The German clockmaker who almost killed Adolf Hitler
The year was 1939. In an otherwise unoccupied auditorium, a man knelt on hands and knees chiseling a square hole into a large stone pillar. The man had wrapped his chisel in cloth to quiet his hammer strikes. Whenever there was some unexpected sound, he froze. The man working there was a 36-year-old German handyman named Georg Elser. In his three and a half decades he had cultivated many skills, including clock making, cabinet building, master carpentry, and stone quarrying. And the task at hand required all of his diverse expertise. The box contained a delicately assembled clock of his own design. Two clocks, actually. The clocks were unusual in that they were designed to run backwards. The inside of the box was lined with sheets of cork. Also inside was an assortment of keepsakes Elser had purloined: blasting caps from the rock quarry, and multiple packets of gunpowder from the armament factory. (via Damn Interesting)
He was digging a swimming pool in France and found almost $1 million in gold
A man discovered a gold treasure worth $800,000 while digging a swimming pool in his garden in France, local officials have said. The man informed the local authorities after he made the discovery in May, and they allowed him to keep the gold as it did not come from an archeological site. He found five gold bars and many coins buried in plastic bags, according to a report in a local newspaper. Police found that the gold had been acquired legally and had been melted down some 15 or 20 years ago at a nearby refinery. Because the gold bars had unique numbers that could be traced, police were able to determine that they had not been stolen. France's 19th century civil code defines treasure as any hidden or buried thing over which no one can prove their ownership, and which is discovered purely by chance. The previous owner of the garden has died, and how the gold ended up there remains a mystery. (via CBS News)
His friends tried to kill him for the insurance money and failed at least half a dozen times
Michael Malloy got the nicknames “Iron Mike” and “Mike the Durable” after a gang of his supposed friends plotted to murder him for an insurance payout. First, Malloy was told that he had an open tab at Marino’s speakeasy saloon. The thought was that he wouldn’t be able to help himself and would drink himself to death. However, he kept coming back for more. Antifreeze was put into Malloy’s drinks. It did not harm him. They then tried turpentine. That did not harm him. Then in succession, horse liniment, rat poison and pure methanol wood alcohol were all mixed into his libations. The men then resorted to giving him a sandwich consisting of rotten sardines, carpet tacks and poison. Once again, he lived. They waited until Malloy had drank himself into a drunken stupor and carried him outside and threw him in the snow with his shirt off. But police found him and brought him to a shelter and again he survived. (via Medium)
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.
The surprising reason why there are so many Thai restaurants in the United States
Thai restaurants are everywhere in America. Mexican and Chinese restaurants might be more plentiful, but there are demographic reasons that explain the proliferation of these cuisines. With over 36 million Mexican-Americans and around five million Chinese-Americans, it’s no surprise that these populations’ cuisines have become woven into America’s cultural fabric. Comparatively, according to a representative from the Royal Thai Embassy in DC, there are just 300,000 Thai-Americans — less than 1 percent the size of the the Mexican-American population. Yet there are an estimated 5,342 Thai restaurants in the United States, compared to around 54,000 Mexican restaurants; that’s ten times the population-to-restaurant ratio. So, why are there so many Thai restaurants in the US? There are a number of theories, but the reason is very simple: because the Thai government paid for it. (via Vice)
Scientists still aren't sure why pre-Columbian people created these giant stone spheres
Tucked in an alcove at Harvard rests an astonishing relic of ancient craftsmanship, a perfectly carved stone sphere that stands 3 feet 7 inches tall and weighs around 5,000 pounds, and was created by Pre-Columbian peoples of what is now Costa Rica, sometime around 600 CE. Fashioned from granitic rock using only stone tools and sand for polishing, the sphere’s flawless symmetry remains a marvel of early engineering. Hundreds of similar spheres have been found across Costa Rica, though their purpose is still debated. Some believe they were symbolic representations of the universe, while others suggest they were statements of power, artistic feats that demonstrated immense control over resources and labor. This particular sphere was unearthed in 1948 when the United Fruit Company cleared land for banana plantations. (via Atlas Obscura)
A video animates the maze-like world of impossible physics from an M.C. Escher print
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
