Interesting Online Articles

[Paulie Dangerously]

Thought there might be a thread already for this but couldn't find it.

 

Some great stuff on http://www.bbc.com/future at the moment, this is fascinating about a family who suffer a genetic condition which stops them being able to sleep leading to death

 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160118-the-tragic-fate-of-the-people-who-stop-sleeping

 

 

Silvano was on a cruise ship when the family curse struck. An elegant 53-year-old with striking red hair who enjoyed wearing a tuxedo at every possible occasion, he tried to present himself with the poise of the film stars he admired. But while on the ship’s dance floor one evening, he was embarrassed to find that his shirt had become drenched in sweat.

 

Concerned, he examined himself in a mirror, only to find that his pupils had shrunk to two tiny black pinpricks. It was the same glassy-eyed stare that had afflicted his father and two sisters at the beginning of their mysterious illnesses.

 

He knew this was just the beginning. Tremors, impotence and constipation could follow. But the most terrifying symptom would be the disappearance of sleep – almost total insomnia for months; a kind of waking coma that ultimately would end in death.

[Bob]

Ooomph!

 

That's a tough one when you know what's to follow.

[Bob]

This site can help pass an hour or two, though can't be arses linking to any particular story...

 

http://www.damninteresting.com

[Remmie]

Similar thread, won't forget the swimming pool story in long time:

 

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/107293-Random-short-stories-or-articles

[Dr Nowt]

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2016/02/every-ounce-of-my-energy.html?m=1

 

Letters of Note

 

Every ounce of my energy

 

Bertrand Russell, one of the great intellectuals of his generation, was known by most as the founder of analytic philosophy, but he was actually a man of many talents: a pioneering mathematician, an accomplished logician, a tireless activist, a respected historian, and a Nobel Prize-winning writer, to name but a handful.

 

When he wrote this principled letter at the beginning of 1962, Russell was 89 years old and clearly still a man of morals who stood firm in his beliefs. Its recipient was Sir Oswald Mosley, a man most famous for founding, in 1932, the British Union of Fascists.

 

Transcript follows.

 

(This letter, and many other fascinating pieces of correspondence, can be found in the bestselling book, More Letters of Note. For more info, visit Books of Note.)

 

Transcript

22 January 1962

 

Sir Oswald Mosley,

5, Lowndes Court,

Lowndes Square,

London, S.W.1.

 

Dear Sir Oswald,

 

Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellant to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism.

 

I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us.

 

I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Bertrand Russell

[Strontium]

The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail
An epic tragedy on a small block in Queens.
 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/11/nyregion/sex-workers-massage-parlor.html

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

I love a good "longread"

 

Something to get into when you haven't quite got the attention span for a book.

 

Two I've read recently:

 

The largely uncovered background story of stamping out political dissent during the 1978 World Cup.

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a21454856/argentina-1978-world-cup/

 

The downfall of a Brazilian drug lord.

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/rocinha-brazil-drug-cartel-antonio-lopes-nem

[SammyAftershave]

New York's Finest moonlighting as hitmen for the mob.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2005/09/dirty-cops-murder

 

The Voodoo bank robber.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42878021

[Strontium]

The girl in the box: the mysterious crime that shocked Germany

On 15 September 1981, 10-year-old Ursula Herrmann headed home by bike from her cousin’s house. She never arrived. So began one of Germany’s most notorious postwar criminal cases, which remains contentious to this day

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/sep/24/ursula-herrmann-germany-kidnapping-mystery

[VladimirIlyich]

8 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

The girl in the box: the mysterious crime that shocked Germany

On 15 September 1981, 10-year-old Ursula Herrmann headed home by bike from her cousin’s house. She never arrived. So began one of Germany’s most notorious postwar criminal cases, which remains contentious to this day

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/sep/24/ursula-herrmann-germany-kidnapping-mystery

That points to the boarding school to me.

