Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCCXXIX

Another busy Monday morning! It's almost like they think I should be doing work rather than assembling fine reading matter for you all

The Scammer Next Door - Indian journalist Snighda Poonam takes advantage of a scam call to find out more about the world of lottery fraud: ”The caller asked me to check my WhatsApp messages. And there it was — a signed and stamped, apparently authentic cheque from the State Bank of India flashing my six-figure key to a new future… There was one slight problem, though, I pointed out to the stranger on the other end of the line. I hadn’t bought a lottery ticket.”
This Black Fungus Might Be Healing Chernobyl By Drinking Radiation—A Biologist Explains - Scott Travers on the strange fungus that feeds on radiation: ”The explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine on April 26, 1986 remains the worst nuclear disaster in human history… Scientists have discovered an unlikely survivor: a resilient black fungus called Cladosporium sphaerospermum. After the Chernobyl disaster, scientists observed patches of blackened growths on the walls of the No. 4 reactor—fungi that seemed to thrive where the radiation was highest.”
Investigating a Treetop Baby Boom - The black-and-white ruffled lemurs of Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar have started breeding more often, but this could be a bad sign: ”Two years of babies might seem like a good thing. But Baden worries that the consecutive breeding years in Ranomafana hint at something different—perhaps a scrambling of whatever environmental cues usually synchronize their boom-or-bust communal breeding.”
Scientists find hidden antibiotic 100x stronger against deadly superbugs - ”A team of scientists discovered a hidden antibiotic 100 times stronger than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA. The molecule had been overlooked for decades in a familiar bacterium. It shows no signs of resistance so far, offering hope in the fight against drug-resistant infections and paving the way for new approaches to antibiotic discovery.” If you want all the details, the full paper is open access: Discovery of Late Intermediates in Methylenomycin Biosynthesis Active against Drug-Resistant Gram-Positive Bacterial Pathogens
The evolution of rationality: How chimps process conflicting evidence - ”Chimps can take in new evidence, evaluate its strength, and change their minds.” Proof that politicians aren't as rational as chimps
When the Bears Come Back - As wild animals return to places they haven't lived for a long time, it can cause problems for people: ”Wendy spread her arms and legs out like a starfish, doing her best to make her petite body appear bigger than it was… The bear stopped and faced her. She yelled again, and the bear rose onto its haunches and lifted its own arms, mirroring her. For a moment, they were the same height, face to face and swaying like a dancing couple. Then the bear yawned, and Wendy knew she was in trouble.”
the fake charity, the Photoshop predator, and other times AI got it wrong - ”We recently talked about times AI got it really wrong, and here are 20 of the most ridiculous stories you shared.” From non-existent initiatives to transcriptions of things that shouldn't have been transcribed: a fine collection of “AI” fails
This WWII Naval Ship Was So Unlucky, It Almost Killed FDR - The story of the USS William D. Porter was a saga of almost continuous near-catastrophe: ”In November of 1943, she was ordered to accompany the battleship Iowa on a secret mission across the Atlantic… A few days later, they almost killed the precious secret cargo aboard the Iowa — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and many high-level U.S. military officers.”
Basil the Rat - The episode of Fawlty Towers with the rat had to include pre-recorded insets, supposedly because of the extra work involved with the animal scenes. John Hoare has worked out which bits were live in front of the studio audience (though in another unique aspect of that episode, there were two audiences and two recordings) and which weren’t: ”I want to know exactly which bits they deemed complicated enough to need pre-recording. Of course, we can make some guesses from watching the episode, but that’s not good enough, is it? What is good enough, is – waves vaguely – a scrap of paper I have here, which lists every single section of the show pre-recorded on the 19th May… For each pre-recorded section, I’ve made a video which labels exactly when the audience recording transitions into the pre-recorded section, and then back to the audience material.”
Space Alphabet. 1964 - Another cool thing from the stationers of Present & Correct: ”Written by Irene Zacks, illustrated by Peter Plasencia. Purchased & scanned by us. Then sold.”