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DARPA Has $3.2M to Sniff You Out
quackking writes "The Army wants to sniff you out. This fedbizopps.gov link to a DARPA pre-RFRQ tells more. 'The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Technology Office (ATO), as part of the Odortype Detection Program, invites proposals to (1) determine whether genetically-determined odortypes can be used to identify specific individuals, and if so (2) to develop the science and enabling technology for detecting and identifying specific individuals by such odortypes. Total program funding for this effort will not exceed $3.2 million in FY 2003. Multiple awards are anticipated. Proposals are due by January 29, 2003.'"
But could wearing heavy perfume mask your scent enough to avoid detection? Bah, just stick to good ol' bloodhounds.
I am a filthy pirate.
1st/2nd/3rd post!
I can usually smell a nerd a mile away. The stench is unbearable!
The government spies on YOU!
oh shit.. wait a minute...
Good luck tracking geeks.
Get it? =)
Second Post gets you!
And its called a dog
Perhaps someone can enlighten me to where this will be very useful. I just can't even imagine how knowing what a terrorist smells like or whatever it is they're doing is going to be useful -Siguy
Developing the equipment to identify unique scents would be costly, bulky, and probably easily confused by purfumes and other forms of distraction.
I say that nature does the best job, use some sort of animal to sniff a trail, or use a better means to identify a person.
As it is, fingerprints, eye scans, and DNA are much better than smell, and how would you store the signature of a scent in a database?
"subject has a old-man on crack smell about him."
1. IS THERE SUCH A THING AS GLORY HOLE ETIQUETTE?
Well, there seems to be. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any websites or literature to research it, although a woman in Kentucky with a similar interest told us there is a site, but she never got back with us to let us know where it is. Gay websites we looked at didn't seem to address it unless we just didn't know how to navigate around one properly and adult bookstores don't seem to acknowledge their existence. All that leaves us with is personal experience, all of which comes from West Virginia.
Rest assured though, based upon some threads on the boards, there are other states that have them. They apparently also exist in public restrooms, but we've never seen any and don't know anything personally about them, only what we've heard. This piece is confined only to glory holes found in adult bookstores.
2. WHAT EXACTLY IS A GLORY HOLE?
For the uninitiated, a glory hole is simply a hole in a wall separating two adjoining video booths. Glory holes can vary in size, but all serve the same basic purpose, ie. to allow a man to slip his penis through the hole from his side to the other booth.
Some are small, round holes just large enough to accommodate a penis and nothing more. In some bookstores, they can be larger, rectangular or square cut-outs big enough for a person to place his or her head through if so inclined. Why so large? While the glory hole is large enough to allow two people to engage in oral sex or masturbation, one person at a time, the larger ones allow easier access not only for the same purpose, but can also allow for anal intercourse, or vaginal intercourse if you happen to be female, or on the outside chance you meet a woman there. Not that you have to do any of this. We have to believe that while the larger holes when used for oral sex gives one person better access to the instrument of destruction, and surrounding parts poking through, they would also add to the exhibitionist and/or voyeuristic nature of the experience for both parties.
3. WHAT ABOUT THE BOOTHS?
A typical video booth is small. Generally, each comes with a small wooden seat for one person or a wooden bench that can seat two people somewhat comfortably. The smaller glory hole is slightly lower than waist level for the typical man so if you're extremely short or tall, good luck being comfortable using one. The larger holes center just below the waist area, but because of their size, height isn't really a factor.
In some bookstores, rather than a completely wooden barrier separating the two booths, a glass partition, starting about chest high and opaque in color extends above the wooden wall to the ceiling. By pressing a button on your side of the wall, you are sending a signal to the person in the adjoining booth you want to be able to see him, or in rare cases, her. If the other person is agreeable, he or she can push their own button and magically the glass clears to give each person an unobstructed view of the other.
4. HOW CLEAN ARE THE BOOTHS?
This can vary from bookstore to bookstore. When it comes to gritty, a place in Wheeling comes to mind. The movie screens in the booths are cum-splattered, the floors sticky or wet, and wadded up wet paper towels or tissue litter the floor. It's kind of weird because a mop and bucket are visible in a corner, but it doesn't look like anyone has learned how to operate these hi-tech tools at this place.
On the other hand, some are very clean. It appears to depend on the management. One place south of Parkersburg, under new management, seems almost fanatical about cleanliness. An employee seems to be constantly around with a mop, bucket and bottle of glass cleaner. Under the prior management, that was't the case.
Some places do provide a roll of paper towels which you can tear off and take in a booth with you. We suppose you should do your part and use them to clean up any mess you might make, but leave the Windex at home unless you don't want to watch a blurred porn flick. If you were interested in movies only, you probably wouldn't be in a booth with a glory hole anyway.
Also, there's nothing to prohibit you from taking your own stuff. If you think you're going to be on your knees, take a small towel or any other cleansing items, like maybe hand-wipes. It's probably just a matter of preference. The male half of this tandem doesn't worry so much about dirt and grime while the female half does.
