Odd News
103-year-old man marries for third time ‘to have more children’
A 103-year-old Iraqi man with 15 children and hundreds of grandchildren has married for a third time and says he hopes his new wife will give him even more children.
Hajji Mukheilif Farhoud Al-Mansouri, who is from southern province of Al-Diwaniyah and was born in 1919, last week married a 37-year-old woman in the Somar area, 180 kilometres from Baghdad.
One of Al-Mansouri’s sons, Abdul Salam, told Rudaw Media Network that after his mother died 23 years ago, his father remarried but the second wife left and returned to her family this year.
Al-Mansouri waited for few months to see whether she would return, according to media reports. When she did not, he asked his children to find him a third wife “capable of giving birth to more children.”
Abdul Salam said: “Our choice was a nice woman, born in 1985. They got engaged and then a henna party was held, followed by a wedding that was attended by the sons and grandchildren.”
Al-Mansouri told Rudaw that his wife was young and willing to have more babies. He said he did not want anything from his children and just “prayed for God to bless them and to keep him company.”
Al-Mansouri is a novice in the marriage and children stakes compared with his eldest son, Kadhem, 72, who has 16 daughters and 17 sons from nine marriages, and currently has four wives.
The Rudaw report quoted Kadhem as saying that the members of his family had “always honoured life and believe they should not be afraid to marry and have more children.” –arabnews.com
Odd News
NASA Astronaut shows how he wears pants in Space: ‘two legs at a time’
Astronauts have a unique way of getting dressed in space. In a fascinating video posted on February 21, NASA chemical engineer, Don Pettit, demonstrated how he puts on his pants aboard the International Space Station. Instead of the traditional one-leg-at-a-time approach, Mr Pettit descended into his floating trousers, essentially jumping into them with both legs at once.
He simply captioned the video, “Two legs at a time.”
The lighthearted video delighted viewers, prompting a flurry of comments and reactions from users who enjoyed the humorous glimpse into life in space. One user wrote, “I thought you were going to land right in them at first. Haha. That might be fun to try.”
Another joked, “This is the real content that I needed! I attempted to recreate this on Earth and well.it didn’t go well.”
A third said, “Missed opportunity to not have the theme from Space Odyssey 2001 playing for this.” A fourth added, “Such a pro! Well done.”
Odd News
Company threatens to fire employees …..if they don’t get married and have children
A company based in China’s Shandong province caught the attention of government officials after it threatened to fire its single and divorced employees if they remained single by the end of September.
According to a report in South China Morning Post, Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group Co. Ltd., issued a notice to its 1,200-odd employees, emphasising that they work well and establish families.
The notice required single employees aged 28-58, including those divorced, to get married and settle down by the end of September this year. Those who do not by the end of March need to write a self-criticism letter. If they do not get married by the end of June, the company will conduct an “evaluation” of them. If they are still single by the end of September, they will be fired.
The company said the move was intended to promote the spirit and cultural values of “diligence, kindness, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness”.
As the news went viral, Chinese social media users slammed the decision, stating the company was violating several laws.
“Corporate rules should not override laws or social morals,” one user commented, while others pointed out that the Chinese marriage law guarantees freedom of marriage.
“This crazy company should mind its own business and stay away from the personal lives of employees.”
