Mathew Ingram

When dozens of teenagers suffered mysterious seizures

Katie Krautwurst, a high-school cheerleader from Le Roy, N.Y., woke up from a nap. Instantly, she knew something was wrong

They defy death to help save works of art in war-torn Ukraine

From The Guardian: "Since those early days of the war, with the help of a motley group of intrepid friends, Marushchak has achieved something quite extraordinary. He has organised the evacuation of dozens of museums across Ukraine’s frontline – packing, recording, logging and counting each item and sending them

How the NBA got into business with a ruthless African dictator

From ESPN: "In the summer of 2018, inside a national arena that felt more like a small-college gym, the NBA commissioner shot free throws with the president of Rwanda. It was a meeting of disparate men with complementary motives. Adam Silver, a lawyer and NBA lifer who grew up

He stole the Olympic flag and returned it when he was 103

From the New York Times: "Challenged by his friend, the swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, Harry Prieste shinnied up a 15-foot flagpole at the end of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, and stole the official flag. The Irish linen flag came home with Prieste to Los Angeles, the fruit

Britain planned to make Hitler docile by giving him estrogen

From The Week: "Though the Allies considered some highly inventive schemes to beat Adolf Hitler, few are more bizarre than an alleged plot to make the Fuhrer lose interest in world domination by secretly drugging him with female sex hormones. Cardiff University professor Brian Ford says he uncovered the

Red Cross and Vatican helped thousands of Nazis escape

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The professional soccer player who was also a cocaine kingpin

From Washington Post: "The ball blazed five feet over the goal’s crossbar. Even the team’s security guard couldn’t hide his frustration, kicking the dirt, wondering aloud why Capiatá’s fate had been put in Marset’s hands. Over the next two years, the reasons would become

Life briefly existed on the moon in the form of astronaut poop

From Wired: "The first picture Neil Armstrong ever snapped from the surface of the moon shows a jettisoned waste bag that may well contain poop. The Apollo crews left a total of 96 bags of waste, including urine and feces, across their six landing sites, which are still sitting

The fastest man-made object in history was a manhole cover

From Now I Know: "After the Manhattan Project came to a close, nuclear weapons testing continued for decades. In 1957, the government detonated 29 bombs in the Nevada desert as part of Operation Plumbbob, hoping to develop better weapons. The researchers dug a 500 foot deep hole, dropped the

The scholar who inspired a legion of cranks and crackpots

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: "Born in 1874 in Albany, N.Y., Charles Fort started his career as a journalist and aspiring fiction writer until his uncle’s death in 1906 left him with enough money to pursue his paranormal research full time. By then he had already

Storm causes Britain to suffer weaker tea than normal

From The Guardian: "Millions of Britons were forced to drink subpar cups of tea last November due to the record-breaking low pressure caused by Storm Ciarán. The low pressure caused the boiling point of water to drop below the 100C temperature some experts recommend to extract the full flavour