She can control her bionic hands even when they aren't attached

From Modern Met: "For most of her life, Tilley Lockey has been championing the limb different community. The 19-year-old singer, influencer, and host lost both her arms to meningitis when she was just 15 months old. But rather than hide it or try to blend in, Lockey has embraced and celebrated her condition. For many years, she has worked with Open Bionics, which have outfitted her with top-of-the-line bionic hands. Now, Lockey has debuted a new pair of wireless bionic arms. The Hero Pro, the latest prosthetic arm by Open Bionics, is 3D-printed and allows users to do things like push a stroller or carry a suitcase, as well as fine motor actions like zipping a jacket, scrolling on a phone, or holding a guitar pick. Lockey explained that the arms have two muscle sensors — squeeze to close, flex to open — and the hands are also completely wireless, so that they can be detached and will still follow the motions the user indicates."

He climbed Mount Fuji but had to be rescued twice after he went back to get his phone

From the BBC: "A 27-year-old university student who climbed Mount Fuji outside of its official climbing season was rescued twice in four days, after he returned to look for his mobile phone. The Chinese student, who lives in Japan, was first rescued by helicopter on Tuesday while on the Fujinomiya trail, which sits about 3,000m (9,800ft) above sea level. He was unable to descend the trail after he lost his crampons - a spiked device that is attached to the bottom of climbing shoes for better traction. But days later, he returned to the mountain to retrieve belongings that he left behind, including his phone. He was rescued again on Saturday after suffering from altitude sickness but is now out of danger. Due to harsh conditions, people are discouraged from climbing Mount Fuji outside of the official climbing season that starts in early July and ends in early September.

Society of magicians readmitted a woman 30 years after she tried to join by posing as a man

From The Guardian: "Deception has always been an integral part of magic. So when Sophie Lloyd set about attempting to gain access to the formerly male-only ranks of the Magic Circle, she concocted an elaborate disguise. To become the magician Raymond Lloyd, she wore a male bodysuit, wig, gloves to disguise her feminine hands – making sleight of hand even more difficult – and wore prosthetics in her mouth to give herself a square jaw. The deception was a success and Lloyd was duly admitted to the exclusive society. But when she later revealed herself to be a woman, after hearing rumours the society was on the brink of admitting female members, her membership was revoked. Ironically, she was ejected from the Magic Circle on the same day the first women were admitted as members in October 1991. But 34 years later, Lloyd was welcomed as a member of the Magic Circle, after being tracked down through a public appeal."

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.

Explorers who opened the 15th-century tomb of a Polish king all died but not from a curse

From Wikipedia: "The tomb of Casimir IV Jagiellon is a late 15th century masterpiece created in red marble for a King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was interred in the tomb following his death in 1492. In the 1970s, Cathedral authorities undertook work to renovate the Holy Cross chapel and permission was given to open the tomb. The work was undertaken by a team of 12 conservators, and in the following months, 10 of the 12 died prematurely and unexpectedly. Rumours of a curse began to circulate. Then a microbiologist identified the presence of the fungus in samples taken from the tomb, which produces toxic substances that are linked to a number of serious health conditions affecting the liver and are highly carcinogenic. It is thought that the conservator team members had inhaled the toxic spores."

His Italian restaurant got a lot of attention but from the police not the diners

From Now I Know: "Paolo Dimitrio was born and grew up in the Calabria region of Italy but in or around 2006, he relocated to Lyon, and ultimately took a job as a pizzaiolo — a pizza maker. In June 2021, he opened up his own restaurant, called Caffe Rossini Ristorante, in nearby Saint-Étienne. To launch the eatery, Dimitrio appeared in a local newspaper feature, boasting of his restaurant's regional and home-made recipes such as ravioli, risotto and tagliatelle. It didn’t do all that well — he only ran in until November 2021. Suffice it to say that the local press that Dimitrio and the restaurant received didn’t attract a lot of attention, at least not from would-be customers. But it did capture the eyes of another audience: the cops. Specifically, Italian police recognized the picture of Dimitrio, but they knew him under a different name: Edgardo Greco, a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate — and a man wanted for murder."

He taught his pet chicken to play jump rope

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