I’m not sure where to file this - odd stuff, bad stuff, or fun stuff (or maybe just stuff?), but twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents marry each other, not knowing they were related.

They were separated shortly after birth and adopted by different sets of parents, and they were never told they were twins. They found out they were related after they were married, at which point they were granted an annulment.

Although the marriage ended, I don’t think the jokes will.

• A man gets arrested after he reports the theft of his pot stash. Bummer.
• Not when pigs fly, but when cows fly.
• The oceans and rivers aren’t turning red, so it’s not quite the apocalypse, but things are going bananas, nonetheless.
• Halloween is over, but the loonies are still on the loose: A lip-biting, pillow-fighting (vampire?) lady gets arrested.

The Times Online (UK) had a great article yesterday…they pulled 20 of the wackiest prosecutions and lawsuits that they’ve come across from their case column over the years.

A sampling:

• A convicted murderer sues God for failing to keep him out of trouble (hmmm).
• A man sued a television company for making his wife fat.
• A magistrate that tried himself, convicted himself, fined himself, and…you’ll have to read the article to find out!

But before you head over there, my favorite (funniest):

In 2005, a Brazilian woman sued her partner for failing to give her orgasms. The 31-year old woman from Jundiai asserted in her case that her 38-year old partner routinely ended sexual intercourse after he reached an orgasm. After a promising start the action ended in something of an anticlimax for the claimant when her case was rejected.

The others one are just as weird and wacky, but I just thought that one was the funniest with its word play (maybe that’s all the woman needed, a little word play?). Check ‘em out.

Well, perhaps not…

But a hunter in Pennsylvania thinks that’s what his camera (with an automatic trigger) caught a picture of in Allegheny National Forest. He says he’s never seen anything like it, so he took the photo to the Bigfoot Research Organization (BRO, not to be confused with the less-popular and -respected Bigfoot Organization - “BO”) for their opinion. Of course, they think it’s Bigfoot!

“It appears to be a primate-like animal. In my opinion, it appears to be a juvenile Sasquatch,” said Paul Majeta of the bigfoot group.

Awesome! Finally, some evidence the big hairy guy exists!

But, alas, there are skeptics:

However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has a more conventional opinion. Agency spokesman Jerry Feaser said conservation officers routinely trap bears to be tagged and often see animals that look like the photos.

“There is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange,” Feaser told The Bradford Era.

Clearrly, a government conspiracy to keep the truth from the masses…

It seems like there’s been several cases of pending marriages gone bad in the news lately. Perhaps these folks are realizing that marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or is it just that their partners aren’t what the other party imagined?

Consider:

• Instead of walking down the aisle, this couple is going to court. The battle? A $48,800 3.23 carat engagement ring. Isn’t the bride supposed to give this back if the engagement is called off?
• This guy beat up his fiance and took her engagement ring, then fled. Police caught up with him and put the ring into evidence. Sounds like going to court is the better option.
• An ex-stripper was just convicted of her ex-fiance’s murder from 10 years ago. The woman’s other fiance was convicted of the murder earlier this year. Her husband, relieved that he has so far survived the marriage, stood by his wife as the conviction was read. Sweet.
• In another story that should warn you to be wary of your ex, a man admitting to killing his ex-girlfriend’s fiance. Sheesh.

But maybe all hope is not lost:

A Chinese man, 106, married a woman, age 81. That’s a 187 years of life, now rolled into one. Of course, it could be that their plan was to make their potential marriage as short as possible, without actually risking going to jail for murder. With age, comes widsom…

Well, what’s she look like?

I ran across this article, which is predicting we will start having sex with robots within 5 years, and marriage to robots by 2050. This article is funny and scary at the same time.

Funny

In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that’s quite likely. There are companies that already sell realistic sex dolls, “and it’s just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration,” he said…

That’s the robot I want. This is an untapped market!

On the question of bringing a robot into an existing relationship:

“But who knows, maybe some other relationships could welcome a robot. Instead of a woman saying, ‘Darling, not tonight, I have a headache,’ you could get ‘Darling, I have a headache, why not use your robot?’”

If the guy’s got his sex robot, and the girl has the robot that does the housework, who needs marriage? Or is it the guy that needs the robot that does all the housework, and the woman who needs a high-performance, piston-powered, robot sex machine? I’m confused. It sounds like I’m lucky (?) that I got married when I did, instead of waiting 50 years…

The best part of the article is when it suggests that people could marry robots when those people might otherwise have problems finding a parter - for example, when someone is “just plain ugly.” There’s some scientific theory for ya. I wonder if there will be an Ugliness scale, sorta like the Richter scale, to determine if someone is allowed to marry a robot? I can see it now: “I’m sorry, sir, you’re only a 1.0. Please find a real person.” And then someone else: “Whoah, you’re off the charts! Here’s our selection of 2.1 models. You’ll discover an array of features…”

Scary

I don’t even want to think about this:

For instance, robot sex could provide an outlet for criminal sexual urges. “If you have pedophiles and you let them use a robotic child, will that reduce the incidence of them abusing real children, or will it increase it?”

Whether you’re grossed out or intrigued by some of the issues this article raises, I definitely think this topic of human-machine interaction, and all the complications associated with it, is going to surface sooner or later. Technology will race along just slightly faster than our ability to deal with the questions it raises.

For example, what will happen to all the vibrator manufacturers when more sophisticated robots begin to replace them?

“There’s a real potential for intimacy here, where humans become psychologically and emotionally attached to these devices in ways we wouldn’t to a vibrator.”

On a completely unrelated note (or?):

• When Your Most Significant Other Is A Computer
• Virginia Tech Makes a Three Legged Robot