Kinda Funny

I thought this, from Mark Elrod's Lame-O Weblog, was cute:

Three couples - one elderly, one middle-aged and one newlywed - wanted to join the local church. The pastor told them that the church had a special requirement for new parishioners. He said that each couple had to abstain from having sex for two weeks as a sign of their commitment to the Lord's work. They all agreed and returned to the pastor's office at the end of two weeks. The pastor went to the elderly couple and asked, "Were you able to abstain from sex for the two weeks?" The old man replied, "No problem at all, Father." "Congratulations! Welcome to the church!" said the pastor. The pastor went to the middle-aged couple and asked, "Well, were you able to abstain from sex for the two weeks?" The middle-aged man replied, "The first week was not too bad. The second week I had to sleep on the couch for a couple of nights, but, yep, we made it." "Congratulations! Welcome to the church," said the pastor. The pastor then went to the young couple and asked, "Well, were you able to abstain from sex for two weeks?" "No Pastor, we were not able to go without sex for the two weeks," the young man replied sadly. "What happened?" inquired the pastor. "Well, the other night, my wife was reaching for a can of coffee on the top shelf and dropped it," said the young man. "When she bent over to pick it up, I was overcome with lust and we had sex right there on the floor." "You understand, of course, this means you will not be welcome in our church," stated the pastor. "That's okay," said the young man. "We're not welcome at the Wal-Mart anymore either."

From a BBCNews article of the same title from a few weeks back:

Robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans, according to a study by the British government. If granted, countries would be obliged to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-healthcare", the report says.

The paper says a "monumental shift" could occur if robots develop to the point where they can reproduce, improve themselves or develop artificial intelligence. The research suggests that at some point in the next 20 to 50 years robots could be granted rights. If this happened, the report says, the robots would have certain responsibilities such as voting, the obligation to pay taxes, and perhaps serving compulsory military service. Conversely, society would also have a duty of care to their new digital citizens, the report says. It also warns that the rise of robots could put a strain on resources and the environment.

So, when the day comes that a robot is indistinguishable from human...will a distinction be made between human/human adultery/fornication and human/robot adultery/fornication? What would Asimov say?

Via Dvorak Uncensored, from an article of the same title from BBC News:

Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests. The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport. Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job.

Experts have long known that physical exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, probably through hormonal and metabolic changes.

The latest study looked at both pre- and post-menopausal women and a range of activities, including work, leisure and housework. All forms of physical activity combined reduced the breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women, but had no obvious effect in pre-menopausal women.

Out of all of the activities, only housework significantly reduced the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal women getting the disease. Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30% among the pre-menopausal women and 20% among the post-menopausal women.

Men, I guess this justifies our lack of interest in housework since breast cancer is about 100 times less likely for us.

Remember when George W. recently admitted that we aren't winning in Iraq...but we aren't losing either? Well, this one is even richer. Via The Huffington Post and TPMmuckraker, homeland security advisor Fran Townsend on CNN responded to the characterization of the fact that Osama hasn't been brought to justice as a failure:

Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.

From the current issue of The Week Magazine:

Belgium - Last week, the French-language television station RTBF played a hoax on its viewers, and they are not amused. The station interrupted its broadcast with the news that Flanders, the Flemish-speaking part of the country, had declared independence. A shaken anchor said the king had fled. "Correspondents" stood outside Flemish government buildings interviewing grave-faced politicians. The show was convincing. French-speaking viewers wept by the thousands at the collapse of their country, and foreign embassies began phoning Brussels. The broadcast went on for many minutes before RTBF displayed a message confessing that the news was fake, a "dramatization" intended to provoke debate. The country erupted in fury. Parliament has opened an inquiry and threatened RTBF with everything from fines to outright closure.