FBI is looking into the suspicious deaths of 10 top scientists

The FBI is looking for any connections among the recent deaths and disappearances of at least 10 scientists who had ties to government science projects or other sensitive information. Those who have died or disappeared include a nuclear physicist and MIT professor fatally shot outside his Massachusetts residence, a retired Air Force general missing from his New Mexico home, and an aerospace engineer who disappeared during a hike in Los Angeles. The announcement comes after the cases were highlighted by President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers; growing online speculation hinted at a link between the incidents, although there is no known evidence of any connections among the individual researchers other than the nature of their respective jobs and the fact that none of the incidents occurred before 2022. The most recent case involves retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, who disappeared, along with a gun and his wallet, in February. (via Scientific American)

Meet the 82-year-old queen of jumping rope

It was a Wednesday morning in April, and Annie Judis had transformed the kitchen of her Beverly Hills mansion into a film set. With her iPhone balanced on a stand, the 82-year-old adjusted the lighting and smoothed her costume: an aqua spandex workout set that revealed a hint of cleavage, a matching head wrap and tinted glasses. When it was showtime, her housekeeper hit play on her adopted theme song, the peppy anthem “Good Morning,” by Max Frost. Smiling from ear to ear, Ms. Judis started jumping rope and didn’t stop for a full minute. “Come on, everybody, let’s move it, let’s go!” she said to the camera. She does this routine nearly every morning, greeting her 187,000 Instagram followers and reminding them: “You’re going to need that energy for the grandkids.” Ms. Judis currently holds the Guinness World Record for oldest competitive rope skipper. She also thrives on having an audience: If she doesn’t share a workout, she said, it’s like it never happened. (via the New York Times)

There are hundreds of thousands of cars parked in the desert that will likely never be driven

The image shows a parking lot containing hundreds of thousands of cars, all of them sitting in neat rows, baking under the sun. They’re about 90 minutes northwest from Los Angeles, but the cars there aren’t going to LA — or anywhere else — any time soon. Their story begins in 2015, when Volkswagen got caught in one of the largest corporate scandals in automotive history. The German automaker had been selling diesel vehicles marketed as clean and fuel-efficient, but the company had rigged nearly 600,000 of those vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. Volkswagen faced up to $20 billion in Clean Air Act fines alone, and as part of the settlement, it was required to either fix the affected vehicles or buy them back from their owners. Many owners chose the buyback, and by the end of 2017, Volkswagen had reacquired about 335,000 diesel vehicles, spending more than $7.4 billion. The company was only able to get rid of about 30,000 — that left roughly 300,000 vehicles with nowhere to go. (via Now I Know)

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.

He secretly recorded more than 10,000 music shows by bands like REM and Nirvana

For decades, a guy named Aadam Jacobs has been recording live music shows. His collection of over 10,000 shows since 1984 feature the likes of Nirvana, R.E.M., The Pixies, Björk, Depeche Mode, Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Phish, Fugazi, and so many more. There’s also a smattering of hip-hop, including a 1988 concert by rap pioneers Boogie Down Productions. Devotees of Phish were thrilled to discover that a previously uncirculated 1990 show by the jam band is included. And there are hundreds of sets by smaller artists who are unlikely to be known to even fans with the most obscure tastes. All of it is slowly becoming available for streaming and free download at the nonprofit online repository Internet Archive, including that nascent Nirvana show recording, with the audio from Jacobs’ cassette recorder cleaned up. (via Kottke.org)

Someone has built a massive castle-like fortress in Poland hoping to sell space to billionaires

The castle in Stobnica is one of the most controversial investments in Poland in recent years. It has fifteen overground storeys, and the dominating element is a tower several dozen metres high. It is the largest building of its kind erected in Poland in the 21st century and one of the newest in Europe. The mighty structure was built on the edge of the Notecka Primeval Forest, within a protected Natura 2000 area, which from the beginning aroused opposition from the public, environmental organisations and politicians. Despite attempts by various institutions to halt construction, work is now in its final stages. Meanwhile, Business Insider has learned that an ‘oasis for multi-millionaires’, including those from Dubai, is to be created in the castle. The company D.J.T. from Poznan is responsible for the investment. (via White Mad)

She may dress like an anime character but she can kick like a mule

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