Low-level exposure to sarin nerve gas could have caused brain damage in former service members, according to scientists working with the DoD. More than 100,000 US troops were exposed to that toxin in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War. Snip from NYT article:

Roberta F. White of Boston University led the study of sarin nerve gas, which used new scanning technology. Though the results are preliminary, the study is notable for being financed by the federal government and for being the first to make use of a detailed analysis of sarin exposure performed by the Pentagon, based on wind patterns and plume size.

The report, to be published in the June issue of the journal NeuroToxicology, found apparent changes in the brain’s connective tissue — its so-called white matter — in soldiers exposed to the gas. The extent of the brain changes — less white matter and slightly larger brain cavities — corresponded to the extent of exposure, the study found.

Previous studies had suggested that exposure affected the brain in some neural regions, but the evidence was not convincing to many scientists. The new report is likely to revive the long-debated question of why so many troops returned from that war with unexplained physical problems.

Link. And here's the site for NeuroToxicology (pay access only, and the site navigation is abominable)

Reader comment: Patrick Snajder says,

You noted in the link to the NeuroToxicology that the site navigation, from publisher Elsevier, is abominable. You are probably aware, but Elsevier is currently being boycotted by some scientists for its involvement in arms trade shows: Link, and current news here.] The fact that Elsevier was involved was, ironically or not, rooted out by another Elsevier journal, The Lancet: Link.

Last month, I posted the short list for the Royal Society 2007 Prize for Science Books. The Royal Society is the UK's national academy of science, and even making the long list of potential winners is a huge deal for science writers. This year, the prize goes to "Stumbling on Happiness," the pop science bible of positive psychology by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert. Here's Gilbert's response to winning, from the Royal Society press release:

I'm absolutely delighted to receive this tremendous honour from the world's oldest learned society. There are very few countries (including my own) where a somewhat cheeky book about happiness could win a science prize -- but the British invented intellectual humour and have always understood that enlightenment and entertainment are natural friends. So God bless the empire!

Link to buy Stumbling on Happiness, Link to Royal Society press release

Previously on BB:
• Royal Society 2007 Prize for Science Books Link
• Stumbling on Happiness: why we suck at being happy Link
• Radio show on the science of happiness Link

This year, Prozac celebrates twenty years of better (?) living through chemistry! In The Observer, Anna Moore lists twenty things "you need to know about the most widely used antidepressant in the world." From the article:

Eli Lilly, the company behind Prozac, originally saw an entirely different future for its new drug. It was first tested as a treatment for high blood pressure, which worked in some animals but not in humans. Plan B was as an anti-obesity agent, but this didn't hold up either. When tested on psychotic patients and those hospitalised with depression, LY110141 - by now named Fluoxetine - had no obvious benefit, with a number of patients getting worse. Finally, Eli Lilly tested it on mild depressives. Five recruits tried it; all five cheered up. By 1999, it was providing Eli Lilly with more than 25 per cent of its $10bn revenue...

Twenty years on, Prozac remains the most widely used antidepressant in history, prescribed to 54m people worldwide, and many feel they owe their lives to it. It is prescribed for depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, eating disorders and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (formerly known as PMT). In the UK, between 1991 and 2001, antidepressant prescriptions rose from 9m to 24m a year.

Link (via Mind Hacks)

Previously on BB:
• Peed-out Prozac detectable in UK water-supply Link
• Carbs crank up serotonin Link

BoingBoing reader Philip says,

I created a fun game called "Hitler or Falwell!" This is a simple game of Godwinism, in which I present a quote and YOU guess who said it. Some sample questions:

1. My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter.
2. This 'turn the other cheek' business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for.

Link

Previously:

Falwell's stupidest quotes, direct from hell.

Jerry Fallwell talks about his first time.

(ANSWERS TO SAMPLE QUESTIONS HERE...

Joshua Glenn says:

This guy Joe Alterio is very talented and it's a fun way to raise money for a good cause.

Robots and Monsters is "a charitable effort that is one part fundraiser, one part lowbrow art gallery, and one part collective art experiment." In an effort to raise money for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Alterio has offered to draw you a robot or a monster, as defined by three words or phrases you provide. He explains:

"You get the original piece of art, 6" x 6", signed, of a robot or monster or both (your choice), as defined by three words you provide.... An image of one robot or monster is 25 bucks, a picture of 2 things, either robot or monster, is 40."

