Boing Boing
J.G. Ballard's Bang Wallop
I'd love to read this hypothetical sequel to J.G. Ballard's Crash, since Dinos and Jake Chapman have already designed the perfect cover. "Ambiguous aims": a review of Crash: Homage to J.G. Ballard (NSFW) [Ballardian]

Richard Thompson, "For Shame of Doing Wrong" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day)
Almost every Richard Thompson song could be subtitled, "Watch out!" You never know where it's going next and you always have to be wary, even when he's having fun. Thompson is as familiar with the dark end of the street as any songwriter, he's a singer of uncommon emotion, and as a character in High Fidelity, the first novel by closet rock critic Nick Hornby, notes, he's "England's finest electric guitarist." Thompson is both tasteful and wild; one of three (so far) overlapping box sets of his recordings includes a disc labelled "Epic Live Workouts" that includes precisely zero wankery. "For Shame of Doing Wrong" is one of Thompson's strongest compositions. It began life on Pour Down Like Silver, one of the '70s recordings he co-headlined with Linda Thompson, they recorded it again for the sessions they abandoned in favor of the Joe Boyd-overseen Shoot Out the Lights (a strong candidate for Greatest Album of All Time of the Day), and this version, recorded live in 1985, is Thompson at his best. The lyrics overflow with regret without turning maudlin, the band rocks, and the only thing wrong with the extended guitar solo is that it isn't long enough. Enjoy!

Look-at-my-scrotum lawsuit dismissed
A Montreal man has had his lawsuit against Air Transat dismissed. He was suing the airline because the flight attendants refused to help him look at his scrotum and determine why it had started bleeding on a flight (they gave him some sanitary towels and told him they'd land for emergency medical attention if it got worse). On arrival in Mexico, the man saw a doctor who determined that the problem was a ruptured vein near his scrotum. I can understand a flight attendant's reluctance to help a stranger examine his scrotum, but didn't anyone have, you know, a hand mirror? If I started mysteriously bleeding from my scrotum, I'd be pretty distressed, too.
Cote sued Air Transat and the employees on the flight that day, accusing them of failing to provide appropriate medical assistance, seeking damages of $8,000 for the anguish he suffered as a result of their neglect.
But judge Michele Pauze rejected Cote's case.
In her decision, she said she agreed with arguments offered by Air Transat representative Chantal Chlala, who explained to the court that flight attendants do not have the right to examine passengers, and even less to make a diagnosis.
"It was not incumbent upon a flight attendant to conduct the medical examination of a passenger, a measure reserved for the medical profession," wrote judge Pauzé.
Man sues airline for not looking at his scrotum (via Consumerist) Previously:
o Case of the haunted scrotum
o Testicle talc


Mechanical cardboard junk-horse walks the streets of Bulgaria
"Pony Express," a Bulgarian mechanical horse (created by T.J. Tangpuz) is made out of discarded packaging, plastic ties, and other detritus, and it delighted the people of Oryahovo, Bulgaria with its regular perambulations, before it was moved to a gallery.
Mechanical cardboard horse
Previously:
o Mechanical papercraft toys -- including a Maneki Neko
o Mechanical flapping papercraft bat with tombstone
o Gorgeous mechanical sine-wave calculator
o Free-ish mechanical paper dragon kit


Miniature cities on household objects

These beautiful, fanciful miniature cities built into household objects like power-strips and desk-fans are part of the graduate show at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. The artist is uncredited, but it's very lovely work. Student Work | Kyoto University of Art and Design (via Cribcandy)
Previously:
o Photographer takes photos of real scenes that look like miniature ...
o Incredible miniature photography
o Miniature Bottle story for Significant Objects
o Miniature Neo Geo
o Miniature Paris replica made from trash


French village went insane after CIA spiked its bread with LSD
For 50 years, residents of the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit have tried to understand the "cursed bread" incident, a moment of terrifying mass insanity and hallucinations that left at least five dead and dozens in asylums. Now the mystery is solved: the CIA secretly spiked the bread from the bakery with enormous quantities of LSD as part of its cold war mind-control experiments, at least according to recently uncovered documents. The allegation originates with H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist who uncovered the documents while researching his forthcoming book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments. One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets...
Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated "local foot products".
Mr Albarelli said the real "smoking gun" was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of a number of French nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident." In its quest to research LSD as an offensive weapon, Mr Albarelli claims, the US army also drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between 1953 and 1965.
French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment (Thanks, Steve and everyone else who suggested this!) (Image: Shaw's French Bread, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Adam Pieniazek's photostream)
Previously:
o Video drama about CIA's real project to drug unwitting US citizens ...
o Midcentury LSD Experiments at Canadian mental hospital
o More on the CIA's evil genius, Dr. Sidney Gottleib
o Digging deeper into CIA "family jewels" docs
o Albert Hofmann, LSD inventor, RIP


London Olympics: police powers to force spectators to remove non-sponsor items, enter houses, take posters
The Olympics are coming to London, so our civil liberties are going out the window: because nothing epitomises the spirit of global competition and cooperation like corporate bullying and unfettered truncheon-waving. Police will have powers to enter private homes and seize posters, and will be able to stop people carrying non-sponsor items to sporting events.
"I think there will be lots of people doing things completely innocently who are going to be caught by this, and some people will be prosecuted, while others will be so angry about it that they will start complaining about civil liberties issues," Chadwick said.
"I think what it will potentially do is to prompt a debate about the commercial nature of the Games. Do big sponsors have too much influence over the Games?"
Eyes turn to "value for money" London 2012 (Thanks, Bobby!) (Image: More Riot Police a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Kashklick's photostream)
Previously:
o Vancouver Olympics will own words like "winter," "2010" and ...
o Olympic bullying drives goggle-maker to verse
o London 2012 Olympics: We only buy security tech from ...
o Olympic bullying drives goggle-maker to verse
o Homeless people relocated out of Whister, Canada, ahead of ...
o Int'l. Olympic Committee: gender difference is a disease


Kathryn Bigelow was a punk rocker
Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, who won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Hurt Locker this week, "was a member in good standing of the [NYC] punk scene of the late '70s and early' 80s," according to Paper Mag. (via Cate Park)

Google's bike maps "filled with potentially fatal flaws"
Google's bike maps are "filled with potentially fatal flaws, including routes that cut across Central Park's treacherous transverse roads and steer cyclists through truck-riddled thoroughfares." New York Post, Information Week.

Story of Bottled Water (from "Story of Stuff" folks)
Embedded here, a little teaser video for The Story of Bottled Water, created by the same people behind "The Story of Stuff" (Wikipedia). Looks neat. I'm a big fan of tap water. I spend a fair amount of time in very poor communities in poor countries, with people who don't have access to safe drinking water. For them, like us, water is life—but it's also scarce or intermittent, contanimated, and a source of disease and death. I always come home feeling totally WTF'd at our obsession with bottled water, when our tap water is so accessible and among the world's purest.
(via Glen E. Friedman)



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