5. WHAT DOES IT COST?
Not all that much really. All you're paying for is the movie you choose. Still, while the cost is nominal, 25 cents to get the movie of your choice started, there is a kicker to this. You are paying to have a movie on in increments. In some places, you can get 100 seconds for a quarter and watch the timer countdown every 10 seconds, ie. 100, 90, 80, etc. down to zero. In other places, you get a digital numeral that counts down the same way, eg. 5,4,3,2,1 and finally zero. When the time runs out, the movies goes off until another quarter is dropped in the slot.
Does it matter? It can. When you get 100 seconds for a quarter it comes to $9.00 per hour if we did the math right. The point is, you know exactly what you are getting. The problem with the digital counter is you get a certain number of seconds for each count, but those don't seem to be as long. Unless you take a stopwatch, it's difficult to know what you're getting for your quarter, but it seems to be about half the time as the timed segments.
Some bookstores require that you buy tokens at 25 cents a piece, usually five dollars worth. Don't be concerned if you run out though. We haven't found a single coin mechanism that doesn't take quarters after you run out of tokens.
Does anybody really care if you have a movie running? You bet! If you go, arm yourself with a generous supply of quarters. Once inside the booth, when you drop your first quarter in the slot, a small light comes on outside of your booth.
This does two things. First, it lets other patrons know the booth is occupied so someone can go to the opposite booth adjoining it to check you out. Of course, to those without a discerning eye that can't tell the door is closed and locked, it means someone may start pulling on the door trying to get in.
Second, what it also does, is let some employee, that does have a discerning eye, know the booth is occupied but the movie isn't playing. Does he care? Yep, that's his job. You may just hear from outside, "Start dropping some quarters!" Or worse, pounding on the door telling you to "drop quarters" to "Open the door!" Worse yet, a stern command to "Open the door!" accompanied by hard knocking.
Embarrassing? Maybe, maybe not. Just pay attention to the timer, have enough quarters and keep the movies going. Movies-that's plural. You'll have a selection, depending on where you go, of 10-16 movies in almost every category imaginable. Gay male, lesbian, BDSM, interracial, strictly oral or group sex. You name the theme, they'll probably have it available. Check the wall when you first walk in. With the exception of one place, the movie selection is there for you to review along with the corresponding number so you can turn to that channel in your booth to watch the Academy Award winning movie of your choice.
6. WHERE DO YOU FIND GLORY HOLES?
Well, by asking other people or just checking out adult bookstores. In West Virginia, it seems every adult bookstore has them. One thing you can count on, the stores certainly don't advertise them. You won't see ads in the newspapers, Yellow Pages or on billboards saying, "Come Check Out Our Glory Holes." The fact is, it's as though they don't even exist.
With one exception, we haven't been to a place that doesn't have two signs up. One always warns against loitering which means get in a booth and start shoving quarters in. This doesn't seem to be enforced all that much and as long as you're walking slowly around in circles, that seems to be good enough. The second sign you'll see forbids sexual contact of any kind, or solicitation; that it will not be tolerated and subject you to being asked to leave the premises or to prosecution.
A legal thing no doubt. After all, it seems almost nonsensical to have such a sign outside a line of booths that have a little hole to the next booth, unless we have this all wrong and they are really for passing cigarettes, mints and popcorn between fellow movie goers.
7. WHAT KINDS OF PEOPLE FREQUENT THESE PLACES?
The simple answer if you go is people like you! If you're first thought is only gay men hang around these places, that would be wrong. Sure, gay men will be there, but so will the bisexual and bi-curious. And, don't kid yourself, some, maybe quite a few, are certainly straight. The fact is, you'll run into all types of people. Some will be blue collar and other will appear to be businessmen. Some will be muscular, some obese and some are in between. There will be those that appear dirty and dressed kind of ratty and others that look very clean and seem overdressed. It may not always mean anything, but some men will have a wedding ring on.
Why would a straight guy go? A couple reasons probably. If you are going to be on the receiving end of oral sex from an anonymous stranger by sticking your penis through a little hole, are you really going to know if those are male or female lips on the other side. In a way, not really, although that probably denies reality. If all you see are men milling around, chances are those lips are attached just outside the oral cavity of a man. Ah, but the fantasy is still there and it plays a role. That warm little mouth could belong to your favorite actress or model if that's what you choose.
On the other hand, we have seen females hanging around. Generally, they'll be there as the other half of a male/female couple or, in some cases, with one or more other women. We recall at one place a woman, with a man, came in. She was dressed like a hooker, but wasn't. The assumption was the guy with her was her husband or significant other. Whatever he was, he was there to watch her engage in sex with other men. They chose a booth and went inside but left the door open. Before long there was a line of men waiting to take part in an oral gang bang that later turned into sexual intercourse for some of them at the suggestion of the man she was with.
Three things about this. First, it had the makings of a loving wives story on this site. Second, the management didn't seem to care, yet had to be aware because of the layout of the store. Finally, not all men frequenting glory holes are gay. In fact, the booths seemed to empty out while she was there. It certainly wasn't a gay man's paradise that day.
As an aside on the gay vs. straight or somewhere in-between issue, the male half here, getting a can of pop one time, was asked by a man if there were couples in the back and, the female half, sliding her long, slender and very obvious feminine finger through a glory hole doesn't seem to have a problem getting a response from men.
Still, if you're a single guy looking to find a gal-pal, you'd probably have a better chance at a church social. These are not places where you'll find your future wife nor are they places where you'll probably build lasting relationships.
