Sixteen years ago today, the first spam email message was sent out to 100,000 Usenet accounts by immigration lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, offering their services:

Canter and Siegel went on to notoriety, claiming they’d made $100,000 from their Perl-script spamming. The two remained unrepentant, despite the backlash which led them to lose their hosting and even get Canter disbarred. [...]

Depending on who is counting, spam now accounts for nearly 90 percent of e-mail traffic — much of it sent through botnets or unscrupulous hosting companies and e-mail firms.

Link | Photo: US Department of Justice

The systematic program for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) can be dated to fifty years ago this past week. It began with astronomer Frank Drake, who turned a 85-foot radio telescope to the sky in search for a signal:

The astronomer's solitary vigil lasted for a few weeks; he ran out of telescope time with little to report. Nevertheless, his pioneering effort sparked the genesis of a 50-year project known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, now an international research program with a multimillion-dollar budget. It has included renting time on some of the biggest radio telescopes in the world—such as the 1,000-foot dish at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, featured in the James Bond movie "GoldenEye." [...]

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, once considered a quixotic enterprise at best, has now become part of mainstream science. In the past decade or so, over 400 planets have been found orbiting nearby stars, and astronomers estimate there could be billions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone. Biologists have discovered microbes living in extreme environments on Earth not unlike conditions on Mars, and have detected the molecular building blocks of life in deep space as well as in meteorites. Many scientists now maintain that the universe is teeming with life, and that some planets could harbor intelligent organisms.

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: NASA

Previously on Neatorama:
Earth is Becoming Less Detectable to Extraterrestrials
Searching for Aliens to Cost School System $1 Million

Paul van Bree has been hired by prisons in the Netherlands to help prisoners contact and make peace with dead relatives:

He has claimed that by talking to both the prisoner and the prisoner's dead parents he can discover key psychological insights to help the prison authorities rehabilitate criminals.

"With my antennae I sometimes reveal more than a psychologist or a prison welfare officer," he said. "My work can be compared to mental health care in widest sense of the words." [...]

The Dutch employment service has also looked beyond the normal to use "regression therapy" and tarot cards to help the jobless.

Uncooperative welfare claimants have been told they will lose benefits unless they accept the guidance of a regression therapist to help them get in touch with their past lives.

Link via Andrew Stuttaford | Photo: Getty

Medical researchers were able to disrupt the moral judgments of test subjects by subjecting the part of the brain responsible for such decisions to magnetic forces:

For their experiment, the scientists had 20 subjects read several dozen different stories about people with good or bad intentions that resulted in a variety of outcomes.

One typical story was about a boyfriend who leads his girlfriend across a bridge. In some versions, the boyfriend harmlessly walked his girlfriend across the bridge with no ill effect. In other cases, the boyfriend intentionally led the girlfriend along so she would break her ankle. The subjects used a seven point scale -- one being forbidden and seven completely permissible -- to record whether they through the situation was morally acceptable or not.

While the subjects read the story, the scientists applied a magnetic field using a method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. The magnetic fields created confusion in the neurons that make up the RTPJ, said Young, causing them to fire off electrical pulses chaotically.

Link via Alphecca | Image: NASA

(YouTube Link)

This stop-motion animated video is a commercial for Nissan's efforts to build a zero emissions car. It shows people driving chairs around town, running errands and racing each other.

via Urlesque

Forbes magazine has a slideshow of the 15 most expensive whiskeys in the world. Coming in at #3 is a batch of 50 year old Chivas Royal Salute, which costs about $10,000 a bottle.

Released in 2003 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, its lead malt is the superb Strathisla, which accounts for the exceptionally rich and creamy character. Only 255 bottles of the Scottish whisky were released worldwide, which helps account for the high price.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Forbes

Previously on Neatorama: World's Largest Bottle of Whiskey

It didn't occur to Tasha Lee Cantrell of Florida that she shouldn't drink a beer while a police officer drove her home from her friend's DUI arrest:

The 19-year-old Floridian was riding in a car early Monday morning when the vehicle's driver was pulled over and arrested for DUI. As a tow truck arrived to remove her friend's car, a stranded Cantrell asked Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Deputy Mitchell Landis for a ride home to her Fort Walton Beach residence. Landis agreed, but only after checking Cantrell's purse for any contraband, according to an offense report. While chauffeuring Cantrell, Landis heard the teenager "open a can of some sort" in the back of the cruiser. "As I looked at my in car video I observed Cantrell drinking out of an unknown can." Landis stopped his car and, upon further investigation, determined that Cantrell had popped open a can of Steel Reserve, a malt liquor known for its high alcohol content.

