Dating service uses smell to match couples
A startup Massachusetts dating service has the usual questionnaires about likes and dislikes, but bases compatibility specifically on how one person smells to another (straights and gays accommodated). Eric Holzle’s ScientificMatch.com tests each person’s “major histocompatibility complex” (MHC) genes, the science behind which dictates how one person will translate the scent of another (with similar-processing people less compatible).
In one famous study, women preferred the smell of T-shirts from men whose MHC was the most different from their own. Holzle predicts a higher success rate than for ordinary dating agencies, but at a fee of $1,995 per client.
The Continuing Crisis
In December, the city of Bangalore, India, staged its fifth annual marathon, with an elite group of runners that officials thought would bring the city recognition in the world racing community, but problems occurred, the least of which were the city’s ubiquitous potholes and pollution. At about the 20 km mark, the leaders were chased down the street by barking dogs snapping at their heels. Twice during the race, runners were forced to stop and take breaks because impatient motorists were disregarding traffic controls to reclaim their roads.
‘ Egypt’s competitive spirit, combined with a recent surge in piety as some in the Middle East strengthen their commitment to Islam, have led many men to suddenly sport dark calluses on their foreheads (“raisins”) as a signal of perhaps-overenthusiastic daily praying. The five prayers require, in all, 34 contacts with the ground (of forehead and nose), and additional personal prayers add to the total, according to a December New York Times dispatch from Cairo. Rumors persist that some men use sandpaper to darken the calluses to appear even more pious.
‘ A neighborhood yard sale in Cocoa, Fla., in December offering children’s furniture and toys took place at a home at which two registered sex offenders reside with their mother (though it was unclear where the items came from). A probation officer checked periodically to see that the men did not venture outside, where some unsuspecting adults, and their children, browsed the inventory.
Great Moments in Maturity
Douglas Hoffman, 61, was sentenced in January to as much as five years in prison for staging a small-scale terror campaign among his neighbors in Henderson, Nev., to mask his own vandalism in destroying over 500 trees to get a better view of the Las Vegas Strip. At first, according to prosecutors, Hoffman cut down just the trees that affected his own view, but to divert attention, he cut down others in the subdivision and then sent threatening notes suggesting that an extremist militia would continue to attack their property, finally promising “chemical, biological and nuclear mass destruction.”
‘ John Hayes, 46, a Marietta, Ga., middle school coach, was arrested in December and charged as the person who drove a group of his students around at night so they could vandalize various Christmas yard decorations, in one case, leaving reindeer entangled in ‘sexual positions.’ A neighbor whose display was wrecked pursued Hayes’ truck, caught up to him, and asked, “Are you crazy?” Hayes responded, allegedly, “It’s just a bit of fun.”
The District of Calamity
(1) Washington, D.C., firefighter Gerald Burton faced suspension in December for disobeying a direct order by fighting a blaze he had come across while driving his fire truck to a training class. A supervisor had ordered him on to the class, but Burton and his partner put out the fire (limiting damage to $150,000), along with the dispatched crew, which arrived shortly after Burton.
(2) In December, as the director of the District of Columbia’s Youth Rehabilitation Services spoke before the City Council on the successes of his special unit tracking down escapees, one on-the-run youth watched from the audience a few feet away, unknown to the director, according to a Washington Post report.
Another 19-year-old ran away in September and was unaccounted for because a female YRS officer, unknown to her superiors, had subsequently married him and was keeping him at their home, according to the Post.
Weirdo Americans
Authorities in Valentine, Neb., have been on the lookout since November for the vandal who has approached several storefronts at night and, apparently with Vaseline smeared over his nude body, pressed himself against windows and doors. A radio station called the person “the buttcheek bandit” (although some speculate there may also be a copycat). Asked Valentine police chief Ben McBride, “Who in their right mind would do something like that?”
Which One Is the Brake?
Elderly drivers’ recent lapses of concentration, confusing the brake pedal with the gas: A Varnell, Ga., woman, 81, drove through the front office of an insurance agency (August).
A Wausau, Wis., man, 80, crashed through a wall of a Burger King (September) and then got out and ordered breakfast.
A woman, 76, drove through the front entrance of Massachusetts’s Brockton Hospital (October), killing the chief of radiation oncology and a receptionist.
A Coral Springs, Fla., man, 71, drove through a back yard, went airborne over a swimming pool, and crashed into the house (October).
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