Of course, you could run into someone you know. We wouldn't worry about it too much. They have just as much explaining to do as you do, especially if there doing research. Depending on your age, we can only imagine one thing worse; hearing a voice from the other side saying, "Hi, Dad!"(or Mom, whichever sounds worse to you)
8. CONDOMS?
Those damn little hunks of rubber that take away from the pleasurable experience of sex; should you use them? That's a personal decision obviously, but let's get real here. They may not be much fun, but they could save your life!
Sure, the stories written regarding glory holes never mention them, but in a story, it wouldn't be very erotic. It's like a porn movie. You want to see that hot cum squirting all over her face instead of it blowing up the end of a rubber! But, this isn't a movie or a story. This real life. Common sense should prevail.
It may also depend on what you decide to do. If you're going to masturbate someone, maybe you don't care as much. We recall one man, of several, that turned and placed his buttocks against the glory hole. It was clear what he wanted and the point was made even more clear because sticking in the crack of his butt was a packaged condom. Of course, do want to reach in there and pull it out?
While it's your choice, if you choose to use them, carry them with you. If you offer to it someone and they refuse it, so be it. They'll probably leave the booth and someone else will eventually come in. Still, through observation and talking to people, it seems the majority of people do not practice safe glory hole sex. Probably a mistake but we don't see it as our job to judge. We're not your parents and we're not your sex education teachers.
9. OKAY, SO YOU WANT TO GET OFF, OR GET SOMEONE ELSE OFF!
So, you've made the decision to do it, or do something. Go into the booth, put a few quarters in the slot and find a movie you might enjoy while you're waiting. If you want to be the one that gets off, unzip your pants, pull that baby out, and start stroking. Hey, that's what the movie is for and this is not a time to be shy. When the adjoining booth lights up from a movie starting, just wait. If you hear quite a few quarters dropping in the next booth, that's a good sign someone is at least interested.
If you want the other person to know you want to get off, it doesn't hurt to stand and face the hole. This will let the person know exactly what you want. While talking to the other person is fine, most everything is done by hand signals. If he wants you to stick that sucker through the hole, he'll place his finger on the hole, maybe circle it, and then withdraw it. That's your signal to put your penis through the hole. It doesn't mean however that oral sex will follow. It may be he is only willing to masturbate you.
Do you have to ejaculate? No, you can withdraw at anytime and wait for another person, or sometimes just take turns with the first person. The fact is, the other person may have no interest in oral or manual sex in any event. He may just want to watch or he may want you to watch him. In that event, don't expect a finger to come through the hole.
If, on the other hand, you want to get him off, just reverse the process. If he's interested when he sees that big old digit of yours, you'll know soon enough. What you do from there is up to you, but like you, he may not let you finish the job you've started. Don't be offended. It's not uncommon for a person to want to try several different people before going for the big one.
Like we said, people do talk to each other, but not often. You may be asked if it's okay to come in your mouth. You may be invited to join the other person or he may want to join you in your booth or, he may ask if you want to go his car or his place.
On the first one, we've done that, but that was finishing act of something that began outside in a vehicle and was prearranged. We wouldn't worry too much about accepting an invitation to join though. We haven't really run into anybody rude or crude and there is a certain safety factor in the building. The last thing management wants is a problem.
And, while we're at it, don't worry about running into Hannibal Lecter looking for a tube steak sandwich! We're not aware of anyone ever losing their precious member to a muncher. We're not saying saying it couldn't happen, just that we're not aware of any problems like that. The rudest thing we've ever witnessed, which happens often and may not be all that rude, is the guy that pokes his penis through the glory hole uninvited. You still have the safety of the wall between you and can choose to ignore or not ignore him.
Being invited outside, to a vehicle or a home, by a Jeffrey Dahmer wannabe, is quite another thing. Do it if you want, but we wouldn't. You're in a place believed to be frequented by gays and there is such a thing as gay bashing. You may not be gay, but try explaining that while you're munching on a warm creamstick for the first time in your life just to see what it's like.
10. WHY GO IN THE FIRST PLACE?
There's no emotional bond with the other person. In many places, you don't even see the other person's face. It's completely anonymous and in a sense, all very mechanical. We have our own reasons for going and we suspect everybody else does too. Maybe you just want to watch or be watched. We've done both. Maybe you want to be a little more active or just want to try something new.
Who knows! The fact is, it can be fun and entertaining. That's what it's really all about. Like we said, it's doubtful you're going to make any long lasting relationships in an adult bookstore. Although, we did one time meet someone that later lead to another meeting, but we would have to say that's extremely rare. Figure out why you want to go. For us, it isn't necessarily for sexual reasons, at least not always with other people. Since you don't have to do anything, go and enjoy-we have!
So, there you have it. Probably not the most exhaustive piece that could be written on the subject, but enough to get anybody started if they make decision to give it a try.
That they use RMS as a test subject. Given his potent odor, their prototype equipment will have an easier time functioning.
who could do this. He could pick out ethnic types with almost nearly complete accuracy. Then Howard got bored with him and brought out a guy who could fart a whole lot.
Ok, you have my name, social security number, IP address, you want to decide how I use MY computer, you take pictures of me when I go to sporting events, you want to cache my surfing habits, sniff my e-mail, and NOW you want to know what my ass smells like??
