From The Daily Beast: “The iconic ‘Napalm Girl’ photo that was taken in Vietnam in 1972 is considered one of the most powerful images depicting the human toll of armed conflict that has ever been captured, redirecting the course of the Vietnam War when it was first published and resonating still today. According to detailed investigations and the testimony of witnesses who were in the room when the fateful decision happened, Nick Út, the photographer credited with the image, did not take the photo. An Associated Press photo editor confirms what is said to have been an open secret in certain circles of the industry: a local Vietnamese stringer had actually captured the image. That man was given $20 and a print of the photo as a keepsake. Út, on the other hand, won the Pulitzer Prize, and has spent the last 52 years basking in the glory and recognition.”
The identity of Oregon’s Googly-Eye Bandit has finally been revealed
From the New York Times: “Last month, googly eyes appeared on pieces of public art throughout Bend, Ore. Drivers would rubberneck, befuddled and amused by statues of deer and other sculptures that had been given an irreverent, cross-eyed gaze. The eyes became a sensation, except among frustrated city officials, who paid for their removal. The identity of the person behind the pranks, who became known as the Googly Eye Bandit, was unknown. That is until Jeff Keith came forward to claim responsibility.Mr. Keith, 53, who runs the Guardian Group, a nonprofit focused on disrupting sex trafficking in the United States, said that in mid-December he sneaked into the middle of a roundabout and put the googly eyes on some public art. “I love making people smile,” Mr. Keith said in an interview on Saturday. “Other people started joining in. I’m not taking credit for all of them. That’s the cool part.”
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Physicists have figured out the secret to making the perfect dish of Cacio e Pepe
From Popular Science: “The classic Italian dish known as cacio e pepe only requires three primary ingredients, but achieving its celebrated, creamy consistency is notoriously difficult. Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems even go so far as to describe the dish as possessing “problematic aspects” requiring “extra care” in their Soft Condensed Matter preprint study. But thanks to recent analysis using a physics concept called phase separation, the team believes they have achieved a “scientifically optimized recipe” for cacio e pepe. And it’s one anyone can use in their own kitchen. Cacio e pepe in its most basic form needs just three components—pecorino cheese, black pepper, and spaghetti pasta—but the complications arrive in its preparation. After boiling the pasta, a hungry cook must then mix just the right amount of grated pecorino into some of the leftover pasta water.”
Lonely Japanese prisoners say they don’t want to leave
From CNN: “The rooms are filled with elderly residents, their hands wrinkled and backs bent. They shuffle slowly down the corridors, some using walkers. Workers help them bathe, eat, walk and take their medication. But this isn’t a nursing home – it’s Japan’s largest women’s prison. The population here reflects the aging society outside, and the pervasive problem of loneliness that guards say is so acute for some elderly prisoners that they’d prefer to stay incarcerated. “There are even people who say they will pay $130-190 a month to live here forever,” said Takayoshi Shiranaga, an officer at Tochigi Women’s Prison near Tokyo. Akiyo, an 81-year-old inmate with short gray hair and hands dotted with age spots, was serving time for shoplifting food. “There are very good people in this prison,” said Akiyo. “Perhaps this life is the most stable for me.”
Famous painting by a Danish artist vanished for almost a century and was found by accident
From The Guardian: “It was commissioned by a Greek king, made its creator a superstar and in his native Denmark attracted crowds like no other painting before. Then it mysteriously disappeared. Now, nearly nine decades after it was last seen gracing the stairwell of the royal palace that would become the Athens parliament, Carl Bloch’s masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound, has found fame again in Greece. Bloch was commissioned in 1864 by the young Danish-born king George I, who had assumed Greece’s throne the year before. Its chance rediscovery in 2012 not only ended decades of speculation but resolved a thriller that had long haunted the art world. Culture ministry officials in Greece were stunned when they came across the canvas rolled up in a tube while recording objects amassed from estates that had once belonged to the deposed royal family.”
Video shows how ice used to be harvested before mechanical refrigeration
Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as “serendipity engines,” such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg’s Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis’s Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton’s The Browser, Clive Thompson’s Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy’s Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova’s The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com