This is just too wierd but you can't make this stuff up.

An appeals court said a man can press a claim for emotional distress after learning a former lover had used his sperm to have a baby. But he can't claim theft, the ruling said, because the sperm were hers to keep.

The ruling Wednesday by the Illinois Appellate Court sends Dr. Richard O. Phillips' distress case back to trial court.

Phillips accuses Dr. Sharon Irons of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" after their affair six years ago, saying she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant.

He said he didn't find out about the child for nearly two years, when Irons filed a paternity lawsuit. DNA tests confirmed Phillips was the father, the court papers state.

Phillips was ordered to pay about $800 a month in child support, said Irons' attorney, Enrico Mirabelli.

The judges backed the lower court decision to dismiss the fraud and theft claims, agreeing with Irons that she didn't steal the sperm.

"She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift - an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."

No I don't suppose that any guys would demand to have their sperm returned to them after oral sex, but if they have read this story, then they just might demand that their inamorata" swallow or spit."

Irons' attorney also said "Imagine how a child feels when your father says he feels emotionally damaged by your birth." Well probably about half as bad as the child would feel knowing how his mother got pregnant. Especially later when he grows up and hears the old disparaging saying about where they best part of his fathers sperm went.

Apparently this Snopes.com legend that has been going around the internet turns out to be true. Pictured below is a female mako shark that was hooked at the annual shark-fishing derby called the "Yarmouth Shark Scramble." It was caught by Jamie Doucette of Wedgeport, Nova Scotia.

This Mako was hooked in the mouth, only fought slightly for 15 minutes, came up along side of the boat to have a look, long enough for one of the crew to put a rope around it tail!!! That's when the s**t hit the fan!!

The shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots. Just like in JAWS. The boat was taking on water, the Shark would jump completely out of the water at times. This went on for an hour before the Shark actually drowned. He weighed in at 1035 LBS.

I'll bet that the "Jaws" theme song went through Jamie Doucette's mind for a while after that episode.

March 12, 2008 Edit: Updated with apologies to photographer Carla Allen Transcontinental Media, who captured this excellent photo.

When I first saw the pictures of the "Gates" of New York's Central Park with the saffron fabric I was curious about what it was about. At first I didn't realize that it was Central Park. Then when I read that it was art and where it was I was slack-jawed.

Now I don't claim to be a connoisseur of art, or even close, but I know an eye sore when I see one. This definitely qualifies. At least no one paid for this work of (gasp) art by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In fact they probably should have been charged to inflict this eye sore on the people. Andrea Peyser agrees in her New York Post article agrees.

---

It's time to let the truth be known: "The Gates" — that manically promoted, ludicrously expensive sculpture project now infesting Central Park — is the artistic equivalent of a yard that's been strewn with stained toilet paper by juvenile delinquents on Halloween.

It is the defacement of beauty, not its creation — a fraud perpetrated on the people by no-talent hypemasters and their chief cheerleader in City Hall.

Please, make them go away!

Walking into the park yesterday, I was assaulted by thousands of what looked like shower curtains twisting in the wind. I had found "The Gates."

Like a sucker in a game of three-card monte, I'd noticed I was about to be taken for a fool — and I'd ignored them.

[...]

It's enough of a sin that "The Gates" overpowers Central Park's soaring, hypnotic beauty. But the color of these bed sheets, plunked down on metal frames every 12 feet throughout the park, is so atrocious that the project's creators ought to be charged with assault.

---

Fortunately for Andrea and the rest of New York it is only temporary. They ae sceduled to be up from Febuary 12th through the end of the month (16 days) and then everything comes down and is recycled. A fitting end at least.

Curious about other work by the artists and wanting to see if it was just my taste I did a google and found more on the artists. They mostly wrap things (buildings, bridges, coastlines etc) or surround things like islands. None of it was to my taste and I am willing to let anyone else appriciate art as they see fit. Far be it from me to insult someones sensibilities because they differe from my own.

The worse display I saw was some wrapped trees (left) that looked horrible. The least displeasing was too tough a call, so here is a link of some of the other work so you can judge for yourself.

Does this make sense to anyone?

An unnamed Wisconsin county is willing to consider taking Billy Lee Morford, the convicted sex offender who authorities have been trying to move out of a home in northwest Milwaukee for more than 1 ½ years.

The only hint McCulloch gave was that the county already has one supervised habitual sexual offender living there, and that any viable residence for Morford would have to be within 50 miles of a hospital where he could undergo his required dialysis.

I realize the guy has to live somewhere, but in my opinion, jail is a good place for habitual sex offenders to live. And why in the world would any county ask for, not one but two?

This is in my state so I am concerned about what county has this wierd habit of collecting sex offenders.

The French used grapes, Russians fermented potatoes, Koreans put ginseng in their drink and Mexicans distilled cactus plants to make fiery tequila.
Now China is introducing fish wine.

Sun Keman, an entrepreneur in the northeastern port city of Dalian, has formed the Dalian Fisherman's Song Maritime Biological Brewery, with a plan to use his background in the fishing industry to make fish into wine.

"Different from China's thousands of years of brewing, the brewery will clean, boil, and ferment fish for making wine," the official Xinhua news agency reported.