Keyboard lust: An official monitor in the online role-playing game Second Life told BBC News in April that he knows of spouses of game players who have actually paid money to online-game detectives to learn whether their mates are committing ''virtual adultery'' with other players' characters in the course of the game. (Second Life encourages players to create a character and live out a made-up existence, which can of course include having an affair with another player's made-up character.)

Breaking barriers: In this year's Maccabiah Games in July in Tel Aviv, historically open only to Jews and Israelis, the 84-kilogram weight class of Greco-Roman wrestling was won by Mohammad Babulfath, an Iranian-born Muslim who wrestles out of Sweden. Maccabiah authorities attribute their admission error to the inartfulness of their announcement on a wrestling Web site, phrased as an ''invitation'' to Maccabiah, which led Babulfath and two non-Jewish teammates to believe that they had been formally invited to compete. Once they showed up, Maccabiah officials decided to let them wrestle.

- Compiled