odor

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Cape Town Hit With 'Worst Stench in My Life'

Odor was traced to a ship docked offshore on Monday

(Newser) - The smell that took over Cape Town was so putrid and far-reaching that authorities in the South African city launched an investigation into its source on Monday. It turns out it wasn't a sewage facility leak but rather an odor emanating from a ship docked in the harbor that...

New Zealand Mayor Reassures Residents: Keep Pooping

Lower Hutt has a serious odor problem right now

(Newser) - There's good news and bad news for residents of a New Zealand city. The good is that their mayor confirmed on Tuesday that they can continue pooping. The bad is that the air will smell regardless. The city of Lower Hutt near Wellington has been dealing with a two-month-long...

Couple Gets Refund Over Stinky Dog on Flight

New Zealand pair say they had to move from premium to economy over the smell

(Newser) - A New Zealand couple who say they were subjected to a drooling, snorting, and farting dog on a long flight have gotten a $1,400 refund for their trouble, reports Insider . Gill and Warren Press say they asked to switch their premium seats midflight from Paris to Singapore because the...

Wife's Sharp Nose Leads to New Test for Parkinson's

Joy Milne noticed her husband smelled different before his official diagnosis

(Newser) - A relatively simple way to detect Parkinson's might be possible thanks to a Scottish woman's unusually sharp sense of smell. As the BBC reports, researchers at the UK's University of Manchester say their newly developed skin-swab test proved to be 95% accurate in a new study published...

Awful-Smelling Foam Is Invading This City

Toxic foam from polluted river has become the bane of Mosquera, a suburb of Bogota, Colombia

(Newser) - Playing in foam is usually fun—think bubble baths when you were a kid. But in the streets of one suburb of Bogota, Colombia, residents flee toxic clouds of the stuff wafting over from a nearby polluted river, bringing an unpleasant odor and suspected to be the cause of a...

Think Fish Don't Stink? You May Have This Mutation
Why Some People Think
Rotten Fish Smells Great
NEW STUDY
Oct 9, 2020 12:30 PM CDT

Why Some People Think Rotten Fish Smells Great

They aren't crazy but may have a rare gene mutation

(Newser) - If you don't mind the smell of rotting fish, you might be one of the rare people to possess a just-discovered gene mutation that hints at just how different people's smell and taste senses can be. Researchers in Iceland set out to learn more about the variants that...

The Smell in This Canadian Town Is Just Unbearable

Fish sauce factory stopped operating in 2001, but the liquid is still causing problems

(Newser) - The residents of a small Canadian town say they've been plagued by a wretched smell for more than a decade. The CBC digs into the plight of St. Mary's in Newfoundland. It's home to 400 residents and the shuttered Atlantic Seafood Sauce Co. plant, which opened in...

Passengers, Plane Crew Nearly Brawl Over Stinky Fruit

Sriwijaya Air flight in Indonesia temporarily grounded thanks to durian in cargo hold

(Newser) - The durian is known for being one of the grossest-smelling fruits in the world—think "turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock," as one food writer has described it, per Smithsonian . The late Anthony Bourdain once said after eating it, "Your breath will smell as if...

His Odor Grounded a Plane. A Month Later, He Died

It turns out Andrey Suchilin was suffering from necrosis, which was causing the smell

(Newser) - A story that began embarrassingly has ended tragically. People reports on the death of 58-year-old Andrey Suchilin, a Russian guitarist who spurred an emergency landing of a Transavia Airlines plane in Portugal. Per De Telegraaf via WJW , Suchilin's odor during the May 29 flight from Spain to the Netherlands...

Hunter's 'Stupid Mistake' Leads to Grisly Scene

And a malodorous one in Argyle, NY

(Newser) - The source of a stench that bedeviled the residents of Argyle, NY, this fall has been identified, and it's a grisly one. The Post-Star reports hundreds of pounds of rotting moose meat—including the animal's head—were the culprit. After tracing the smell to its source, the state...

One Whiff of Blood Molecule Separates Hunters, Hunted

Scent of E2D triggers widely different reactions in animals, including humans

(Newser) - Scientists have zeroed in on a molecule in blood whose very scent triggers alarm in humans but also beckons predators. In fact, one whiff of the E2D molecule causes animals of all kinds to act in "diametrically opposite" ways, suggesting that it's been around for eons and responses...

City Tells Man to Get Rid of His Seriously Smelly Driveway

Man used unwashed shells to pave driveway, then came flies and maggots

(Newser) - A Rhode Island town's long, smelly nightmare is finally over. Two weeks ago, a Tiverton resident used unwashed clam shells to pave an access road on his property, the AP reports. The shells still had bits of clam meat stuck to them, eventually drawing flies and maggots while creating...

Mystery Odor Causes City to Order People Inside

Vallejo, California, later lifts order, but cause of smell still a mystery

(Newser) - It smelled so bad in Vallejo, California, overnight that the city ordered people to stay inside. The shelter-in-place order has since been lifted, but the cause of the nasty odor is still a mystery, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . For now, the best bet is that it comes from an...

Guy Invents the 'World's Worst Smell'

It smells like 'butt crack…with a hint of dead animal'

(Newser) - Imagine the worst smell you can think of. Now imagine the scent of "butt crack…with a hint of dead animal." That's how Allen Wittman, 45, describes his creation, Liquid ASS —a smelly spray initially intended to be used in pranks. "We package Liquid ASS...

City Can't Figure Out Why It Smells Like Cat Pee

Readings show no health risk in New Castle, Penn.

(Newser) - You may think your town figuratively stinks; for residents of New Castle, Penn., the sentiment is literal. Environmental Protection agents in the city can't seem to figure out why there's a lingering odor of ... cat pee. Residents first noticed the smell Nov. 1 and it still hangs around...

Lawsuit Demands San Diego Clean Up Sea Lion Poop

Citizens For Odor Nuisance Abatement are tired of the 'noxious' odor

(Newser) - San Diego's La Jolla neighborhood is a great place to watch sea lions bask in the sun while birds circle overhead. You might even run into Mitt Romney . But there's also a not-so-pleasant scent wafting through the air thanks to all the sea lion and bird poop at...

Huge Swath of France Smells Like Rotten Eggs

No, not permanently

(Newser) - Insert Pepé Le Pew joke here: The northwestern part of France currently smells like rotten eggs, reports Reuters . The bizarre aroma is the result of a non-lethal leak of the gas Mercaptan at a chemicals factory about 75 miles northwest of Paris. Though the leak occurred yesterday, winds carried the...

Californians Wonder: What's That Stench?

Smell of fish die-off may have traveled 150 miles

(Newser) - Something is rotten in the state of California: A smell like rotten eggs spread across a huge area of Southern California yesterday, prompting hundreds of 911 calls and complaints to air quality authorities, reports the LA Times . Officials initially thought a toxic spill or sewage leak could be to blame,...

Revealed: What Space Smells Like

In two words, not good

(Newser) - Outer space may be soundless, but it's apparently not odorless. Life's Little Mysteries recently stumbled upon a 2009 interview with a NASA astronaut that's too good to not resurrect. In it, Kevin Ford spoke of picking up the weird odor while undertaking spacewalks. It's not something...

New Matchmaking Trend: Stinky T-Shirts

Singles try to sniff out partners at 'pheromone parties'

(Newser) - Sniff your way to love? Singles who have attended so-called pheromone parties haven't ruled it out. The get-togethers—which have been held in New York and Los Angeles and are planned for other cities—ask guests to submit a slept-in T-shirt that will be smelled by other participants. Then,...

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