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a non-profit Christian-values biochemical indicators of meso-
organisation. In a 2002 interview, and bathypelagic biological activity:
Warren said that he took “a real strong what the @$#! is wrong with present
stand against same-sex marriage”, calculations of carbon budgets?”
and the site “may as well be” In return, plant developmental
a Christian organisation. biologist Tom Bennett offered a
The ruling is a dent in eHarmony’s more succinct article from Cell Press,
quest to be seen as “the science titled “Canalization: What the flux?”
behind the butterflies”; a matrimonial Certainly you have more, readers.
algorithm that perhaps requires being
faithful in more ways than one. THE first incomprehensible
units of the new year are upon us.
THE UK government is keen to Gillian Peall spotted the strange
crack down on the use of drones, measurements in January’s Into
perhaps because people keep the Blue, a magazine published
using them to deliver drugs to by The Bolsover Cruise Club.
prisons, or maybe because they This tells her that the new
undermine the state’s monopoly Royal Caribbean cruise liner,
on airborne surveillance Symphony of the Seas, will
platforms. However, these are weigh more than 17,000 African
not compelling arguments, so elephants. Gillian says“Frankly,
the government commissioned
a report into the consequences
of a collision between a drone
and a commercial aircraft,
IS ALL fair in love and war? The UK’s among couples who had met more which became a key factor in
Advertising Standards Authority organically on the web. introducing regulations.
(ASA) thinks not, since it has ruled It’s not the first time the eHarmony Yet the results were never
that a billboard ad for online dating love boat has sailed into choppy released in full to the public.
website eHarmony was misleading. waters. Famously exacting in its We may now know why: having
“Step aside, fate. It’s time science standards (the site will not accept obtained a copy of the study,
had a go at love,” London commuters applications from those who are too The Register reveals test crashes
were told, “eHarmony’s scientifically depressed, too married, or too- failed to penetrate aircraft cockpit
proven matching system decodes the frequently divorced), eHarmony also windows, and serious damage
mystery of compatibility and faced lawsuits over its refusal to offer was only recorded during less I can’t imagine one African
chemistry so you don’t have to.” matchmaking services to gay and rigorous preliminary tests, where elephant, let alone 17,000”.
The complaint was filed by a man lesbian couples, a problem it claimed javelin-like drone components Why, Gillian, it’s about the
who should know: Lord Lipsey, the joint was too difficult for its love scientists were fired at panes of leftover same as 1280 blue whales – surely
chairman of the All Party Parliamentary to crack. eHarmony settled one glass held down with laboratory a more appropriate unit for an
Group on Statistics, and himself a lawsuit in 2008 by creating a separate clamps. Reassuring for airline ocean vessel?
former member of the ASA council. service for same-sex couples, passengers, but less so for a
The body ruled that consumers Compatible Partners, which was not government keen to make the THE curing power of candles:
were likely to interpret the advert linked from the eHarmony website case for tighter rules on drones. “I would like to take issue with an item
as meaning there was significantly at the time. Subscriptions were not When the official summary in Feedback on birthdays,” says Colin
more chance of finding love through linked either, so bisexual singles had was published, these less-rigorous Jacobson (6 January). “You report that
eHarmony than alternative methods, to pay twice to see matches from tests were presented alongside the ‘birthdays cause ageing’, when it is
a feature the company could not both genders across the two sites. full-scale impact studies, giving really the complete opposite. They
demonstrate in the evidence Why the reticence? An educated the appearance that the threat are, in fact, extremely beneficial to
submitted to the regulator. guess might point toward co-founder from errant drones to UK aircraft one’s health.”
The ASA’s report noted that while Neil Clark Warren, a clinical was particularly acute. A registry Colin says it is “indisputably proven”
the site’s couplings boasted fewer psychologist and graduate of the of drone users was announced that the more birthdays you have,
PAUL MCDEVITT break-ups than competing websites, Princeton Theological Seminary, who soon after. the longer you live.
launched the company in 2000 with
the rate of matrimonial disharmony
PLANETARY scientist Sarah Hörst
help from Focus on the Family,
was still higher than that found
wanted to talk to her Twitter followers You can send stories to Feedback by
“Thai penis whitening raises eyebrows,” about a paper in Deep-Sea Research email at feedback@newscientist.com.
reports the BBC. Terry Jeffries says: Part II that her colleague spied: Please include your home address.
“Assessing the apparent imbalance This week’s and past Feedbacks can
“I bet customers weren’t expecting that.” between geochemical and be seen on our website.
56 | NewScientist | 20 January 2018