Two Letters: FO!
Oh, and by the way, All your funk belong to us!
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
This kind of reminds me of the East German's intelligence program of keeping people's scents on file. Maybe that will be next?
... the ripe smell of anchovy paste. Gak, cross your legs!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
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I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
I am the nightmare of nightmares.
*Insert ATM card* *place armpit next to machine* *make cash withdrawl*
We already have Retinal Scans, Voice Scans, DNA Scans, Fingerprint Scans, and Heat Signature scans, who knows what else they've come up with, why the hell would someone invest this much money into something virtually useless. Instead of lineups we just going to brush body odor laiden cotton swabs in front of witnesses face?
A HA! that's the stinky perp!! I wouldn't forget that smell anywhere!!
Plus wouldn't this be extremely easy to fake, the nose is one of the weakest sensory organs alone for a reason, it's a additional sensor that aides other senses, mainly taste. Anyone who wants to argue with me, fine argue, but I know that compared to the sense of touch, sight, and hearing, smell is one of the more non-essential senses. And I know this isn't a nose, but the nose being non-important might be a clue to not spend 3.2 million dollars.
I got an idea, lets quit saying how much social security and federal aid are hurting and divert funds for researching CRAP (pun intended) to the people!
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
This is just another sneaky government plot, this one to get geeks to bathe!
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
I am the nightmare of nightmares.
good thing I took a shower today.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
Could the robotic hounds be far behind? Run, Montag, run!
Was it urban legend or ... didn't the nazi's already do this with dogs?
I HAVE STRUCK GOLD!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
Taco Bell will become illegal!
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Body odours are, as the proposal points out, the result of carboxylic acids.
Although the term carboxylic acid covers very many molecules - basically anything with a HO-C=O somewhere on it, the molecule has to be volatile to have a smell. The problem is that not many acids are volatile - the very composition of the molecule means it makes hydrogen bonds with others easily, and even light acids are involatile liquids or solids.
This means there is a small pool of molecules to pick from so the chances of an individual having a unique blend is very small.
I HAVE STRUCK GOLD!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
The Statiz (sp? E. German Secret Police) did something like this once. They would take samples of everything and place it in sealed jars so if they needed to track you with the hounds later, they could in theory open the jar with a sample of your sofa in it and let the dogs loose.
Funny thing was that it didn't work.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
I HAVE STRUCK GOLD!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
You know, if their looking for new and impractical ways of identification, they may as well just make a device that can map you friggin tongues TASTEBUDS....
OMG ITS 1984 .. why cant they make something new for once...
with mechanical dogs that sniff you out and shoot you with needles full of poison.. damn darpa
A targeted anti-personnel mine comes to mind. Could be useful for taking out enemy commanders. A retreating force could leave these scattered in the bushes. Of course, they'd have to acquire some samples beforehand. Who does Saddam's laundry, by the way?
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
I HAVE STRUCK GOLD!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
I HAVE STRUCK GOLD!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I sniffed it out with my trusty 56k!
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Trolls, I HAVE found the biggest fucking collection of porn you OR I will EVER FIND IN OUR LIVES.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I am TALKING ABOUT Lesbians/strapon, Madonna, and hardcore.
http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
Check it out or mirror it fast before the webmaster plugs the open port up! http://wofut.com/~tomsmith
I also found a picture that looks like Ally (but older and legal and independant) of Spielbergh's Taken.
So pretty soon bathing will become illegal because it can be used as a circumvention device. Thrift shops will also become illegal since they will sell "pre-scented" disguises.
+1 Informative!
The premise was used in a scifi story... sorry I can't recall the book but basically a smartbomb was let loose to track the target by genetically-determined odortype... I don't think perfume can adequately cover the primary body odour.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
My guess would be that this would be useful because scent, unlike appearance, is harder to alter. A wanted criminal can just put on some different clothes, maybe grow a beard, etc, and he won't be easily recognized - wear shades, a hat, and he won't be very easy to recognize with any sort of automated system. Other methods of identification - fingerprints or retinal scan - are difficult to apply without the target noticing (and cooperating). I could see machines at airports or bus terminals that "sniff out" anyone who passes by, and if the smell matches with any in its database, bingo... IF the technology works, it could be far more reliable than current methods.
Of course, all this hinges on the idea that slapping on some cheap cologne won't confuse the machine. And I won't go into the privacy/1984/control etc. arguments...
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
I see a future where there are flying insect nanobots that attack and inject Vx nerve agents based on genetic odor patterns. It sounds very racist to me.
But seriously, people do smell differently, and I don't think it just from the food they eat. I have a poor sense of smell but I seem to be sensitive to certain types of odors, by chance all of them kinda gross-maybe it's because I grew up on a farm, who knows?
People who are related genetically seem to have have similar body ordors, so it potentially could be used to distinguish individuals.
If you use deodorant, you are with the terrorists!!!!
Should I pack my up my books and follow the train tracks out of town?
Crazy Muslims never shower and STINK!!!