[cracko]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-49823006

[Sugar Ape]

Just discovered we used to eat a different banana until the 50s when it was all but wiped out by blight that was more delicious than the ones we eat now apparently. I demand the return of the old, better bananas. 
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gros-michel-bananas

[VladimirIlyich]

2 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

Just discovered we used to eat a different banana until the 50s when it was all but wiped out by blight that was more delicious than the ones we eat now apparently. I demand the return of the old, better bananas. 
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gros-michel-bananas

The Banana bloat song.

[Evelyn Tentions]

3 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

Just discovered we used to eat a different banana until the 50s when it was all but wiped out by blight that was more delicious than the ones we eat now apparently. I demand the return of the old, better bananas. 
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gros-michel-bananas

You'll have to go to West Africa or Malaysia, they are about the only places they can be grown due to the dreaded Panama disease.

Make the most of the Cavendish bananas while you can. A new strain of Panama disease is hitting them now and you can bet the disease resistant variety probably won't be as tasty - if they manage to find one.

[Evelyn Tentions]

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/feb/05/panama-disease-found-in-queensland-banana-farm-threatens-90-of-australias-production

[s(k)aturation]

 

My Mum, who lived her early life near Bremen, was 10 years old when she first saw a banana, in 1954 - her Dad bought one while their boat to Australia was docked in North Africa.

[Evelyn Tentions]

If you ever see these, try them. Bronze Daccan/Red banana. They have the most incredible intense banana flavour. Best of luck finding them - I've seen them 3 times in about 30 years. Once in Towns ville, once in Byron Bay and once in Saigon.

They take twice as long to grow as Cavendish and they're twice the height so the commercial growers aren't interested.

I have a photo but I'm fucked if I can work out how to post it.

[Sugar Ape]

Just hit ‘click to choose files’ and you can add pictures to any thread. 
 

 

[Evelyn Tentions]

I only get the insert other media box. Maybe it's a members only thing.

[Sugar Ape]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/was-jeanne-calment-the-oldest-person-who-ever-lived-or-a-fraud

[Sugar Ape]

Was reading this ‘This is not an easy treasure hunt’: puzzle book offers readers chance to win €750,000 golden casket | Books | The Guardian article before and seen a link to this one:

 

Masquerade: How a real-life treasure hunt obsessed a nation - BBC News

 

Masquerade: How a real-life treasure hunt obsessed a nation

 

 

A series of events is being staged to mark the 40th anniversary of the publishing sensation that was Masquerade, a picture book that promised hidden treasure to the person who could solve the clues hidden within its pages.

 

It's a familiar tale: treasure-hunters racing to decipher clues from a mysterious book that will lead them to buried gold.

 

But this particular hunt, and its waiting treasure, was no work of fiction - even if the creation that inspired it was.

 

In 1979, artist Kit Williams published Masquerade - a storybook decorated with paintings whose intricacies held clues that would lead the successful sleuth to an 18-carat golden hare.

 

A phenomenon at the time, the book sold more than a million copies and sparked a worldwide hunt for the gold.

 

 

Forty years on, Masquerade retains an army of fans who have handed down their passion for the book, and their memories of the frenzy that gripped the country.

 

Readers were addicted, with treasure-hunters driven as much by being the first to solve the riddle as the value of the jewel-encrusted hare.

 

Countless lawns were dug up, and fed-up landowners put up signs warning off fortune-seekers. The book was even cited in divorce proceedings.

 

But when the golden hare was finally unearthed, three years later in a park in Bedfordshire, the story was far from over.

 

The scandal behind its discovery shocked fans around the world, and turned Williams into a recluse.

 

Ironically, it was a story that could have come out of a work of fiction.

 

The hunt begins

 

 

Masquerade follows the journey of Jack Hare, who loses a jewel he has been entrusted to deliver from the moon to the sun.

 

And the real-life treasure was fit for a fairy-tale, having been hand-beaten by Williams himself. It was valued at £5,000 - although it would eventually prove to be worth much more - and inset with ruby, mother-of-pearl and moonstones.

 

This golden hare caught the imagination of millions, yet for nearly three years its hiding place was known to only two men.

