Now the Machines Are Learning How to Smell

Google has its own perfume—or at least one team of the company’s researchers does. Crafted under the guidance of expert French perfumers, the mixture has notes of vanilla, jasmine, melon, and strawberries. “It wasn’t half bad,” says Alex Wiltschko, who keeps a vial of the perfume in his kitchen.Google’s not marketing that scent anytime soon,…

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Can License Plate Readers Really Reduce Crime?

In March, police in an Atlanta suburb embarked on a surveillance experiment in the hopes of reducing crime in the area. Along public roads near the local Six Flags amusement park, officers from the Cobb County Police Department installed 13 solar-powered automatic license-plate readers from Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based startup on a mission to “eliminate…

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‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Is Lagging Behind ‘Avengers: Endgame’

Hello, welcome to The Monitor, WIRED's roundup of all things pop culture. Today we have a lot of news from Disney—both from Marvel and Lucasfilm. Meanwhile, HBO is filling its coffers for the streaming wars. Here we go.Bob Iger Is Not Here for Famous Directors Talking Trash About MarvelRecently, as readers of this roundup may…

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The Best Jobs Are in Government. No, Really

In her memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama describes making the transition from a fancy job in a law firm to working in Chicago's City Hall. She writes that the lobby was "alarmingly and upliftingly packed with people," including couples getting married, people lodging complaints, babies in strollers, and old ladies in wheelchairs. She was enthralled by…

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Samsung Galaxy Fold Review: The Future Won’t Fit in Your Pants

I would like to stop carrying around the Galaxy Fold now. It is oddly shaped and heavy. It weighs down my bag even more than other phones do.But the design is novel; it's centered around a flexible OLED display. That means when it’s expanded, when it unfurls itself to the world, it becomes a device…

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Pompeo Was Riding High—Until the Ukraine Mess Exploded

If you watched carefully earlier this month, you could almost see Mike Pompeo’s political life flash before his eyes as he sat for seven minutes, almost unblinking, under withering cross-examination by—of all people, he must’ve thought—a local Nashville TV reporter.With question after question, WSMV’s Nancy Amons grilled the increasingly uncomfortable secretary of state about the…

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