RPN uses a stack. For example, lets try
(4 + 2)*(7 + 5)
which is
4
Enter 4 is on the stack
2
+ plus puts the 2 on the stack, then adds
we now have 6 on the stack
7
Enter
5
+ we have 6, 12 on the stack
* multiplies 6 by 12
easy! If any slashdotter wants to submit any equations, I'll demonstrate how to enter them in RPN.
some of my daughter's stinky flatulence to aid in the research. she drinks soy milk and eats soy cheese (milk allergies are fun to plan around) and she *definitely* has an odor all her own. anyone got any ideas on the best way to pass along some samples to DARPA? i'd hate to choose a container that failed to retain the potency :-D
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
are you telling me that black people smell
posted anonymously.. karma be damned!
YOU smell the government. And boy, does it ever stink...
...all international flights have updated their menus to include massive amounts of beans.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Imagine if you will... individuals trained to so control their body odour that they can produce on demand odours triggering fear, love, hate, submission, domination... the boardroom would never be the same and perfume would be antiquated. Join the Army become a B.O. warrior.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
3.2 million dollars to research this? I will take 1 million to tell them it won't work and they can use the remainder to put into some worthwhile efforts. Scents are not like retinal scans, they would be way to easy to mask or alter.
Of course it's a waste of money. When was the last time DARPA actually justified its funding by producing something? As soon as a DARPA project becomes economically or technologically feasable, it gets pulled by the DoD and put into a real R&D environment, where people don't just make PowerPoint presentations all day long.
First they wanted to taste my urine, searching for traces of that whiskey I chugged last night. So I bought an herbal supplement guaranteed to decontaminate my pee.
....
Now they want to sniff my pheromones. Guess I'll have to pick up a pair of Odor Eaters
-kgj
As long as this technology is only used to enforce good laws (i.e., against murder) then there's no problem. They're not going to start getting you for victimless crimes (except drugs and software piracy, maybe). So you have nothing to fear.
Repeal the DMCA!
And suddenly the large stockpiles of Old Spice found in Afghan caves seemed a little less ridiculous.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Actually, the East German Stasi had an archive of "smells".
t ml
http://www.wsws.org/history/1998/jan1998/gdr.sh
"In a country of 17 million, it maintained an army of 200,000 full-time and part-time secret agents to monitor every aspect of the lives of its citizens. The Stasi--or the "nationalised company listen and seize", as it was nicknamed by the people--even collected smell samples from suspicious elements, so it could use dogs to look for them if it wanted to arrest them. The samples were carefully stored in plastic bags. In the Stasi, as in many other fields, efficiency and monstrosity mingled with incompetence."
...of science articles. It is very unlikely that humans have a genetically determined smell. In 1992, Blaustein & Waldman did an experiment on tadpoles to see if they could recognize their kin based on scent. The reasoning behind it was to see if they could in fact be breeding collectively to increase indirect fitness. Out of the 12 species tested, they found that 8 showed a kin bias while 4 didn't. Three species favored full siblings over half siblings, three favored half sibliings over non-siblings, and one favored maternal over paternal siblings. Was it Kin recognition? No. Why? Well there was variable expression of this favoring within species and satistically it wasn't favored at all. In other words, it was an experimetanl artifact.
In 1990, Pfennig et al. repeated the experiment but fed different groups different diets. So non-kin got the same diet and kin recieved different diets. The result? Tadpoles stayed around those that ate the same material because they smelled the same. So it depended on diet rather than a genetic signature. However, further experiments showed that outside of nature, if the environment was completely identical then they could do some rough recognition but this condition never exists in the real world.
I have huge doubts the government will find a connection here. Before someone says that babies recognize the smell of their mothers, I want to say that is a common myth. Babies recognize the heart beat of their mothers and nothing more. What a waste of time and money.
Jeez, get a dog!
Seriously, when I read their specification for a device to enhance soldier performance (Silent engine, can run for hours without refuelin/recharging, will let a soldier carry extra gear, run faster and longer, jump higher and longer), I thought "its called a horse!".
I bet their final product won't even go fetch...
You can't take the sky from me...
if you don't try to subdue and control the resources of the rest of the planet, you don't have to do all this shit to your own population. you can still be a free democracy. iceland's been doing it for a couple of years, no?
They use "sniffers" at airports to detect explosive residue in carryon bags. Surely they can adopt that technology and just tell it to recognize other chemicals. Get sensitive enough equipment and you can recognize anything.
More like, in Soviet Russia the government might have spied on you.
In the USA, post 9/11, the government will spy on you.
So... what was the objective of this Cold War thing again?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So, odors are generally caused by 'aromatic molecules'. The nose, actually, is a molecular shape sensing device. Knowing what a terrorist smells like is central to knowing what kind of compounds and chemicals they've been working with. Somebody who smells acidic, dusty, and metallic is doing very different kind of work than somebody who smells of of wood/bark, musty, or moldy. The first person may be working with metals and acid etching things, whereas the second person may be a mycologist, and growing fungus. Between the two, the former is more likely to be making a bomb; the later bioweapons.
Considering that the article is partially humorous, and the icon for humor is a "stinky" foot, I would consider it more appropriate. ;-)
just not in such a high tech way.
When the Berlin wall fell and the STASI archives were opened they found zillions of sealed jars of odor samples taken from "suspects" IE citizens..
How quickly people forget.....
Still no cure for Cancer
The government consults slashdot headlines for the latest american technology.
