Liaoning Province in China is known for the substantial amount of dinosaur fossils that’ve turned up in the dirt there. Over the years everything from insects to fish to plants have been discovered in such detail that even skin textures have been left behind in the rock.

Now it appears that a new feathered dinosaur that is cousin to the Velociraptor can be added to the long list of discoveries there.

The new dinosaur with a ridiculous name to try and pronounce, Zhenyuanlong suni, stood at about 5 feet tall, had wings too short to allow them to fly and some of the most complex feathers seen on a dinosaur up to this point. The feathers’ complexity is clearly visible on the rock that the near-complete skeleton has been found in and resemble the feathers of today’s eagles.

Professor Junchang Lü from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences’ Institute of Geology:

“The first feathered dinosaurs were found here and now our discovery of Zhenyuanlong suni indicates that there is an even higher diversity of feathered dinosaurs than we thought. It’s amazing that new feathered dinosaurs are still being found.”

It’s also hugely terrifying to think of these semi-flying, feathered 5 foot dinosaurs tracking you down to feed their young.

[Sci News.com]

Here in the states we’re all pretty used to Christian Bale as Batman getting in peoples’ faces and barking like he’s trying to carry on a conversation in a dance club.

But what if there was a kinder more approachable version of the Dark Knight who’s only mission was to bring smiles to an area rebuilding from a devastating earthquake.

Well there is such a person.

He’s called Chibatman.

A 41 year-old Chinese welder’s donned Batman’s suit (thankfully not the Clooney one) since 2011 as well as built his own version of the Batpod and taken to the streets to simply make people smile.

“I started doing this around three years ago. As for my reasons, during the great earthquake [the 2011 Fukushima earthquake], people forgot how to smile. I wanted to help bring the smile back, and that’s why I started.”

So while Chibatman rolls around distributing awesomeness and smiles (and the English translator in the video channels his inner Christian Bale producing even more smiles to the rest of us) to an area distraught and repairing itself after a horrific disaster, it’s the little kid in the video that kind of sums up how awkwardly cool this whole thing is…

“I think it’s cool how he goes around town looking like Batman without feeling embarrassed at all.”

We agree.

Might be more superheroes in the world.

[Robot6.com]

Everyone dreams about traversing the globe and visiting all of those places that are on most of our bucket lists. Unagi Travel is a company that will help your plush animals reach that goal while you live vicariously through video and photos of their journey.

For a small fee ($20-$35) your small plush pal can go globetrotting while most of us sit at home shoveling Doritos and staring at the internet for hours.

For just over three years now, Sonoe Azuma has been taking peoples’ stuffed friends on trips all over the world. Sure it seems weird when you first read about it…and then comes the almost gut-hitting reason that some people send them…because they simply, physically can’t do so. Like a 51-year-old woman for whom walking had become difficult due to illness:

“I want to see and walk around the sights that I viewed through my stuffed animal’s journeys someday. Seeing my stuffed animal traveling encouraged me. I began to think that I should do what I can do, instead of lamenting over things that I can’t.”

[Kotaku]

Musicians are usually willing to jam with anyone that has some ability at playing an instrument. As we begin walking hand-in-hand with our quickly-becoming-commonplace robotic friends, it only seems natural that musicians and robots would start creating the modern equivalent of their own Wyld Stallyns.

Other bands, like Compressorheads, have tread this road long before Z Machine. It just seems that right now we’re all a little more comfortable with our new metal friends and Z Machine has hit the stage at the right moment because of the reaction that the band’s had overseas.

Z Machine performs a lot like an emo band who’s feet have been nailed to the floor in the video we’ve posted here. That looming alien thing in the background on the left seems to be on a union break.

Despite the feeling that this performance is like we’re watching the result of something that’s been a weekend project between the glee and choir clubs, this is a simple, innocent example of how welcoming a new generation is of their new robotic buddies.

[Oddity Central]

Pigeon racing is quickly becoming a hot place for a new generation of wealthy people in China to drop some cash. In fact it’s attracting drops of cash worth millions. One race can net the winning team’s owner upwards of $80,000. There’s even a black market for racing pigeons being fed by pigeon pirates. Who knew?

We were just informed that Mike Tyson apparently knew this’d be hot before all of us.

