A swan-tastic car

One of the craziest vehicles to hit Indian streets in history is a fully-functional car shaped like a swan

The Swan Car was commissioned in the early 1900s by Robert Nicholl ‘Scotty’ Matthewson, a wealthy British engineer living in Calcutta.  He was obsessed with swans—maybe because he lived in Swan Park, he loved the birds enough to travel to England in 1909 and placed a very special with JW Brooks and Company of Lowestoft, Suffolk—a swan-shaped car.

The following year, the unique vehicle arrived in Calcutta and immediately became the talk of the town. Some of the most outrageous features of the Swan Car included a special duct that released whitewash on the road from time to time, to create the illusion that the swan had pooped, as well as eight organ pipes and a keyboard for different horn sounds. At the touch of a button, the swan’s beak opened and sprayed hot water fed by the pressurized engine cooling system in an arc to clear the way of pedestrians.

The Maharaja of Nabha, Ripudaman Singh, had a thing for rare and unusual objects, and the Swan Car was right up his alley. Unfortunately, for him, he was deposed by the British for incompetence, and both vehicles wound up in the possession of the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands where they can still be admired today.

1900
The year the Swan Car was commissioned by a Britisher

Fab figurines

Park Yong Jae from South Korea specializes in molding and sculpting hyperrealistic figurines of iconic stars 

Not much is known about Park Yong Jae’s work, but he does have hundreds of thousands of followers across several social networks, and for good reason, his hyper-realistic figurines are simply out of this world! The young artist starts by sculpting the heads of his creations, using special tools to recreate every detail, down to individual hair strands. He then attaches them to bodies with movable joints and even uses miniature clothing to really nail their iconic look. The end result is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Some of the characters Park Yong Jae has sculpted over the years include Leonardo Di Caprio in Romeo and Juliet and Heath Ledger as Joker, and they all look absolutely stunning. For some reason, the artist, who goes by YJ Park on social media, stopped posting Facebook, and on Instagram, where he appears to be active, he only posts photos and videos of his old works.

Mickey Ears for pets

A new disturbing trend sweeping through China these days has pet owners ignoring their animals’ physical and mental well-being for the promise of stylish ‘Mickey Ears’. Apparently, some shady pet clinics will slice part of the animal’s ears off to achieve the look. There are also special clamps available online for ‘DIY’ ear reshaping.

Cafe nay

Mori Ouchi, a cozy cafe in Tokyo’s laidback Shimokitazawa district, is famous for only catering to pessimists and people with a generally negative mindset. The founder of Mori Ouchi, a self-described gloomy person, had always felt that negative people were sensitive, so he created a space exclusively for them.

Brute canal

Minnesota resident Kathleen Wilson had to sit through the nightmare experience of four root canal procedures, eight dental crowns, and no less than 20 fillings in a single session. In a span of 5 hours, dentist Kevin Molldrem attempted to fix all her teeth in a single session. She is now asking for $50,000 in damages.

Leafy prisoner

The Chained Tree of Peshawar, in Pakistan, has been under arrest since 1899. 125 years ago, a drunk British officer James Squid performed one of the most bizarre arrests in history in Landi Kotal. Convinced that the tree was trying to get away from him, Squid ordered it to be chained to the ground and placed under arrest.

‘Pop’ped that record!

A pair of Brazilian YouTubers broke a Guinness World Record by erecting a 78.1-foot tower made from Popsicle sticks. Iberê Thenório and Mari Fulfaro, hosts of the educational YouTube channel Manual do Mundo, led the efforts to assemble the world’s tallest Popsicle sticks “The most challenging part was to put the tower up,” Thenório told Guinness World Records in Sao Paulo The structure took the record from a 41-foot, 1-inch sone in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, in June 2023.

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