Here's a link that gives a somewhat simplified explanation of dog and cat taste/smell... it even spares you some of the arcane aspects of organic chemistry
Animal senses
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Cant you just use allot of cheap cologne or some other kind of odor masker to disguise your stench?
And all the cool geeks that will help implement it.
I'm kidding. Fuck you.
teen spirit.
Steps to hide from government smell detectors: Perfect the "scumbag" smell. Move into US Capitol Building.
Well, that's tadpoles.. but here's my experience as a dog breeder (33 years and an average of around 30 individuals in my kennel):
For 12 years I had two essentially unrelated bloodlines. And I found that I could not keep dogs from the two different lines together or they'd fight (even when they didn't fight with their own relatives). Even those of the different lines that were raised together as pups would take a dislike to one another as adults. When I got some dogs from a third unrelated line, BOTH the other lines tried their best to kill them!! OTOH, they tended not to care one way or the other about newly-introduced dogs of other *breeds*. So it wasn't just a "new dog in town" problem.
Second, I've observed that in general, given a choice, dogs will mate with a closely-related dog in preference to one that's not related (whether they know the individual dog or not). With some stud dogs, it's such a marked preference that they aren't at all interested in breeding unrelated bitches -- and act like they don't "smell right".
BTW, contrary to common perception, newborn puppies recognise their dam (or other source of food, if bottle-fed) by touch first, scent somewhat later, and heartbeat *never*.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I can just picture Osama wolfing down burritos in the hopes of overwhelming the sensors.
Table-ized A.I.
Warning to those who eat a lot of curry... beware of DARPA!
Your government throws money at all types of security "solutions" right now because it believes that is what you want it to do. It believes that, given the events of the last 14 months, you are frightened enough to break Franklin's famous principle about trading freedoms for security. It will do anything to make you feel safer, not only by making you safer, but by throwing tax payer dollars at pointless and socially dangerous projects such as "odor identification systems", as well as more infamous projects such as the face scanning technologies used in Tampa that were found to misidentify a large percentage of the population.
This quagmire of government spending to make you feel safer regardless of the consequences will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them not to do anything. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done to protect your safety, but if money keeps being thrown at more and more invasive and ultimately pointless security measures you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how them doing stuff all the time just for the sake of being popular harms all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on whether or not they can summon up the political courage to spend an entire term getting nothing done.
You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
Maybe we can use this technology for good, and we'll finally be able to tell the difference between the Trekkers from the Trekkies.
Dr. Who fans, you're next.
everyone's hygiene will no longer be kept a secret and all those hackers who never bathe will have to "come clean"!
Why do the different races of people smell funny? You know there is a certain smell to black people and another smell to asian people... why?
How can this be "Redundant" if it's the first post? I don't understand... Oh well, I hope I see this in meta-mod...
C:\>
didn't my dog do this a long time ago, via his genome? For free (as in beer), no less, since his parents evidently did the Wild Thing (TM) for free, also....
C|N>K
Loud noise immediately following is DARPAs collective forehead-slap.
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
The object/character of "The Hound" comes to mind.
is DARPA spending 3.2 million to lame a computer learn how to sniff farts????
Note to self.
great sig. actually, this sort of thing may be doable. the DARPA web solicitation refers to sampling the environment for a chemical signature derived from a person's Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) proteins. these have a genetic basis and when sampling blood can be used to discriminate individuals without examining the DNA which encodes them. obviously, the technology DARPA wants developed will be to sample small amounts of protein from a defined environment to look for an immunological signature of an individual.
from a distance and without making direct contact with an individual, this type of technology would obviously be more useful to remote monitoring devices than fingerprints, DNA, etc. who knows, possibly in a 2nd or 3rd gen incarnations something like this could be used in a predator type aircraft scanning an area. flying bloodhounds in a sense.
IANAL, etc, etc... not legal advice, blah, blah, blah
Courts have long held that using odors is not necessarily a violation of your fourth amendment right to be free of unreaonable search and seizure (with a few exceptions).
The air around your vehicle, luggage, or other "object" is free to sniff, so drug sniffing dogs and explosive jiffy-sniffers are usable without a warrant. Vehicle "stop and sniff" random checkpoints have run into some trouble, but if you've been stopped by a police officer for some reason (traffic offense), and he suspects the presence of drugs, he can call for a dog, no problem. If said K-9 alerts on your car, probable cause to search is established. I believe the case was United States v. Place in the early 1980s.
Air around your person has been treated a bit differently, since random, agressive sniffing by a dog, without some articulable suspicion, has been considered a "search" by some courts.
There was a case of high school students being personally sniffed, and found unconstitutional... it was B.C. versus Plumas Unified School District. Here's a link with some info: Newspaper article you can probably google for the whole text of the decision.
Based on some of the above cases, this might actually BE unconstitutional, since it's a direct sniff of a person, not an object. You can sniff people without individualized suspicion, but the state has to seriously justify it... minimal privacy invasion, and compelling state interest. However, with the current terrorism problem, and simply having to walk through a gate of some kind to be sniffed (minimal invasion of privacy), this might pass constitutional muster. The lawyers will have their work cut out for them with this one.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Only terrorists use deodorant.
Only terrorists use perfume/cologne.
