I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
From Jasna Hodžić for JSTOR Daily: "A little after midnight in the late summer of 1859, campers dozing beneath the night sky in the Colorado Rockies woke to a display of auroral light so bright one could easily read a newspaper. In their account of the event, published in
From Daniel Vaughn for Texas Monthly: "The origins of barbecue are murky. Both the transformation from the word “barbacoa” and the development of the cooking process are widely accepted as having come from the Taíno people Christoper Columbus first encountered in present-day Haiti. After much research, Joseph Haynes explains
From Milton Mermikides for Aeon magazine: "Bach was crafty both in his music and life, and he adored puzzles, games and general inventive mischief. His monogram on his wax seal and his goblet was his own design, and at first glance it looks like an ornate decorative symmetrical crest
From Elizabeth Greenwood at LinkedIn: "The biggest challenge of faking your death is that teensy problem of your body. So fake a drowning, right? Wrong. “Death” by water immediately raises red flags. Investigator Steve Rambam, who consults for insurance companies says, “Ninety-nine percent of faked deaths are water accidents.
From Cara Giaimo for Atlas Obscura: "Tony Diamond can’t remember exactly why he first shone a blacklight on a puffin. It was around 2010 or 2011, and the ecology professor was helping a graduate student investigate some questions about beak coloration. “For some reason, a colleague had brought
From Katie Hafner and Ashraya Gupta for Scientific American: "Meitner's realization drew upon recent work that Niels Bohr and other scientists had been doing on the structure of the atom. They proposed a liquid-drop model of the nucleus, where subatomic particles were held together by strong nuclear
From Molly Rains for Science.org: "What has tusks, bristly hair, and is contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation? Visit Germany’s Bavarian mountain towns and you just may find out. The wild boars (Sus scrofa) that snuffle through the region’s forests are so radioactive that the country
Hi everyone – first of all, let me just say how honoured I am that you read and enjoy my newsletter. When I first created it, I wasn't sure how many people would be interested in the odd, strange, unusual, weird, and sometimes inspiring news items I come across
Editor's note: This is so full of amazing parts it's hard to pick just one! Please read it, even if you don't know who Werner Herzog is. The link should hopefully take you around the paywall. From Werner Herzog in The New Yorker: "
From Michael Levenson for The New York Times: "Let this be a warning to those of you who long to hit the open road with a 2,200-pound steer riding shotgun: Observe all traffic laws, especially when passing through Norfolk, Neb. Lee Meyer, 63, a retired machinist, learned that
From Corey Killgannon for the New York Times: "Thomas Fitzpatrick turned a barroom bet into a feat of aeronautic wonder by stealing a plane from a New Jersey airport and landing it on St. Nicholas Avenue in northern Manhattan, in front of the bar where he had been drinking.
From Jesse Hyde for Town and Country: "The heist had been planned for months. They had run through the scenarios, studied the streets and bridges and tunnels, scouted the escape routes, purchased the burner phones, and secured the getaway cars. Most important, they had uncovered secrets about the museum.