I don't understand a word of what is written here but this is the coolest blog on Earth.

Bless you Crazy Japan!

Spring collection of Japan Tobacco's "smoking manners" campaign.

More in Tokyotimes.
Winter posters.

Can somebody give an explanation for these surreal knit bricks spotted in Norwich?

Related: the foam brick.

A police station in Fukuoka, Japan, appointed a high-performance security robot its chief for a day this April 6 as part of a campaign to promote safe driving.

T63 Artemis is equipped with light and sound sensors and can throw colored balls at those acting suspiciously. In a ceremony at the Station, police chief Kikuo Mori handed a letter of assignment to the robot, which donned a police hat and a campaign banner.

The robot had previously been used to patrol a shopping arcade in Fukuoka.

Via Japan Today.
Details about the robot in Gizmag.

Summit-Quinphos, an agricultural company in New Zealand worried at the amount of nitrogen leaching from pasture, has invented a spray device to attach to the tails of cattle.

The Tail-Activated Urine-Incorporation of Nitrogen Extender (TAURINE) will fire a blast of nitrogen inhibitor into the urine patch every time the beast lifts its tail to answer the call of nature.

A switch mounted under the tail triggers spraycans attached to the animal's ankle.

Jamie Blennerhasset of Summit-Quinphos insists the development is bona fide: "I can confirm that it is actually real. We have working models."

Blennerhasset added that the device need not be worn by the cow all year, as nitrogen-leaching rates varied seasonally.

It's April Fools Day, but these New Zealand newspapers posted the story a few days ago (it still sounds like a joke, tho'): Stuff and The New Zealand Herald.

Read about one of the best hoaxes in history.

The Daf Yomi is a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of Talmud learning. Participants study a page a day of this compendium of Jewish oral law, culminating in a celebration, known as the Siyum HaShas.

But how do you study a 2,711-page book when you have to commute?
With the ShasPod.

For $399, Yehuda Shmidman sends his customers a 20-gigabyte iPod loaded with Talmud lectures. That is $100 above the price of an iPod alone.

"We created this because of two glaring trends," the entrepreneur said. "One is the iPod, and the other is the Siyum HaShas, which is something so incredible that when it happens you obviously want to join the next cycle."

MP3 audio files of Daf Yomi lectures have long been available online. But many ultra-Orthodox Jews refrain from using the Web for purposes unrelated to work, so they have no way of downloading these files.

Via Antonio < The New York Times.