Rainforest tribe sues the NYT over porn addiction report

From The Wrap: "A remote indigenous tribe Amazon tribe in Brazil has sued The New York Times, claiming a story about its first exposure to the internet has led to widespread reports that its members have become addicted to pornography. Filed last week in Los Angeles, the Marubo Tribe of the Javari Valley’s lawsuit also names TMZ and Yahoo as defendants and seeks at least $180 million from each. The sovereign community alleges the story, about the arrival of Starlink in 2024, falsely portrays its 2,000 people as unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, highlighting allegations that their youth had become consumed by pornography. “These statements were not only inflammatory but conveyed to the average reader that the Marubo people had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access,” the lawsuit says.

Japanese wrestler became a member of parliament and a hostage negotiator

From Grantland: "One of the best ways to appreciate the full glory of Antonio Inoki, the legendary Japanese professional wrestler, WWE Hall of Famer, and three-term member of his country’s parliament, is to Google image-search the phrase “Antonio Inoki bitch-slap." You will see Inoki bitch-slapping the Japanese ambassador to Pakistan, a Cuban Olympian, a Japanese pop idol and member of the girl group SKE48, a man standing shirtless and in shorts in the snow, a 55-year-old female Japanese politician, the nationalistic former governor of Tokyo, a young Pakistani child, a man cradling an infant, a comedian, and scores of others. Fans, politicians, pop stars, and children from all over the world line up to receive his famed bitch-slap in the belief that it will invigorate them and transfer some of Inoki’s “burning fighting spirit.”

An archaeologist sailed the seas using only the kind of tools the Vikings used

From Gizmodo: "Vikings were formidable Scandinavian warriors and sailors who, from around 800 to 1050 CE, raided, traded, and settled throughout northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and even as far as North America. Most of what scholars know about Viking maritime networks, however, has to do with their start and end points. After all, they could have taken any number of routes in between. To shed light on this gap, an archaeologist decided to follow in the Vikings’ footsteps—or, more accurately, their wake. In order to reconstruct their seafaring itineraries, Lund University archaeologist Greer Jarrett sailed functional Viking-like boats along the Norwegian coast in a series of experimental voyages. By experiencing these journeys firsthand, the archaeologist hoped to understand where it would have made most sense for Viking sailors to seek shelter along the way to their destination. In this way, he identified four natural harbors that could have served as pitstops hundreds of years ago."

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 tried to restrain a sneeze and wound up blowing a hole in his windpipe

From Vice: "As noted in BMJ Case Reports, the man, in his 30s, was driving through a hay fever attack when he tried to stifle a sneeze by pinching his nose and clamping his mouth shut. That move turned out to be a terrible idea. The sudden pressure blew a 2-by-2 millimeter hole in his trachea. He showed up at the emergency room in serious pain, neck visibly swollen on both sides, barely able to turn his head. He could still breathe and talk, but doctors noticed a faint crackling sound under the skin — a clue that air was leaking into places it really shouldn’t be. X-rays revealed surgical emphysema, a condition where air gets trapped deep under the skin. A CT scan confirmed the source: a tear between the third and fourth vertebrae, allowing air to escape into the tissues of his neck and chest. The culprit? A rapid build-up of pressure in the trachea while sneezing with a pinched nose and closed mouth, according to the medical team."

Bird feeders have caused hummingbirds to evolve longer beaks in a short time

From Science.org: "Hummingbird feeders are a beloved pastime for millions of backyard birders and a convenient dining spot for the birds. But for the Anna’s hummingbird, a common species in the western United States, feeders have become a major evolutionary force. According to research published this week in Global Change Biology, artificial feeders have allowed the birds to expand their range out of Southern California up to the state’s northern end. They have also driven a transformation of the birds themselves. Over just a few generations, their beaks have dramatically changed in size and shape. To test how hummingbirds responded to the uptick in feeders, the researchers turned to the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, an annual birding survey. In addition, the team analyzed hummingbird museum specimens to quantify changes."

Great white sharks can leap out of the water at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour

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