 

Setting off one night in August 1979, Williams was accompanied by a single witness chosen by his publisher Tom Maschler - the television host Bamber Gascoigne.

 

At a precise spot on the common, Williams and his famous witness buried the hare, which was sealed in wax and placed in a ceramic case to evade metal detectors.

 

Upon it was the engraving: "I am the keeper of the jewel of the Masquerade, which lies waiting safe inside me for you... or eternity."

 

Having witnessed the burial, Gascoigne was to provide the final flourish, emptying over the hare a fresh cowpat from a Tupperware box.

 

The perceptive reader would be led to this location - selected by Williams years before while on a picnic with his then-girlfriend - by unearthing the complex clues in the paintings.

 

 

But the paintings' detail allowed for almost as many interpretations and theories as there were fans.

 

The book was an instant success, as readers from across the world raced to solve the mystery.

 

An airline even sold transatlantic Masquerade tickets, which came with a free spade on arrival.

 

"The first edition sold out within two days or something like that," Williams recalled in a BBC Four documentary, The Man Behind the Masquerade.

 

"They were reprinting so fast. It became a sensation in a way, that it moved so fast."

 

Williams, until then a little-known artist, was thrust into the spotlight.

 

Williams was interviewed by the likes of Terry Wogan as he promoted his work

 

He embarked on a publicity tour of the United States, appeared on talk shows in the UK, and was inundated with requests from fans desperate for help.

 

Soon, more than 200 letters were arriving at his house daily and Williams had to read every one.

 

"I was unprepared," he said. "It really got out of hand really quickly."

 

Among the guesses posted through the artist's letterbox were more unsettling submissions, among them severed rubber hands.

 

Rallying round, Williams' neighbours in his Gloucestershire village began to deny any knowledge of him to inquisitive fans.

 

The solution

 

 

Among the golden hares and red herrings, only one theory led to the correct solution - and the golden prize.

 

To complete it, the puzzler had to draw a line from the eye of each of the animals in the 15 paintings through hand or paw to a letter in the border.

 

This revealed a word or phrase which, put together, formed the crucial clue.

 

It read: "Catherine's / Long finger / Over / Shadows / Earth / Buried / Yellow / Amulet / Midday / Points / The / Hour / In / Light of equinox / Look you."

 

When arranged in verse, the acrostic of the first letters spelled out "Close by Ampthill".

 

It gave Masqueraders their final, essential pointer towards the Bedfordshire town, near which Williams had lived years before.

 

The burial spot was where Williams knew the shadow of Catherine of Aragon's cross fell on the spring and autumn equinox - meaning it would point to the right place on the right day.

 

It took nearly three years for the code to be cracked, by physics teachers Mike Barker and John Rousseau - but the treasure was ultimately to elude them.

 

Discovery

 

Drawing lines between the paws and eyes in this painting leads to letters spelling "amulet"

 

By early 1982, Barker and Rousseau had arrived at what Gascoigne later called "the most perfect solution" to the puzzle.

 

They had made their breakthrough with the help of an additional clue published in the Sunday Times in 1981.

 

That hinted to them that fingers and toes might hold the key to the puzzle.

 

Remembering the introduction to the book - "To solve the hidden riddle, you must use your eyes" - they realised that a straight line drawn from each animal's eye, through its paw, pointed to a letter in the border. Put together, these letters spelled out a word.

 

It was the book's eighth painting, which revealed the word "Amulet", that convinced Barker and Rousseau they had done it.

 

From there, they reached "Close by Ampthill", found the park and identified the monument.

 

In January 1982, Barker visited the park to dig for their treasure but, without the precise instruments to calculate its resting place, was to return empty-handed.

 

But as the two men resolved to wait for March's equinox to point them to their prize, the golden hare squirmed from their grasp.

 

Scandal

 

Finder Ken Thomas with Williams as the hare was freed from its casing

 

They were beaten to the find by a reclusive puzzler called Ken Thomas, who shunned the publicity that came with solving a mystery that had captivated the world.

