Ukrainian drone operators win points they can use for weapons

A computer game-style drone attack system has gone viral among Ukrainian military units and is being extended to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, the nation’s first deputy prime minister has told the Guardian. Drone teams competing for points under the Army of Drones Bonus System killed or wounded 18,000 Russian soldiers in September, with 400 drone units now taking part in the competition, up from 95 in August, Ukrainian officials said. The system, which launched more than a year ago, rewards soldiers who achieve strikes with points that can be exchanged to buy more weapons in an “Amazon-for-war” online store called Brave1 filled with more than 100 different drones, autonomous vehicles and other drone war material. It has a leaderboard topped by teams with names such as Achilles and Phoenix. (via The Guardian)

This restaurant serves excellent food but there's one catch: It's in a prison

Prison food and high cuisine simply don’t belong in the same sentence. Unless you’re going to the Clink. The Clink is a restaurant group based in the UK, not a prison. Their restaurants serve high-end fare — the one in Brixton, London, features a £48.50 gourmet menu (about $63) that features an amuse bouche, a choice of salads, a soup of the day, and entrees ranging from a chargrilled pork chop to a BBQ jerk monkfish. Reservations are hard to come by but if you land one, the experience is generally worth the wait; in 2024, a reporter for Business Insider described it as “delicious and reasonably priced for London.” It has more than a thousand reviews on TripAdvisor, averaging 4.8 stars, which puts it in the top 100 of all London restaurants. But there’s a catch: The Clink is situated inside a prison. And the people making your food, serving you your meal, and bussing your dishes? They’re all prisoners. (via Now I Know)

How a great-grandmother helped researchers unravel a dinosaur mummy mystery

You might not think a paleontologist looking for 66-million-year-old fossils would need to ask a rancher about his great-grandmother's job in the Wyoming badlands. But that's what Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, did when he was trying to track down a historic site where a famous dinosaur mummy was found in 1908. Sereno's work, published in the journal Science, brings new clarity about the appearance of the duck-billed Edmontosaurus annectens, a massive herbivore from the Cretaceous period. Sereno and his team's painstaking work reveals the dinosaur's hooves and spiky tail in exquisite detail. But first they had to find them. Sereno was hunting for the spot where the famed collector Charles Sternberg discovered a dinosaur mummy in the rough terrain of eastern Wyoming. There were references to Warren, Wyo., a town that doesn't exist on any map. So he asked around at nearby ranches. (via NPR)

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.

In Italian culture the worst day superstition-wise isn't the 13th it's the 17th

In Italian culture, the number 17 — not 13 — is considered unlucky. Some believe that this belief started in Ancient Rome because when the number 17 is viewed as the Roman numeral XVII, and then changed anagrammatically to VIXI, it reminds Italians of the Latin phrase that translates to "I have lived," which can be seen as, "My life is over." Many in Italy take the day off from work on Friday the 17th to avoid leaving the house. Nor do they hold important meetings, get married, or make any major decisions on that day. Others carry around lucky charms, or place them strategically in their homes. The superstition even affects businesses: The Italian airline carrier, Alitalia, does not have a seat No. 17 in the same way that many hotels in America don’t include the 13th floor. Renault sold its "R17" model in Italy as "R177," and at the bobsled and luge track in Cesana, Italy, turn No. 17 is labeled "Senza Nome" (nameless). (via Thought Co.)

Dippin' Dots ice cream treats were originally invented as cow food

We see Dippin’ Dots all over the place, from sporting arenas to amusement parks, but the origins of these frozen treats are pretty bizarre, as they were not even meant to be ice cream. Dippin’ Dots were invented in 1988 by microbiologist Curt Jones, who was originally trying to figure out a way to feed cows more efficiently. One of Jones’s experiments involved freezing cow feed at 350 degrees below zero, turning the cow food into little pellets. Taking that same concept, Jones froze ice cream with liquid nitrogen, which turned them into the little Dippin’ Dot beads we’ve become familiar with. The dots freezing temperature is so cold, that grocery store freezers can’t even store them, that’s why we only see Dippin’ Dots at special locations. After creating the dots, Jones found that natural heat within the mouth melted the ice cream pellets, making their consumption a little more pleasing. The dots caught on. The feed? Not so much. (via FoodBeast)

The Teatro San Carlo in Naples is the world's oldest active opera house

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