It was 1905 and 19-year-old Carter had just started his ten year sentence – arrested for burglarizing the station in Karlstad, MN, while hopping trains westward. He’d taken $24 to buy food and shelter. Not much is known about John Carter — in fact, that’s a penname and the public record’s silent about his personal life. All we know is that he was an Englishman from a well-to-do family, and when he failed the family business he was sent to Canada. After he was arrested, like so many who pass through the prison system, Carter was on his way to spending his sentence hidden from the public eye. But this changed as, trying to pass the time, Carter wrote essays and verse, publishing them in the nation’s major magazines. Through his art he won public support and, eventually, even his freedom, leaving the prison hailed as a brilliant, creative mind. And the judge who helped him get a pardon was the same judge who sentenced him. (via Josh Preston)
The sugar substitute Aspartame was invented thanks to a work-safety violation
he artificial sweetener aspartame, which is found in everything from diet soda to toothpaste to ice cream, was an accidental discovery. In 1965, American chemist James Schlatter was researching drugs to treat ulcers, which at the time were thought to result from too much stomach acid. He sought to develop a drug that could inhibit gastrin, a hormone that prompts stomach acid to form. While testing compounds for this medication, he licked a white powder off of his finger as he picked up a piece of paper — a blatant violation of work safety regulations. He noticed that this powder had a “surprisingly potent sweet taste,” and decided to develop it into an artificial sweetener. Schlatter eventually applied for a patent, which was granted on this day in 1970. Aspartame is up to 200 times sweeter than sugar, yet contains nearly zero calories. Today, you can find aspartame in more than 6,000 food and drink products, and around 40 percent of Americans regularly consume sugar substitutes. (via Nautilus)
He’s the only person to ever win both an Olympic medal and a Nobel Peace Prize
The serious son of Quaker parents, Philip Noel-Baker was first a scholar, then an Olympian, and finally a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He is the only person ever to have won both an Olympic medal and a Nobel. By 1912, Noel-Baker had already earned honors in history and economics at Cambridge, and he was on the way to a graduate degree in international law. But the 22-year-old was also president of the Cambridge Athletic Club, and that July he took some time off from his studies to join the British track and field team for the fifth modern Olympic Games in Stockholm. Noel-Baker ran the 800 and 1500-meter races, taking sixth place in the latter, but he did better at the next Olympiad, held in Antwerp in 1920, after the 1916 Olympics were cancelled due to World War I. That year, he won silver in the 1500 meter race, his only Olympic medal. But nearly four decades later Noel-Baker would return to Scandinavia for a gold one. (via Popular Science)
Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.
A lost ancient Greek star catalog has been decoded thanks to a particle accelerator
Before telescopes, ancient Greek astronomers relied on naked-eye observations of the night sky to understand the universe around them. The meticulous star catalog belonging to one of the best of these observers, Hipparchus, was long thought to be lost to time, but a hidden copy survived centuries. Erased and buried beneath layers of other text in a medieval codex, the catalog was nearly unreadable—until now.Researchers say they have finally been able to decode some of the lost text using a type of particle accelerator called a synchrotron. They hope their analysis will shed light on what the earliest astronomers’ methods were and how Hipparchus’s work influenced later scientists. The researchers’ journey with the document began in 2021, when they uncovered constellation names and measurements attributable to Hipparchus hidden under layers of other text in the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, a palimpsest with portions dating back from the fifth century C.E. to the ninth or 10th century. (via Scientific American)
A young dolphin in California has been seen engaging in a rare display called tail-walking
Whale watchers in California were delighted by a rare display known as ‘tail walking’ by a northern right whale dolphin. In the footage, which Monterey Bay Whale Watch shared on Instagram, a black and white dolphin holds itself upright and skips across the water as if it was using its tail like feet. Like other dolphin species, these animals are known for their playful nature. They often do repetitive leaps for fun or communication within the dolphin herd, says Nancy Black, a marine biologist and owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch. California as a deep submarine canyon occurs very close to shore allowing deep water species of whales and dolphins to be found closer to shore here. But this particular behaviour is not often seen. “I can’t express to you how uncommonly rare this behaviour is,” the wildlife guide tells the guests on the boat. (via Discover Wildlife)
Even 12 years later they still remember him
Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other places 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 and Why Is This Interesting by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy. If you come across something you think should be included here, feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com