UK-based supermarket Waitrose has been slammed by social media users for selling bouquets of “autumn seasonal foliage” at £6 ($7.5) apiece.

Photos of various tree leaves packaged in transparent plastic foil and arranged as flower bouquets went viral on social media this week, sparking controversy because of the product’s price, six British pounds, of seven and a half dollars. Considering tree leaves can literally be picked up from the street this time of year, it’s understandable that some people went after Waitrose, accusing the supermarket of trying to make money by selling something that is actually free.

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A Chinese woman who underwent a CT scan following a minor car accident learned that she had two metallic needles embedded deep in her brain.

The 29-year-old woman from Zhengzhou had been involved in a car accident and was advised to get a CT scan to make sure that there was no damage to her head. Luckily, the investigation showed no trauma related to the accident, but it did reveal something much stranger: two needles, approximately 5cm in length and 4.9mm in diameter embedded deep in her brain. The strange thing was that the needles were not related to the car accident, as there was no visible skull or scalp injury, and the woman had no recollection of any serious head trauma at any point in her life.

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Luciana Gonzalez is a Brazilian confectionery master specializing in ultra-realistic sugar flowers. Her works is so incredibly detailed and delicate that you would never guess she has only three years of experience.

Up until 2017, Luciana Gonzalez had never baked a cake in her life and had never enjoyed spending time in the kitchen. But three years ago the civil engineer decided to abandon her lucrative career in civil construction due to unbearable stress, and try supporting her family in another way. After her former profession put her in the hospital, she decided to go to school again and learn another profession. The Senac Campos do Jordão school of gastronomy was right in front of her house, so she decided to give it a try, despite her total lack of cooking experience.

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Hannah Grace, a creative mother-of-one from the UK, has been doing makeup illusions for only a couple of years, but she is already one of the most talented artists in the business.

A former chef turned self-taught makeup artist, 32-year-old Hannah got into facial makeup illusions back in 2018, while painting her face for fun. She realized that she was pretty good at it and decided to pursue the art form further. Since then, she has transformed herself into popular cartoon characters, as well as original illusions, some of which are truly stunning to look at. Although her makeup art started as a hobby, Hannah has managed to turn it into a successful career, at least on social media, where she boasts thousands of loyal fans.

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A 15-year-old Brazilian girl has baffled doctors after allegedly crying blood from her eyes for over a week, for reasons that doctors cannot understand.

The girl, identified only Doris, started feeling sick on September 12, and her mother took her to a hospital in her home city of Sao Paolo. She complained of pain in her abdomen and doctors diagnosed her with kidney stones. She was given medication for the pain and was sent home shortly after. However, on Sunday morning she was again rushed to the emergency room with blood coming out of one eye. Doctors examined Doris, but couldn’t determine the cause of the blood tears, and since she reported no pain or discomfort, she was once again sent home.

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Sylvain, a heavily tattooed school teacher from Essonne, in France, risks losing his job, because some parents don’t approve of his full-body tattoo, which includes his face.

The 35-year-old teacher, who goes by Freaky Hoody on social media, recently went on French television channel BFM TV to complain about the threat of losing his job strictly based on his appearance. He claims that his superiors have asked him to no longer teach kindergarten children, after receiving complaints from parents regarding his unconventional looks. Apparently, these people don’t even have children in the classes he teaches, but they have an issue with his tattoos, which cover the vast majority of his body, including his face, and even his eyeballs.

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A 28-yeear-old married man from India recently made international news headlines for lying to his family about getting infected with the new coronavirus as an excuse to run away with his lover.

On July 24, Manish Mishra called his wife to say that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that he didn’t want to live anymore. He then proceeded to shut off his phone, which caused his family to panic. His wife called her brother for help after receiving the bizarre call, and he advised her to file a missing persons report with the Navi Mumbai police. The investigation that followed showed that the 28-year-old supervisor had actually used the dreaded illness as a pretext to leave his family and elope with his mistress.

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A Japanese self-described “nerd” has been playing Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch for over six months, and he claims it helped him go from overweight to impressively chiseled.

“This is the result of a nerd doing Ring Fit for half a year,” Japanese Twitter user ‘kzm’ posted, along with a picture of his toned torso. The post got a lot of attention back in late July, getting almost 24,000 retweets and nearly 400 comments, mostly from people congratulating him on his resolve. Apparently, kzm has been playing Ring Fit Adventure every day since November of last year, and relied on it to keep himself in shape during the Covid-19 lockdown. Only it helped him do much more than that, as a photo of him from November 2019 shows him looking overweight, at least compared to his new sculpted physique.

