Snack Kingdom was designed as a unique experience for shoppers. The entrance is a long “snack corridor” made up of glass cabinets featuring various types of colourful snacks, and it’s meant to give visitors an idea of what they can expect inside.

The store’s “Instant Noodle City” section features over 3,500 types of instant noodles, both domestic and from other regions of the world, ranging from classic types to rare specialities that most people have never even heard of.

The cola section takes up two long, multi-tiered shelves, featuring cola from about 20 countries. Apart from classic varieties from well-known brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, visitors can expect to find obscure varieties, like salted cola, for example.

Snack Kingdom is meant to function as an actual store, although it has been struggling to keep up with demand ever since it opened. On April 19, just two days after its grand opening, management announced that it was suspending sales for a couple of days in order to deal with several issues, including restocking, checkout efficiency, and system capacity. Meanwhile, visitors are still welcome to visit Snack Kingdom, browse the difference sections and take pictures.

Interestingly, Changsha is also home to a supersized snack store that features giant versions of popular snacks, such as Lay’s chips bags, Oreo cookies and instant noodles, all available for purchase.

At the police station, the 22-year-old man, identified only as Matina, eventually admitted to setting fires in Kaeng Hat Oi Forest, but offered a very bizarre reason for it.

“I just wanted to have fun. I had nothing to do, so I started a fire to get forest rangers to put it out. I just acted out of recklessness,” the man casually said.

Rangers transferred the suspect to the Chat Trakan Police Station for legal proceedings, where he was charged with damaging natural resources. The young arsonist remains in custody, but authorities have yet to announce the penalties he faces.

Thailand is already battling numerous forest fires started by natural causes or human recklessness, but this is probably the first case of someone starting a forest fire for fun. House fires are a different matter entirely, though, as we have reported several cases of people setting homes on fire for their own entertainment.

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported the unusual case of a family that commissioned an AI clone of a man killed in a car accident so his 80-year-old mother could continue communicating with him via video. Although details about the family have not been revealed, the case was made public by the developer of the digital clone, contacted by the deceased’s son. 

The digital model was reportedly created using photos, videos, and audio recordings of the deceased and ended up looking and sounding eerily realistic, using the same accent and distinctive speech pattern, and borrowing the same mannerisms, such as leaning forward when he speaks.

Photo: Unsplash

The man’s 80-year-old mother was never informed of his passing, and she continues to believe he is busy working in another city. To keep up the illusion and spare her the pain and sorrow in her old age, the family sets up video calls with the AI clone. The elderly woman urges her “son” to take care of himself, eat well, and wear warm clothes, while he promises to come by her place someday soon, when he is less busy with work.

The deceased was reportedly the elderly woman’s only child, and seeing as she also suffers from heart disease, her family decided to conceal the news of his passing from her.

The case sparked controversy on Chinese social media, splitting the public into two camps – one that believes that the family acted out of kindness and love for the octogenarian, and others who believe she deserved to know the truth rather than be reduced to talking to a digital clone.

This unusual story reminded us of the similarly heartwarming case of a police officer who pretended to be a woman’s deceased son for several years out of kindness.

“Being able to slice it this thin is pretty impressive tech in a way lolllll If they wanna cut costs that bad, they should just stop doing all-you-can-eat in the first place lolllll,” one person posted on X.

“Was there a translucent pig or something?” someone else commented on the original photo of the cuts, which garnered over 3 million views on X alone.

The original poster also commented that one of the advantages of stealth pork is that the ultra-thin slices allow diners to eat more slices than usual and then brag to their friends about how many they consumed.

The unusually thin slices got so much attention online that a couple of days ago, Shabu-yo put out a statement apologizing to its customers.

“We have confirmed that at some stores, meat was being served in a condition that differed from the meat serving standards that we originally set,” the statement read. “We deeply apologise to our valued customers for providing a product of a quality that did not meet their expectations.”

