Director James Cameron once did CPR on a drowned rat

On The Abyss, a rat used to demonstrate the film’s oxygenated water technology drowned during filming. Faced with the prospect of a dead rat — and losing the production’s “No Animals Were Harmed” certification — Cameron performed CPR on the rodent. The rat sprang back to life, and Cameron adopted “Beanie” as his pet. One can understand why a director like Cameron would go to extremes to protect his film’s reputation. But why did a man running one of the most tortuous shoots in Hollywood history, who was reportedly saying things to crewmembers like, “Firing [you] is too merciful” … Why did that guy open his home to a mere rat? “Beanie and I bonded over the whole thing,” he says. “I saved his life. We were brothers. He used to sit on my desk while I was writing Terminator 2, and he lived to a ripe old age. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist thinks he can get water from the air

In October 2025, Omar Yaghi was one of three scientists who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for identifying metal-­organic frameworks, or MOFs — metal ions tethered to organic molecules that form repeating structural landscapes. Today that work is the basis for a new project that sounds like science fiction, or a miracle: conjuring water out of thin air. When he first started working with MOFs, Yaghi thought they might be able to absorb climate-damaging carbon dioxide — or maybe hold hydrogen molecules, solving the thorny problem of storing that climate-friendly but hard-to-contain fuel. But then, in 2014, Yaghi’s team of researchers at UC Berkeley had an epiphany. The tiny pores in MOFs could be designed so the material would pull water molecules from the air around them, like a sponge — and then, with just a little heat, give back that water as if squeezed dry. Just one gram of a water-absorbing MOF has an internal surface area of roughly 7,000 square meters. (via MIT)

This Israeli hotel created by Banksy advertises itself as having the worst view in the world

Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel reopens in Bethlehem, restoring access to what it calls ‘the worst view in the world’, a direct confrontation with the concrete separation wall. The three-star hotel, conceived as a functioning artwork and social platform, had closed its doors on October 7th, 2023, citing ‘major developments in the region.’ Its reopening comes after more than two years of suspension, marking a cautious return during an uneasy ceasefire period in which political uncertainty persists despite a reduction in large-scale hostilities. Opened in 2017, the hotel conceived by the anonymous street artist sits just 500 meters from the checkpoint to Jerusalem and about a mile from Bethlehem’s center. Banksy chose the location because of its proximity to the wall, a structure over 700 kilometers long built by the Israeli government, considered by critics an instrument of apartheid and by supporters a security measure. (via designboom)

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 through my Patreon 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 The Torment Nexus.

Amazon caught a Korean hacker because his keystrokes took too long

An infinitesimal delay in the typed commands of a new IT worker provided an early clue that an imposter had gotten access to an Amazon.com corporate computer. Keystroke data from the laptop of a worker who was supposed to be in US should have taken tens of milliseconds to reach Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Instead, the flow from this machine was more than 110 milliseconds, according to Amazon’s Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt. The barely perceptible lag suggested the worker was half a world away. The person, who Schmidt said was hired by an Amazon contractor, was part of the surge in recent years of North Koreans skirting strict sanctions by the US and other countries to con their way into remote jobs. The purpose is to raise money for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea including for its weapons programs. (via Bloomberg)

What it's like for the choir when the conductor is a rich guy who bought his way in

The first time I heard Mandle Cheung’s name was at rehearsal this past May. As I, along with the other 100 members of the Amadeus Choir, pulled out copies of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, our conductor, Kathleen Allan, announced that we would be performing the piece the following month with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra — under “Mandle.” A murmur travelled through the rows. I didn’t know who or what “Mandle” was, but many of my fellow choristers did. The 78-year-old multimillionaire and tech entrepreneur had made small waves in Toronto’s classical music community. Without any formal musical training, Cheung has been paying to conduct the greatest works of the classical canon with the best musicians he can find. Opinions varied wildly. Some said he couldn’t conduct to save his life, others that he was actually quite good. Some called him an egomaniac, others a true patron of the arts. There was consensus on one thing only: Mandle Cheung paid well. (via Toronto Life)

This is how fast a bear can reach its top speed of 40 miles per hour

Acknowledgements: 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 The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest and Why Is This Interesting by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy. If you come across something you think should be included here, feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com