She was a scuba-diving TV star and an early LSD experimenter

Zale Parry, a depth-defying scuba diver and underwater stuntwoman whose reverence for the oceanic world was deepened by tripping out on LSD in a research study that included Cary Grant, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, died on July 20 at her home in Tillamook, Ore. She was 93. Once called the “prettiest thing underwater,” Ms. Parry was among the first women to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, an achievement that led to a career in Hollywood, including doubling for Sophia Loren in the 1957 film “Boy on a Dolphin” and co-starring with Lloyd Bridges on the television show “Sea Hunt.”Above water, she participated in an LSD study conducted by Oscar Janiger, a psychiatrist who administered doses of the psychedelic drug to more than 900 subjects in Los Angeles, many of them actors. During her two dozen trips, Ms. Parry painted kaleidoscopic scenes of nature and water.(via NY Times)

Pilots and flight attendants have a higher risk of cancer because they are bathed in radiation

The pilots and flight attendants who help us travel through the sky might be taking on more danger than advertised. Research out today finds that people with these jobs have a noticeably greater risk of dying from certain cancers, likely due to higher exposure levels of cosmic radiation that originate from outer space. Scientists with Harvard Medical School and others compared death certificate data across hundreds of different occupations. Airline pilots and attendants were significantly more likely to die from cancers related to radiation exposure than other professions, they found, even compared to jobs where people have to intentionally spend time near radiation, like nuclear technologists. This research suggests much more should be done to safeguard these employees from the harmful effects of cosmic rays, particularly in the U.S., the authors say. Aircrew employees like pilots and flight attendants are already known to have the highest average exposure to ionizing radiation of any occupation in the U.S (via Gizmodo)

This string of characters looks like a random password but you shouldn't use it

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has three simple recommendations for passwords: make your passwords long, make them random, and make them unique. So passwords like “password” or “letsgomets” or even “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” are bad ideas. You’ll want something like “x8Am30fuia0” or “ji32k7au4a83,” right? Wrong — at least, in the case of ji32k7au4a83. The phrase “my password” in Mandarin is “我的密碼,” which isn’t something English keyboards can easily type. If you’re in Taiwan, though, you’d not type those characters. You’d probably type out the phonetic equivalent using a different character set, called Bopomofo. On the most common keyboard, the characters would render as “ㄨㄛˇ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄇㄧˋ ㄇㄚˇ”. Boponmofo keyboards map to the standard keyboards we use in English-speaking nations, and “ㄨㄛˇ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄇㄧˋ ㄇㄚˇ” maps to “ji32k7au4a83.” Taiwanese people speaking Mandarin were typing “my password” when registering for online accounts. (via Now I Know)

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.

A former car salesman has been formally recognized as a prince of Belgium

Belgium’s Prince Laurent has formally recognized his adult son, born before his marriage to Princess Claire, as a member of the country’s royal family. The prince publicly acknowledged last year he was the father of Clément Vandenkerckhove, 26, a former car salesman, but officially established paternity before a civil registrar in February. Vandenkerckhove was reportedly also present and signed the documents. Last September, Prince Laurent, in a statement published in the Brussels Times, shut down more than two decades of speculation concerning the paternity of Vandenkerckhove. February’s formality made Vandenkerckhove a prince, though he is not expected to take on any royal duties and will not be in line to the throne because he was not born inside a marriage approved by the government. Vandenkerckhove is the child of Prince Laurent, whose last name is Saxe-Coburg, and Iris Vandenkerckhove, a Belgian model, singer and actress who goes by the stage name Wendy Van Wanten. (via Global News)

They are 150 million years older than dinosaurs and have a tail like a rat and teeth like a rabbit

Deep in the ocean is an ancient fish that glides along by flapping their wing-like pectoral fins instead of swishing their rattish tail. They look similar to a shark but with bigger eyes, a more protruding snout and only one visible gill opening. These are chimaeras, also known as ghost sharks, rat fish and rabbit fish. They diverged from sharks and rays around 400 million years ago but around 50 species can still be found in our seas today. Also known as ghost sharks, chimaeras are not true sharks but are very similar to sharks and rays and have a common ancestor – these cartilaginous fish split off from elasmobranchs around 400 million years ago. There are around 50 known species of chimaera but, because they tend to live in very deep waters, scientists still have lots to discover about them. They range anywhere from 60 centimetres to 2 metres in length depending on the species and usually weigh up to around 4kg. (via Discover Wildlife)

The way he celebrates the victory at the end is worth waiting for

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