Persistent Foul Odors Lead To The Creation Of "Hattiesburg Stink Fest" Music Festival

Something is rotten in the state of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Frequent foul smells from the downtown area, caused by the city lagoon and industrial waste,have become an ongoing problem. Music promoters in Hattiesburg hoped some rock ‘n’ roll music would focus attention on the unpleasant downtown smells, WDAM reports. Such is the humble beginnings of the “Hattiesburg Stink Fest.”

Crowds gather for Hattiesburg Stink Fest (WDAM)

According to WDAM, Stink Fest organizers wanted people to enjoy the music and also encourage local government officials to work together to find a solution to the problem. One government official, Ward Four Councilwoman Mary Dryden, spoke at the event and addressed the bad smelling problem.

"My hope and my prayer is that this is behind us very quickly," said Dryden. "Complacency causes communities to collapse and the fact that you came today, the fact that you want to be aware of this problem and find out what can be done about it, shows that you care about Hattiesburg."

Festival director, Michael Peerboom, speaking to WDAM is hopeful that this festival will draw attention to the growing problem. "I'd like to see the City make a move on it and start getting the problems fixed."

More info at WDAM

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Dell laptop buyers make a stink over cat smell

NEW YORK (AP) — A noxious feline odor has some Dell customers caterwauling.

People who own Dell Latitude 6430u laptops are complaining that their pricey new computers are emitting a smell similar to cat urine. Some of them said on the company's online customer forums that the odor seems to be coming from the keyboard or palm rest.

The Round Rock, Texas, company originally advised buyers through its forums to try cleaning their keyboards with a soft cloth or compressed air, but the smell persisted.

"The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box," wrote a customer using the handle "three west" on a Dell forum back in June. "It is truly awful!"

On Wednesday, another customer writing under the handle "passflips" said he felt terrible for repeatedly scolding his cat Jerry, because he thought the elderly cat kept spraying the computer. The poster also said he wasted money on veterinarian bills in an attempt to determine whether his cat had a medical problem.

Dell said Thursday that its investigation revealed strange scent is related to a manufacturing process, which the company has since fixed. But if your portable PC isn't purrfect, Dell recommends contacting the company's technical support team to have your laptop's palm rest assembly replaced.

Company spokesman David Frink said the odor isn't related to a "biological contamination" and doesn't present a health hazard. He added that newly assembled laptops that are currently in stores aren't affected.

The laptops in question are ultrabooks designed for business use. The base model starts at $900 on Dell's website, but Dell charges close to $1,300 for higher-end versions that include Windows 8 and Intel Core i5 processors.

While laptop users may find the smell of cat urine offensive, "cat's pee" is a term sometimes used by wine lovers to describe a wine's aroma.

And while the smell coming from the Dell computers is apparently unintentional, more than one group of engineers is working on "Smell-o-Vision" TV to engage viewers' olfactory senses. In addition, a host of recent smartphone add-ons make scents, too, including the Scentee, a Japanese smartphone attachment that plugs into a phone's earphone jack and dispenses scented vapors through dedicated cartridges.

Technology & ElectronicsComputingDell LatitudeDell

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Welsh village's proposed name change raises stink

LONDON (AP) — A proposed name change is raising a stink in one British village.

Welsh-language campaigners say Varteg, in south Wales, should be rebranded with a more authentic Welsh spelling — Y Farteg.

The Welsh language has no letter v, though the sound is made by the letter f. Varteg is an anglicization of the original Welsh name.

Some residents fear the change will make their town the target of ridicule.

Villager Sioned Jones told Wales Online, "Just imagine how embarrassing it will be to have the word 'fart' in your village's name, never mind being followed by egg."

Another resident, Ray Leyshon, called the proposal "a bad joke."

The local government said Tuesday that the Welsh Language Commissioner had proposed the name change but that residents would be consulted first.

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