Other artists may join in the fun -- if so, Alterio says he will eventually publish a book of all the robots and monsters they create.

Link

Anonymous Digital Rights Crusader says,

Last night, PBS Frontline aired Spying on the Home Front (Link), devoted to all the ways our government is spying on us outside of normal lawful processes. With extras not included in the televised version, the episode is available in either Quicktime or Windows Media (Video Link).

From the PBS site (Link):

9/11 has indelibly altered America in ways that people are now starting to earnestly question: not only perpetual orange alerts, barricades and body frisks at the airport, but greater government scrutiny of people's records and electronic surveillance of their communications. The watershed, officials tell FRONTLINE, was the government's shift after 9/11 to a strategy of pre-emption at home -- not just prosecuting terrorists for breaking the law, but trying to find and stop them before they strike.

President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree.

Even government officials with experience since 9/11 are nagged by anxiety about the jeopardy that a war without end against unseen terrorists poses to our way of life, our personal freedoms. "I always said, when I was in my position running counterterrorism operations for the FBI, 'How much security do you want, and how many rights do you want to give up?'" Larry Mefford, former assistant FBI director, tells Smith. "I can give you more security, but I've got to take away some rights. … Personally, I want to live in a country where you have a common-sense, fair balance, because I'm worried about people that are untrained, unsupervised, doing things with good intentions but, at the end of the day, harm our liberties."

I've seen Salvador Dalí's famous Alka Seltzer commercial many times, but this video shows two I didn't know about: Dalí pitching Lanvin chocolates and Veterano brandy. There are others on the YouTube page too!
Link (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Previously on BB:
• Salvador Dalí on "What's My Line?" Link
• Dalí in Smithsonian Link

In January, Shannon Malloy, 30, was in a car crash in Nebraska that left her "internally decapitated." Her skull and spine separated but her neck remained whole. Amazingly, she survived and is recovering. From DenverChannel.com:

Five screws were drilled into Malloy's neck. Four more were drilled into her head to keep it stabilized. Then a thing called a halo -- rods and a circular metal bar -- was attached for added support...

"My skull slipped off my neck about five times. Every time they tried to screw this to my head, I would slip," said Malloy.

Rebuilding Malloy's neck strength was a priority, but there were also other complications.

"I had a fractured skull, swollen brain stem, bleeding in my brain, GI tube in my stomach, can't swallow, and nerve damage in my eyes (because they cross)," said Malloy.

Doctors are working on that but she has been lucky enough to get the halo removed. She videotaped the experience for 7NEWS.

Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)

Daniel Terdiman, who soils his eyeballs with The Sun so you don't have to, blogs,

If you've ever spent any time on your sofa wishing that you could take it wherever you wanted to go, you might want to talk to Marek Turowsk.

That's because on Sunday, Turowsk set a new world record for "fastest furniture," according to The Sun, a British publication.

The Sun reported that Turowsk hit 92 miles an hour, breaking the previous record of 87 miles an hour for high-speed couches, which was set in 1998 by engineer Ed China.

Link. The couchmobile is plastered with ads for sofa.com.

Cropped detail here, full ad here: Link to "The Mother Whose Children Are Happy at Home," an ad for Lysol (yes, that Lysol), in a 1926 magazine. Here's a later ad from the '40s, and this article puts the ads in context.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) are among a handful of congresscritters participating in an experiment in which they must subsist on standard US food stamp rations for one week.

The shocking conclusion, so far? $21 worth of stamps a week doesn't add up to much, and it's "almost impossible" to maintain a healthy diet for $1 a meal (huh, wonder why America's poor suffer obesity in such great numbers?).

Both lawmakers are blogging about the experience: McGovern here, Ryan here. Snip from Ryan's latest post:

My biggest concern today is running out of food before the end of the week.

One loaf of bread doesn’t make as many sandwiches as you’d think, and I’m running through my cottage cheese pretty fast as well.

The budgeting was hard enough, rationing what I do have will present another challenge.

Link to Washington Post story (thanks, Rebecca).

Reader comment: Stephan says,

These Congressmen aren't the first politicians to think of living off food stamps for a week. Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon spent his own week eating for only $21 less than a month ago. Take your choice of links.

Chris says, More examples of (this time UK) politicians dipping their toe in the pool of real life in a phony attempt to get credibility.

