When it's right to be wrong
"New research confirms that some men often believe women are interested when they are not," says Psych Central. "However, the study posits that the men who get it wrong are actually the ones that evolution favours. In the study, Williams College psychologist Dr. Carin Perilloux and her colleagues examine gender differences through speed dating. … 'There are two ways you can make an error as a man,' said Perilloux. 'Either you think, 'Oh, wow, that woman's really interested in me – and it turns out she's not. In this case, there's some cost to that,' such as embarrassment or a blow to your reputation. The other error: 'She's interested and he totally misses out. He misses out on a mating opportunity. That's a huge cost in terms of reproductive success.' Researchers theorize that the kind of guy who went for it, even at the risk of being rebuffed, scored more often – and passed on his over-perceiving tendency to his genetic heirs."
Don't forget your homework
A 12-year-old boy in upstate New York may be wishing that his dog had eaten his homework, says Associated Press. The owner of an auction house in Liberty, N.Y., said he arrived at his business Sunday morning and discovered that a window had been removed and jewellery, cellphones, video games and other items had been stolen. Police say homework with the suspect's name on it was found in the woods behind the auction house. The youth has been charged with burglary.
Seals on the move
– "A young seal pup which was discovered among a field of Orkney sheep after the recent storms [that]battered Scotland is being nursed back to health," says BBC News. "The seal was found some distance away from the shore in Holm, on the east coast of the Orkney mainland, last week. Christened Snowy, she is now said to be making good progress at Orkney Seal Rescue."
– "A wandering baby fur seal," says The New Zealand Herald, "wriggled through the cat-door of a Bay of Plenty house – and made himself at home on the couch. A stunned Annette Swoffer thought she must have been hallucinating when she found the young pup hanging out with her cats in her kitchen on Sunday night. The seal had made its way from the Welcome Bay waterfront, through the suburb's residential area, across busy Welcome Bay Road, up a slip road, along Ms. Swoffer's long driveway, under a gate, through a cat-door and up some stairs before he was found in the kitchen about 9:30 p.m. … Calmly, the young pup then eased past Ms. Swoffer's dog and cats before making himself at home on a couch and attempting to snuggle in for the night." Ms. Swoffer called the SPCA.
Lowest voter turnout
From Stephen Pile's The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures, cited in The Sunday Times of London: "Since the dawn of democracy we have waited for the definitive election in which no candidate polled any votes at all. It finally happened when Pillsbury in North Dakota held a [town]election on June 10, 2008, at which no one voted, not even the people at the ballot station. It is the first time that six candidates have stood and not one of them has got in. 'Everybody has a job and they're busy,' said the mayor of this small rural community, who was going to vote for himself but had crops to tend."
A bear in the basement
"A cable-TV repairman got quite a surprise when he walked into the basement of a New Jersey home," says Associated Press. "There was a 500-pound bear sound asleep on the floor. The bear had been spotted wandering in the neighbourhood in Hopatcong earlier Wednesday. It's not clear how it got into the home. The bear ambled out of the house before state Fish and Game officials arrived." The bear was tranquillized and officials planned to relocate it.
Thought du jour
"You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose."
- Lou Holtz (1937-), sportscaster and retired U.S. football coach