We can preserve and experience historical sights and sounds. But how do we know what, for example, Eighteenth Century Manhattan smelled like? Thanks to technologies developed by the perfume industry, there are now ways to preserve smells so that future generations can experience them:

A pioneer of this approach is Roman Kaiser, a Swiss fragrance chemist who developed a technology called “headspace” in the 1970s that made it possible to capture and analyze the scent given off by flowers and other objects. Using a glass container, a pump, and a sampling trap that gathers molecules using a solvent or coated surface, the system allows a chemist or perfumer to gather the volatile scent molecules exuded by an object without harming it.[...]

Perfumers like New York-based Christopher Brosius have used headspace to re-create less obvious smells, like the odor of an old fur coat or a well-worn paperback. Their goal is an artistic one, but the same approach could serve as the beginning of a database. Imagine having a library of scents specific to a particular time or place, from the strangely sweet aroma of a plastic-wrapped CD case to the blend of horse dung and candy that permeates Boston’s Faneuil Hall.

Other historians are attempting to recreate scents from the past, from a cologne used by Napoleon Bonaparte to a Viking-era latrine. What historical smell would you like to experience?

Link -via Althouse | Photo by Flickr user Dennis Wong used under Creative Commons license

(Video Link)

This adorable short film from Tiji entitled Colour shows a world in black and white. Then a divine paintbrush descends from the heavens to give all of the creatures of the world their colors. All, that is, except the panda. -via Doobybrain

Heidi Kenney made a pair of plushes in the above design, and the blogger behind Clockwork Lemon decided that it would be a good cake design, too. The cake has a buttercream crumbcoat with marshmallow fondant on top. Yummy! Link -via Super Punch

Sure, you could decorate the exterior of a cubical cake so that it looks like a Rubik's Cube from the outside, but Vicky McDonald went beyond that goal for her cake in honor of Erno Rubik's birthday. As you slice her cake, it continues to look like a Rubik's Cube, with varying interior colors. She provides instructions on how to make one at the link.

After posting this marvelous creation, she received an email from Rubik himself:

Thanks for the nice birthday surprise which sweetens the bitterness of passing time.

Link -via The Mary Sue

Previously: Rubik's Cube Cake

(Video Link)

In a famous scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Admiral Kirk screamed "Khan!" in rage and despair against his enemy, Khan Noonien Singh. This has become one of the great battlecries of Trekkies everywhere. So, appropriately, William Shatner led 3,000 fans in this call at Comic-Con. Behold its majesty, and tremble.

-via Kotaku

Now I'm not talking about whistling in a vacuum. It's obvious that attempting to do so would fail. But even astronauts on spacewalks in protective suits can't whistle. Why not? Former astronaut Dan Barry explained:

"You can't whistle because the air pressure in the suit is only 4.3 [pounds per square inch], and normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi, so there are not enough air molecules blowing by your lips to make a sound," he said.[...]

Jeff Hoffman, a retired astronaut with three spacewalks (including a mission to repair the Hubble telescope) has traveled 21.5 million miles in space. He said the technicians who trained him on spacewalks had told him that he wouldn't be able to whistle, but he says he tried anyway.

"I couldn't get one note out," he said.

Link -via First Things | Photo: NASA

Ah, the iconic Atari 2600! It was the first mass-produced home video game console. Back in 2009, Urchin Associates, an Australian art collective, covered an Atari 2600 console with gold. Link -via Technabob | Photo: Urchin Associates

(Video Link)

For five months, 25 animators moved and filmed 350,000 Post It notes to mark the opening of a new flagship store in São Paulo for the Brazilian shoemaker Melissa. 30,000 fans took advantage of the opportunity to write messages on the Post It notes. -via Dude Craft

Japanese designer Hiroyuki Shiratori developed erasers that are shaped like the gradually evolving form between modern humans and their ancient ancestors. You can evolve as you correct mistakes. Link (Google Translate) via Colossal | Photo: H-Concept

The Science Museum in London has a collection of sixty tiny models of the human head made for a student of Johann Kaspar Spurzheim, a prominent German phrenologist, in 1831. Phrenology is the belief that the shape of the human skull reflects the shape of the human brain beneath it, which is in turn shaped by certain personality traits. Studying a person's skull thus reveals his/her personality, abilities, and character:

These heads are numbered according to Spurzheim’s classification. The heads may have been used to teach phrenology but were probably made as a general reference collection. A wide range of different heads are present. For instance, head number 54 is that of a scientific man; head number 8 is recorded as the head of an ‘idiot’.

Link -via How to Be a Retronaut | Photo: The Science Museum

(Video Link)

A young filmmaker needs an idea for a movie to launch his career. But he's coming up dry. Then, while browsing Amazon.com, he sees a "Plot Device" for sale. What is it? He doesn't know but buys it anyway.

A mysterious device, labelled "Plot Device", arrives in the mail a few days later. There is a single button on it. He pushes it. Watch this funny short film by Seth Worley to find out what happens.

-via New Jovian Thunderbolt

Jaume Plensa, an artist from Spain, has a motif of monumental, rounded heads. He uses a wide variety of materials, from polyester resin to stainless steel. Pictured above is one of a pair resting in the countryside, looking at each other. You can see other images of them at Fubiz. They're oddly soothing to look. Artist's Website -via Fubiz (Google Translate)

The city of Victoria, British Columbia, is taking a new approach to handling drunken, out-of-control revelers causing trouble in public places. The police hand such people lollipops. Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe explained why it works:

Ms. Thornton-Joe said after the men popped a lolly in their mouths, their nasty energy all but dissolved. “They got calmer after taking the lollipops,” she said. “It had an immediate effect.” [...]

The sucker punch works for several reasons, she said. First, it's difficult to yell while sucking a lollipop.

Altercations happen due to verbal exchanges, but with a sucker in the mouth, there's less talk, which results in fewer fights.

The lollipop's sugar hit calms those who've drank too much, she said. And the lolly's pacifier effect can't be denied.

Link -via The Hairpin | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Cillian Storm used under Creative Commons license

(Video Link)

This fascinating scene takes place in a restaurant in Hakodate, Japan. The squid is actually dead, but the sodium in the soy sauce causes its muscles to contract. YouTube user richayanami writes:

Dancing squid dishes seem to be at many restaurants in Hakodate, but this particular one may have been the only one with this bowl set. The place was located in the seafood restaurant arcade across the parking lot from Hakodate Station if anyone is interested.[...]

The brain is probably still in the body, but a significant part of its nervous system, the giant axon, I believe extends into the mantle, which has been cut. I'm not an expert on squids so I can't really come to a definite conclusion about that. As you can see in the beginning, it's not moving at all when it's brought out so I assume that signals around the body have stopped, whereas a fresh intact squid out of water would constantly move around.

-via Geekologie

Ingrid Dabringer likes to "...elevate the mundane. The Mundane is so saturated with meaning if we just take an extra second to dwell on it." Among other expressions of this desire, she finds the forms for human figure drawings in maps. Link -via Geekosystem