This wonderful photo from the mid-1970s depicts a young man named John Shepherd who "established this UFO-detecting station in his grandparent’s home… His equipment includes radar, sonar, scanners, and homing devices which attempt to track the 'Aliens' he believes are studying the earth." The photo appears in a new, lightly-revised edition of my friend Jacques Vallée's classic 1979 book Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults. The rare book has just been republished by Daily Grail Publishing. From Fortean researcher Mark Pilkington's post on the Further blog about the book:

MOD is a fascinating examination of the UFO subculture’s sinister underbelly. Vallee considers the ways that the UFO mystery can be manipulated by those seeking to exert psychological and psychosocial control over marginal elements of society, and falls prey himself to the kind of controlled paranoia experienced by Robert Anton Wilson in his own Cosmic Trigger. Thirty years down the line we can see that Vallee was absolutely spot on with some of the concerns he expressed in MOD: amongst the groups he investigated were Bo and Peep, the ‘Mysterious Two’ who went on to lead the Heaven’s Gate suicides two decades later.

Jacques Vallée's Messengers of Deception on Amazon, Messengers of Deception at Further

BB pal Meri Brin spotted these beautiful trays made by French design house ibride. They're 23.5 " x 15.5" and the lace edges are laser cut. Available from Art Effect for $175 each. iBride bird trays

Grandmaster Internet Funnyhunter and videogum Senior Editor Gabriel Delahaye says:

You guys, The internet is so weird. Let's just turn it off. We'll just go to to California and turn it off. Basically, some kids made music videos for their favorite hip hop songs by animating them with the Sims. I know I did not discover this trend, but I think I found some real treats that you're going to enjoy. I love sharing!

The 10 Best Fan Made Hip Hop Videos With Sims Of All Time [videogum]

Glyn sez, "The Open Rights Group has done a summary of the official explanation of how it was possible for a junior official for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to lose discs containing records for 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families in the post. From this report its clear that Information security was not seen as a priority at HMRC.

The data loss incident arose following a sequence of communications failures between junior HMRC officials and between them and the National Audit Office ("NAO"). The loss was entirely avoidable and the fact that it could happen points to serious institutional deficiencies at HMRC.

The two major institutional deficiencies from which many of the more detailed issues flow were:

• Information security simply wasn’t a management priority as it should have been, and
• HMRC had an organisational design which was unnecessarily complex and crucially, did not clearly focus on management accountability

HMRC has significantly reduced the risk of further data loss since the incident. However, when there are so many islands of information and so many data transfers going on, and while simple guidance is not available to staff, further data loss nonetheless remains a distinct possibility and more needs to be done. Investment will be required to continue the reduction of risk to an acceptably low level, although the review process is identifying data transfer practices which can simply be stopped at no significant cost.

Link (Thanks, Glyn!)

Bell Canada has been forced by the CRTC (Canadian telco regulator) to reveal exactly how congested its network is. This follows revelations that Bell has been slowing down P2P traffic -- even traffic on its wholesale customers' networks, so no matter who you buy your DSL from, Bel gets to ruin your P2P experience.

The confidential documents show that, basically, Bell just doesn't have a substantial congestion problem -- in fact, backbone congestion has been going down.

The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is currently investigating Bell's system, which cap throttles P2P downloads at around 30KB/s between 4:30pm and 2:00am every day. Bell's own congestion numbers, which the CRTC said must be made public and Bell has now provided to Ars Technica, show that as the DPI gear was more widely deployed across Bell's network and eventually applied to Bell's wholesale customers (who promptly filed a complaint with the CRTC), rates of congestion at the DSLAM level increased. Between March 2007 and September 2007, the number of congested DSLAM links on Bell's network averaged 4.8 percent; during the period from November 2007 to May 2008, that average increased to 6.7 percent.

Meanwhile, upstream in Bell's network, congestion has been dropping. Over the same time periods, the average number of congested backbone links fell from 2.9 percent to 1.1 percent.

Link

Kathryn sez, "American Eagle returns a plane to the gate to kick off a toddler and his mom. Apparently, the flight attendant kept yanking on the autistic toddler's seatbealt to make sure it as tight, touching off a temper tantrum. Doesn't this make you feel safer?"

"She kept coming over and tugging his seatbelt to make it tighter, 'This has to stay tight'. And then he was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And she kept coming over and reprimanding him and yelling at him," Farrell said...

"The pilot made an announcement that there was a woman and her child on the plane and the child is uncontrollable. And at that point I just broke down," Farrell said.

Link (Thanks, Kathryn!)

When I was in New York City a while ago, I noticed that someone in the West Village had put a bunch of potted plants below the sidewalk grates outside their building. I really was taken by the subtle sidewalk garden. Click on the photos for bigger images.