In 1993 UK politician Michael Portillo lived like a 'single mom' on £80 a week.

And David Cameron (leader of opposition Conservatives) has just finished living with a Muslim family in Birmingham for a week, and being a teaching assistant for a couple of days: Link.

Nick says,

Michael Pollan did a great job explaining why the poor suffer from obesity in the April 22 NY Times Magazine - it's because crap like Twinkies is cheap. And Twinkies are cheap because of the U.S. farm bill, which subsidizes Twinkie ingredients, but not things like fresh veggies. Pollan's article is lucid and illuminating. Link.

My fellow NPR contributor Stacy Bond says,

Folks like me who rely on Internet streaming to listen to great public radio stations like KEXP in Seattle or KCRW in Los Angeles - may be disheartened by the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) requiring public broadcasters to pay the same (outrageous) royalties as commercial broadcasters, and charging them back-pay.

Luckily, an updated a public broadcasting advocacy site will now allow the public an opportunity to tell congress how they feel about the CRB ruling.

Some background:

Currently, internet streaming provides music that isn't pre-programmed (via payola to corporate entities like Clear Channel or Infinity Broadcasting), but that instead results from actual music-loving dj's digging through the stacks and selecting what they enjoy and want to share.

These low-budget stations' way of doing things is in danger now due to the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

The ruling "exposes public radio stations that stream their musical content to huge increases in royalty payments and threatens to drastically curtail the programming diversity found on public broadcasting websites. This decision treats public broadcasters the same as commercial entities and saddles public radio stations with inappropriate and unachievable requirements.

Additionally, because the CRB's decision requires public radio stations to pay royalties on a per song/per listener basis, it directly contradicts public radio's public service obligations and mission. In a very direct way, the CRB decision penalizes public radio stations for their service to the public. The more of the American population [public stations] reach, the larger the royalty payments."

To help protect non-commercial broadcasters and give them an even playing field with the likes of clear channel, visit the site and make your voice heard.

Link

Previously on BB:

Internet radio crisis: an overview, from SomaFM's Rusty Hodge

Internet radio crisis: Newsweek's coverage

Reader comment: Andy Mardesich plugged in the name of at least one lawmaker on this site and found support status information that was out of date. He says,

It looks like the www.savenetradio.org site is more accurate in terms of indicating the status of reps who do or do not currently support the bill. I wrote TellThemPublicMatters.org to point this out, and they replied to say they're "upgrading" soon.

Matthew J. Kelly says,

It should be noted that that NPR's position on internet radio is entirely consistent with its earlier opposition to low-power FM radio, which, in association with the National Association of Broadcasters, it helped kill several years ago. The Low Power Radio Act of 2000 (sponsored by Senators McCain and Kerry) would have allowed neighborhoods and local communities to set up and operate their own non-commercial community radio stations, something that was (and is) really needed in places like rural America. NPR opposed it, claiming such stations would interfere with existing public radio stations, a claim many, like myself, found a little less than credible. While I'm glad NPR's on board with the fight to protect internet radio, questions will remain for me as to its motives.

Wired's Sunny Bains turned in an excellent piece on technology-induced synaesthesia -- the use of technological prostheses to give humans new senses, or to cross-wire existing ones. Some of the examples she cites are really compelling, like the researcher who surrounded his midriff with rumble-packs, the northernmost of which would gently vibrate, so that he could "feel" north at all times. Eventually, he ended up with a faultless sense of direction, able to pilot himself around strange cities without getting lost. Even more compelling was the rewiring of a subject's sense of balance: University of Wisconsin installed a feedback mechanism on the tongues of subjects with severe balance problems caused by inner-ear disruption. Although their inner ears told them they were whirling around, their tongues vibrated on the left if they were leaning to the left, on the right if they were leaning to the right, and in the middle if they were upright. The subjects were able to overcome their inner ear's faulty directions and navigate without falling over.

I cranked up the voltage of the electric shocks to my tongue. It didn't feel bad, actually — like licking the leads on a really weak 9-volt battery. Arnoldussen handed me a long white foam cylinder and spun my chair toward a large black rectangle painted on the wall. "Move the foam against the black to see how it feels," she said.

