I'm the chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review
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.
From Andy Greenberg at Wired: "Since war first broke out broke out between Ukraine and Russia in 2014, Russian hackers have used some of the most sophisticated hacking techniques ever seen in the wild to destroy Ukrainian networks, disrupt the country’s satellite communications, and even trigger blackouts for
From Bess Stillman: "Much of the skill in being an ER doctor simply comes from practice: identifying who’s sick and who’s probably okay to nurse themselves at home is really the risk stratification of patients. And sometimes—because this is the nature of being a human being
From Nic Rowan for The American Conservative: "When Bill Watterson walked away from Calvin and Hobbes in 1995, he was exhausted. The comic strip had consumed ten years of his life, the latter half of which were spent fighting his syndicate for creative control and warring with himself as
From Christopher Blackwell for The Appeal: "Last month, a tiny, colorful barn swallow and her partner began building a nest outside a window at the prison where I am incarcerated. The brightly colored birds worked diligently, assembling their nest one beakful of mud at a time. All the guys
From Bert Gambini at the University of Buffalo: "Across three studies involving more than 1,800 participants, the findings — published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity — indicate that increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which the liver makes in response to inflammation in the body, can promote social
From Dan Lewis at Now I Know: "James Cameron, the director and screenwriter of the movie Titanic, sets up Rose’s character as upper-upper class very early in the movie; when she first sees the ship, she comments that it’s not all that special, and when she first
From Julie Salverson for Maisonneuve magazine: "Long ago, there was a famous rock called Somba Ke—“The Money Place”—on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. Loud noises came from this place and it was bad medicine to pass near it. In the old