From the BBC: “Hundreds of truckles of cheddar worth more than £300,000 have been stolen from London cheese specialist Neal’s Yard Dairy. Fraudsters posing as legitimate wholesalers received the 950 clothbound cheeses from the Southwark-based company before it was realised they were a fake firm. More than 22 tonnes of three artisan cheddars, including Hafod Welsh, Westcombe, and Pitchfork were taken, which are all award-winning and have a high monetary value. Neal’s Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for £12.90 for a 300g piece, while Westcombe costs £7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is priced at £11 for 250g. Patrick Holden, who owns the farm where Hafod cheddar is made, said: “The artisan cheese world is a place where trust is deeply embedded in all transactions. “It’s a world where one’s word is one’s bond. The degree of trust that exists within our small industry as a whole is due in no small part to the ethos of Neal’s Yard Dairy’s founders.”
In this small Dominican community, children start out as girls and then become boys
From the BBC: “Johnny lives in a small town in the Dominican Republic where he, and others like him, are known as Guevedoces, which effectively translates as “penis at twelve”. Johnny was brought up as a girl because he had no visible testes or penis and what appeared to be a vagina. It is only when he approached puberty that his penis grew and testicles descended. Johnny, once known as Felicita, remembers going to school in a little red dress, though he says he was never happy doing girl things. So why does it happen? In 1970, Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley made her way to this remote part of the Dominican Republic, drawn by extraordinary reports of girls turning into boys. When she investigated, she discovered the reason they don’t have male genitalia when they are born is because they are deficient in an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase.”
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The rising star in the British government who wound up faking his own death
From Danny Dutch: “John Stonehouse’s name is etched into British political history as one of the most scandalous figures of the 20th century. Once tipped as a possible future Prime Minister, Stonehouse’s trajectory veered into infamy following an audacious attempt to fake his own death, allegations of espionage, and a string of financial crimes that culminated in a prison sentence. When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister in 1964, Stonehouse received his first ministerial role, marking the beginning of his ascent. In 1967, he was promoted to Minister of State for Technology, and a year later, he became Postmaster General. His appointment to the Privy Council in 1968 appeared to confirm his position as a rising star within the Labour Party. But dark rumours began to surface. In 1969, a defector from the Czech secret service, claimed Stonehouse had been paid by Czechoslovakia to spy on British aviation developments.”
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. And I appreciate it, believe me!
This Nazi SS officer tried to warn the world about the Holocaust
From Wikipedia: “Kurt Gerstein was a German SS officer and head of technical disinfection services of the Hygiene-Institut der Waffen-SS (Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS). In 1942, after witnessing mass murders in the Belzec and Treblinka Nazi extermination camps, Gerstein gave a detailed report to a Swedish diplomat. In a conversation that lasted several hours, where he told the man what he had seen and urged him to spread the information internationally.as well as to Swiss diplomats, members of the Roman Catholic Church with contacts to Pope Pius XII, and to the Dutch government-in-exile, in an effort to inform the international community about the Holocaust as it was happening. Gerstein’s revelations were never passed on to the Allies or to any other government. In 1945, he wrote the Gerstein Report covering his experience of the Holocaust. He died of an alleged suicide while in French custody.”
An epileptic writes about an infamous episode of Pokemon that caused mass seizures
From Anime Feminist: “On December 16th 1997 Pokémon made international headlines when their latest episode, “Dennō Senshi Porygon”—now commonly translated as “Electric Soldier Porygon”— caused 685 children to be taken into hospital by ambulance due to seizures, blindness, and convulsions. The event was dubbed by the Japanese Press as “Pokémon Shock” (“Pokémon Shokku”), and launched an investigation by the Japanese Government into what had happened. When discussed the story usually ends there, just a fun way to conclude a listicle of banned anime episodes, or an explanation to fans as to why Porygon has never had a major role in the main anime since. But there is far more to the story of Pokémon’s banned episode: a story that includes a model train enthusiast from England, and a little mouse who got away scott free.”
Watching this guy skateboard down a mountain highway is terrifying
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
@mathewi Grill the witnesses!