I could see it. Feel it. Whatever — I could tell where the foam was. With Arnold ussen behind me carrying the laptop, I walked around the Wicab offices. I managed to avoid most walls and desks, scanning my head from side to side slowly to give myself a wider field of view, like radar. Thinking back on it, I don't remember the feeling of the electrodes on my tongue at all during my walkabout. What I remember are pictures: high-contrast images of cubicle walls and office doors, as though I'd seen them with my eyes. Tyler's group hasn't done the brain imaging studies to figure out why this is so — they don't know whether my visual cortex was processing the information from my tongue or whether some other region was doing the work.

I later tried another version of the technology meant for divers. It displayed a set of directional glyphs on my tongue intended to tell them which way to swim. A flashing triangle on the right would mean "turn right," vertical bars moving right says "float right but keep going straight," and so on.

Link

Are you an aficionado of midcentury Japanese pop & easy-listening LPs? Taylor Jessen of Burbank has a mystery to solve:

I've got an aircheck from Firesign Theatre, a radio show from 1970, where the engineer keeps playing cuts from an LP that I think is a collection of pop instrumental versions of Japanese children's songs.

Here's a page full of MP3s. Mystery cue #1, "Chugoku-Chiho no Komoriuta" (中国地方の子守唄), is truly stunning - haunting and unforgettable.

Wow, the songs really are beautiful. Taylor has detailed his investigation here (for starters, none of the Firesign guys today know what the music is anymore). If you can help him solve the mystery, please contact him here (do not email me). (Thanks, Q-Burns Abstract Message!)

Craftsmen from Germany's Black Forest created the Music Orb, a spherical wood music box that plays Mozart's Voi Che Sapete. Wind it up and set it rolling. From Cookie:

No plastic, no shoot-me-now music clips, no seizure-inducing lights. Just a perfect oak sphere with the ethereal sounds of Mozart's "Voi Che Sapete" twinkling out from its 18-note chime...

Link

BoingBoing reader Rob Getzschman of Aisle Five Multimedia shares a funny, effective, work-safe AIDS PSA he produced for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.

"The music is Lead Belly's 'Keep Your Hands Off Her,' which I think fits quite nicely," says Rob. "A buddy of mine says he's never eating a frosted sugar cookie again."

Video Link to "Do you know where that cookie's been?"

Previously on BB: Awesome animated anti-AIDS PSAs from France

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the launches of Voyager I and II, NASA's interstellar probes. Both probles were carrying copies of the Golden Record, a phonograph disc with photos, music, and other material to give an extraterrestrials a sense of life on Earth. Carl Sagan led the committee to pick what was on the record, and it quite a strange and interesting collection of stuff, from a Blind Willie Johnson tune to a surreal photo "demonstration of licking, eating and drinking." From Jimmy Carter's message recorded on the Golden Record:

"Of the 200 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some—perhaps many—may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe."

Link to the Golden Record page at NASA, Link to more at Popular Science (via Fortean Times)

The domain escrow firm that handled the transaction says, in a press release,

The sale is the largest all-cash domain transaction in history. It is the second largest domain sale overall after Sex.com, which sold for reportedly US $12 million in cash and stock during a private sale in January 2005.

Link. An early news account at SMH.

UPDATE: Joseph Menn of the LA Times slays all others covering this story with one mighty lede:

The free market has spoken: Sex is worth more than porn.

Link to his piece in the LAT.

Mental floss has a nice collection of science-fiction themed wedding photos and videos. Shown here: Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton offers a selection of Star Trek wedding packages. Link

Earlier this year, Stelarc finally found a medical doctor willing to implant a cell-cultivated ear beneath the skin on the artist's forearm.

The resulting body-mod is shown here. Photo by Nina Sellars, who is also married to the artist.

Stelarc is apparently planning to go through a few more surgeries to give it more definition.

"He's also going to implant a mic inside the ear that will connect to a bluetooth transmitter, so the ear can broadcast audio from the internet wirelessly," explains former BB guestblogger and sometimes Stelarc collaborator Karen Marcelo. "That Stelarc, always got something up his sleeve! He likes to say that too. "

He also has a walking robotic head (photos: 1, 2).

More photos of the arm with ear: surgery close-up (warning: extra gross), and here's a bunch more, including the rubber negative and cells growing in a petri dish (ew, looks like a shallow bowl of wonton soup).

(Thanks, Karen Marcelo!)

