Author: Mathew Ingram

At the risk of making things too personal, the recent election of Donald Trump to a second term as president triggered some pretty severe negative flashbacks for me, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one. I remember waking up in 2016 after he was elected and saying to someone (perhaps myself) that it felt like journalism had failed. For months, newspapers and TV networks had been reporting the details of Trump’s various indiscretions and even outright crimes: the tape in which he bragged about getting away with sexual assault, the fraud, payments to former porn stars for keeping quiet about his affairs, and so on.

Every day, it seemed as though dozens of lies were being fact-checked rigorously by journalists, including during TV debates. All of this effort at setting the record straight, at showing how Trump lied not just for specific political purposes but flagrantly and enthusiastically for no reason. Multiple stories proving that he was a philanderer and a terrible businessman who lied about his net worth, someone who talked about Christian values but has been accused by twenty-seven women of sexual misconduct, and found liable by a jury in a civil sexual-abuse case. How could so many people have voted for him anyway?

In a recent edition of this newsletter, I wrote about how it’s tempting to blame social media for the outcome of the election, to see Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and TikTok as the source of the problem:

It’s tempting to blame what happened on Tuesday night on social media in one form or another. Maybe you think that Musk used Twitter to platform white supremacists and swing voters to Trump, or that Facebook promoted Russian troll accounts posting AI-generated deepfakes of Kamala Harris eating cats and dogs, or that TikTok polarized voters using a combination of soft-core porn and Chinese-style indoctrination videos to change minds — and so on. In the end, that is too simple an explanation, just as blaming the New York Times’ coverage of the race is too simple, or accusing more than half of the American electorate of being too stupid to see Trump for what he really is. They saw it, and they voted for him anyway. That’s the reality.

Continue reading “Does fact-checking even work?”

From The Atlantic: “The sexual-assault-evidence collection box, colloquially known as the “rape kit,” is a simple yet potent tool: a small case, perhaps made of cardboard, containing items such as sterile nail clippers, cotton swabs, slides for holding bodily fluids, paper bags, and a tiny plastic comb. Designed to gather and preserve biological evidence found on the body of a person reporting a sexual assault, it introduced standardized forensics into the investigation of rape where there had previously been no common protocol. The kit was trademarked under the name “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit,” after Sergeant Louis Vitullo. The Chicago police officer had a well-publicized role in the 1967 conviction of serial killer Richard Speck. But thanks to a new book we know about the collection box’s real inventor—a woman named Martha “Marty” Goddard.”

Italian towns used to have the equivalent of skyscrapers built by rich families

From Exurbe: “This implausible Medieval forest of towers, as dense as Manhattan skyscrapers, is our best reconstruction of the town of Bologna at its height, toward the end of the Medieval Guelph-Ghibelline wars. We don’t see many such towers today… or think we don’t, but actually their remnants are all over Italy. Often when in Florence one sees buildings where one section is rough stone standing out amid stucco neighbors. These are actually the bottom nubs of Medieval stone towers. The town of San Gimigniano is famous for having several still intact. Wealthy families built these as mini-fortresses within the city, where they could defend against riots, enemy families and invasion. Signs of wealth and prestige, these all-stone buildings were also fireproof, leading to a terrible but effective tactic: take your family, treasures & goods up into your tower then set fire to enemies’ homes and let the city burn around you while you sit safe above.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “She invented the rape kit but died in obscurity”

From Science Focus: “More and more adults have an extra artery in their arms as humans continue to evolve at a rapid rate, a study has found. Scientists in Australia believe that humans are undergoing a micro-evolution in which evolutionary changes can be observed over a short period of time. The artery forms while a baby is in the womb and is the main vessel that supplies blood to the forearm and hand, but it usually disappears during gestation and is replaced by the radial and ulnar arteries. However, some people retain all three. The investigation by Dr Teghan Lucas of Flinders University showed a significant increase in the prevalence of the artery. The team analysed records in anatomical literature and dissected cadavers from individuals born in 20th Century. “Since the 18^th Century, anatomists have been studying the prevalence of this artery in adults and our study shows it’s clearly increasing,” said Dr Lucas.

Two men in a hot-air balloon in 1832 hold the record for highest altitude without oxygen

From Everything is Amazing: “It’s just before two on an afternoon in early September, and professional aeronaut Henry Tracey Coxwell has just discovered something that’s turned his blood cold. The balloon he’s riding in with meteorologist James Glaisher has developed a serious fault. As it rose above the countryside around Wolverhampton, it’s developed a slow but inexorable spin – and Henry’s just discovered this has tangled up the release-valve line, the duo’s only way of venting enough gas from the balloon to trigger a descent. Around them, the sky is turning a deeper blue. The temperature has fallen below freezing, and every surface is becoming slippery with ice. They’re past 8,000 metres, the altitude which mountaineers call ‘The Death Zone’, because of the catastrophic effect it can have upon the unprotected human body.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “More people are growing to adulthood with an extra artery”

From Scientific American: “Captain Meriwether Lewis — William Clark’s expedition partner on the Corps of Discovery’s historic trek to the Pacific, Thomas Jefferson’s confidante, governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory and all-around American hero — was only 35 when he died of gunshot wounds sustained along a perilous Tennessee trail called Natchez Trace. A broken column, symbol of a life cut short, marks his grave. But exactly what transpired at a remote inn 200 years ago this Saturday? Most historians agree that he committed suicide; others are convinced he was murdered. Even now, precious little is known about the events of October 10, 1809, after Lewis – armed with several pistols, a rifle and a tomahawk – stopped at a log cabin lodging house known as Grinder’s Stand. He and Clark had finished their expedition three years earlier.”

