The fastest man-made object in history was a manhole cover

From Now I Know: "After the Manhattan Project came to a close, nuclear weapons testing continued for decades. In 1957, the government detonated 29 bombs in the Nevada desert as part of Operation Plumbbob, hoping to develop better weapons. The researchers dug a 500 foot deep hole, dropped the bomb to the bottom, and blew it up, but the bomb yield was much greater than anticipated – 50,000 times greater. Fire shot hundreds of feet into the air from the mouth of the uncapped shaft. So a one ton iron lid was placed at the top of the shaft in hopes of keeping any flames underground. When the bomb went off, it shot the manhole cover skyward, at incredible speeds. How fast? Dr. Robert Brownlee estimated that the manhole cover was traveling at a speed of at least 125,000 miles per hour, making it easily the fastest-moving object in history."

Severe autism can be permanently reversed, groundbreaking new study suggests

From The Telegraph: "Severe autism can be reversed and symptoms reduced to an indistinguishable level, scientists have discovered. Two non-identical twin girls in the US were found to have a level of autism at 20 months old that required very substantial support. A groundbreaking trial saw their parents and a team of medical experts create a bespoke two-year programme of interventions designed to help the children thrive and flourish as much as possible. Scientists say the programme was successful, with both girls undergoing dramatic improvements in the severity of their symptoms. The progress of one of the girls, described only as Twin P, was heralded as “a kind of miracle” by one of the paediatricians. “One of the twins’ symptoms were reversed to the point of being indistinguishable from children who had never had a history of autism symptoms,” said Dr Chris D’Adamo from the University of Maryland.

The deadly Irish epidemic that may have inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula

From Atlas Obscura: "In 1832, on Old Market Street, a 14-year-old Irish girl hid in her home during the cholera outbreak, which killed more than 10 percent of the town’s population. The ghastly scenes around her—mass graves, corpses in the street, victims buried alive—she later recounted to her son. His name was Bram Stoker, and those bleak stories were a key source of inspiration for writing Dracula. That’s the contention of Irish historian Marion McGarry, who has done meticulous research into links between Dracula and Sligo’s cholera outbreak. “Bram as an adult asked his mother to write down her memories of the epidemic for him," says McGarry. “Scratching beneath the surface, I found parallels with Dracula." The strongest link was between Dracula’s liminal state—being simultaneously dead and conscious—and Thornley’s description of cholera victims who were buried alive. Stoker was morbidly fascinated by this detail. So much so that the working title for his novel was The Undead."

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There's a town in Canada named Swastika but not for the reason you're probably thinking

From Maclean's magazine: "Before the Nazis co-opted the swastika as the banner under which they triggered a devastating world war and killed 11 million people, the symbol of South Asian origin existed for millennia as a sign of good fortune and well-being. By the early 20th century, western cultures were embracing the swastika, too. It became a popular emblem on sports jerseys; Canada was home to both the Windsor Swastikas in Nova Scotia and the Fernie Swastikas in B.C. (both teams disbanded before the Second World War). In 1906, a northern Ontario town was named Swastika, which the provincial government tried to rename Winston – as in Churchill – during the Second World War. But the residents resisted, reinstalling a new Swastika sign with the message: “To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first.” The name hasn’t changed to this day.

Yes, there were women who fought as gladiators in ancient Rome

From World History: "Female gladiators in ancient Rome – referred to by modern-day scholars as gladiatrix – may have been uncommon but they did exist. Evidence suggests that a number of women participated in the public games of Rome even though this practice was often criticized by Roman writers and attempts were made to regulate it through legislation. Female gladiators are often referred to in ancient texts as ludia (female performers in a ludi, a festival or entertainment) or as mulieres (women) but not often as feminae (ladies) suggesting to some scholars that only lower-class women were drawn to the arena. There is a significant amount of evidence, however, that high-born women were as well. The term gladiatrix was never used in ancient times; it is a modern word first applied to female gladiators in the 1800's. Women who chose a life in the arena may have been motivated by a desire for independence, a chance at fame, and financial rewards including remission of debt."

In Egypt, physical therapy often involves being buried alive in hot sand

From The Washington Post: "Burying yourself in the scorching desert sand of high summer may seem like torture, but, for some Egyptians, it's medicinal. In Siwa, Egypt, amid the rolling sand dunes of an oasis, aching bodies seek out the healing powers of the blistering heat. Patients suffering from rheumatism, joint pain, infertility, or even impotence, are stripped of their clothes and buried up to their necks in the sand, where they stay for 15 minutes. Workers will massage their exposed heads and make sure they are shaded from the sun. Once excavated, the bathers will take refuge in a nearby sauna tent where they relax, while sipping hot mint tea. And then they do it all over again. "Between three and nine days of sand baths are recommended to feel any benefit," one owner said. Average time spent bathing in the sand ranges from 10 to 15 minutes."

Using robots to relocate illegally parked cars

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