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Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci has sparked controversy with its new line of products for Fall 2020, which includes distressed jeans with what looks like grass stains on them.

Distressed jeans have been around for a long time, but fashion companies have been pushing the envelope in this area for a while now. Back in 2017, fashion retailer Nordstrom made news headlines for selling jeans caked in fake mud for a whopping $425 and the Onomichi Denim Project boutique has long been selling premium jeans that have been pre-worn by someone for at least a year. Now, Italian fashion house Gucci has released a pair of jeans and a pair of jeans overalls “specifically treated for a stained-like, distressed effect” They cost $765 and $1,400 respectively…

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Chinese media recently reported the fascinating story of a young boy who, after witnessing his father’s murder at the hands of a neighbor, when he was 9-years-old, spent the next 17 years trying to catch the culprit.

Looking back on that fateful day of August 9th, 2000, Xiang Mingqian wishes he had never thrown that stone that eventually got his father killed… He was only 9 at the time, playing with his neighbor, Zhang Jun in a ditch, by the side of an old road in Changba Town, Zhenxiong County. Jun had thrown a stone into a puddle, and the splash had hit Xiang Mingqian, so he decided to return the favor by throwing an even bigger stone into the water. It was just a childish game, but the quarrel that erupted between the two boys would eventually involve both boys’ families and result in a tragic death…

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Eddie Lebeau & Richard Amon, the two halves of London-based food art studio Tattooed Bakers pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in the world of cake art, with their functional carousel cakes being by far the most impressive.

From marine cakes that exotic destinations almost to perfection, to sweet architectural wonders and doll-like edible creations, we’ve featured our share of stunning cake art here on Oddity Central, but we haven’t seen anything quite like Tattooed Bakers’ carousel cakes. Not only are these treats incredibly beautiful, featuring rococo and baroque-inspired decorations, but they actually incorporate mechanisms that make the merry-go-round turn, for an added visual effect.

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A fifteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl in Indonesia were reportedly forced to marry after breaking a local custom that forbids dating after sunset.

Child marriage has been a controversial issue in Indonesia for a long time, and last week it was once again brought into the limelight by the story of a young teenage couple forced to marry after only four days of dating. According to multiple media reports, 15-year-old Suhaimi and his 12-year-old girlfriend, Nur Herawati, were pressured into the marriage by the girl’s parents, after allegedly breaking customary dating laws, which forbids young couples to return home after dusk. Since the teenage boy brought his young girlfriend home after 7:30 pm earlier this month, her parents gave them no choice but to marry…

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Laungi Bhuiyan, a pensioner from the Indian state of Bihar, has become known as “Canal Man” after it was revealed that he spent 30 years of his life digging a 3-kilometer-long water canal, all by himself, using hand tools.

The remote village of Kothilawa, in the Lahthua area of Gaya district, had always suffered water shortages, with most of the rainwater falling in the nearby hills flowing into the river, instead of towards the village. This was one of the reason that some residents decided to move away and start anew, but one man decided to stay behind and fix the problem instead of running away from it. 30 years ago, local man Laungi Bhuiyan decided to take matters into his own hands and dig a canal to bring the water from the hills to a pond near his village. No one offered to help, so for three long decades he dug the 4-feet wide and 3-feet deep canal himself, using only whatever hand tools he had available.

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The Qiyi City Forest Garden residential complex in Chengdu, China, was supposed to be a green paradise for its residents, but two years on, the vertical forest concept has turned into a nightmare.

Back in 2018, the idea of living among dozens of exotic plants proved very exciting for the people of Chengdu, one of China’s most polluted cities, and by April of 2020 all 826 units in the Qiyi City Forest Garden complex had been sold. Each unit had up to 20 types of plants growing on the balcony, and filtering the city’s air and noise pollution. However, instead of an urban paradise, the eight-tower complex looks like a scene out of a post-apocalyptic film, with balconies overrun by sprawling greenery and plagues of mosquitoes.

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Hongeo is a bizarre South Korean dish with a pungent aroma that most people describe as a mix of dirty public toilet and wet laundry left untended for days.

Made from skate, a bottom-dwelling ray fish, Hongeo is considered by far South Korea’s smelliest food. It’s so stinky that many South Koreans wouldn’t come near it, let alone put in their mouths. However, its many fans can’t get enough of the ammonia fumes it emanates and swear that once you get used to it, it’s impossible to replace with anything else. But feasting on this stinky delicacy comes with a social cost, as the smell tends to linger in the mouth as well as on clothes. In fact, hongeo-specialized restaurants advise customers to seal their jackets in plastic bags before eating, and spray them with deodorant before leaving.

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