This town in Manitoba is the only place that has a prison for polar bears

From Now I Know: “Churchill is home to about 800 to 1,000 people, and, for about six to eight weeks in the late fall, also to a similar number of polar bears. Including the handful that are locked up in Churchill’s polar bear prison. Polar bears subsist on a high-fat, high-protein diet consisting mainly of ringed seals. Each year, hundreds of polar bears make their way to the Churchill area in search of food – the Bay is home to many ringed seals – and when seals are hard to find, the bears go searching for food elsewhere. Often, this means there’s a polar bear or two walking around town. In response, Manitoba has a group of “conservation officers” who are charged with keeping bears (not people) in check and, similarly, to protect the bear population. Call 675-BEAR and the six officers (or some subset of them) will be on-scene as soon as possible.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Did Meriwether Clark commit suicide or was he murdered?”

From Atlas Obscura: “It’s April 1907. You’re an American in Paris, searching for a taste of real culture. You settle down in a quaint café, but before you can choose a police officer approaches and asks you—not exactly politely—to leave. You stagger off, confused and hungry. Around the city at that time, high-end waiters were on strike to demand better pay, more time off—and the right to grow mustaches. The bristly adornments had been virtually ubiquitous among French men for decades, though many waiters, domestic servants, and priests were not allowed to have them—“sentenced to forced shaving,” as the newspaper La Lanterne put it. Indignant waiters walked out of their fancy restaurants en masse, along with roughly 25,000 francs a day in revenue.”

The deepest hotel in the world is 1,400 feet underground in a former slate mine

From Architectural Digest: “Hard hats, flashlights, and hiking boots aren’t the type of toiletries one is used to receiving at their overnight accommodations, but visiting the world’s deepest hotel isn’t your usual retreat. Known as the Deep Sleep, the property is located in Snowdonia, Wales, at the base of an abandoned slate mine. The vacation experience is among the most evident tangible examples of the old maxim, the journey is more important than the destination. When guests arrive, they’re given all the equipment necessary to travel to their cabins, which are roughly 1,400-feet underground. The trip is operated by the mine exploration company Go Below Underground Adventure. A guide leads them through the massive pit, which goes for miles in a series of maze-like tunnels created by miners over 200 years. To get to the bottom, visitors climb through caverns, journey through tunnels, and even zip line at times.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Waiters in France went on strike for the right to grow mustaches”

From Creative Histories: “The New York Times stated that a “mysterious craft made its appearance over the city about 6:45 o’clock tonight, sailed about in circles and was seen by more than 1500 people…during much of the time the airship was near the city the aviator was sweeping the earth and skies with a powerful searchlight.” What would become known to history as The Great New England Airship Hoax of 1909 began on that cold December night in the relatively small city of Worcester, Massachusetts. Before it ended, hundreds of thousands of people – including many celebrities such as famed novelist H.P. Lovecraft – all over the northeastern United States would claim to have seen the strange lights and large flying craft, which were dubbed “airships” at the time, flying over their heads in the nighttime sky from Maine all the way to New Jersey.”

It’s one of the most valuable machines in the world and it depends on this woman

From the Wall Street Journal: “When she reports for her shift at a chip plant, Hall slips into a bunny suit. She enters a room where the pristine air is 100 times cleaner than a hospital operating room’s. Then she makes her way over to an unfathomably complex machine. The piece of equipment that the entire world has come to rely on—and she is specially trained to handle—is called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine. It’s the machine that produces the most advanced microchips on the planet. Even today, there are only a few hundred of these EUV machines in existence—and they are ludicrously expensive. The one that Hall maintains cost $170 million, while the latest models sell for roughly $370 million. It’s a process that involves vaporizing droplets of molten tin and producing light that doesn’t occur naturally on Earth.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Wallace Tillinghast and the New England airship hoax of 1909”

From Wikipedia: “The Brabant killers are a group of unidentified criminals responsible for a series of violent attacks that occurred in Belgium between 1982 and 1985. A total of 28 people died and 22 were injured. The actions of the gang, believed to consist of a core of three men, made it Belgium’s most notorious unsolved crime spree. The active participants were known as The Giant (a tall man who may have been the leader); the Killer (Le Tueur; the main shooter) and the Old Man (Le Vieux; a middle aged man who drove). The gang abruptly ceased their activities in 1985. The ensuing chaotic investigation failed to catch them or even make serious inroads into solving the case. This led to a parliamentary inquiry and public discussion, both of which revolved around the possibility that the gang members were Belgian or foreign state security elements. The case was officially closed on 28 June 2024.”

For over 500 years Oxford graduates had to swear an oath against one specific person

From The Bodleian Library: “In 1827, Oxford University undertook a major review of its statutes. The statutes were, and still are, the written set of rules and regulations which governed everything that went on in the University. A product of many centuries, some of these were over already 500 years old by 1827. In going through the statutes as part of this review, the University found something rather odd in the section relating to Bachelors of Arts and the oaths they had to swear in order to become a Master of Arts. As well as being required to swear that they would observe the University’s statutes, privileges, liberties and customs, as you might expect; and not to lecture elsewhere, or resume their bachelor studies after getting their MA, the Bachelors of Arts also had to swear that they would never agree to the reconciliation of Henry Symeonis.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “They killed dozens of people but their identities remain a mystery”