[Vice’s YouTube Channel]

Body modification seemed to root itself into underground culture of the 90s. Since that time we’ve seen our share of modded bods. You’d think that there just wasn’t anything to really mod until low-cost cybernetic parts started popping up on the shelves at WalMart. Wrong.

Check out all the fun these body-moddin’ kids are having!

They’ve sadly been slapped with the descriptive slang-term “BagelHeads”.

The whole ‘BagelHead’ scene has been around for many years already but is only recently getting some serious face-time across the internets after the Taboo show aired on Discovery.

In a nutshell the kids are taking needles, inserting them into their foreheads and then dripping saline into their heads creating what looks like some kind of giant egg under their skin. Once the ‘egg’ is big enough someone then presses slowly into the center of the bloated lump leaving a small indentation in the center. The end result? It looks exactly like a doctor was caught mid-breakfast and just left his bagel under the patient’s skin on her forehead.

Sexy, right? Yeah…that’s a no…we don’t think so either.

[Mtv.com]

Here in the states, Bath-Salt Zombie activity has gone into a lull as everyone following the gruesome trend keeps a wary eye out for the next crazy-looking person who reeks of ‘Blossoming Garden Jasmine’ and keeps eyeballing your body like a slab of ribs.

Meanwhile, over in China, a strange attack has caused hopeful zombie apocalypse fans to perk up with curious dog head-tilt.

During a subway ride, a 67 year-old retiree asked a young man refused to give up the seat to his elder? The 28 year-old whipper-snapper suddenly found himself tackled by the older man. Not only was he being attacked, he was being chewed on! The elder man was literally taking chunks of flesh out of the younger man’s arm and the blood was flowing.

In behavior that resembled a bunch of cornered mice, witnesses scattered to corners of the subway car then someone hit the record button on their phone and caught the whole attack on video for the world to see. YouTube has taken down the video based on their policies but you can still find it online. We’re warning you. It’s not for the squeamish when you do find it.

According to the news covering the story, both men were apprehended, taken to the police station and let go.

Yup. Let go.

Not only that but they both apologized for their behavior and agreed to pay their own medical bills.

Neither of them will be charged with anything.

Anyone else seeing into the near-future now that this precedent’s been set? Us too.

[SINA]

The bikini debuted in 1946. It’s gone through a lot of variations. There’s been a monokini, microkini, tankini, trikini, pubikini (yes…it’s a real thing) and the mankini. But only occasionally has the phrase ‘nightmare fuel’ ever been associated with the bikini…until now.

Because Chinese culture prefers white, porcelein-like skin to the tan-loving people of the west, women on beaches in China are now sporting what’s been dubbed the ‘facekini’.

It’s basically a fancy name for ski mask worn by anyone up to no good who’d rather have their face NOT show up on YouTube or the local news while getting their hooligan on or doing some burglaring.

Seeing people sporting these on the beach is a lot like David Lynch is shooting an episode of American Horror Story…with the exception that this is real.

Nothing quite like checking out a woman from behind on the beach only to have her turn around sporting one of these things on her face.

Cue the ‘stabby shower music’ from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!

[Reuters]

Like some kind of massive, uber-budgeted, city-wide set of a Ridley Scott film that takes place after the fall of mankind, several cities built by China are almost completely devoid of life.

What’s even stranger is that these massive cities continue to be built even though hardly a single living thing is taking up residence in them.

Recently an entire Chinese-built city in Africa popped up on everyone’s radar because of its sheer size. Named Nova Cidade de Kilamba, this massive city covers 12,335 acres, contains 750 eight-story apartment buildings, 12 schools, more than 100 retail units, is designed to hold an estimated 500,000 people and was built in less than three years for a hefty 3.5 billion dollars.

At the current build rate as many as 20 of these ‘ghost cities’ are being constructed every year with currently as many as 64 million vacant homes left empty.

These cities aren’t being built in people-friendly locations either…one of them is actually built in the middle of a Mongolian desert.

[WND]

Is this curious pig/dog hybrid creature a runaway from a lab experiment? A new cryptid? A beast of myth and fable?

No to the first, probably to the second and hopefully to the third.

As it turns out, this little fella is actually a very rare, and expensive, breed.

The bizarre looking stray – actually a rare pedigree Chinese crested hairless dog – was spotted wandering the streets in Xinxiang, Henan province, central China, close to several scientific research centres and a local medical school.

One witness said: “The pink skin makes it look just like pig gone wrong in some sort of genetic experiment.”