Only terrorists keep their mouth minty fresh.
See? ESR was a patriot all along.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Let the eagle soar. I let the eagle soar so much I'm sore!
That was so funny it caused me to shit my trousers, which is just going to draw them to me.
Fuck you! Star Trek was boring and D&D isn't fun!
So the Stassi, East German Secret Police, kept track of odors of people for their surveillance state. They also had national ID's, being held without due process, and the right to videotape or search you whenever if they suspected you for committing a crime against the state.
To me the police cameras in the UK are a bit much. I see similarities with the current laws that are anti-terrorism, with laws in East Germany to protect the socialist/communist party. I also see the future of the US laws being totally unsuccessful, just as the East German laws failed in keeping the communists in power. Like those medicines that target symptoms, they do little to treat the root cause of the disease and more to make the people feel better.
Oh no! They're after us!
Quick! Run and hide in that Phish concert!
I can smell those unix guys a mile away - Mt. Dew and Taco Bell...
Jesse Wolfe Sr. Manager Systems Integration
The smell is bad enough when you have a bunch of geeks together for a lan party. Would you really pay to be able to smell every slashdotter from across an entire continent?
Perhaps a chemical attack?
(snare flourish)
This story is BS. Slashdot owes it's existance to DARPA. DARPA funded the creation of resiliant networking and ended up with TCP/IP. DARPA funds a lot of projects, they are looking for stuff that geeks will consider "news" in 10-15 years. This story is currently hype but it may be real in the future. DARPA is a friend to many geeks.
Don't bite the hand (at least based on this story).
Y
no sig.
Probably they are investigating how to make mines that will trigger on movement and camelodor.
The mine will start sniffing upon sensing vibration and if it's camelsmell it detonates. A nasty little thing you could spread into deserts.
This weapon would be safe for US personell since they don't have this love for camels. Dropping loads if these kind of mines into terrorist countries could be a pretty efficient payback.
--- Linux or FreeBSD, it's like blondes or brunettes. I like both. ---
You might find these other Projects at the Office of Information Awareness worth a look. Satire cartoonist Tom Tomorrow mentions them in two very funny and recent comics, here and here
I've often thought they should try to train dogs
to sniff out HIV. It would be a lot cheaper than
high tech test kits for lesser developed countries.
Maybe DARPA will try it, and accomplish something really useful off the battlefield.
It wouldn't be the first time (e.g., internet).
I said, no text.
Keen are the Nostrils of the Elves.
Cross-dressing? Orgies?
This is going to be a bitch.
How long before some android just uses a spray bottle full of the commanding officer's breath to breach security and try to kill Sigourney Weaver's clone? She musn't be harmed, as she's the only one who can defeat the aliens.
since they were doing this in vietnam. though then it was just people detection by sensing the chemicals humans emitt.
i know the technology wasnt so hot back then because they were in a jungle (where everything is alive), but in almost everyother environment it should work just fine.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
Is this the same Army "bag" job the Repubs are using to pay back that good soldier Poindexter?
This guy is a felon convicted of destroying documents and lying to congress during the Iran-Contra affair under Regan and bush the elder. Ollie North and the James Bond wannabe who offered to stand outside and be take a bullet for the gipper?
Is this the same outfit that is offering up big money to develop an all seeing and knowing database fully distributed and secure and updatable capable of IDing terrorist signatures by itself and with some human input?
Isn't this a shameless bag job 10 years after the fact for Admiral Poindexter for being a good soldier and not saying anything?
it should be easy to identify the genes cusing the particular smells. with targeted genetic drugs you could smell like someone from beijing or kabbul or arizona (just examples).but wouldnt diet really have the maximum effect on how you smell?
I reckon this is just a way for George to identify the compostion of male scents that his interns find most attractive so that he can run a scent replay attack on them to try and overcome the DDOS thing that is currently happening.
I hope the reasearchers are good though - a little cross-contamination during the collection phase might otherwise lead to a man in the middle attack.
The funny thing is, OpenBSD is recieving support from DARPA.
Look...
&shower
The obvious next step is to then create a huge database of people and their signature smells.
Then I could find a woman who smells as nice as my first love, but who isn't a cheating whoring selfish bitch.
Seriously, most romance/love/lust is all tied to smells. If you could assemble a database that maps smell types to people you could then create relationships between these smell types, essentially mapping who is attracted to whom, based on their own bio-chemical makeup. Talk about an effective dating service!
Knowledge is power.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
I saw a challenge show in the UK- they had challenges for people who claimed to be able to do amazing stuff.
s they go see a psychiatrist. Whereas guys go on TV and brag about it. Or form a Special Interest Group with other likeminded guys. ;).
There was a guy who claimed he could identify stamps by tasting them. He really could! He had difficulty with one stamp, but that was identified by actually chewing and _eating_ it!
Stamps! It was mostly guys.
I suppose when women have these abilities/obsessions/compulsions/hobbies/interest
Coz I'm sure the dog smells a LOT more on the gun than just those dozen guys.
After all, dogs can detect cancer in people, and detect mines just from shipped air samples stored in test tubes. Trained dogs can even detect lung cancer from air samples.
So my guess it's more a communication problem.
