The woman, identified only as Ms. Zhao, had her nose surgery at the Angel Wing Hospital in Chengdu on September 1st. This was her second such procedure in the last five years, but the first one in which part of her ear disappeared… Zhao told Chinese media that the operation went fine, she felt good, but four days later she looked in the mirror and noticed something strange about her right ear. The tragus, that small, pointy cartilage on the inside of the inner side of the ear, had obviously been surgically removed, only no one had informed her about it.

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For some reason, a 22-year-old Argentinian woman who decided to get her fallopian tubes tied to make sure she never gives birth has become the talk of Latino social media over the last few days.

Ailin Cubelo Naval is only 22 years old but she already knows she doesn’t want to have children, not now, not ever. The young Argentinian cites a variety of reasons for why she decided that she never wants to be a mother, from the fact that she considers parenthood more of a cultural imposition than a natural instinct, to her refusal to dedicate 20 years of her life to bringing up a child. Her views were apparently so controversial in Argentina that she was refused by gynecologists twice when she decided to have her fallopian tubes tied and sent to see a psychologist instead.

After going through the humiliation of having to seek medical assistance after being denied the surgical procedure twice, Ailin was shocked to learn that tubal ligation had been a guaranteed right in her country since 2006. She looked for another doctor and finally got the procedure.

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Platonic or elective co-parenting is a new way of having and raising children which involves two people conceiving (naturally or artificially) and taking joint physical, financial and emotional responsibility for raising them, but without being romantically involved.

Whether it’s because they want to raise a child without being involved in a romantic relationship, or because they feel like their biological clock is ticking and they haven’t yet found Mr. or Mrs. Right, a growing number of people are turning to specialized websites like PollenTree or Modamily to find likeminded people to raise children with without any romantic strings attached. The rising popularity of platonic co-parenting is seen by experts as a consequence of many people’s realization that the person you have kids with doesn’t be the person you grow old with, or even someone you live with.

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To get an idea of what mobile phones were like before the smartphones took over, take a look at this Turkish man’s impressive collection of outdated handhelds from the pre-iPhone era.

It’s hard to believe that kids today have to imagine what it was like having to push physical buttons, not figures on a touchscreen, to dial a phone number, but for us older folk who actually experienced those times, old handhelds still have their charm. Some us even keep such gadgets around, as keepsakes, and a few, like Sehabettin Ozcelik, a phone repairman from Turkey, keep all of them around. In his case, the collection of outdated cellphones consists of over 1,000 models, including classics like the Nokia 3310 or Motorola Razr V3.

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Ever since the 1960s, seismologists on multiple continents have detected a mysterious pulse generated like clockwork, every 26 seconds. But in the last 60 years no one has been able to figure out what this sound actually is.

The “heartbeat of the Earth” was first documented in 1962, by John Oliver, a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University. He figured out that it was coming from somewhere in the southern or equatorial Atlantic Ocean, and that it was more intense during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer months. Then, in 1980, Gary Holcomb, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, also discovered the mysterious pulse, noting that it was stronger during storms. But for some reason, the two researchers’ discoveries remained virtually unknown for over two decades, until a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, once again detected the “heartbeat” and decided to look into it.

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Catching fish as small as a penny would be nothing short of embarrassing for the average fisherman, but in Japan it’s a source of pride, as in the old art of Tanago Fishing, the smaller the fish is, the bigger a catch it represents.

Most fishermen believe that the bigger the fish they catch, the greater their fishing skill is, which is why you routinely see them posing only with very large fish, and hear them telling tales about veritable sea monsters that only narrowly eluded them. However, things are very different in Japan, a country where minimalism is pervasive in all aspects of life, from gardening, to architecture. Fishing makes no exception, so it’s not very surprising that fishermen judge their skills not by how large their catch is, but by how small it is.

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A Michigan-based businessman has created the world’s first mobile bowling alley by converting a 53-foot, semi-truck trailer into an exclusive entertainment center on wheels.

Inspired by popular companies like such as Amazon, Uber and Grub Hub, which relied heavily on convenience to achieve business success, a Detroit entrepreneur decided to bring bowling to the masses, instead of the other way around. To this end, Terence Jackson Jr. has been working on converting a 53-foot semi-trailer truck into a mobile bowling alley for years, but due to several obstacles he had to overcome, the two-lane facility was only unveiled last month.

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