Police officer volunteered to get human remains from a crocodile
A police officer has recalled the moment he was lowered from a helicopter into a crocodile-infested river in South Africa as part of an effort to recover human remains. Captain Johan Potgieter was tasked with capturing a crocodile suspected of eating a businessman who had been swept away by floodwater. "The crocodile itself was lying on an island... there really was no other way to get to it except from the air," he told the BBC. Since the operation, remains have been found inside the 15ft and 1,100lb crocodile. DNA tests are underway to confirm their identity. The man's car had become stranded attempting to cross a low bridge in the flooded Komati River last week. By the time the police got to the scene, it was empty, leading them to suspect he had been swept away by the water. Drones and helicopters were used to in the search mission which led police to a small island where a number of crocodiles lay in the sun. (via the BBC)
People with schizophrenia don't fall for the same visual illusions that non-schizophrenics do
Normal human subjects are readily fooled by a 3D representation of a face mask, but schizophrenics are not. This visual trick is known as the hollow mask illusion and consists of a 3D representation of a hollow, concave mask of a face, viewed pointing inwards. When healthy individuals look at this, more than 99% of the time what they report seeing is a normal face that is convex. This illusion exploits the brain's system for making sense of the visual world by superimposing what it expects to see, based on past experience and memories, with what it is actually seeing. Yet patients diagnosed with schizophrenia almost never fall for it and instead report seeing a "hollow" face. But why? To find out a joint UK and German study published in the journal Neuroimage brain scanned 16 healthy volunteers and 13 schizophrenics as they experienced the illusion, which was presented to them using a 3D headset. (via The Naked Scientists)
After 20 years a mysterious Coke machine in Seattle suddenly disappeared
For roughly two decades, a battered 1970s Coca-Cola machine sat on the sidewalk outside Broadway Locksmith on East John Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill, and nobody seemed to own it. Drinks cost 55 cents back in 2002, climbed to 75 cents by 2014, and reached a buck right when Seattle rolled out its sweetened-beverage tax in early 2018. Six unlabeled "mystery" buttons spat out off-brand and discontinued sodas. The locksmith provided the electricity. Employees swore they had no idea who was filling it. Then, on June 29, 2018, it was gone. Crews had been doing maintenance work on the nearby curb, and when they finished, the machine had vanished with them. A note read "Went for a walk." An employee at Broadway Locksmith pointed out that the machine was wired in carefully enough that pulling it out had to be deliberate. Since then, the Facebook page has occasionally posted doctored photos showing the machine perched at the Space Needle and lounging next to the Eagle sculpture. (via Boing Boing)
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.
This Japanese specialty cracker is made with a specific breed of wasp
In the Japanese village of Omachi, elderly wasp hunters set traps in the forest. The digger wasps they ensnare are intended for jibachi senbei—rice crackers with a smattering of wasps baked into every bite. The insect-studded snack is the brainchild of a Japanese fan club for wasps and a local cracker-baker. Digger wasps stings and paralyze other insects before eating them, but after the wasp-loving club members capture their prey, the bugs don’t stand a chance. They’re boiled and dried, then added to rice cracker mix. A hot iron cracker cutter stamps out the finished rounds. According to one reviewer, the finished cracker has a mild sweet and savory flavor, while the wasps themselves taste like burnt raisins (but with a bitter, acidic note). He also mentions the unsettling sensation of wings and legs getting stuck in his mouth. (via Atlas Obscura)
A curious DA solved her murder more than 50 years after it happened
The blue-and-white Chevy Impala was missing. Raymond Scheublin noticed it the moment he pulled up to his home on Pine Hill Road — a quiet street in Bedford — in June 1971. He’d spoken to his wife, Natalie, earlier that afternoon, and the family car should have been parked out front. He walked through the garage door into the basement and glanced toward the stairs. Natalie, in shorts and a blouse, lay face-down on a blood-soaked rug. She had been stabbed twice. Her mouth had been gagged, her hands and feet bound with clothesline and articles of clothing. A piece of rope lay beneath her body. The case went cold. Raymond made near-daily trips to the cemetery to sit by Natalie’s grave. He sold the house less than a year after the killing and never remarried. He died in 2011 at 92 years old. The case file went into a box. The box went into storage. Then district attorney David Solet came along. (via Boston magazine)
When a thousand guys named Josh decided to have a fight with pool noodles
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
