All posts tagged: Weird

The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad

The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad

Published by skeptic

On November 16, 2021, Matthew Ziburis sat in his car in a residential neighborhood in the Bay Area stalking an “enemy,” as he put it. A veteran of both the US Army and Marine Corps, Ziburis had previously served in Iraq. But on this mission, he was working at the behest of China’s government. The targets that autumn day were American citizens: Arthur Liu and his teenage daughter, Alysa. Arthur’s personal story was an exemplar of the American Dream. As a university student, he took part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China. After the crackdown at Tiananmen Square that year, he fled to the United States, settling in California. Arthur poured a small fortune and an equal amount of energy into molding Alysa into a figure skating phenom. As a national champion at age 13, she bantered along with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, and was at the time on track to represent America at the Winter Olympics the following year in Beijing. Ziburis was surveilling the Liu home when he called Arthur, …

The Weird Reason Women With Botox May Have Bad Relationships

The Weird Reason Women With Botox May Have Bad Relationships

Published by Jenni Sidey

Botox has become borderline mainstream over the years. Women (and men) from all walks of life have taken the poisonous plunge in the war against wrinkles. But does this beauty treatment have a side effect that could be worthy of a few worry lines? Research from 2011 found that getting Botox injections means you may not be able to empathize as well as you used to. And if you can’t put yourself into your partner’s shoes, rocky relationship territory could very well be ahead. RELATED: How To Be More Empathic In Your Relationship According to The New York Times, the study — performed by professors David T. Neal and Tanya L. Chartrand — showed that people who receive Botox injections aren’t able to mimic the emotions of others. They physically aren’t able to do so, and since they can’t copy the emotional responses of the people they interact with, they can’t empathize; thus, they have no idea what they’re feeling. Yikes.  This study stemmed from 1980s research which proved that happily married couples often resembled each other over time and began to wear …

Harry and Meghan Oz tour is philanthropic, but also for-profit? Weird

Harry and Meghan Oz tour is philanthropic, but also for-profit? Weird

Published by Sam Flores

Three in five Australian fathers surveyed said that no health professional asked about their mental health during pregnancy or in the 12 months after birth. That, boys, is because the focus at this time is properly on the babies and the mothers, who may suffer from actual, biology-related post-natal depression, not on fathers feeling out of it. But for Harry it was a chance to tell the audience, “You’re not alone. For me, [going to therapy] was a sign of strength, not weakness.” Oh please. Source link

Sabrina Carpenter breaks silence after calling cultural fan chant ‘weird’

Sabrina Carpenter breaks silence after calling cultural fan chant ‘weird’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Sabrina Carpenter has apologized after she called a fan’s cultural chant “weird” and told the Coachella audience: “I don’t like it.” “My apologies I didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly,” Sabrina wrote via X on Saturday, April 11, as the backlash increased. “My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended. Could have handled it better! Now I know what a Zaghrouta is! I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.” © Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagSabrina Carpenter performs at the Coachella Stage Her message came in response to a tweet which read: “Sabrina saying that she doesn’t like a cultural arabic cheer… this is so insensitive and islamophobic. I am very disappointed in her.” Sabrina was headlining the 2026 Coachella Music & Arts Festival on April 10, 2026 when one fan let out what was a Zaghrouta chant. A high-pitched, loud, and wavering cheer, the Zaghrouta is commonly used by Arab-speaking women to express overwhelming joy and is often used at events such as weddings and parties, …

A year later, L.A.B. Golf’s weird science got bigger … and more personal

A year later, L.A.B. Golf’s weird science got bigger … and more personal

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sign Up For Goods 🛍️ Product news, reviews, and must-have deals. In February 2025, I went to Creswell, Ore., to see whether cult putter manufacturer L.A.B. Golf’s zero-torque premise could do something no golf instruction or my own overactive brain ever could: remove a variable without removing me from the process. In March 2026, I went back on the heels of something heel-shafted—L.A.B. Golf’s unusually country-club-coded LINK.2 blade putters, a more familiar silhouette from a company better known for shapes that look like dares. This was the growing company’s clearest attempt yet to package its zero-torque worldview in a shape traditionalists might actually recognize (and embrace). An older golfer at the Springfield, Va., country club where I first tested a stock LINK.2.1 looked it over lustily and declared it the “Patek Philippe of putters.” My takeaway from that first visit wasn’t that L.A.B. had invented a magic wand. It was that Lie Angle Balance—the company’s namesake way of building putters so they resist twisting and stay more stable through the stroke—could strip out one of putting’s smallest, most persistent …

Jennie Garth recalls ‘weird switch’ that flipped and helped her heal in aftermath of Peter Facinelli divorce

Jennie Garth recalls ‘weird switch’ that flipped and helped her heal in aftermath of Peter Facinelli divorce