 

He was filmed with Williams as he freed the hare from the wax case, but later insisted on covering his face with a scarf and would only be interviewed from behind a screen. He refused to exhibit his treasure.

 

Unable to share in the joy of his discovery, Masquerade fans grew suspicious of Thomas and, later, Williams, with some even suggesting he had conspired to cheat them.

 

After years of searching for hidden clues, they saw another in an anagram of Kit Williams: "I will mask it".

 

The artist, however, shared their doubts over Thomas, realising he had not solved the full puzzle but uncovered the gold's location by other means.

 

It was not until 1988 that a newspaper finally uncovered the link between Thomas - revealed to be a pseudonym - and Williams' ex-girlfriend, who had remembered their visit to Ampthill years before.

 

When Thomas's company Haresoft collapsed he was forced to sell the hare at auction to raise money.

 

 

That led reporter Frank Branston to look into the company, the director of which was named Dugald Thompson - not Ken Thomas.

 

Thompson had previously been in business with a man named John Guard who was, at the time of the discovery, living with Williams' ex-girlfriend.

 

Williams, speaking later to the Sunday Times, said he felt "conned" and knew from the start that Thomas had not truly solved the puzzle.

 

The hare, having fetched £31,900 at auction, passed into private ownership and disappeared from public view for more than 20 years.

 

Williams, the man whose imagination had spawned the phenomenon, did the same.

 

He had grown disillusioned at his artistic reputation being reduced to that of a puzzle-maker, and having seen his creation corrupted.

 

"At the beginning he was quite grateful to me for having fostered this creature," his publisher Tom Maschler told BBC Four.

 

"But later he was quite resentful at times because I had destroyed his peaceful life. And he's right - I did."

 

Williams never stopped painting but put on only private shows to which select buyers were invited.

 

It was not until 2009, as his most famous work neared its 30th anniversary, that he returned to public life with an exhibition of some of his 300 intervening works.

 

Reunification

 

Williams was reunited with his golden hare in 2009

 

After retreating from the limelight for many years, Williams agreed to take part in a Radio 4 programme to mark Masquerade's milestone.

 

The broadcast was heard by the owner of the golden hare, by this time resident in the Middle East, who offered to display it at Williams' exhibition.

 

The artist's reunification with his creation was filmed by the BBC in The Man Behind the Masquerade.

 

Williams confessed he was overwhelmed to see his youthful creation again, and remained proud of what he called "an apprentice piece".

 

"I made it because I was almost no-one, going nowhere," he said.

 

"I made it thinking 'this is something rather special', and it turned out that way."

 

Legacy

 

 

Its mystery has been solved and its treasure found, but the fascination of Masquerade lives on.

 

For its fans, Ampthill has become a place of pilgrimage, and there remains a keen interest in the book in the town.

 

Masquerade40, a series of events launched on the equinox, will run through the year to mark the anniversary, and includes walks and craft events at the burial spot.

 

A painting by local artist Karen Mangold, Close by Katherine's Cross, will be unveiled and Mark Jeoffroy has written the short story Jack's Parade, a continuation of the book.

 

Stephen Hartley, of Masquerade40, said Williams' book had been woven into the town's history.

 

"It lives on, and has become part of local folklore. The Ampthill library has its weather vane as a hare, and there is public art incorporating hares," he said.

 

"Younger people in the town know about the hare, but I think it has sidestepped them to a certain extent.

 

"Masquerade40 will bring it to a new generation."

[RedKnight]

I did that earlier too!

[Sugar Ape]

Fucked up this, similar to the Britney Spears thing. 
 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights

[Kevin D]

https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/music/how-frank-sinatra-s-song-my-way-triggered-filipino-karaoke-killings-a00304-20191017-lfrm

 

 

[Bjornebye]

3 minutes ago, Kevin D said:

https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/music/how-frank-sinatra-s-song-my-way-triggered-filipino-karaoke-killings-a00304-20191017-lfrm

 

 

Hahaha nuts