Police believe it got loose after giving it’s rich owners the slip.

[Orange] via readers Raph Ware and

Alright, it’s a little easier when someone puts a tiny circle around it. What you are seeing is China’s Tiangong-1 space station transiting the Sun. This is the handiwork of Astrophotographer Thierry Legault who had to time this perfectly to snap this picture since since the station zoomed through this shot in only .09 seconds.

Notice how the massive sun spot completely dwarves the Tiangong-1 meager size which is only 10.3 x 3.3 meters.

Check out the close up shots at the link below.

[Universe Today] via Bri G

Don’t try the cat meat hot pot while eating with Agriculture official Huang Guang. That’s what Chinese lumber billionaire Long Liyuan found out the hard way after he was allegedly poisoned. Long died in the hospital a few days later and and Huang is now being detained on murder charges.

Huang allegedly dropped some toxic herbs into the stew, the BBC reported.

Long, who ran a forestry company, was taken to the hospital after feeling dizzy and sick and later suffered a cardiac arrest. Huang and the third diner were hospitalized as well, though both survived. According to the New York Times, Huang had apparently eaten some of the poisoned stew himself to avoid suspicion.

Police detained Huang on Dec. 30, after discovering evidence that Huang had embezzled money from Long.

Cat stew is a local delicacy in South China.

[The Blaze]

After their selection 18 months ago, the names of the crew that will be sent into space by the People’s Republic of China has been kept under wraps. Until someone put their autographs on a commemorative postmarked envelope and accidentally let it get out.

Whoopsie doodle.

Among those names are two women, one of which might become the first Chinese woman in space. They would be part of a manned mission in 2012 which is all building to the launch of a Chinese controlled space station by 2020.

Below you can find a picture of the second crew to launch into space for the PRC in 2005.

[Collect Space via BoingBoing]

Chinese message boards have lit flame with a romantic controversy filled with taboo, lust and well-lit viewing areas. A sheep and deer have fallen in love at the Yunnan Zoo. When first reported, many reacted skeptically, believing the report to be a cutesy ploy to draw attention to the tourist attraction.

But doubters were proven dead wrong when zoo officials posted the above photo on their weblog. The indisputable evidence shows the hot couple in flagrante delicto.

Thanks to Weird Things writer Ryan for passing this along.

[ChinaSmack]

Chinese television news features a man who claims to move objects and shatter glass using only the power of Qi.

Chinese native Chunzhenwang reports from Shanghai

I don’t like horror movies or ghost stories. My imagination pictures those things, especially at night, which freak me out. But the curiosity never stops me from listening to them. I want to figure out the reason behind each story. I feel like if I can find the rational side of these stories, I wouldn’t be scared anymore. Against my better judgement, I find myself seeking out ghost stories but very rarely finding the rationale behind them. So every night, I still fight with my imagination.

When you live in Shanghai, the subway will be your first choice for transportation. It’s not expensive and very convenient. But on Line One, there is a Caobao road station, or by its more popular name, “ghost station.”

According to popular legend, the train will suddenly break down at that station, without driver error. When a maintenance trailer pulls the train out of the station, it works again. Other riders have reported the door not opening when in the haunted stop.

But most alarming is the nine deaths at Caobao, all involving unexplainable circumstances.

A few couple years ago, when the subway in Shanghai did not have shielded gates, a passenger waited for the train. All of a sudden, he plunged down into the tracks after inexplicably losing his balance. Unfortunately for him, his train was on time, ending his life. Witnesses say he didn’t fall off the platform, they saw something dragging him.

Just imagine the poor souls that have to work there.

One day, as usual, the staff needed to clean the trash in the track. One worker while cleaning, heard a woman laugh from the deep and dark side of the track. Since the station was closed, no one was supposed to be there.

Other staff report sometimes seeing a girl in red sitting in one of the chairs. Many believe she is the spirit of a young woman who committed suicide a couple of days before in the Caobao station. In the next few days following her death, many staff saw her sitting there every night.

I haven’t been to the Caobao station myself, mostly because I don’t live near that area. But where do these stories come from?

I think the main reason is the location of Caobao. It’s near a local mortuary, and the station’s ladies restroom is specifically close to the mortuary.

I don’t know these stories of the Caobao station is true or not. But I believe at least the inspiration for them couldn’t be totally invented.