Hoshi Ryokan in Japan, which qualifies to be the oldest hotel in the world has a history of 1300 years of operations, facilitated through 46 generations of family ownership. The location of the hotel was revealed to a Buddhist Monk, Taicho Daishi, by a deity, who visited him in his dream state, telling him that the village of Awasu houses a subterranean hot spring blessed by The Physician of Souls himself. The fact was confirmed when the sickened villagers of Awasu were healed by the water of the Hot Spring and today the people from world over bathe in the spa at the hotel. 

The hotel is complete with restaurant, spa, guest rooms, a garden, a theater, a hall, a festival foyer, and a couple of other units whose functions are only familiar to the Japanese.

Many of the rooms still retain the traditional Japanese interiors, while others have been renovated to tout a modern ambience. It also features a Hoshi Museum that is intimately linked to the region’s traditional arts and crafts and has several artists display their work.

Read more about Hoshi Ryokan in Japan which is the oldest hotel in the world here.

Apparently there was a mix-up at the McDonald’s distribution center and condoms that were supposed to be shipped to a Massachusetts school were accidentally packaged in McDonald’s Happy Meals!

The incident caught news attention when over a dozen eight year olds opened their happy meals to find condoms. The children reportedly blew them up and began batting each other with them. McDonald’s apologized for the incident claiming the condoms were extremely bright colors because they were to be sent to a school, and most of their workers couldn’t read the English label, failing to recognize the difference.

Read more about this story on McDonald’s here.

Percept Picture Company along with Tripple Take Motion Pictures and Yen Movies is coming up with a new movie on 17th of February called “?” or Question Mark. The movie is basically about a group of friends who went to a place to shoot their final year project film but never returned. A few days later, their camera was found. What happened with them was captured in the camera. The film is a compilation of the footage found from the camera.

For the first in the history of cinema, a film is being released without a title. The all important question still lingers at the back of my mind…is it reel or real? Was this footage found or captured?

Rightfully titled “?”  or Question Mark this movie has sure to garner a viewer base the world would least expect.

See the footage of Question Mark or ? here.

The shell of cashew nuts are toxic to the touch. It is similar to poison ivy. They are native to northern South America and come from the cashew apple.

Cashew nuts are actually the seed of the fruit of the cashew apple. There is only one nut per cashew apple. When the cashew nut is roasted, it destroys the shells toxins and takes away their harm to your skin.

Read more about cashew nuts here.

Quikclot is a powder produced by ZMedica to aid the military, law enforcement, and emergency response markets. The powdered substance is poured on the wound, even arterial wounds, and clots the wound almost instantaneously!

It is easily cleaned out of the wound with water or wiped out with sterile cloth. Then the body reacts to the Quikclot and centralizes all its clotting abilities to the wounded area. Mark Wahlberg famously uses the product in Shooter, where his character, Bob Lee Swaggert, gets shot and applies Quikclot to the wound from a first aid kit in a police car.

Read more about Quikclot here.

The reason the Oscars trophy is so expensive is because of the gold plating on the outside of each statuette. If it did not contain any gold, an Oscars would be worth less than $100! 

And that’s just the materials, not taking into account the labor costs. It takes 10 people more than 5 and a half hour to create each one. Each statue is polished to perfection, and just the polishing requires an entire hour per statue! It ends up taking 3-4 weeks to create all the statues for the awards ceremony.

Of course, the statues weren’t always this expensive. A metal shortage in World War II resulted in a switch from the original material to plaster. The plaster Oscars were returned after the war and exchanged for the real thing.

For a complete history of the Oscars (the statues, not the ceremony) check out this website and also make sure to check out this list of unusual stats and trivia about the Academy Awards.

Ever had an itch in your throat that you just couldn’t scratch? There’s actually a little trick that will get rid of that annoying scratch! If you pull on your earlobe and massage it between your thumb and index finger the itch will go away. As crazy as it sounds, it actually works. 

Why does massaging your ears impact your throat? Massaging the earlobe will stimulate the nerves in the ear, which will trigger a reflex in the throat. As this reflex occurs, it causes a tiny muscle to spasm in your throat, removing that annoying itch!

Read more on massaging your ears here.

Lonesome George is the name of the last known tortoise of a certain species from the Galapagos Islands. He was found in 1971 on Pinta Island by goat hunters. George was penned with several females of a related subspecies of tortoise, but never successfully reproduced and carried on his genes.

He is thought to be between 70-80 years old and could live to be 100-150 years old. He is in good health and it’s possible that other tortoises of his subspecies, like a sibling or distant cousin, are out there, though none have been found. There is a $ 10,000 offer to anyone who can bring a female of his subspecies to reproduce with him.

Read more about Lonesome George – The Turtle here.

Vulcan Point is a place in the Philippines that is in Main Crater Lake, which is within Volcano Island, which is within Lake Taal, which is within the island of Luzon. It’s all part of the complex volcanic system of the Taal Volcano.

The volcano was formed due to massive prehistoric eruptions, and is still active today. It’s a popular tourist destination not just due to the uniqueness of the Inception-esque island formation, but also because it offers pretty nice views of the island in general.

Read more about Vulcan Point in Philippines here.

In Western Antarctica, the 18 mile (30 kilometer) long and 165 feet (50 meter) crack is getting bigger every day by 6.5 feet (2 meters)! If the ice breaks off from the rest of the Antarctica, the iceberg produced will be sized at 340 square miles (880 square kilometers).

This is part of a natural cycle, not a result of global warming. Large icebergs form every few years, the last one was formed in 2001. Scientists are hoping to gather more data on this crack in 2016 when ICESAT 2 (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite) is launched.

Read more about Antarctica news here.