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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCXCVIII

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CCXCVIII

    Grey and soggy out. Why not stay in with some nice soup and assorted reading instead:
    • MiPorn: The FBI, The Mob & XXX - "For every undercover government agent, there comes a time when it’s clear that the jig is up. For Pat Salamone that moment came in 1978, when gangsters drove him out to the Florida Everglades, put a gun to his head and made him start digging his own grave. Salamone had been investigating connections between the porn industry and the Italian mob as part of the most radical and dangerous operation the FBI had ever instigated. Now it seemed his mission was about to come to an abrupt and violent end." N.B. this one’s at porn mag Hustler, so it might be blocked on your ClientCo’s network. Even if it isn’t, you may end up having to explain that you only go there for the articles

    • The Poisonous Adelaide Bartlett - ”A surprising number of bizarre murders arise out of a backdrop of bland normality. Dull, respectable folk with dull, respectable lives suddenly take an unexpectedly shocking turn. The same can hardly be said for today's heroine, Adelaide Bartlett. Her life began in an aura of weird mystery, and, many years later, ended in one. And what happened in between was pure murder.” The strange life of a woman who almost certainly got away with murder.

    • Slipping Away - "Jo Aubin has Alzheimer's. He's 38."

    • Verification Handbook - "Authored by leading journalists from the BBC, Storyful, ABC, Digital First Media and other verification experts, the Verification Handbook is a groundbreaking new resource for journalists and aid providers. It provides the tools, techniques and step-by-step guidelines for how to deal with user-generated content (UGC) during emergencies." Next time you see something that seems suspiciously like a load of bollocks on Facebook or Twitter (or CUK), these techniques for establishing the veracity of such information will come in handy. For some worked examples: A pocket guide on verifying details of a video - "Three case studies on how we verified videos and photos of airstrikes in #Syria and a rocket attack in #Ukraine."

    • A History of English Poetry in 8 Short Poems - "English poetry is a broad field, so any attempt to tell its history in a short blog post is going to have to paint pretty broad brush strokes. But one way of avoiding too many sweeping generalisations about ‘big’ movements in poetic history can be minimised, perhaps, by looking only at a handful of specific short poems by famous poets. What follows, then, is a brief history of English poetry told through eight decisive moments in literary history, showing how poetry developed over nearly eight centuries."

    • The Secret Story Of How Bubonic Plague Nearly Broke Out In New York City - Despite normally determined efforts to keep plague-carrying rats out of the USA, officials slipped up when the freighter Wyoming docked in 1943: ”Casablanca was on the plague list at that time; there had been an outbreak in December, shortly before the Wyoming sailed. The crew was carefully examined. No sign of illness. Then the captain brought out a de-ratization certificate stating that the ship had recently been fumigated — in Casablanca, if I remember correctly — and was free of rats; looking back, I feel sure the official who signed this certificate had been bribed.”

    • The Christmas Bombing - "In December 1972, B-52 bombers that North Vietnamese missile crews had been waiting for came to Hanoi. Night after night. Over virtually the same track." Marshall Michel brings together the stories of both the US airmen, and the Vietnamese missile operators who sought to bring them down.

    • Diving Into The Fleet: A Look At London’s Lost Tube - "Seen for many years as a high-profile new addition to London’s Tube network along the line of Fleet Street, at some periods of its history its planned route changed almost every year. Eventually it would emerge, repurposed and renamed, as the Jubilee, with its Fleet origins all but forgotten."

    • A Holocaust Survival Tale of Sex and Deceit - the story of Marie Jalowicz, who managed to remain free and survive in Germany throughout the Second World War: ”Upon her return, she was asked to wait for the Gestapo to approve her “unusual passport.” She narrowly escaped the Gestapo by pretending to run after a thief. That night, with nowhere to stay and in need of a bathroom "for the full works," she relieves herself on the doormat of a family with a "Nazi ring" to its name.”

    • The Art of Science: The Antsy Art of Loren Kronemyer - "Kronemyer draws on paper with pheromones, then releases ants onto the paper. The ants, drawn to the scent, briefly cooperate in completing her designs before going back to their own patterns of movement."



    And as it’s such a miserable day today (well, it is where I am) here’s some warming grub from norrahe: That autumnal feeling - comfort food

    Happy invoicing!

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