An Indian man recently made national news headlines after filing a police complaint against his own father, accusing him of seducing his wife and eventually eloping with her.

They say all is fair in love and war, and that love is blind, but there is also such a thing as forbidden love. Pawan Vairagi, a worker from India’s Rajasthan state, is accusing his own father of falling in love with his wife and luring her away from him. Vairagi, who hails from a village called Silor, told authorities that he had been spending a lot of time away from his family because of work, which allegedly gave his father the opportunity to spend more time with his wife and seduce her. The pair recently eloped, leaving Pawan’s six-month-old daughter behind.

Read More »

The Bodi tribe of southern Ethiopia holds a yearly festival in which the man with the biggest belly is honored and celebrated. To prepare for this big event, the men go on a grueling six-month fattening journey.

Obesity and big bellies are usually seen as banes of modern life that not only have a negative impact on health, but are also considered generally inesthetic. However, in a remote area of Omo Valley, southern Ethiopia, big bellies in men are considered impressive, even attractive. The Bodi, a tribe of agriculturists and cattle herders, celebrate their love of big bellies during a yearly festival called Ka’el, in which the man with the biggest belly is crowned ‘fat man of the year’ and earns the respect of the entire tribe for life. But in order to earn this honor, the men must go on a fattening diet of cow’s milk or yogurt, raw blood, and honey for several months before the festival.

Read More »

The Japanese town of Tsuruta is famous for hosting a unique annual competition – a popular game of tug of war in which bald men attach suction cups to their heads and pull in opposite directions.

The Covid-19 pandemic threw a wrench in all aspects of Japanese society, but it’s fair to say that social gatherings and events were among the most impacted. Tsuruta, a town in Japan’s Aomori Prefecture, recently held its annual “Suction Cup Tug-of-War” tournament for the first time in three years, and it was just as fun as people remembered. Thought up by the Tsuruta Hagemasu Association as a way of shedding a positive light on baldness, suction cup tug-of-war is a fun game in which two people sitting opposite from each other attach suction cups connected through a string to their heads and pull. The person whose suction cup detaches first loses.

Read More »

They say real life is stranger than fiction and this bizarre Indian love square proves it. After his wife eloped with another man, a scorned husband decided to marry the lover’s wife.

Neeraj and Rubi Devi, both from India’s Bihar state, tied the knot in 2009 and had four children together. At one point, Neeraj learned that his wife was having an affair with another man, named Mukesh, and despite his attempts to have Rubi cut ties with her lover, she ended up eloping with Mukesh last year and later marrying him. Neeraj turned to the elders in his Khagaria District village to hold a ‘panchayat’ (special assembly) and resolve the matter, but Mukesh and Rubi declined to attempt and they have been on the run ever since. But the story doesn’t end here…

Read More »

The Sandhills of North Carolina is said to be the only place in the world where bees produce purple honey, an iridescent concoction that looks more like alien goo than the sweet nectar we know and love.

From the expensive yet bitter Corbezzolo Honey to the meat honey produced by vulture bees, we’ve featured some unusual types of honey here on Oddity Central over the years. However, none of them are as visually striking as the purple honey produced in North Carolina. It sounds like the stuff of legends, something to lure honey and beekeeping aficionados from around the world, but this extremely rare liquid is quite real. Purple honey is said to be sweeter than the amber kind and apparently has some subtle fruit notes as well.

Read More »

Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the ‘death cap’ mushroom, has always fascinated scientists both because of its deadly amatoxins and the way it manages to conquer new lands in record time.

The death cap originated in Europe where it grows by burrowing into the roots of European Oak trees and forming a symbiotic relationship with them, but it has somehow managed to colonize every single continent except Antarctica. This impressive feat has been puzzling scientists for years, because of how fast the process seemed to be. Most likely introduced in California sometime in the 19th century, by hitching a ride with soil-potted seedlings from Europe, the poisonous mushroom quickly spread across the US state, from the Bay Area further up the coast, eventually becoming more abundant than in its native Europe. After decades of research, scientists now know how the rapid conquest happened.

Read More »

The Lingcod, a fish native to the North American west coast, usually has brown-red or even greyish skin and white flesh, but about 1 in 5 specimens are actually neon blue both inside and out, and no one really knows why.

Popular both among recreational fishermen and seafood lovers for its delicious meat, the lingcod is a bottom-dwelling fish that can grow up to a size of 152 centimeters. It’s a voracious predator that feeds on virtually anything that moves and fits into its large mouth and has only a couple of species of seals and human fishermen to worry about. The Lingcod is sometimes referred to as ‘smurf cod’ due to the fact that about 20 percent of specimens have neon blue flesh that looks either alien or affected by nuclear radiation. Interestingly, while scientists have theories about this bizarre coloration, we have yet to establish why some lingcod have blue flesh.

Read More »

A Chinese man who carried out a gas station robbery in 2009 and walked away with 156 yuan ($22.50) spent the last 14 years of his life hiding from the cops in a remote mountain cave.