Syd Mead is the artist, designer, and visual futurist who is largely responsible for the iconic future noir feel of Blade Runner. He also created many of the vehicles for Tron and Aliens. Today, BB Gadgets' Joel Johnson and the BBtv crew visited Mead's Los Angeles home and studio. Their discussions will be featured on several upcoming BBtv episodes. While there, Joel got to play with a one-of-a-kind official LEGO model of the Spinner flying car from Blade Runner. Lucky him. LEGO car from Blade Runner

Coop posted a bunch of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth decals from the 1960s. He was the creator of Rat Fink. (Shown here: Jackhammer Jill's evil cousin, or inspiration for Blackwater's business plan?)

Make contributor Larry Cotton says:

I built this bizarre musical instrument--based loosely on the playing-card-in-the-bicycle-spokes principle--a while back, shot a quick video, then cannibalized it for parts. As you'll see, the bicycle spokes were scaled down to a small white plastic gear. The card remained.

I called it a screechophone for reasons which will become obvious as you watch (and listen) to the video.

The whole thing was synced to accompanying music from a mini-CD through an ancient Commodore 64 computer, programmed in BASIC. A transparent disc printed only with black arcs spun with the CD and was read by a photocell.

In his Cool Tools email newsletter, Kevin Kelly reviewed the Roku box from Netflix, a little $100 internet-connected box that lets you watch movies and TV series from Netflix's large "Watch Instantly" library on your TV set. I bought one based on his review and am already in love with it.

The Roku box from Netflix allows you to watch movies on your TV whenever you want to, for no extra charge, in DVD quality. It is a tiny thing that sets up in a few minutes. If you have wi-fi in your household it will link up to that so you can put the box near your TV. For achieving such a complex task it has a remarkably simple interface and no-fuss approach, very similar to an iPod. We were watching a movie within ten minutes of opening the shipping box.

You use a small clicker to control your Netflix queue on your TV. Movies are streamed (no waiting beyond a few seconds at the start) in unexpected big-screen TV quality. I don't know how they do it. It is miles better than the streaming on those little YouTube boxes. There is no noticeable stutter, blobs, lags, or hiccups. But it ain't hi-def, either.

The service is a joy to use. You manage your queue -- adding and re-ording flicks -- on your computer, and the Roku box automatically syncs up. Back at the TV you click through the instant choices, pick one, and in a few seconds the movie starts. You can pause, change movies, and resume the first where you left off.

Subscribe to Cool Tools

UPDATE: Joel Johnson reviewed the Roku on BB Gadgets.

New research shows that one of the cannabinoid found in marijuana is an anti-inflammatory that doesn't have the side effect of getting you high. THC also combats inflammation, but that's the stuff that gets you high. However, experiments at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology showed that another cannabis compound, (E)-BCP (beta-caryophyllene), is also an anti-inflammatory but doesn't affect the molecular receptor that makes you feel stoned. Instead it activates only the CB2 receptor which plays a key role in alleviating inflammation. From National Geographic:

Essential oils from cannabis plants — whose leaves and flowers are used to make the marijuana drug — contain up to 35 percent (E)-BCP...

"Our interest is to exploit the pharmacological nature of the CB2 receptor," because it does not have psychotropic side effects, (study author Jürg) Gertsch explained in an email.

Pot as anti-inflammatory

In the 1950, radio host Jean Shepherd played a great prank on New York City bookstores. Annoyed with how bestseller lists worked at the time, Shepherd urged his listeners, aka "the Night People," to descend on all bookstores requesting a book that didn't exist. He even gave them a plot summary, author, and title. Eventually, the fake book "I, Libertine," became a real bestseller. WFMU posted a 1968 radio show of Shepherd telling the whole fantastic story.
I, Libertine hoax (Thanks, COOP!)

Alan says: "So my wife and I were hiking at Multnomah Falls on the AK-Wanee trail...it is a 2 mile hike that is definitely the "less travelled." During the hike we came across this set of bones that looks like it was laid out. Couldn't find a skull. I was wondering if anyone had an idea of what type of animal this might be? This area of the hike is pretty steep either direction off the path, so wondering what animal might inhabit or wander these hills?" Photos of mystery bones

Seen here is the brothel bus, a whorehouse on wheels that was just busted in Miami Beach. The fare was $40 to board but I'd imagine a (ahem) ride costs extra. Seven people are now faced with felony charges. From WIOD:

"(The bust) wasn't even planned," says Miami FBI spokesperson Judy Orihuela. "The agent and the detective were walking down Miami Beach and they were asked by these young ladies to join them on the bus..."

"I have heard that the owners of this bus, they do travel around the country," adds Orihuela. "So they probably have shown up in other parts of the country."

Brothel bus

Jesse Thorn says:

Benjamin Nugent is the author of American Nerd: The Story of My People. It's a book on nerds that's part history, part sociology, part reportage and part memoir. Nugent traces the history of the nerd, from the antagonists of romanticism in the 19th century to the classic Hollywood nerds of the 1970s and 80s to the "geek pride" and "nerd hipster" classes of today. He also writes movingly about his own childhood, and that of the friends with whom he played role-playing games as a middle school student.

