The most interesting use of police dogs concerns scent identification, a method analysed by Dutch and other researchers, but adapted by the unique paranoia of the Stasi. As early as 1973, the Stasi began collecting smell samples of a large number of citizens. Sometimes this was donewith a special chair that the subject was asked to sit on during a visit to the police station. The chair had a dust cloth on top of the seat that was clamped into place by a removable frame. The subject had to sit in the chair for 10 minutes, and after the interrogation was over, the dust cloth was removed and stored in a glass jar. Sometimes Stasi officials did not bother with being subtle and merely told subjects to put a cloth under their armpits. The cloth was carefully handled by tweezers in an effort not to allow contamination by other human scents.
Life before the internet
Do you want to shock younger people with tales of life in the pre-internet olden days? Here are some things to freak them out with.
You had to buy songs you didn't like Otherwise known as 'albums', and you always knew there'd be quite a few duds on the LP as you handed over your cash in Marbecks, Queen Street. All were still far better than an iTunes Ed Sheeran playlist, however.
People wrote letters Definitely mention this because the texting generation will assume you were sitting in candlelight with a quill pen while wearing a Shakespearean ruff as you wrote a quick letter to your university girlfriend/boyfriend in 1989.
You couldn't just look up anything instantly Thanks to Google, it's easy to look up anything from the opening times of a local garage to the average sperm count of a velociraptor. Unlike in the olden days, knowledge is far more accessible now, with most people getting their facts from Twitter or memes. (Via The Daily Mash)
Long lost bro
Calvin Klein has a long-lost brother who grew up in another place. Cailv Kailun is also a designer, and has also designed his own apparel under his own name.
Who is in the wrong - nephew or driver?
A reader writes: "My nephew lost control of his remote control car and it went into the road. A few seconds later a woman in a Discovery ran right over it but apparently without batting an eyelid. She didn't slow down or stop either before or after. It was like she'd just flattened it in passing. Then the acknowledgement came. A couple of minutes later she pulled up outside the drive, wound down her window, and asked him the most incredible question. "Did you enjoy that?" She was furious, and rude, and he was in tears. That seemed to give her an answer but all she did then was drive off again. No apology, nothing."
