They both like men

Skyler and Amanda Sorensen, the couple that doesn't care what others think, so long as their arrangement works for them. Pics/@_skyler_austin_, Twitter

Skyler Sorensen and his wife Amanda have an unusual marriage. He is gay and she is straight. They are both attracted to men, but Skyler claims that being gay hasn't gotten in the way of their married life - or their sex life.

"That sexual attraction came from, I mean, trial-and-error and a lot of practice," he told the New York Post. Skyler thinks "demisexual" - someone who develops a sexual attraction for a person after forming an emotional bond with them - may be a more fitting label for him. "I don't know if we both fully understand how and why it works, but it definitely does," he said of their sex life.

The pair of 25-year-olds is Mormon. They believe that a marriage should only take place between a man and woman. They also believe that such a "celestial marriage" will lead to heavenly salvation. As a result, they sought to make their union work, despite their mismatched desires. "We have our struggles of course, like every marriage, but me being gay hasn't been…the biggest issue in our marriage," he said. "It's been communication, normal marriage things," he added.

"Do I wish that Skyler wasn't gay? Yeah, sometimes. But I wouldn't want to be with anyone else other than him," admitted Amanda. Their marriage is one-of-a-kind, but the Internet thinks otherwise. A tweet containing a screenshot from Skyler's account went viral recently. Thousands of shocked Twitterati expressed their disbelief and the tweet garnered 60,000 likes.

Bridging the gap

A Chinese highway had to be built around a tiny home because its adamant owner refused to move

Pic/South China Morning Post

A recently built highway in the Chinese city of Guangzhou is a highway like no other. Footage released by the Chinese media shows a small house tightly squeezed between the lanes of the Haizhuyong Bridge. The property is located right in the middle of a four-lane road bridge. It has become somewhat of a local attraction due to its bizarre location and the stubbornness of its owner, identified only as Ms Liang.

She told reporters that the government failed to provide her with a satisfactory replacement. Apparently, she was offered a flat located near a morgue, instead of her one-storied house. She rejected the government's offer. She is the only person, out of a total of 47 homeowners and seven firms who still lives there. The others caved in and accepted the government's offers. All of them moved away by September 2019. "You think this environment is poor, but I feel it's quiet, liberating, pleasant and comfortable," she said.

Please 'bear' with me

Pic/Caters News Agency

A family in Maryland got to share a meal with a bear after he decided to join their picnic. A 30-second clip released by Caters News Agency shows the bear helping himself to whatever was on their picnic table, while sitting just inches away from them. "We were all told to not make sudden movements," said Kaitlyn Nesbit, one of the family members. Nesbit said that the people who own the property told her that the bear is a harmless regular at the picnic spot.

Company offers staff Rs 22K for pet adoption

A Texas insurance firm is giving its animal-loving employees an incredible new benefit - a massive stipend to adopt a new pet. The Zebra, which bills itself as the "nation's leading insurance comparison site," will cover "$300 [R22,000 approx] annually for employees welcoming a new cat or dog into their family," per the site.

Circus sells lion poop to tide over pandemic

Having been forbidden from performing during the pandemic, the Krone Circus in Munich, Germany, has come up with a stinky, yet profitable, business idea of selling jars of poop from their 26 lions and tigers, to tide over the crisis. The jars are being sold for $6 each, and they've also set up a small shop near their headquarters.

Did Raphael really give himself a nose job?

Pic/University of Rome Tor Vergata

Raphael, the 15th-century Italian-born master painter, who is famous for his work on St Peter's Basilica and his lifelike figure drawings, may have changed the shape of his nose in self-portraits, claim scientists at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. The Italian scientists believe the painter took some liberties with his own profile.

And Barbie said 'Yes'

For many photographers, a pre-wedding shoot involves months of planning. But when the Coronavirus started to spread globally, plans to execute picturesque shoots with couples came to a grinding halt. Aditya Mahagaonkar, who runs WhatKnot Photographers, shot a couple for whom quarantine rules didn't apply. His series, Love-Locked, stars Barbie and Ken. Pics/Whatknot Photographers

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