The Sound of Young America interviews "American Nerd" author Benjamin Nugent

Presidential Airways, a division of the private military company Blackwater Worldwide, is being sued for wrongful death by the families of three soldiers killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan.

The company has asked the court to use Shari’a Islamic law to make a ruling on the lawsuit. Why would a right-wing Christian company like Blackwater want to do that?

If the judge agrees, it would essentially end the lawsuit over a botched flight supporting the U.S. military. Shari’a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work.

Erik Prince, who owns Blackwater and Presidential Airways, briefly discussed the lawsuit in a meeting today with editors and reporters at The News & Observer. Prince was asked to justify having a case involving an American company working for the U.S. government decided by Afghan law.

“Where did the crash occur?” Prince said. “Afghanistan.”

According to NPR, Blackwater has over $800 million in government contracts.

Blackwater says crash lawsuit governed by Islamic law (via Reason)

Some great photos of guerilla gardening in Tokyo from Kirainet.com.

Look at the girl in the picture, she is planting some tomatoes in little corner between two roads in the middle of Tokyo. Isn’t it amazing? She cares about that little place of land lost in Tokyo’s immensity, and what is more amazing is that she doesn’t seem worried about people or dogs destroying her tomatoes and her lavender.

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Guerilla gardening in London
• LA Times on guerrilla gardeners

I enjoyed reading this (understandably) flaming email that Bill Gates sent to Jim Allchin and team about his frustrating experience trying to download a Microsoft application.

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

Bill Gates flame email

Erik Knutsen, co-author of The Urban Homestead, was interviewed on Los Angeles' KABC news about his and his wife Kelly Coyne's urban vegetable garden.

High prices at the pump and the produce aisle have Southern Californians looking for new ways to save money on their grocery bills.

"So it's possible to construct a whole meal out of your backyard," said Erik Knutzen. Erik Knutzen is using his green thumb to save lots of green on his grocery bill. "A typical meal for us might be some eggs, some Napolitos, some greens on the side," said Knutzen.

Knutzen doesn't live on a farm. He and his wife live in an Echo Park bungalow, two blocks off busy Sunset Boulevard.

"Once you grow your own, you'll never want to buy it ever again," said Knutzen.

The Urban Homestead on KABC

Previously on Boing Boing:
• The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

Kevin Kelly wrote a short blog entry about The Unclear Origins of Oil. People do not agree on the source of oil. Kevin presents three possibilities. Maybe none of them are correct, maybe one or more are correct.

1. Oil comes from algae
"The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead algae in quantities no longer found on this planet, pressed, and cooked into hydrocarbon liquids."

2. Oil is abiogenic (non-organic)
"Others, notably the Russians, have an alternative theory that oil comes from non-biological carbon compounds deep in this planet, like the methane oceans we find on other planets."

3. Oil is produced by bacteria
"An emerging third theory is that bacteria living within rocks produce oil. In this theory there is a biological component (the bacteria) which constitute the oil-generating process, but the originating material in not degraded organic material, but rather geological carbon gases."

Kevin says "In any case I am betting on bacteria as the creators of oil simply because I've learned to never bet against bacteria."

Wired writer Clive Thompson appears on ABC News to explain why he thinks horror video games are scarier than horror movies. He says having a bit of control over the outcome makes the experience more frightening. Link

Julius von Bismarck's Image Fulgurator is a device that senses the flash of other people's cameras going off and projects an image or message onto whatever they are taking a photo of, such as the Checkpoint Charlie sign in Berlin. Link (Thanks, Phil!)

UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. Today, part one of his exclusive interview for Boing Boing tv with the rap / IDM / hiphop / house / genre-bending artist Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton, who hails from Edmonton, Canada.

Cadence Weapon, who is 22 years old, is touring Europe and US throughout the summer. Dates are listed -- where else? -- on his MySpace, along with various blinky things. His newest record Afterparty Babies was just released on Epitaph, and is, as the kids say, fierce.

Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion, downloadable video, and instructions for subscribing to the BBtv video podcast feed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

* Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter. Hot fire. (special thanks to Jolon Bankey).

Update: Russell Porter episodes featured on Boing Boing tv get a nod in Rolling Stone. Journamalists: Do not make fun of his hat, for it is awesome.

Yesterday on Boing Boing Gadgets...

Danger! Excitement! An SD Card that turns into a USB dongle! An LED Chess Set!

Rocketmen! Nazis! The Phantom Lapboard! An artifact of awesome power that reduces noise on your PC... but only if you have faith! A futuristic city made of dreams!

Babes! Floozies! Electric women on drugs bouncing around their immoral soirees, listening to LEGO synths played by devil DJs.

Passion! Drama! Romance! Caulk Singles!

Monsters! Griphons! Starving, vicious Snow Leopards! Cell-phone touting monkeys, "aping" presidential candidates!

War! Carnage! Bloodshed! A more defensible unimog! A toaster that can blow your brains out!

And video games!

What will happen in our next exciting installment? Stay tuned!

Link