Liu Moufu, from a village in  Enshi City, China’s Hubei province, was in his mid-30s when he took part in a gas station robbery along with his brother-in-law and another accomplice. They ended up with 156 yuan ($22.50) between them, 60 of which they quickly spent on some food and fireworks, which left them with just 32 yuan ($4.6) each. The three men parted ways, but it wasn’t long before police found Liu’s accomplices and arrested them. The man realized it was only a matter of time before authorities showed up at his doorstep, so he decided to go into hiding rather than risk prison time. Little did he know he would spend the next 14 years in a prison of his own making…

Read More »

A Chinese man ended up taking his daughter to court after she refused to neglect her duty as a university student in order to come home and take care of him following a car accident.

The man, surnamed Zhang, allegedly started calling and messaging his daughter after being involved in a car accident in his home city of Puyang, China’s Henan province. After repeatedly trying and failing to convince the young college student to come home and care for him, the man was shocked to find that his daughter had blocked his phone number. In a fit of rage, he filed a complaint with a local family court, asking her for 1,500 yuan ($215) in monthly alimony. Article 26 of the Chinese Civil Code stipulates that “adult children have the obligation to support and protect their parents”.

Read More »

For decades, the mummified remains of a creature resembling a small mermaid have been worshipped at a temple in Asakuchi, Japan, but scientists have long suspected that the mermaid mummy was actually man-made.

Allegedly caught in the Pacific Ocean, off the island of Shikoku, between 1736 and 1741, the famous mermaid mummy has been kept on display at the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi for over 40 years, attracting visitors convinced that the remains would bring them good luck. It is said that these tiny supernatural creatures were immortal and that whoever consumed their flesh would also enjoy eternal life. Somehow, no one actually tried, but a team of scientists did request a more thorough examination in order to confirm the many legends around the artifact.

Read More »

Remote Kiss, a bizarre phone accessory that recently hit the Chinese market, allegedly allows users to experience the intimacy of kissing even when they are thousands of miles apart.

Advertised as a way to allow long-distance couples to experience physical intimacy, Remote Kiss relies on pressure sensors, actuators, and soft silicone to recreate the user’s kisses anywhere in the world, as long as the recipient also has a Remote Kiss and an internet connection. According to some sources, the weird gadget can even detect and replicate the temperature of a user’s lips, as well as the sounds of someone’s kiss. Remote Kiss has been available on Chinese online marketplace Taobao for some time now, but it only recently went viral after people started sharing photos of the product on social media.

Read More »

Danish startup Autofuel has developed a robotic arm capable of refueling a variety of vehicles at gas stations without any kind of human assistance.

A Neste fuel station in Finland is currently the only place in the world where you can have your car refueled by a robot. It’s the pilot site chosen by Autofuel to test its futuristic refueling system – a robotic arm that can locate a car’s fuel tank door, select the right type of fuel, and operate the pump without any kind of human assistance. The third-generation Autofuel robotic arm has been in testing for over a year, and the Danish company is planning to start public testing later this year. Although it may be a while before refueling robots become mainstream, Autofuel believes they will become invaluable when truly autonomous vehicles finally hit the roads.

  Read More »

A young Indian mother locked herself up with her child in an apartment for three years because she was convinced the boy would die of Covid-19 as soon as he set foot outside the home.

In what can only be described as an extreme case of Covid-19 paranoia, a 36-year-old woman from Gurugram cut herself and her son from the outside world when the pandemic started. The woman, likely shocked by the wave of coronavirus infections and Covid-19-related deaths that swept India in 2020, somehow got it in her head that cutting off all contact with the outside world was the only way to protect her son, who was 7 years old at the time. The woman’s husband was also forced to stay indoors with them at all times, but when he started going out to work after lockdown restrictions ended he was forbidden from coming back. Sick of being cut off from his family for years, he finally sought help from the police last week.

Read More »

Swedish company Mo’cycle recently announced the world’s first airbag jeans which offer impact protection for motorcyclists’ lower body in case of accidents.

Inflatable accessories that protect motorcyclists in case of accidents are nothing new. We’ve seen helmets with inflatable add-ons that act as a cushion, and backpack-like strap-ons designed to protect the wearer’s back from impact, but Swedish startup Mo’cycle claims to have created the world’s first airbag jeans. Made out of Armalith, a special fabric that looks and feels like actual denim, but is actually water-repellent and abrasion-resistant, the inflatable jeans come with built-in airbags that get triggered during motorcycle accidents to protect the rider’s lower body.

Read More »

SpoGomi, a combination of ‘sport’ and ‘gomi’ (Japanese for rubbish) is a popular competition in which teams of 3-5 people try to pick up the most trash of the highest quality in a set period of time.

Japan recently announced that it would host the first SpoGomi World Cup in November of 2023, with teams from all over the world scouring the streets of Tokyo in search of trash to pick up. Each team of three players will have 60 minutes to gather the most trash from a designated area while trying to sort it correctly into color-coded bags for each type (burnable waste, recyclable plastic, metal cans, etc.). When the time is up, the trash will be weighted and checked for proper sorting, and the team with the most trash wins. In case of a tie, the winner is determined by the quality of the trash, with points awarded by type (cigarette butts win the most points).

Read More »