Link via reddit | Photo: The Smoking Gun

This clock concept by Russian art collective Art Lebedev shoots a laser at sixty rotating mirrors to tell the time. Other clocks by this group that we've featured at Neatorama include the Verbarius Clock and the TaskWatch.

Link via technabob | Photo: Art Lebedev

Hulk late for work again! Zany Pickle presents an assortment of color book pages that have been altered with a dark sense of humor.

Link via Popped Culture

Previously on Neatorama:
Incredible Hulk Case Mod
Hulk's Blog

Workers at the Carlsberg brewery in Denmark are on strike after management handed down new rules about drinking on the job. Now, employees are allowed to drink beer only while at lunch:

The strike in Denmark followed the company's April 1 decision to introduce new rules for employees on beer drinking at work, said Jens Bekke, spokesman at the world no.4 brewer.

"There has been free beer, water and soft drinks everywhere," he said. "Yesterday, beers were removed from all refrigerators. The only place you can get a beer in future is in the canteen, at lunch."

Bekke said drivers retained an old right to three beers per day outside lunch hours, and warehouse workers claimed the same right.

"Because of that, the warehouse staff went on strike yesterday, with other staff striking in sympathy," he said.

Link | Previously on Neatorama: Carlsberg Beer and Mentos | Photo: US Department of State

The US Navy and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing a engine that can efficiently generate energy from heat in the water. This engine could propel a ship indefinitely:

SOLO-TREC is outfitted with a series of tubes full of waxy phase-change materials. As the float encounters warm temperatures near the ocean's surface, the materials expand; when it dives and the waters grow cooler, the materials contract. The expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. The motor generates electricity and recharges the batteries, which power a pump. The pump can change the float's buoyancy, allowing it to move up and down the water column.

"In theory what you have now is unlimited endurance for something that has this type of engine," said Thomas Swean Jr., team leader for ocean engineering and marine systems at the Office of Naval Research, which funded the project. "Other things can break, but as far as the energy source, it will only stop working if the ocean ran out of energy, which is unlikely to happen ... One of the Navy's goals is to have a persistent presence in the world's oceans. This is the type of technology that leads you to that."

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/submarine-runs-eternally-thermal-power-ocean-currents | Photo: NASA/JPL/U.S. Navy/Scripps Institution of Oceanography

(YouTube Link)

Some American colleges and universities now allow prospective students to submit videos instead of or in addition to written essays. The above video is one that Amelia Downs sent with her application to Tufts University. In it, she demonstrates dances that she invented that reflect mathematical functions. The New York Times wrote about this trend:

Even without prompting, admissions officials say, a growing number of students submit videos. Maria Laskaris, the dean of admissions at Dartmouth, noticed the trend last year, and said this year had brought even more videos, mostly showcasing music, theater or dance talents.

For Tufts, the videos have been a delightful way to get to know the applicants.

“At heart, this is all about a conversation between a kid and an admissions officer,” Mr. Coffin said. “You see their floppy hair and their messy bedrooms, and you get a sense of who they are. We have a lot of information about applicants, but the videos let them share their voice.”

Link via Urlesque

(YouTube Link)

Epsilon Aurigae is about 2,000 light years from earth. Every 27 years, it darkens for two years. With the use of advanced thermal imaging technology, astronomers now think that this event is a solar eclipse:

The eclipse was first observed by the German astrologer Johann Fritsch in 1821.

Dr Ettore Pedretti and Dr Nathalie Thureau, from St Andrews, took part in the research, which was led by Brian Kloppenborg from the University of Denver.

Dr Pedretti said: "From the image, we can confirm that the eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae is caused by a thin disc of opaque dust trailed by a massive and unseen companion.

"Like David, tiny particles of dust are able to kill the light of this 'Goliath' star."

Link via io9

Illustrator Russell Walks created a periodic table of imaginary elements that appeared in science fiction movies, television shows, and books. Among them is Wonderflonium, the rare element that Dr. Horrible needed to complete his freeze ray.

http://russellwalks.com/PTOIE.html via Urlesque

Information about this place is still sketchy, but there appears to be a tea house in Anhui Province, China, that is only accessible after rappelling up a mountain. You can view amazing pictures of people ascending the mountain at the link.

Link via Radley Balko | Photo: Just Ask Shirley, gxnews