(REUTERS) 8 January 2007:

Proctor and Gamble, the owners of the Old Spice brand of deodorants, after shave, and male grooming products, have decided to make their advertising campaigns “more relevant” to the younger man. One advertisement has Faye Dunaway stating that if the young man’s grandfather hadn’t worn the product, he wouldn’t exist.

Selling something to men by hinting that it will increase the opportunities for sex is hardly new.  It’s done with beer, cars, and clothes. But when perfume is sold to women, the emphasis is usually on how great it makes her feel, how special, how glamorous…not that men will suddenly offer her sex.

When being persuaded how we wish to smell, men and women do seem to still be different.

(REUTERS) 29 December 2006:

Yes, it’s one of the great cliches, a classic stereotype, that men simply will not stop and ask for directions. This is offset when said man has superior abilities at map reading and spatial awareness. However, relying on such systems and refusing to speak out if things appear puzzling can lead to disaster.

Tobi Gutt, a German man, was on his way to stay with his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia for a month. A small error in his typing skills meant he actually bought a ticket to Sidney, Montana. He spent three days there before friends could wire him the money to continue his journey.

Perhaps in future it might be worth talking to the pilot as you embark, just to check that his travel plans for the day match with your own?

(Reuters) 29 November 2006:

There’s something about that image of the man in a relationship being the knight in shining armor that can be extremely attractive to some women. As no doubt the wife of a German man thought initially. Her husband spotted someone driving a stolen car and so he chased it. He then stopped it by crashing into it, leaped out and onto the roof as the thief tried again to get away. While being driven down the road, clinging to the roof, he used his mobile phone to call the police who arrested the thief.

A hero, no doubt, although his performance was slightly tarnished by the fact that his wife and two young shildren were in his original car, two of whom were injured when he crashed into the thief. Somewhat less attractive perhaps?

(Reuters) 27 November 2006:

According to a recent report, acceptance of cosmetic surgery varies greatly by country. Globally, one in five would consider having it at some point in the future but this varies wildly, from less than 10% in the Far East to more than 50% in Russia.

As the economist Tyler Cowen has noted, we should expect more competition for marriage where income inequalities are greater (the idea being that a woman or man can greatly improve their standard of living by paying more attention to their looks and thus increase the chances of marriage to someone wealthy). These results about the acceptance of cosmetic surgery, about who would consider it, map very closely with the indicators of income inequality.

(CNN.COM) 12 October 2006:

A Columbus Ohio man who couldn’t find steady work came up with a plan to make it through the next few years until he could collect Social Security: He robbed a bank, then handed the money to a guard and waited for police.

Timothy J. Bowers said he had been able to find only odd jobs after the drug wholesaler he made deliveries for closed in 2003. He walked to a bank and handed a teller a note demanding cash in an envelope. The teller gave him four $20 bills and pushed a silent alarm.

Bowers pleaded guilty to robbery, and a court-ordered psychological exam found him competent.  He told a judge a three-year prison sentence would suit him, and the judge obliged.

(REUTERS) 20 September 2006:

In a move sure to delight self conscious males everywhere, doctors in China have reported the partial success of the world’s first penis transplant. Nerves and blood vessels all joined up and the man, whose original was severly damaged in an accident, was able to urinate normally for the first time in 8 months. Nor was there any sign of the organ being rejected.

However, only partial success for after two weeks surgeons had to remove it again following the extreme psychological distress of both the man and his wife. Exact reasons are unknown but perhaps, given the extremely intimate uses to which it might be put, not knowing exactly where it had been was a problem?

(REUTERS) 6 September 2006:

It’s fairly normal to find men boasting about their size and prowess in almost anything. Taller, higher, bigger, faster, it’s an essential part of the male psyche, like the silver streak down the back of the head gorilla.

It’s similarly a matter of ridicule to women, this incessant boasting about the size, length, girth, speed or expense of anything male owned. Which makes fourteen-year-old Khagendra Thapa Magar somewhat unique, for at 14 years, 20 inches tall and weighing only 10 lbs, he’s claiming to be the smallest man on the planet. Somewhat prematurely, for the Guinness Book of World Records will not even investigate until he is 18.

But at least he’s in touch with his feminine side, right?

(REUTERS) 2 August 06:

Police in Brazil’s remote Amazon state of Rondonia have arrested a man who had 666 rough diamonds stashed in his underpants.

The 38-year-old man was stopped by cops during a regular road check.   When the police noticed he seemed nervous, they searched the man and found $200K worth of diamonds in his boxers.

So, are those diamonds in your pants or are you just happy to see me?