An Indonesian man loves his workplace so much that he has named his son after it. His 5-month-old boy’s name is Statistical Information Communication Office…

Even before he got married, Samet Wahyudi knew that if he ever had a son, he wanted to name him after the department he worked in as a civil servant. He made that very clear to his fiancé before they got married, and she accepted his condition. Their first child was a girl, so Samet agreed on a more conventional name for her, but when his wife, Linda, gave birth to their second child, a boy, in December of last year, he knew exactly what his name would be – Statistical Information Communication Office.

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A 27-year-old Russian man who has been imploring viewers to vote him out of a Chinese boy band reality show for months, has finally got his wish, but not before making it all the way to the final.

Vladislav Ivanov, a translator and part-time model from Vladivostok, Russia, is finally free after two grueling months. Earlier this year, the 27-year-old, who speaks fluent Chinese, got a gig to support to Japanese contestants on a Chinese reality-show that would culminate in the forming of a new boy band. Ivanov agreed, but upon arriving on the tropical island where the show was to be filmed, his good looks kept getting him confused with the contestants. The show’s director noticed this, and knowing that he could speak Chinese, persuaded him to participate in the reality-show, and “live in a new way”. It turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

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They say finding yourself in the right spot, at the right time, is the key to success, and this Nigerian homeless man who got the opportunity of a lifetime while sleeping under a bridge is the perfect example.

You could say it was fate that Ali Olakunmi, a young Yoruba man from Nigeria’s Osun State, found himself sleeping under the same bridge that a creative director had chosen as the backdrop for a fashion shoot. As a homeless man in Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos, he didn’t really have any better options, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Afolabi (AL), the creative director we mentioned above, was waiting under the same bridge for a male model that was running late, and he happened to notice this young man who seemed to have all the features he was looking for in a model, so he approached him about putting on some clothes and posing for some pictures. And that’s how Ali the homeless became Ali the fashion model.

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A Filipino man who had been experiencing sharp chest pains in cold weather, learned that he had a four-inch-long knife blade lodged in his chest after doing a routine X-ray.

25-year-old Kent Ryan Tomao was more than a bit confused when doctors told him that he had an an “object resembling a knife” stuck in his chest, very close to one of his lungs. He had undergone an X-ray exam required to apply for a mining job in Agusan del Sur, and never imagined there was anything wrong with him. He told doctors in Kidapawan City that he had sometimes experienced stabbing pains in his chest on unusually cold days, but didn’t think too much of them. He certainly didn’t think there was a knife blade in his chest.

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A California couple who thought they were buying their dream home, ended up in a real-life nightmare after the old owner refused to move and is still living there over a year since the transaction.

On January 31, 2020, Tracie and Myles Albert put down money on a beautiful four-bedroom home in Riverside, California, but over a year since, they are still unable to move in, because the former owner refuses to leave. The man collected the asking price of $560,000, but after the contract was signed, he refused to turn over the keys and move out. Although the Alberts have tried appealing to the authorities, a California moratorium prevents evictions during the Covid-19 epidemic, so there’s nothing anyone can do.

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For years, Aprilia Santini Manganang and the Indonesian Women’s Volleyball Association had been fighting off accusations that she was actually a man, but this year, Manganang was finally confirmed to actually be male.

A member of Indonesia’s national women’s volleyball team, Aprilia Manganang also played in several local club teams in Indonesia, as well as in Thailand. She led the Jakarta Electric PLN women’s team to become the champion of the Proliga in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2019, she became champion again with the Jakarta PGN Popsivo Polwan team, before transferring to the Generali Supreme Chonburi-E Tech team in the Thai Volleyball League and winning the championship that same year. Manganang won multiple Most Valuable Player awards in her career, and helped the Indonesian national team win the bronze and silver medals at different editions of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA). But her amazing achievements were always put into question, because of haw she looked.

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Japanese television recently featured the unusual story of a young couple who, despite being married for two years, still go Dutch about everything from expenses to house chores.

39-year-old Aiko and her 42-year-old husband, Kazuki, met at a video-game production company, and after going out on a few dates, they quickly realized that they had very different interests. That didn’t mean they were incompatible, though, so they decided to continue their relationship, while remaining as independent as possible. And even though they tied the knot very early into their relationship, they continued to go Dutch, and have done so to this day. Their unusual arrangement recently attracted the attention of a popular TV show in Japan, where they revealed exactly how they make it work.

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It’s been 10 years since Yasuo Takamatsu lost his wife Yuko when a devastating tsunami hit the town of Onagawa, in Miyagi prefecture, but he continues to search for her every week.

