From The Sunday Times: “Somewhere in Boston there is a doctor who treats disorders of the brain: a brilliant woman, a Harvard graduate, a mother of two. But she has a dark secret. Unbeknown to her colleagues or her patients, she is also a writer of thrillers, churning them out at a terrific rate, nearly all of them bestsellers. Four were on the Sunday Times list of top-selling books of 2024. One, The Housemaid, is being turned into a film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried; another is set to be a film too, while a third is to be a television series. Across all formats, and including translations, she has sold 17 million books. Do the hospital receptionists have any idea? Apparently not. To them she is just a common brain doctor. She writes under the pen name Freida McFadden and avoids book tours and signings. Some people have wondered if she is in fact AI or a team of writers. “She has published 15 books in the last four years!?” someone wrote on Reddit. “Something super fishy about her.”
The tallest building in North Korea is a thousand-foot-tall hotel that has been empty for decades
From Wikipedia: “The Ryugyong Hotel is a 330 m (1,080 ft) tall unfinished pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea — it is the most prominent feature of Pyongyang’s skyline and also the tallest building in North Korea. Its name (which means “capital of willows”) is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hotel. Construction began in 1987 but was halted in 1992 as North Korea entered a period of economic crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After 1992, the building stood topped out, but without any windows or interior fittings. In 2008, construction resumed, and the exterior was completed in 2011. The hotel was planned to open in 2012, for the centenary of founding leader Kim Il Sung’s birth. A partial opening was announced for 2013, but this was later cancelled. In 2018, an LED display was fitted to one side, which is used to show propaganda animations and film scenes.”
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Scientists say experiment shows the universe could undergo a sudden catastrophic change
From The Independent: “The universe could undergo a catastrophe that would change absolutely everything, scientists have shown using a quantum machine. The groundbreaking simulation allowed scientists to better understand a phenomenon that could entirely change the structure of the universe – and about which little is still known. About 50 years ago, quantum physicists suggested that the universe could be trapped in a so-called false vacuum, where it appears stable but could be about to move into a true vacuum and be even more stable. That could lead to a total change in the structure of the universe. But scientists know very little about it, including whether it would happen, when, and how long it might take. Researchers used a quantum machine to better understand that process of false vacuum decay, in the hope that understanding this process could help us make sense of the formation of the universe.
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.
Mark Twain used to rent cats to keep him company while travelling
From New England: “His worship of cats began in his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, and continued until his death in Connecticut in 1910. He was never without cats, even when he traveled. In a pinch, he would rent kittens. The most famous cat-renting episode occurred in New Hampshire, in 1906. Twain biographer Albert Paine was there when the author rented three kittens for the summer. One he named Sackcloth. The other two were identical and went under the joint name of Ashes. Even in the midst of dictation, Twain would stop to tend to his kittens. “Once, as he was about to enter the screen door that led into the hall, two kittens ran up in front of him and stood waiting,” Paine recalled. “With grave politeness he opened the door, made a low bow, and stepped back and said, ‘Walk in, gentlemen.” Twain summed up his attitude toward cats when he wrote: “A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?”
A man with an obscure claim to a royal fortune made a deal to help regain his crown
From The Financial Times: “For one man, there was a part of King Carol II’s inheritance more valuable than anything: his name. In a final, desperate attempt to reclaim it, he would strike an audacious deal with a crew of international businessmen that ultimately led to prison, exile and infamy. Today, he is in his seventies. A flash of grey runs through his slicked-back black hair, but his bushy eyebrows and pouty lips retain some boyishness. He favours the uniform of European playboys, tailored sports jackets and luxury loafers. Depending on who you believe, his true name is Prince Paul Philippe al Romaniei, Crown Prince of Romania, grandson of King Carol II, direct descendant of Queen Victoria of England and Tsar Alexander II of Russia. To his enemies, he is Paul Lambrino, a fantasist who claims heirship to a nonexistent throne.”
There was a car accident during the filming of an X-Files episode and they left it in
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