A devastating farm accident when he was just two and a half years old became the beginning of an extraordinary journey of resilience, determination and self-belief. After losing both his arms in a grain auger accident on his family’s Ohio farm in 1972, Detwiler refused to let his disability define him. He taught himself to perform everyday tasks using only his feet, eventually managing a 1,300-acre corn and soybean farm. Through his YouTube channel Harmless Farmer, he shared his daily life with millions, proving that limitations often exist only when people stop trying. Because the accident happened so early in life, he later said he had little memory of ever having arms. Through years of patience and practice, he learned to eat, write, brush his teeth, dress himself, cook meals and drive vehicles using only his feet. Those same skills later extended to farming, where he mastered operating tractors and combines, fuelling equipment, repairing machinery, welding and maintaining heavy farm equipment. (via Times of India)
This rare genetic condition could hold a clue to the prevention of cancer
Nestled in southern Ecuador’s network of Andes mountains is the town of Piñas, whose 8,000 inhabitants live in houses scattered across a valley. This remote town is home to an unusually high number of people living with Laron syndrome, a rare genetic condition that prevents the body from growing taller than 1.2m (3.9ft). María Luísa Romero and her twin sister, María del Cisne, both have the condition. Living with Laron syndrome can be challenging, the sisters say. But researchers believe it may provide an unexpected advantage – the incidence of diseases such as cancer and diabetes among Laron patients is lower than in the general population. They hope that studying this could lead to the development of treatments to prevent cancer. Those who have Laron syndrome, also known as growth hormone insensitivity, are unable to use the growth hormone that their body makes. The genetic mutation is named after paediatrician Zvi Laron, who identified it while treating patients in Israel, 60 years ago. (via the BBC)
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How a gang of thieves pulled off a multimillion-dollar data center heist
Terry Ellis’s fixer wore an overcoat, a multicolored ascot, a Rolex. He had a husky voice and a good suntan. He reminded Ellis of the English actor Ray Winstone, best known for playing hard men in films like “Sexy Beast” and “The Departed.” Ellis, who was himself a hard man, sought inspiration from crime movies, the way an artist scrutinizes the canvases of the great masters; it was a viewing of “Ocean’s Eleven” that had led to the most successful phase of his criminal career. By the winter of 2007, Ellis had become one of his generation’s most dependable, and accomplished, heistmen. Ray had brought Ellis a few jobs before. But this job, he warned, was of an entirely different order. As Ellis claims in “The Art of Robbery,” a self-published memoir written after his release from prison, he eventually learned that Ray had been contacted by a consultant employed by “some influential bankers from America.” The bankers “were involved in prime mortgages” and had “circumnavigated” certain regulations. Damning evidence of these circumnavigations could be found in banking files held in the King’s Cross area in a giant building known as a data center. (via the NYT)
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 rogue elephant followed a single family for 14 years across Nepal and killed several of them
On Dec 16, 2012, Shanichara Bote sat motionless at the Baruwa bazaar in Madi, Nepal, alongside the lifeless bodies of his father Budhiram and mother Jharali. They had just been trampled to death by Dhurbe, a notorious wild male elephant that had begun terrorising the fringes of Chitwan National Park. In the wake of that tragedy, Shanichara uprooted his entire life to escape the persistent threat of wildlife encroachment. He crossed the Reu river, bypassed the core national park boundaries and moved across the Rapti river to settle down in Jagatpur. Yet, despite his desperate migration, the shadow of the rogue elephant followed him. On the afternoon of July 12, Shanichara was found sitting in a state of profound shock inside the District Police Office in Chitwan. Hours earlier around midnight, the same wild elephant broke into his new home, killing his daughter-in-law Ashika Bote, aged 25, and his four-year-old grandson. (via Straits Times)
An ancient latrine proves that carbonation is the key to the durability of Roman concrete
Roman concrete has defied the passage of time for nearly two millennia. Ports, aqueducts, markets, and entire buildings remain standing, while many modern constructions show signs of deterioration in just a few decades. For years, scientists have attributed this longevity to the so-called pozzolanic reaction, a chemical process between volcanic ash and lime. But a new study published in Science Advances asserts that there is another equally important factor: the slow and continuous carbonation over the centuries. The researchers, led by Xiaohong Zhu and Paulo J. M. Monteiro of the University of California, Berkeley, have conducted an in-depth analysis of a concrete sample taken from a latrine located in the western structures of the Canopus, within Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, Italy. This complex, built in the 2nd century AD, was the residence of Emperor Hadrian and is now a World Heritage Site. (via La Brujula Verde)
Shenzen held the world’s first mixed martial arts event involving robots
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