They invited a homeless man to dinner and he stayed 45 years

Rob Parsons and his wife Diane were listening to the radio and getting ready for Christmas on 23 December 1975 when they heard a knock at the door of their Cardiff home. The couple contemplated ignoring it – they’d already overcompensated the small carol singer murdering Once in Royal David’s City – but Rob, now 77, switched off the radio and went to the door. On the step was a man with several day’s stubble, dirty creased clothes and messy brown hair. "Don’t you know who I am?" he asked. "I’m Ronnie Lockwood," the man said, as he handed over black bin bag with all his possessions and a frozen chicken into Rob’s hands. Rob asked what the frozen chicken was for. "He said somebody had given it to him for Christmas, but he can’t cook. So I brought him inside and Diane made him a roast," Rob remembers. They let him stay in the spare room for a couple of months while Ronnie got himself established as a dustman. However, those months turned into years, which turned into decades. (via Metro UK)

The Unabomber's brother identified him after he re-worded this common phrase in his manifesto

The common phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it too" seems a little off to some people. You can obviously have your cake and then you can eat it. Wikipedia’s editors note that "some find the common form of the proverb to be incorrect or illogical and instead prefer: ‘You can't eat your cake and then have it too.’ This used to be the most common form of the expression until the 1930s–1940s. In 1995, the Unabomber wrote a 35,000 word manifesto and sent it to the Washington Post, New York Times, and others. At the time, the mystery around the identity of the bomber intrigued many, including a man named David Kaczynski. David’s wife had urged him to read the full thing, as some themes reminded her of the rants of David’s reclusive brother, Ted Kaczynski. And David immediately saw some phrases that reminded him of Ted. One passage that jumped off the page: “As for the negative consequences of eliminating industrial society—well, you can’t eat your cake and have it too. (via Now I Know)

The guitarist for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers advised Congress on missile defense

Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers. Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident. In the mid-1980s, his interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software originally developed for military use, specifically data compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices. His next-door neighbor was a retired engineer who had worked on the  Sidewinder  missile program. This neighbor bought Baxter a subscription to Aviation Week magazine, provoking his interest in missile defense systems. He at one point wrote a five-page paper that proposed converting the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile into a missile defense system. (via Wikipedia)

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.

He has powered his entire home for eight years using over 1,000 used laptop batteries

What began 9 years ago as a simple plan for a DIY project laid out on an internet forum is now being hailed as a monumental achievement, both from a sustainable energy standpoint and from the perspective of battery recycling. Second Life Storage user Glubux spent years collecting laptop batteries and connecting them to solar panels to become completely self-reliant in terms of electricity. Over time, he amassed more than 1,000 secondhand laptop batteries that he ended up installing in a separate warehouse, about 50 meters from his home. In the beginning, battery discharge rates were uneven due to differences in the cells, causing some to drain faster than others, so Glubux started taking apart the laptop batteries and arranging the cells into custom racks. Scienceclock reports that Glubux’s ingenious setup has been running continuously for the last eight years, and not a single battery cell has failed since. That is a remarkable statistic, considering the DIY nature of the project. (via Oddity Central)

There was a female member of the Jackass crew but she left after being severely injured

If you watched Jackass in the early noughties, you mostly like remember Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O or Wee-man – but not Stephanie Hodge. However, the LA model/actress actually played a huge part in the first few seasons and was the show’s first stunt woman, until she suffered a brutal injury that would cause her bow out from the series for good. Hodge was the first cast member to have a serious injury as they filmed atop a snow-covered mountain in Portland, Oregon. The stunt saw the cast hurtle down a hill on everyday objects, including a portable toilet, a step ladder and a mattress – complete with bedding. Having seen the rest of the cast perform the stunt, Hodge volunteered for the last object. "They were like, 'It would be so much funnier if it was a girl instead of a guy' and I said 'OK, I'll do it', not really realizing what that meant," she admitted. As she descended the mountain, she hit a snowbank and was launched into the air, resulting in her snapping her pelvis and spine. (via Unilad)

A kinetic sculpture reimagines The Smoking Man from the X-Files

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