Fart-selling influencer hospitalised after going too far
And other stories from the stranger side of life

A woman who earns thousands of pounds selling farts suffered what she thought was a heart attack after she broke wind too much. Steph Matto, a US influencer, had earned the equivalent of £147,000 from farting in jars. She would sell an eye-watering 50 jars each week, charging £740 a pop. To meet demand she put herself on a high-fibre diet, but recently found herself in A&E with chest pains. “I was overdoing it,” she said.
Robotic cat will nip your fingers
A Japanese company has released a soft robot shaped like a cat that can nibble a user’s fingertips. The Amagami Ham Ham has an algorithm that selects one of 24 nibbling patterns so a user can never be sure what will happen when they stick their fingers into their robotic pet’s mouth. The inventor said the cat “frees humankind from the conundrum of whether to ‘pursue or not to pursue’ the forbidden pleasure”.
Fish fall from sky in Texas
Fish have fallen from the sky in Texas to the surprise of residents. Residents of the city of Texarkana were left shocked when small fishes appeared to come from the sky as the city is hours away from any water. Animal rain occurs when small water animals like frogs, crabs, and small fish are swept up in waterspouts or drafts that occur on the surface of the earth and then rained down at the same time as the rain.
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
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