Colbert wants to Smell the Cash

On May 20, a federal appeals court upheld a 2006 decision that U.S. currency discriminates against blind people because bill denominations cannot be easily distinguished by the visually impaired. While the ruling states that the government must make changes, it does not dictate what those changes must be, leading the Treasury Department to hire a research firm to explore the possibilities. The American Council of the Blind, which first brought the lawsuit in 2002, has also offered suggestions which include embossed dots, raised ink, and different sizes for bills of different denominations.
Our vote goes to Stephen Cobert who, on the May 29 broadcast of The Colbert Report, suggested Scented Money!…although his choice of scents (”Each bill should have the natural scent of the hero upon it!”) could use maybe just a little tweaking.

Olfactory False Alarms

On January 8 of 2007, a powerful smell of gas created brief chaos in Manhattan, forcing building evacuations and commuter train suspension, before dissipating just hours later. Speculation on the source of the stench has been all over the board, including a perfect-storm-like environmental scenario of low tides and atmospheric pressures which triggered the release of natural gasses from saltwater marshes in the metropolitan area. The most likely culprit, however, is thought to have been a leak of the substance ethyl mercaptan. This manufactured sulfur compound is deliberately added to odorless-but-dangerous natural gas and specifically designed to trigger, well…precisely the reaction exhibited that morning in New York. The unfortunate incident was nonetheless an amazing testament to the additive’s effectiveness; an entire city reacted to smoke where there was no fire.

The choice of sulfur-scent to warn us of danger was a fairly simple one as, to our early ancestors, for whom all smells were organic, sulfur meant decay and decay meant death. Many olfactory clues in the contemporary world, which contains literally millions of synthetic compounds undreamed of by ancient man, are far more complicated. Things which smell good to us are not necessarily things which are good for us. Highly-lethal cyanide smells like tasty almonds. Deadly chemical warfare agents phosgene, lewisite, and dichlorodiethyl sulfide smell–respectively–like sweet hay, geraniums, and mustard.

Shop and Smell the Roses

Shoppers — actually 689 West Chester University students engaged in a shopping experiment — underestimated the amount of time they spent shopping by 26% when exposed to the pleasant aromas of clementine and vanilla. They overestimated it by 40% when the room smelled of galbanum, a vile aroma that reminded the professor, Jack Gault, of a combination of skunk and rancid oil.

Hold On, My Other Line is Stinking.

Why just phone your sweetie from the a long day at work when you can include the conciliatory fragrance of her favorite roses or chocolates? Or just text message your snowbound relations from your Florida vacation bungalow when you can toss in the taunting scent of Coppertone and margaritas? Smellular Phone research is moving rapidly along, courtesy of such companies as Japan’s NTT Communications which last month conducted a ten-day trial of its Fragrance Communication Mobile Service. While not permitting scent retrieval from a cell phone, the technology allows users to mix and send aromatic recipes from their cell phones to an in-home unit which holds 16 cartridges of base fragrances that are mixed to produce custom scents in a way similar to a printer mixing inks to produce various colors.

April also saw the partnering of German firms Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing Consultancy and Convisual to patent their “scented text messages” via a smart card-sized chip. While this system does permit phone-to-phone scent communication, the range is limited to about 100 different prefabricated scents.

Perhaps most intriguing is Nokia’s Scentsory concept phone, which threatens to make those calls from a smoke-filled bar to explain a late night at the office a thing of the past. Using a sort of electronic nose that works with highly sophisticated sensors, the ingenious device detects and electronically recreates the distinct genetic patterns of any given odor, allowing it to emit smells right from the caller’s actual environment.

And already on the market (Japan’s market only, at present) is NTT DoCoMo and Sony Ericsson’s SO703i which, while not capable of transmitting your aromatic greetings to others in any capacity, does allow a choice of 9 scented sheets to sweeten your own incoming calls.

Olfactory Fact #45: When It Rains, It Stinks

Rain causes the desert-dwelling creosote bush to release a strong and unique aroma which most rain-starved residents of the American Southwest find “heavenly,” though clearly not all–the Spanish named the plant hediondilla, meaning “little stinker.”

Free Teleconference - June 3, 2008, 7:30 p.m. EST

Listen to What You Missed! Here’s the recording of the second Teleconference “Your Branded Scent Signature - The Four Keys to Creating Your Scent Script” which was held on Tuesday, May 27:

Teleconference Schedule>

Don’t miss the upcoming free teleconference:

You are invited to join us for the third installment of the Insider’s Tele-Conference Series:

Tuesday June 3, 2008, at 7:30 p.m EST

Overcoming Objections - well-conceived
answers and explanations to age-old
questions about scent abuse, pollution,
and scent-sensitive consumers.

Just Dial: 1-605-475-6000
Access Code: 770359

Lines will fill up fast, so dial in early!

Read more

They Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Badges!

The police force of India’s western state of Gujarat, where temperatures can exceed 114 F, is determined to look fresher and smell better this summer with Scented Uniforms. According to Somesh Singh, of India’s National Institute of Design (NID), “The purpose is to do away with the perspiration odor. We have decided to make these uniforms more sweet smelling. Three different fragrances - jasmine, rose and citrus will be incorporated into these uniforms.” The garments will retain their scent even after washing as the fragrance is embedded in the cotton during processing.

How are the 8,000 police officers involved reacting to their sweet-smelling new duds? Pretty darned favorably, it seems. “We have worn a thick cotton brown coloured uniform with a broad belt and plastic badges for several decades now,” senior police officer RK Patel told the Reuters news agency, “and we are tired of it.”

Olfactory Fact #53: Birds Do It…Bees Do It Wrong

The Ophrys orchid so cunningly mimics the sex pheromones emitted by the female bees that male bees prefer mating with–thus inadvertently pollinating–the sneaky flower over their own species.

Olfactory Fact #116: Women Appreciate Scentimental Films

A panel of women sniffed underarm swabs, and could tell the difference between smells of people who had watched “sad” or “happy” movies. Men could not distinguish between the two types of smells so well.

Olfactory Fact #82: Water Stinks

Humans can detect a single drop of a chemical (androstenedione, found in human sweat) in an Olympic-sized swimming pool filled with water!

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