Previously on BoingBoing:

Jasmina Tešanović: Stelarc in Ritopek

Lend me an ear

Cultured Couture

Reader comment: Darran Edmundson says,

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of playing a small technical role in one of Stelarc's projects. He's the most accomplished but down-to-earth artist you'd ever have the pleasure of meeting. Third person paraphrased, I heard his response to the question, "What was the secret to hanging from all of those hooks?" (Link) as, "No secret, it f*cking hurts (smile)". He's a character ... and I mean that in the most positive sense imaginable.

Here is the trailer for writer-director Omer Ali Khan's "Zibahkhana"(Hell's Ground), a Pakistani zombie flick said to have been shot in less than a month on a single high-def cam.

Here's the official website, here's the MySpace with screening dates around the world.

The plot, not that one needs much of one in a zombie flick, involves a gang of teenagers en route to a rock concert. Their path to the show is blocked by a protest against polluted drinking water. The teens detour around the protesters on an old country road, and end up in the hands of hungry, undead psychopaths who munch on them with great delight.

Snip from Variety feature:

[It] might not be Pakistan's first horror movie, but it's almost certainly the first featuring midget zombies and produced by an ice cream mogul.

And here's an item on the Lahore metblog from "pretty simple," who went to see a screening in Pakistan yesterday:

The stuff I liked about this local director's flick was that, that its purely based on Pakistani Culture, there were glimpses of Maula Jutt, dhamal beat as the dominant background music, usage of "shuttlecock burqa" as mask or cover, even Luddoo. Yes, the story was predictable, but original locations and related Pakistani props gave it a reality-based genuine touch. It was fun watching first Pakistani horror movie, no doubt we were laughing most of the times, but there was really some ruthless killing in it, with blood all over the place and eyeballs in a jar (yuk).

Hey, how do you say BRRRRRRAAAAIIINNNNSSS in Urdu?

Blogger Imran Ali suggests the film's title should be "28 Samosas Later."

(Thanks, Hassan!).

Previously on BoingBoing:

What do Jamestown + 28 Weeks Later have in common?

Reader comment: Allan Janus says,

Xeni, on the subject of "Zibahkhana", the Pakistani zombie film, there's a wonderful Lollywood vampire film, "The Living Corpse" (Zinda Laash, 1967): Link. It's kind of fabulous. I've got some screen caps on my page: Link. According to the DVD's included documentaries, vampire fangs were unavailable in Pakistan at the time, so the movie's fangs were especially imported from Germany - fact!

Hameed Chughtai says,

The literal translation of Zibahkhana is "Slaughterhouse" and the translation for brain is "maghz".

Celebrity mugshots, Warholized: "Hollywood Most Wanted," a series of works on paper by Rachel Schmeidler. Link to hollywoodmostwanted.com.

Shown above, Jane Fonda, busted for vitamins. Below, CNN's Larry King, during a 1971 arrest on grand larceny charges.

Others in the glam-perp lineup: Lenny Bruce (1961, obscenity), Dennis Hopper (1975, traffic accident in Taos), Michael Jackson (2003, take a guess), Marilyn Manson (grinding against the head of a security guard during a July 2001 concert), and Elvis (ok, he *requested* his mug shot be taken while visiting FBI headquarters in DC, when he was visiting president Nixon.)

For LA-based readers: the series is on display at Hollywood’s Arclight Cinemas through June 21st 2007.

Amazon is launching a DRM-free MP3 only music store later this year, with music from more than 12,000 labels.

"Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. "We're excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone."

Maybe this means that Amazon will fix its wretched, DRM-crippled video store, Amazon Unbox. Link (Thanks, Glyn!)

Reminder: I'm giving a reading tonight in San Francisco along with Rudy Rucker, followed by a discussion moderated by Terry Bisson. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, May 16th, 7PM

Variety Children’s Charity
The Variety Preview Room
582 Market St. @ Montgomery
1st floor of The Hobart Bldg.

Link

Today on xkcd, the ultimate nerd webcomic: where LOLCats come from. Link

See also:
Massive cache of kittah pix (aka LOLcats, cat macros)
Pedantic overanalyzer sucks all the fun out of LOLcats
Pedantic overanalysis of LOLcats not pedantic enough, says blowhard
LOLtrek
Cat macros hijacked by heartless homosexuals
Oh, how I love the gebril macros!