In July 1933, former Marine General Smedley Butler was visited by a pair of gentlemen who had come to urge him to run for the office of National Commander of the American Legion, an influential organization of veterans. Though Butler declined the invitation, one of the men— Gerald MacGuire— made several subsequent visits during which he disclosed additional details. He claimed to represent The Committee for a Sound Dollar, whose primary purpose was to pressure the president to reinstate the gold standard. He implied that his organization had the support of several political leaders, and the financial backing of some of the country’s most affluent individuals and successful corporations. The credibility of MacGuire’s claims was reinforced when he produced evidence of considerable cash resources and made some eerily accurate predictions regarding personnel changes in the White House. He also described the still-secret American Liberty League, a high-profile group whose principal players were wealthy Americans, including the leaders of DuPont, JP Morgan, US Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Colgate, Heinz Foods and Chase National Bank. (via Damn Interesting)
The Mayo Clinic apologizes because its founder dug up the corpse of an indigenous man
For 156 years, the Santee Dakota people have waited for what happened in a casino conference room in Santee, Neb., a few weeks ago. The Mayo Clinic apologized for the desecration of Marpiya Okinajin, known as “Cut Nose,” who was hanged in 1862 in Mankato, Minn., one of 38 Native Americans executed under orders from President Abraham Lincoln in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The Santee tribe was forced from Minnesota. Cut Nose was buried in a shallow grave. But a doctor dug up the body, “carted the corpse to his office, dissected it, melted off the flesh and made a skeleton he studied and allowed his children to play with,” columnist Matthew Hansen writes at the Omaha World Herald. The doctor was William Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, where Cut Nose’s skull remained on display until it was returned in 1998. Mayo had a practice in Le Sueur, Minn. Earlier this year, officials of the Mayo Clinic contacted a descendant who is also a Mayo employee, and asked if it would be OK to establish a scholarship that would allow one Native American student a year to go to medical school free. (via NewsCut)
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A coal fire has been burning underneath a mountain in Australia for 6,000 years
Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 224 km north of Sydney just off the New England Highway. It takes its name from a smouldering coal seam running underground through the sandstone. Burning Mountain is contained within the Burning Mountain Nature Reserve, which is administered by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The underground fire is estimated to be at a depth of around 30 m (100 ft). It is estimated that the fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is the oldest known coal fire. European explorers and settlers to the area believed the smoke, coming from the ground, was volcanic in origin. It was not until 1829 that geologist Reverend C. P. N. Wilton identified it as a coal seam fire. The fire is generally moving in a southerly direction at a rate of about 1 m (3 ft) per year. The combustion has caused soil discolouration and an uneven ground surface in the area. (via Wikipedia)
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.
An otter has been seen swimming in the Bronx River for the first time in a century
An otter has been spotted in the Bronx River for the first time in more than 100 years, in a further sign that New York’s previously befouled waterways are recovering some of their ecological health. The North American river otter was photographed by a motion-activated camera foraging near some vegetation in the Bronx River, a waterway that flows through New York’s Bronx and empties into the East River. The image, captured in June by the camera of RJ Hawkins, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx zoo, is the first documented sighting of a river otter in the river since the early 1900s, according to the society. River otters are found across North America and were once plentiful in New York’s rivers but vanished due to rampant water pollution, habitat loss and trapping for their fur. The Bronx River, in particular, was treated as an open sewer and a dumping ground for New York’s rapidly expanding industrial base as the city grew into an economic powerhouse in the 19th and 20th centuries. (via The Guardian)
This 22-year-old engineer 3D prints dentures for low-income Americans
At just 22, Connor Gibson is doing something he never dreamed possible: using his engineering skills to 3D print dentures for America’s most vulnerable people — and giving them back their sense of dignity in the process. Gibson is the dental technology manager at Remote Area Medical, also known as RAM, a large nonprofit organization based out of Rockford, Tennessee, that provides free dental, vision and medical care through volunteer-powered mobile clinics across the United States. He first began as a volunteer at the nonprofit while attending a local community college. He was instantly inspired by the organization’s mission to help the nation’s poor and was determined to figure out a way to improve the speed at which dentures could be delivered. The problem? He knew nothing about dentistry or 3D printing. Gibson has since outfitted thousands of Americans with free dentures. He’s seen burly men with tattoos weep when they first look into a mirror to see their new smile. The reaction never gets old. (via CNN)
Watch this 16-year-old from Thailand absolutely shred the Cranberries song Zombie
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