The French government gave him a patent for ads on fish

From Weird Universe: "In 1961, the French patent office granted Robert-Oropei Martino a patent for a method of placing advertisements on fish. From his patent: "It is known that the effect of advertising is largely determined by the medium chosen for it. It is recognized that advertising carried out on a mobile medium, in particular rotating, attracts much more attention than the same advertising on a fixed medium. According to the present invention, a particularly effective advertisement is produced by having it carried by fish in an aquarium, pond or other. It is obviously possible to imagine many ways of having advertising carried by fish. According to the invention, a corset is preferably used, made to the dimensions of the subject in a material that is sufficiently flexible not to hinder it, and which is closed on it by any appropriate means."

The close ties between the modern art movement in the US and the CIA

From JSTOR Daily: "The preeminent Cultural Cold Warrior, Thomas W. Braden, who served as MoMA’s executive secretary from 1948-1949, later joined the CIA in 1950 to supervise its cultural activities. The relationship between Modern Art and American diplomacy began during WWII, when the Museum of Modern Art was mobilized for the war effort. MoMA was founded in 1929 by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. A decade later, her son Nelson Rockefeller became president of the Museum. In 1940, while he was still President of MoMA, Rockefeller was appointed the Roosevelt Administration’s Coordinator of Inter-American affairs. The Museum followed suit. MoMA fulfilled 38 government contracts for cultural materials during the Second World War, and mounted 19 exhibitions of contemporary American painting for the Coordinator’s office, which were exhibited throughout Latin America." 

Why are nearly 80 percent of autoimmune sufferers female?

From Scientific American: "Melanie See’s first bout of odd symptoms began in 2005. Suddenly she started sweating a lot. She rapidly lost 10 pounds. She got dizzy walking from the bedroom to the couch. She started lactating even though she was not nursing a baby. See, then 45, was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that makes thyroid hormones surge. Three years later, her health took another downturn. She lost more weight. She felt extremely tired. Her doctors diagnosed her with celiac disease, another autoimmune disease. Then See was diagnosed with a third autoimmune illness: mixed connective tissue disease, a rare ailment that shares some features of lupus. Women account for an estimated 78 percent of people who have these kinds of disorders, which are now the fifth-leading cause of death in women under 65."

Hoard of silver coins dating from Norman Conquest is Britain’s most valuable treasure

From CNN: "Norman-era silver coins unearthed five years ago in southwestern England have become Britain’s most valuable treasure find ever, after it was bought for $5.6 million by a local heritage trust. For the group of seven metal detectorists who discovered the 2,584 silver pennies in the Chew Valley area, about 11 miles south of the city of Bristol, it marks a lucrative windfall since they will pocket half that sum. The landowner on whose property the coins were found will receive the other half. According to South West Heritage Trust, the body that acquired them, the coins date from around 1066-1068, spanning one of the most turbulent periods in English history as the country was successfully invaded for the last time during the Norman Conquest. One coin, the oldest in the hoard, depicts King Edward the Confessor, who died in January 1066."

World War II sub discovered 81 years after vanishing on a secret mission

From Popular Science: "Since 2000, at least 14 expedition crews have unsuccessfully tried to find the final resting place of the HMS Trooper, but the ill-fated World War II submarine has finally been located. According to researchers, the British vessel resides 830-feet-down at the bottom of the Icarian Sea, near the Greek island of Donoussa—and the wreckage indicates an underwater mine is to blame. In early October 1943, the HMS Trooper set a course for the Greek island of Kalamos, where its 64 crew members were to deploy.The submarine then was ordered to patrol the Aegean Sea, a region littered with German naval mines. Although scheduled to dock in Beirut on October 17, the Trooper never arrived, and its crew has remained missing in action ever since."

This hiarious ad for deodorant is set in a town filled with stuntmen

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters 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, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com