On the day that Yuko disappeared, in 2011, Yasuo Takamatsu received one last text message from her. It read “Are you ok? I want to go home.” He has been looking for her ever since, and doesn’t plant to stop until he finds her or he stops drawing breath. In the beginning, the grieving husband searched for Yuko on land, starting at the bank where she was last seen, then along the beaches of Onagawa, in nearby forests and mountains. Two years after her disappearance, Yasuo contacted the local dive shop asking for diving lessons, so he could start searching for her in the sea. He has been going on weekly dives for the past seven and a half years, racking up almost 500 underwater searches.

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In a first-of-its-kind case in the UK, a 41-year-old unemployed Oxford graduate has taken his parents to court in a bizarre attempt to make them support him financially for life.

Despite being a trained lawyer and having a degree from the prestigious Oxford University, 41-year-old Faiz Siddiqui claims that he is completely dependent on his Dubai-based mother and father. In court filings obtained by the press, Siddiqui describes himself as a “vulnerable” grown-up child due to health issues, and insists that being cut-off by his wealthy parents would be a violation of his human rights.

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Minato-san, a 30-year-old male office worker and cosplay enthusiast, recently shocked Japanese social media with his transformation into an anime-inspired heroine.

It’s no secret that great cosplayers can alter their physical appearance to the extreme, but in some cases the change is downright scary. Take the case of Minato, a 30-year-old Japanese man who likes to cosplay as an anime girl, and is so good at it that it’s impossible to guess his gender by looking at him. With a clever use of makeup, modern accessories like prosthetic breasts, and a bit of digital manipulation, Minato-san can transform into a whole new person that often leaves the viewer confused.

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A 26-year-old Vietnamese man claims to have radically changed his appearance with the help of plastic surgery, after being laughed at during a job interview, because of his looks.

TikTok user Đỗ Quyền has been getting a lot of attention on Asian social media, after posting photos of what he claims is his former self before undergoing nine plastic surgery procedures. Looking at the difference in appearance, it’s easy why people are shocked; the guy looks like a completely different person, from the shape of his face, to his eyes and nose. He claims that he turned to plastic surgery after trying to get a job and being laughed at by the interviewer, because of his unattractive looks.

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A 32-year-old man nicknamed “Mr. McDonald’s” has been eating at the world’s most popular fast food chain every other day for the past two decades, and has invested a small fortune in McDonald’s-related clothes and memorabilia.

David Geyer, a gardener from Bergheim, Germany, first ate at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in 1997, and the moment he took a bite of that very first burger, he knew that the iconic fast food brand would become a part of his life forever. He came back for more every chance he got, but he realized just how passionate he was about McDonald’s when he got his first job and started spending more time at the local McD’s than he did at his mother’s dining table. His love for the fast food chain has since transcended food, as he has since gotten permanent McDonald’s tattoos and invested in burger-themed clothing and memorabilia as well.

In a landmark divorce ruling, a Chinese court ordered a man to pay thousands of dollars to his ex-wife, as compensation for housework performed during their five-year marriage.

According to court papers, the man, identified only as Chen, filed from divorce from his wife, Wang, last year, after a five-year marriage. Although reluctant to grant him the divorce at first, the woman later requested that he compensate her for all the work she did as a full-time housewife during their marriage, adding that he had not participated in raising their child and “barely cared about or participated in any kind of domestic chores”. Recently, a Beijing family court ruled in the woman’s favor, sparking a heated debate in China.

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Bruna Barbie, a Brazilian influencer whose love for everything pink has drawn comparisons to the world’s most popular doll, makes a living by showcasing her unique lifestyle on social media.

Born Bruna Carolina Peres, the Brazilian Barbie hails from the southern state if Paraná and claims that she has been fascinated with pink for as long as she can remember. In fact, it all started with pink, she didn’t become a Barbie fan until later on in life. In her teenage years she decided to showcase her love for pink by dressing only in that color, and was offered compare to Reese Whitherspoon’s character from the movie ‘Legally Blonde”, by her colleagues. Then, at one point, people started calling her Barbie, and she just rolled with it, adopting the persona of a real-life Barbie.

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Popular Chinese film actress Gao Liu recently posted photos of her damaged nose on social media, as a warning about the possible dangers of plastic surgery done wrong.

Liu, a young singer and actress who has starred in multiple films and TV programs and was considered an up-and-coming star in China, had gone off the radar in recent months, which led many to speculate about her well-being. Earlier this month, the actress took to her Weibo account to explain that her unexpected absence had been caused by a botched nose job which had resulted in part of her nose tissue actually dying and falling off. Gao Liu also shared photos of her “plastic surgery nightmare“, which sparked an online debate about cosmetic surgery, which has become very popular in China in recent years.

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