{"id":285897,"date":"2026-04-27T08:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=285897"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:30:16","slug":"a-strange-bank-robbery-with-one-of-the-great-notes-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2026\/04\/27\/a-strange-bank-robbery-with-one-of-the-great-notes-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"A strange bank robbery with one of the great notes of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It was 2004. I was 31. I was up for several days on meth and drinking heavily for the past month or so. I decide to go rob a bank and take my son to Tijuana, Mexico to see my biological father \u2013 his new grandpa. I\u2019ve recently been discharged from parole. I take this new freedom as a chance to use drugs uncontrollably and drink like a mad man. I sit down on my chair and snatch a piece of scratch paper off my desk and write a bank robbery note. Later, as we proceed with the trial, I sit in the courtroom in a suit and tie, looking as innocent as possible. The D.A. walks in with a huge poster board and easel. He turns to the audience, then back to the jury and asks the judge for permission to enter exhibit D. The judge grants this wish. It\u2019s my banknote. Written in big bold black letters on a torn piece of a brown paper bag that I get from liquor stores. \u201cPlease give me all of your money,\u201d it reads, \u201cor i will tickle you to death put the money in the paper bag i have a pisol in my pocket. Have a nice day the paper bag bandit.\u201d (via Dreamland<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient damage from a kind of machine-gun discovered on the walls of Pompeii<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In 89 B.C.E., Pompeii was under siege. An invading army of tens of thousands of soldiers led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla stormed the town\u2019s walls with slings and catapults. The siege subdued the rebellious city back beneath the thumb of the Roman Republic. Recently discovered damage on Pompeii\u2019s fortification walls likely resulted from this fateful siege \u2014 and some of it may have come from a deeply mysterious ancient \u201cmachine gun,\u201d researchers reported recently. Excavations and surveys conducted since 2024 have revealed several clusters of gouges in Pompeii\u2019s northern fortification walls that were pristinely preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in C.E. 79. The marks are arrayed in a way that suggests they may have been left by a repeating dart-thrower called a polybolos<\/em>. \u201cIt was an antipersonnel weapon used to strike archers emerging from the battlements above and the postern below,\u201d says study lead author Adriana Rossi. The machine \u201chad been described in detail but had never before been unearthed in any archaeological find or material evidence.\u201d (via Scientific American<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: 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\u00a0see other issues\u00a0and sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Diatom arranging is the art of manipulating microscopic algae to make designs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Found in oceans, lakes, rivers, puddles and even damp soil, diatoms are a type of almost invisible marine algae. Diatoms produce half the world\u2019s oxygen, rivaling the output of all the planet\u2019s rainforests combined. When diatoms die, their remains sink down to the seafloor, forming thick layers of sediment that persist for eons. None of this mattered to us out there at Mile Rock Beach. Far more relevant were the silica shells that encase the diatoms. These shells, or frustules, come in an astonishing variety of shapes and sizes. Some look like spiky disks, others like delicate canoes, or cubes, or gears. Tens of thousands have been identified\u2014Coscinodiscus, Navicula, Chaetoceros, Thalassiosira, Actinocyclus, Pseudo-nitzschia, Skeletonema, Cyclotella \u2014 and many more have yet to be named. For the purposes of a community of craftspeople that is itself rather small, these organisms constitute a singular kind of palette. (via Craftsmanship<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/em>through my Patreon<\/em><\/a> 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 <\/em>The Torment Nexus<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan has a database of cherry blossom info that goes back 1,200 years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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For more than 1,200 years, Japanese noblemen, monks and bureaucrats have carefully recorded one of the most eagerly awaited days of the year \u2014 when cherry blossoms bloom in the ancient capital, Kyoto.In recent years, a climate scientist, Yasuyuki Aono, has been the keeper of this trove of dates, one of the world\u2019s most remarkable and longest-running climate records. Cherry trees, or sakura, are particularly sensitive to changing temperatures, and as the planet has warmed, they have bloomed earlier and earlier.Then last summer, Prof. Aono, who had meticulously updated the record year after year, died after a battle with cancer. That prompted supporters of his work to start looking for a worthy successor. Now, just as Kyoto sees the last of the year\u2019s cherry blossoms, Prof. Aono\u2019s successor has been found. A Tokyo-based environmental biophysicist, Genki Katata, agreed to be the new custodian. (via the New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turned his life around but only after he stole his co-worker’s identity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A man who went by the name William Woods had turned his life around. Three decades ago, he was homeless and worked at a hotdog cart. But then the man got married and had a child. He opened up bank accounts, received credit lines, and started working at a hospital, where he earned more than $100,000. There was just one problem: Although William Woods is a real person, the man is not that person. Instead, the man\u2019s name is Matthew Keirans. Keirans met the real Woods in the late 1980s; Woods was Keirans\u2019s coworker at the hotdog cart. From then on, Keirans used Woods\u2019s identity in every aspect of his life. Keirans obtained employment, insurance, a social security card, driver\u2019s licenses, titles, loans, and credit using Woods\u2019s identity. Keirans paid taxes under Woods\u2019s identity. When Keirans stole a car, authorities issued an arrest warrant in Woods\u2019s name. Although Keirans got married, his wife did not know his real name, and their child bore Woods\u2019s surname. Then Woods intervened. (via the Court of Appeal<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director Werner Herzog says he knows French but he refuses to speak it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/em>: 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 <\/em>The Morning News<\/em><\/a> from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg’s <\/em>Curious About Everything<\/em><\/a>, Dan Lewis’s <\/em>Now I Know<\/em><\/a>, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton’s <\/em>The Browser<\/em><\/a>, Clive Thompson’s <\/em>Linkfest<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Why Is This Interesting<\/em><\/a> by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy<\/em>. If you come across something you think should be included here, feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com<\/em><\/p>\n

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It was 2004. I was 31. I was up for several days on meth and drinking heavily for the past month or so. I decide to go rob a bank and take my son to Tijuana, Mexico to see my biological father \u2013 his new grandpa. I\u2019ve recently been discharged from parole. I take this … <\/p>\n

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