She invented the rape kit but died in obscurity

From The Atlantic: "The sexual-assault-evidence collection box, colloquially known as the “rape kit,” is a simple yet potent tool: a small case, perhaps made of cardboard, containing items such as sterile nail clippers, cotton swabs, slides for holding bodily fluids, paper bags, and a tiny plastic comb. Designed to gather and preserve biological evidence found on the body of a person reporting a sexual assault, it introduced standardized forensics into the investigation of rape where there had previously been no common protocol. The kit was trademarked under the name “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit,” after Sergeant Louis Vitullo. The Chicago police officer had a well-publicized role in the 1967 conviction of serial killer Richard Speck. But thanks to a new book we know about the collection box’s real inventor—a woman named Martha “Marty” Goddard."

Italian towns used to have the equivalent of skyscrapers built by rich families

From Exurbe: "This implausible Medieval forest of towers, as dense as Manhattan skyscrapers, is our best reconstruction of the town of Bologna at its height, toward the end of the Medieval Guelph-Ghibelline wars. We don’t see many such towers today… or think we don’t, but actually their remnants are all over Italy. Often when in Florence one sees buildings where one section is rough stone standing out amid stucco neighbors. These are actually the bottom nubs of Medieval stone towers. The town of San Gimigniano is famous for having several still intact. Wealthy families built these as mini-fortresses within the city, where they could defend against riots, enemy families and invasion. Signs of wealth and prestige, these all-stone buildings were also fireproof, leading to a terrible but effective tactic: take your family, treasures & goods up into your tower then set fire to enemies’ homes and let the city burn around you while you sit safe above."

Devo singer Mark Mothersbaugh makes a million dollars a year from a TV theme song

From Rolling Stone: "While Whip It is Devo’s best-known song, it’s far from lead singer and primary songwriter Mark Mothersbaugh’s most lucrative track over the past decade. That would be Uncontrollable Urge, which never appeared on the Hot 100, has no gold or platinum certifications, and only has about 5 million YouTube views and 30 million all-time streams on Spotify. (Whip It has four times as many YouTube views and nearly six times as many Spotify streams.) One huge difference separates the two songs: a cover of Uncontrollable Urge soundtracks the comedy clip show Rob Dyrdek’s Ridiculousness, which can play on MTV for as much as 14 hours in a 24-hour period, nearly every day of the week. Over the past decade, the performance royalties on that song net Mothersbaugh around $1 million per year, according to an estimate from his wife and manager."

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.

DNA inherited from Neandertals may influence the way the human mind works

From Scientific American: "When Neandertals were first discovered nearly 170 years ago, the conceptual gap between their lineage and that of modern humans seemed vast. Initially scientists believed that the Neandertals were primitive brutes hardly more intelligent than apes and that their lack of advanced thinking had doomed them to extinction. Since that time, researchers have amassed evidence that they shared many of the cognitive abilities once considered unique to our species, Homo sapiens. Since then, numerous studies have explored the ways in which Neandertal DNA affects our modern physiology, which raises the fascinating possibility that Neandertal DNA has wide-­reach­ing effects on our species—not only on general health but on brain development, including our propensity for conditions such as autism."

Colorado has finally extinguished a fire that has been burning for more than 100 years

From Boing Boing: "Suspected of starting a local wildfire, a coal fire underneath a popular Boulder, Colorado, open space has been put out. Coal fires can burn for as long as there is fuel. An underground coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania has been burning since 1962 and forced the town to evacuate, and a coal fire in Germany has reportedly been burning underground since 1688. Colorado's Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety undertook a massive project to dig up tons of unburnt coal and backfill burnt-out caverns near Boulder. While there is no definitive proof the burning seam was causing local brushfires, it was likely enough to merit the massive investment. Surface temperatures at the site reached about 525 degrees Fahrenheit and the majority of the smoldering coal had temperatures between 175 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit."

Australia changes from black-and-white TV to colour during a live broadcast

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