Hulleye Comes By!

As seen by the Germans

As seen by the French

As seen by the Italians

As seen by the Americans

As seen in Hong Kong

People stopping to smell the roses can now take that sweet floral fragrance home with them or even send it to a faraway grandmother thanks to a new gadget in Japan that records and replicates the world’s odours.

The new device, developed by scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, analyzes smells through 15 sensors, records the odour’s recipe in digital format and then reproduces the scent by mixing 96 chemicals and vapourizing the result. Creator Takamichi Nakamoto says the technology will have applications in food and fragrance industries where companies want to replicate odours.

But it could also be a boon for the digital world, allowing smells can be recorded in one place - by sensors in a mobile phone, for instance - and transmitted to appreciative noses halfway around the world…

From a very interesting NY Times article by Barry Bearak and Stephanie Sinclair:

The drought has since passed, but the poverty remains, as does the widespread custom of early marriage. Some Afghans readily use their daughters to settle debts and assuage disputes. Polygamy is practiced. A man named Mohammed Fazal, 45, told Sinclair that village elders had urged him to take his second wife, 13-year-old Majabin, in lieu of money owed him by the girl’s father. The two men had been gambling at cards while also ingesting opium and hashish. …

On the day she witnessed the engagement party of 11-year-old Ghulam Haider to 40-year-old Faiz Mohammed, Sinclair discreetly took the girl aside. “What are you feeling today?” the photographer asked. “Nothing,” the bewildered girl answered. “I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?”

star trek vs. star wars.

the latest trailer.

Found on boingboing

US political bloggers paid lots of attention to the Madrid 3/11 bombings and the London 7/7 bombings. Now Bombay is attacked by terrorists — similar methods, similar scale — and barely a mention.

Doesn’t this story have important ramifications for American foreign policy? If the attacks were mounted by a Pakistan based organization, it could move two nuclear countries closer to an armed confrontation. If it was mounted by Al-Qaeda, that would be significant as well. And no matter who was involved, another attack on public transportation is important for domestic debates about anti-terror funding.

Weren’t bloggers supposed to be way ahead of the MSM? In this case at least, they’re way behind.

Link to full text of his post on “South Asian diaspora” blog Sepia Mutiny.

Today’s New York Times reports on new developments in neuroprosthetics, implants enabling the control of technology like robotics and computers with your thoughts. From the NYT:

In separate experiments, the first person to receive the implant, Matthew Nagle, was able to move a cursor, open e-mail, play a simple video game called Pong and draw a crude circle on the screen. He could change the channel or volume of a television set, move a robot arm somewhat, and open and close a prosthetic hand.

Although his cursor control was sometimes wobbly, the basic movements were not hard to learn. “I pretty much had that mastered in four days,’’ Mr. Nagle, now 26, said in a telephone interview from the New England Sinai Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton, Mass., where he lives. He said the implant did not cause any pain…

The sensor measures 4 millimeters — about one sixth of an inch — on a side and contains 100 tiny electrodes. The device was implanted in the area of Mr. Nagle’s motor cortex that is responsible for arm movement, and was connected to a pedestal that protruded from the top of his skull.

The results of the experiments, conducted by Brown University professor John Donoghue and his team, were published in this week’s issue of the scientific journal Nature. The magazine’s companion Web site has also published a free “Web Focus” that includes interviews, video of the experiments, and a collection of key papers in the field of brain-machine interfaces. Highly recommended browsing.

Link to Nature’s Web Focus, Link to 2005 article from Wired about Nagle and brain implants

Also, an earlier link on this blog about mental control over physical objects.

found via BB

sorry i’ve been pulling some disappearing acts lately. been a bit busy with social life and jazz. also been focusing a bit on my other blog at metroblogging. do check it out if you got time. anyway, let’s see what we got in stock. anyway, let’s see what we got in stock since the last time i posted.

• Berlin’s top World Cup official shot himself in the head just hours after the tournament ended and is now fighting for his life, police say. Juergen Kiessling, 65, was rushed to hospital from his house in Reinickendorf, a suburb of Berlin, after a neighbour heard the shot. The motive for the apparent suicide attempt is not yet clear. German media report that he left two suicide notes - one for his daughter alone, and one for his family…
• Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes. The guitarist was invited to join Pink Floyd by Waters in 1965 but left three years later after only one album with his mental state affected by drugs. “He died very peacefully a couple of days ago,” said the band’s spokeswoman. After he finally drifted out of the music scene, his whereabouts were unknown for two decades, until he turned out to be living with his mother…
• oh yeah, this happened too.