It's probably like calling a wine expert over the phone and asking them to identify which of 12 unlabeled identical bottles of wine you sent to him come from the same vineyard, when 1) you don't speak the same language. 2) you don't even know the names of any regions. 3) Your only knowledge of wine is it's fermented grape juice. 4) You were born with no sense of smell.
Sure it can be done. Easier if you had done similar work together before. But it will still take time, even for slightly different scenarios.
If the DARPA finds a way to improve interspecies communication that could help.
Most dogs probably never have to ask "How are you?", they can smell the answer just a few feet away.
Of course there are dumb ones who might be able to smell all that, but never remember/figure out what it all means. Still, they probably never needed to learn about their sense of smell - just need to know "walkies, food, sit and stay".
$1M will disappear in the acquisition of a grant administrator and office space for him/her.
$1M will be absorbed by the staff to fill that office and their office equipment.
$200K will be used to publish and distribute the requirements documents.
$800K will be used to properly vet the applications, applicants, sponsors of the applicants, families and friends of the owners and companies involved, to clear them of terrorist and Enron ties.
$250K will be needed to pay for auditing of the process.
$100K will be needed to explain why the process was $50K over-budget before the first grant was issued.
$500K will be needed to defend the suits brought for improper handling of the application process.
$250K will be needed to pay for the staff time needed to investigate and cover up problems before the congressional hearings start.
As you can see, we as citizens have nothing to worry about on this from the privacy angle...
Will take a fair bit of doing for machines. Not sure if they'd be able to do it with 3.2 million without dogs.
l s /d ogs020611.html
Dogs can identify individuals. And they can even distinguish twins from each other, if they are exposed to both trails simultaneously, if it's one at a time, it's about the same as us having difficulty identifying twins by sight on different occasions.
And they can even detect _cancer_ in individuals.
http://www.canoe.ca/HealthNews/980910_jones.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNew
For more do a search on: dogs smell cancer
For a time I worked as a contractor on a program in the DARPA ISO (Information Systems Office). A common misperception about DARPA is that they're bumbling DoD idiots who are always running off chasing impossible goals.
DARPA was established specifically to go after high-risk, high-payoff technologies. They know that many of their projects will not result in immediate payoff in terms of useable technologies, but they figure that those technologies which do make it will leapfrog two generations ahead of any competing technology.
That being said, the program methodology at DARPA is oriented toward specific uses of technology. They're not generally interested in creating something just to see if the technology will work.
People also have the impression that the research and development takes place *at* DARPA (the infamous "clones in the basement" episode of the X-Files springs to mind ;-) . The truth is that the project managers work out of DARPA, but university labs, defense contractors, and other organizations do the actual development work. In many cases, "failed" DARPA projects later lead to working technologies, based on the expertise gained during the original project.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
I remember watching a show about the east german secret police, the stasi, collecting people's scent on some special cloth and storing it in a jar for years. Supposedly, they had millions of these and a bunch of trained german shepards. It was so good I heard, they could trace a person's path on the street up to an hour after they had walked it. Kind of scary...
Am I the only one who thinks they came up with this idea after watching Homer become a food critic?
Next they'll fund the revolutionary technology that can "hear pudding".
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The bloodhound lobby will put a stop to this. Think of all the union canines that would be put out of work if this gets developed.
This sounds like a joke, but it was true. The Stasi would collect "odors" by covertly stealing articles of clothing or by running a cloth over a surface that the person had been in contact with. Then they would store the cloth in what was basically a mason jar and catalogue it. When the wall came down in Germany, it was discovered that the Stasi had storerooms full of thousands of these jars with the stored odors. I'm not sure what the practical reason for collecting the odors, but I suspect it had something to do with tracking suspected enemies of the state with dogs.
So, why is it unlikely that HUMANS have a non-genetically determined smell? What makes you so certain that it was the smell that made the tadpoles prefer certain ones based on DIET? And how could "Pfennig et al." REPEAT a 1992 experiment in 1990??
When their numbers dwindled from 50 to 8, the dwarves began to suspect Hungry.
Dogs are being trained in Florida (U.S.) and England to sniff out various cancers. This does not have the excitement of the $3 million for the Army's sniffing dogs and using them in war. But it is probably more important for you to know, as either 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 of you will develop cancer in your lifetime. Thus making it more likely for cancer to hit you than a bomb--that the Army is trying to protect you from ostensibly.
It makes you wonder why the Army Medical Research section isn't spending the $3 million on training dogs to sniff out more than the 5 or 6 cancers that are currently under study of how well they are sniffed out by trained dogs.
The Cambridge, England study is training dogs to sniff urine specimens of prostate cancer and some others. The Florida study is sniffing the breath of lung cancer patients to train their very sensitive sniffers as to what that breath smells like so they can identify it when screening a "normal" person for lung cancer.
I would not be surprized if dogs with their enormous noses could sniff out lung cancer when it is still very small before the damaging and invasive X-ray can "see" it! Then you wouldn't need invasive surgery to "cut it out." You could
treat it by non invasive, non toxic treatments.
Perhaps these "cancer bloodhounds" are being trained to bark twice when they smell lung cancer on your breath. Who nose??
Go not unto the Usenet for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (and .sig somewhere
quite a few things that just have nothing at all to do with the question).
-- seen in a
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