{"id":260459,"date":"2024-04-19T08:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=260459"},"modified":"2024-04-19T08:46:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:46:54","slug":"the-con-artist-who-sold-the-brooklyn-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2024\/04\/19\/the-con-artist-who-sold-the-brooklyn-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"The con artist who sold the Brooklyn Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Crimereads<\/a>: “The prisoner hauled before a Brooklyn judge in 1928 did not look the part of one of the most notorious criminals in history. He squinted at the world through round-framed spectacles. When he removed his broad-brimmed hat, the sudden exposure of the baldness beneath added years to his appearance. The man was sixty-eight, born the year before the outbreak of the Civil War. He had been arrested more than a dozen times and had spent years in New York\u2019s infamous Sing Sing prison. In the press, he was crowned the \u201cdean of confidence men\u201d and \u201cthe biggest of the big-time\u201d swindlers. His name was John McCarthy. And he was the con man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This town kept its nuclear bunker a secret for more than three decades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From The Smithsonian<\/a>: “West Virginia\u2019s Greenbrier\u00a0resort has been a playground for\u00a0princes\u00a0and politicians since its opening in 1778. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountain town of\u00a0White Sulphur Springs, the Greenbrier has expanded over the centuries, so, when the resort broke ground on a new wing in\u00a0late 1958, no one was surprised. But locals soon noticed something odd about the project. The hole dug for the foundation was enormous, and vast amounts of concrete arrived every day on trucks, along with puzzling items: 110 urinals, huge steel doors. But locals kept their suspicions private, and nearly 35 years passed before the rest of the country learned the truth: the bunker buried 720 feet underground was equipped to hold every single member of Congress.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: This is a version of my personal newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can\u00a0see other issues\u00a0and sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Lightning strikes this lake almost thirty times a minute for nine hours<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From EarthData<\/a>: “A lightning bolt fractures the night sky. Wings of phosphorescent pink unfold to illuminate Lake Maracaibo, a brackish bay that opens north to the Caribbean Sea. A quarter of Venezuela\u2019s population lives in the highest concentration of lightning on Earth, 250 flashes per square kilometer (0.4 square miles) per year. \u201cA lot of people die each year,\u201d said \u00c1ngel G. Mu\u00f1oz, a physicist and researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The lightning is so consistent\u2014occurring 300 days a year at the same time and in the same area, where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo\u2014it has earned its own proper name, Catatumbo Lightning.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note<\/strong><\/em>: If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else. And if you <\/em>really <\/strong><\/em>like it, perhaps you could subscribe, or contribute something via <\/em>my Patreon<\/em><\/a>. Thanks for being a reader!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deaths of nine hikers in Dyatlov Pass in 1959 remain a mystery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From History.com<\/a>: “On January 23, 1959, 10 hikers set out for a winter trek through Russia\u2019s Ural Mountains. One turned back after several days for medical reasons, but the other nine continued along their route. When the club didn\u2019t hear from them by February 20, a search party set out, and over the next couple of weeks, they found the first five of the hiker\u2019s bodies. They were in various states of dress and had bizarre injuries, with one appearing to have bitten off part of his own knuckle. The remaining four hikers had even more inexplicable injuries. One had a fractured skull, another had a twisted neck, two were missing their eyes and one of the bodies with no eyes was also missing her tongue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did these three Viking women have elongated skulls?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From Atlas Obscura<\/a>: “Filing teeth is not unheard of in ancient societies. The Vikings were known to carve grooves into their incisors for status or intimidation, similar to the Maya of Central America and Zappo Zap people in Congo, among others. But while examining Viking skulls from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, a team of researchers also found another deliberate body modification: three skulls had been subjected to cranial modification to achieve an oblong shape. The skulls belonged to adult women who lived approximately 1,000 years ago. Cranial modification has been seen in various parts of the world, but it had never been previously linked to Viking culture.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A diving crew used clues from Homer’s Iliad to uncover 10 long-lost shipwrecks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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From Popular Mechanics<\/a>: “A quest as epic as Homer\u2019s own tales recently unfolded beneath the blue waves of the Aegean Sea. Researchers, guided by clues in The Iliad<\/em>, unearthed a trove of ancient shipwrecks, weaving a narrative of scientific innovation and maritime mystery. The Greek National Research Foundation teamed with the Greek Ministry of Culture to conduct four research missions in the waters around the island of Kasos. Their goal was clear: identify sunken vessels cited in historical records, including those mentioned in Homer\u2019s historic poem. They successfully located 10 shipwrecks from various historical periods, according to the ministry\u2019s translated statement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Ames Window” optical illusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 1951, Adelbert Ames created the mind-boggling \u2018Ames Window\u2019. It\u2019s so effective that even when you know how it works you can\u2019t break the illusion

[\ud83d\udcf9 The Curiosity Show]https:\/\/t.co\/lm7aoCBxVs<\/a><\/p>— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 18, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>