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Jennie Garth has reflected on the tumultuous period in her life following her second divorce from Twilight star Peter Facinelli. Garth, 54, and Facinelli, 52, divorced in 2013 after 12 years of marriage and three daughters together. The Beverly Hills, 90210 star was previously married to musician Daniel B. Clark from 1994 to 1996. She is now married to actor Dave Abrams, 44. In her forthcoming memoir, I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose & Embracing Reinvention, Garth opens up about the devastating aftermath of her second divorce. She writes that one evening, after consuming alcohol and pills, she needed to get her stomach pumped, according to People. She entered rehab afterward, which helped her become sober. “I noticed my light really dimming. I …

Heated Rivalry star on why he was drawn to “weird energy” of new film

Heated Rivalry star on why he was drawn to “weird energy” of new film

Published by Daniella Wilson

Cliff (Noah Parker) floats around the small town of Mooncrest, scraping by with his fluorescent sign-making business. Yet it’s not until a woman claiming to be his birth mother, Marg (Liza Weil), suddenly arrives that Cliff is suddenly confronted with a sign that something needs to change. Lunar Sway, a clear standout at the BFI Flare film Festival this year, evokes a range of cinematic influences in its outlook, but the off-kilter, often dreamlike bisexual chaos at its core feels entirely unique to the work of writer/director Nick Butler. “I’ve seen some people say Lunar Sway is like Paris, Texas meets David Lynch,” says Butler. “It is very offbeat, quirky, with a lot of eccentric small town characters. But I would say my biggest inspirations from movies are probably the Coen brothers. They also write very colourful, eccentric characters.” Cliff encounters plenty of loveable weirdos in his journey, from a self-styled vigilante named Bailey (Grace Glowicki) to even his therapist, Neal (Andy Yu), whose note-taking skills leave a lot to be desired. But throughout it …

Virus from marine animals is causing weird eye problems in people

Virus from marine animals is causing weird eye problems in people

Published by skeptic

Dozens of people with glaucoma-like symptoms have tested positive for a virus that we thought affected only marine life Virginie Vaes/Getty Images A virus that ordinarily affects marine animals has caused glaucoma-like symptoms and even irreversible vision loss in a small but growing group of people in China. This is the first known time that a virus that originates from aquatic animals has infected people and caused ill health. The cases are thought to have developed after eating raw seafood and handling aquatic animals, but there are also signs of human-to-human transmission. “That this virus can infect invertebrates, fish and mammals is pretty remarkable,” says Edward Holmes at the University of Sydney, Australia. “I can’t think of a virus with such a broad host range.” Cases of a condition called persistent ocular hypertension viral anterior uveitis (POH-VAU) have been increasing in China, with no clear cause. It is defined as inflammation and high pressure within the eye, similar to glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve and can cause vision loss. To understand why cases are …

The weird physics of plant-based milks is only just coming to light

The weird physics of plant-based milks is only just coming to light

Published by skeptic

Just a splash of the non-Newtonian, please Jack Andersen/Getty Images The physics of plant-based milks is strange. Researchers are only now beginning to understand it, and they hope that doing so could result in better beverages. Vivek Sharma at the University of Illinois Chicago and his colleagues found that most plant milks flow and drip in more complex and unusual ways than their animal counterparts. The team looked at eight different milks – cow, goat, pea, soy, oat, almond, coconut and rice – and studied their viscosity, or how difficult it is for them to flow. They found that all the plant-derived milks except for rice milk exhibited something called shear thinning, where the viscosity decreases with pressure. That means those milks are non-Newtonian liquids, physically more similar to ketchup or shampoo, which flow more easily when you apply pressure to the bottle than cow or goat milk, which have a constant viscosity. Sharma says this is because the plant milks contained very small amounts, often less than 0.1 per cent, of gums derived from …

I tried HigherDose’s ,400 PEMF mat to help me relax. I got weird dreams and disappointment | Health & wellbeing

I tried HigherDose’s $1,400 PEMF mat to help me relax. I got weird dreams and disappointment | Health & wellbeing

Published by Sam Flores

I have a $1,400 mat stashed under my pink velvet couch. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. It’s my roommate’s PEMF and infrared therapy mat, and yes, it costs nearly as much as my monthly rent. Measuring 6ft in length, made of vegan leather, layered with bright-blue amethyst and obsidian crystals and weighing as much as a Siberian husky, the HigherDose mat makes my basic yoga mat feel like a flimsy slab of cardboard. The wellness brand claims its bestselling mat can boost mood, improve sleep and speed up muscle recovery with “total-body relaxation”. All you have to do is spend 20 minutes lying on it: the brand says “a quick session on the mat is equivalent to an hour of yoga or meditation.” HigherDose is at the forefront of our collective obsession with biohacking, which has popularized wellness treatments such as Oura rings and red light therapy masks. The brand sells a zany-sounding list of products: infrared sauna blankets, red light …