The cuts are pretty impressive, to be honest. Prosciutto cutters only wish they could pull off this thinness without messing up the slice.

Che was only in kindergarten when he became fascinated with paper planes. He noticed the difference between throwing a paper ball and launching a paper plane by hand, and was curious what made the plane float the way it did. Before long, he turned his house into an experimental laboratory for paper planes, but that was only the beginning.

According to his parents, Che once dedicated three hours each day to reading science books on aeronautics, and by the third grade, he was already teaching himself calculus, aerodynamics, printed circuit board circuitry, as well as working with complex software like SolidWorks, and Computer-Aided Design (CAD).

At one point, he discovered online tutorials and decided to build something practical himself. He focused mostly on video tutorials on Duoyin (China’s version of TikTok), and progressed to the point where he decided to build a miniature functional jet engine. But he didn’t just want to copy someone else’s design and call it a day. He wanted to design the thing himself, using his acquired knowledge.

“Some people publish blueprints online, but if I just copied them directly, I felt it would be meaningless,” Che Jiangping told China Youth Daily. “I wouldn’t learn anything, and it would be a waste of time.” 

To fulfil his dream, the young whiz kid started designing every little component from scratch, making his own 2D engineering drawings in CAD, building 3D models in SolidWorks, calculating airflow, temperature, and pressure using simulation software. He began documenting every process by uploading clips on Douyin, and before long, he started interacting with like-minded people.

Fellow enthusiasts shared advice in the comment section, others cheered him on, and some even offered to 3D-print his components for free. Within six months, he already had a prototype. Unfortunately, the test was a failure, as Che himself identified problems with the fuel, the combustion chamber design, and the compressor alignment. But he didn’t let that setback curb his ambition.

“Nothing can be successfully accomplished on the first try. Even if I didn’t succeed, I learned something, and that gives me the motivation to build it a second time,” the teen said.

Che Jingang is already working on a new and improved version of a functional turbojet engine and is getting ready to test it. Meanwhile, most kids his age are busy playing Fortnite and wasting their time on social media.

To say Orhan Avci has an impressive mustache would be a serious understatement. It’s so luxurious that it completely distracts you from the man’s bald head. You can’t even see his mouth! Does he even have one?

Under the motto “A new word, a new voice,” he wants to strengthen unity and solidarity in the Turkish-Kurdish region of Bingöl, but people seem to only be focused on his mustache, and I, for one, can’t blame them!

Avci’s cool stache has inspired a series of humorous comments and nicknames, including my personal favorite, the Turkish Final Boss.

“Isn’t the pandemic over? Why is he still wearing a mask?” one person joked.

“His mouth is more censored than the Epstein files,” someone else commented.

Referred to only as ‘Joke’ by Stichting Spijt van Tattoo, the middle-aged woman reportedly endured years of abuse and could only cope by numbing herself with alcohol and pills. Her controlling ex reportedly bought a cheap tattooing machine online and personally inked about 250 tattoos on her body, including “property of”, his name and his initials.

“[He tattooed her] In places he thought had been touched by other men, such as her breasts and buttocks. It was a sign of control and possession,” Andy Han, founder of Stichting Spijt van Tattoo, said, adding that some of the tattoos were on her face and neck.

Dutch publication NL Times published before and after photos of Joke, revealing her shocking transformation from having her face covered in tattoos to an almost completely clean slate. Both the victim and Stichting Spijt van Tattoo hope that this shocking story will inspire other victims of abuse to come forward and seek help.

“Those who have been deeply hurt can get back up,” Joke said on the foundation’s website. “If I can do it, then someone else can too.”

Asked if she did anything to fight back against her abusive ex-boyfriend, Joke said that she reported him to the Dutch authorities, but he has yet to face any consequences.

