Down-sizing

A young Vietnamese-born woman has gone to extreme lengths to shrink her waist. Pics/YouTube

An KY, a part-time dancer living in the United States, was discovered by popular Vietnamese entertainer Thuy Nga, during the latter's American tour, last winter. While visiting a milk tea cafe where Ky happened to be working, the Vietnamese comedian and television personality noticed the young girl's incredibly tiny waist and decided to do a video about it. She showcased the young woman's tiny waist and also asked her a few questions about how she managed to get her waist circumference down to just 46 centimeters and how she maintains the extreme hourglass figure. Apparently, the part-time dancer had always coveted a wasp-like silhouette with a tiny waist that emphasised her hips and chest, and she was willing to put in the work to achieve it.

At 18, when she decided to make the change, she weighed over 50 kg, with a waist circumference of more than 60 cm, but today she weighs a measly 37 kg. To reduce her waist circumference, the 26-year-old An Ky went from eating three meals a day to just one, and sometimes even one meal every two days. Moreover, she stopped eating starchy foods two years ago and also wears a tight corset around her waist every day, only taking it off during the night.

Asked whether she was worried about the health impact of her diet, An Ky said that she eats lots of vegetables, chicken breast and fruits, so she never feels weak. The one problem she complained about was the necessary adjustments she needs to make when buying new pants. Because of her tiny waist, the pants need to be tightened too, and that can sometimes be "more expensive than the pants themselves".

Taking in the trash

75-year-old spent the last decade filling his house with junk for their son who refused to leave the house to find a job

SBS, a South Korean national television network, recently reported the story of Choi, a 75-year-old man from Gwangju, who over the last decade turned his two-storey house into a dump full of garbage gathered from the city streets and trash cans. Convinced that one man's garbage is another man's treasure, the pensioner filled up his entire house with junk, before doing the same with the balconies and even the yard. Choi, his 70-year-old wife and their son had been living in the trash-filled house for over a decade. They slept in a small room, because the rest of the place, including the hallways, were filled with junk. The couple's son, who was reportedly in his 40s, just sat in the house all day, doing absolutely nothing and decided to live off his parents' pension. Choi said his son was the reason he spent the last decade collecting all the junk.

Methane from swamps provides fuel for bike

An engineering student's ingenious new vehicle features a modified Honda GX160 motorcycle engine, with a hole into the airbox, through which it receives methane. Inventor Gijs Schalkx then hooks a balloon filled with methane to the hole, which acts as the fuel tank.

BEEing high on caffeine

In a new study published in Current Biology, researchers found that caffeinated bees are better equipped to find target crops. One group of bees was given a caffeinated reward, while another group received a non-caffeinated version. Bees primed with caffeine made more initial visits to the flowers emitting the target odour compared to the other bee groups.

Is it an alien, angel or shapeshifter?

New viral footage of some strange aerial phenomenon has grabbed a lot of eyeballs. A UFO - for lack of a better term - was spotted by an air traveller against a clear blue sky. YouTuber Neal "Grimreefar" Evans, whose channel regularly publishes sightings of UFOs and other "bizarre" phenomena, soon picked up on the new footage.

Apps help couples stay apart and connected

Japanese couples are using apps like Line or Skype to keep in touch for hours, even all through the night. A couple who used the app, said that they leave it open during the night so they can "wake up together". This way they feel they are together, even though one lives in Tokyo and the other in Ibaraki Prefecture.

Texas man wakes up feeling sweet 16 again

A 36-year-old hearing specialist, Daniel Porter, from Texas, woke up recently, thinking he was still 16 and in high school. He also failed to recognise his wife. His wife, had to calm him down and explain that they had been married for a while.

Not so dead after all

A tree growing out of a pristine white salt island in the heart of the Dead Sea is the sight you're treated to near the beach of Ein Bokek. With a salt concentration over 10 times that of the ocean, the Dead Sea is incapable of sustaining any plant or animal life, and, yet, there's a tree growing there, on an island made of salt. Pic/ DuncaN Oil, Facebook

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