Rocket scientist joined cult and died in a suspicious explosion

From Wikipedia: "John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons) was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Aerojet. In 1939, Parsons converted to Thelema, a religious movement founded by English occultist Aleister Crowley. Parsons and his first wife, Helen Northrup, joined Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis; he became the California O.T.O. branch leader in 1942. Parsons was dismissed from JPL and Aerojet in 1944, due to his involvement with O.T.O. and his hazardous laboratory practices. Shortly afterward, L. Ron Hubbard defrauded Parsons of his life savings. Parsons died at the age of 37 in a home laboratory explosion in 1952; his death was officially ruled an accident but many of his associates suspected suicide or murder."

Researchers found four intact 1,900-year-old Roman swords in a Dead Sea cave

From the BBC: "A cache of four excellently preserved Roman swords have been discovered by Israeli researchers in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea. Three of the 1,900-year-old weapons, whose iron blades are 60-65cm long (24-26in), were still in wooden scabbards. They were found in a near-inaccessible crevice by a team photographing an ancient inscription on a stalactite. Archaeologists believe the swords were hidden by Judean rebels after they were seized from the Roman army as booty. Fifty years ago, a stalactite with an incomplete ink inscription written in ancient Hebrew script was found in a small cave high on a cliff above the Dead Sea, north of the En Gedi oasis in eastern Israel. Archaeologist Dr Asaf Gayer of Ariel University, geologist Boaz Langford of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and photographer Shai Halevi of the IAA recently went to the cave to decipher parts of the inscription that were not visible to the naked eye."

An artist created a contest in which the goal is to do absolutely nothing for 90 minutes

From The Guardian: "The Space-out competition was created by South Korean artist Woopsyang as a response to her own experience of burnout. The competition has been running for more than a decade around the world with a simple proposition: a mini-city of competitors, all dressed as their jobs, sit in a public space doing absolutely nothing for 90 minutes. Laughing, chatting, using technology or falling asleep results in disqualification – “lifeguards” patrol around monitoring everyone’s activity, or lack thereof. A large yellow card is a warning, and a red one is a disqualification. Participants can raise smaller coloured cards to ask for warmth, water, a massage or to exit the competition. Every 15 minutes “doctors” measure participants’ heart rates. The watching crowds vote on their favourite competitor, which, when combined with the heart rate measurement, determines the overall winner."

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 church displays the cages where leaders of a religious rebellion were kept until they died

From Atlas Obscura: "The Anabaptist cages are three iron cages hanging high on the tower of St. Lambert’s Church in Münster, Germany. In 1536, a radical Anabaptist rebellion that briefly turned the city into a theocratic commune. Bernhard Rothmann was a tireless and vitriolic opponent of Catholicism and a writer of pamphlets that were published by his ally, the wealthy wool merchant Bernhard Knipperdolling. The pamphlets started to proclaim that the Bible called for the absolute equality of man in all matters, including the distribution of wealth. The pamphlets, which were distributed throughout northern Germany, called upon the poor of the region to join the citizens of Münster to share the wealth of the town and benefit spiritually from being the elect of Heaven. After the rebellion was quashed, the corpses of the movement’s executed leaders were displayed in these cages as a grim warning. At night, each cage is softly lit from within, casting an eerie glow that recalls their dark past.

These hydrogels made from snake venom could help treat uncontrollable bleeding

From The Smithsonian: "Biomaterials researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have developed a gel that can initiate blood clotting in under one minute. It could be available over-the-counter, or used by paramedics and military personnel in combat, to stop bleeding in traumatic injuries while the patient is taken to the hospital, reports Imma Perfetto for Cosmos. The secret is in the venom of Australia’s eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) and the saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) native to wide swaths of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The gel contains two snake venom proteins, one from each snake, that act as a wound sealant. The body excels at stopping bleeding on minor injuries, like cuts and scrapes, through blood coagulation. However, when a traumatic injury occurs, the body’s complex healing process often cannot meet the sudden overwhelming demand to halt blood coming through a wound."

This is what happens when a tornado meets up with a gas explosion

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