“Any reasonable person knows someone wouldn’t voluntarily get tattoos near the eye, on the nose or on the ear,” Andy Han said. “But ultimately, the authorities couldn’t pursue it because it was legally difficult to prove. Her ex claimed she consented. For Joke, that feels like an injustice.”

Joke hopes to be rid of all her tattoos by the end of this year, but the trauma will probably need years more to heal.

During his phenomenal 2009 performance, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt reached a top speed of approximately 12.42 meters per second, but his average speed over the 100-meter race was 10.44 meters per second. Now, that incredible speed can be matched by humanoid robots!

Unitree Robotics recently released new test footage of its H1 humanoid robot sprinting at speeds of up to 10.1 metres/s on a track, putting it in the same ballpark as the Jamaican sprinting legend. The company acknowledged that there may have been “minor measurement inaccuracies” during the test, but the performance of the H1 is still regarded as a major milestone in bipedal robot mobility.

“10 m/s!! Unitree Breaks the World Record Again. With the physique of an ordinary person, running at a world champion’s speed,” Unitree captioned its viral video.

Believe it or not, a couple of years ago, we wrote about Star1, the fastest bipedal humanoid robot at the time. It ran at a speed of 8 miles per hour. At its peak, the Unitree H1 reached a whopping 22 mph. It’s amazing how fast technology has improved.

Interestingly, another Chinese firm, MirrorMe, showcased its own humanoid robot capable of running at incredible speeds. Named Bolt, it is also capable of reaching 10m/s, making it a direct competitor of the H1.

For the world’s fastest quadruped robot, check out Mirror Me’s Black Panther.

Earlier this month, clips of manual workers in an Indian garment factory started going viral online. They showed human workers operating sewing machines, but there was one thing off about them – they were all wearing head-mounted cameras.

Although no news outlet has been able to confirm it, the main theory regarding these head-mounted cameras is that they are designed to record the worker’s movements so that companies can use the footage to train AI-powered robots that will eventually replace them.

“First step, make humans work like robots, second step, make humans teach robots how to work like robots, third step, fire all humans and get robots to work,” one person wrote on X.

“They are digging their own graves,” someone else commented.

Since the cameras capture exactly what the worker sees — including hand movements, coordination, and task execution — it creates a rich dataset for machines to learn from,” India Today speculates. “Instead of relying on expensive motion-capture tools, companies could use this “human-eye view” to teach robots how to perform complex actions by simply observing and copying.”

Apart from the concerns regarding job losses on a massive scale, some have argued that, if the theory proves true, the way companies are going about it may have ethical implications, as many of the workers probably have no idea they are essentially rendering themselves obsolete.

One Russian man recently found out just how dangerous March nights can be in Yakutia. The unnamed man was walking to his home in the city of Mirny after a long night on the town when he got tired and decided to rest on a bench on the side of the street. It’s unclear if the man was intoxicated or not, but what we do know is that he fell asleep on the bench.

The sleeping man was first found by passers-by who realised the danger he was in and called emergency services. Unfortunately, by the time the ambulance arrived, the man no longer had a pulse, his blood pressure was zero, and the electrocardiogram showed a flat line. Resuscitation procedures were carried out, but there was no response.

Photo: Google AI

First responders took the clinically dead man to the local hospital, where anesthesiologist and resuscitation specialist Dmitry Bosikov was tasked with slowly thawing the patient back to life. By gradually “defrosting” the patient, he ensured that no damage was caused to the smallest blood vessels, as damaged vascular microcirculation can cause heart attacks, cerebral edema, kidney failure and death.

Over the course of four hours, the man’s body temperature slowly rose from 24 to 34 degrees Celsius, at which point advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated. After about 25 minutes, the medical team saw the first sign of life, a faint pulse on the monitor.

After 5 hours and 34 minutes, the man’s vitals appeared stable, but he was left in an induced coma for a day. He regained consciousness the next day, and tests showed that his kidneys and his other vital functions were intact. He received medical care and treatment for five days, after which he was discharged.