A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello!!! Welcome to Volume 119 of Doviās Digest.
I donāt often watch TV or videos. Before you ask, itās not because Iām snobby and feel reading a book is somehow more important. Nor is it because I feel there is nothing worth the time. Au contrair mon frere, there might be too much good content for one person to consume. The closest I get to regular watching is one episode of Scrubs a week to keep up with the rewatch podcast. However, when I do need to just chill and donāt feel like much else, I often turn to YouTube. Iāll enjoy going down some random rabbit hole, but most often I land up on one of three channels. Some pirated UK TV where I can watch Taskmaster or 8 out of 10 Cats does countdown (RIP Sean), Primitive Technology (which is one man with a camera, no dialogue, slowly building his tech up. Started with fire, now has a trebuchet [!!], a house, and is starting metallurgy, I highly recommend it, and itās all done on his own unlike those weird ones where they seem to build palaces with pools using only sticks), and Hot Ones.
For those of you unfamiliar with the format of Hot Ones, the bare bones are an interview with a celeb while eating progressively hotter chicken wings. They start at the Nandoās mild level and work up to a scorching 2 million+ Scovilles. Of course, this appeals to me from a professional level (as I work at a company which grows tonnes of chillies annually), but honestly, I like watching famous people get progressively more uncomfortable, with coughing, profuse sweating, swearing, and going face first into a jug of milk all pretty common. Apparently what is often left out is the long breaks for the guest to cool down, be sick, and lie on the floor.
The best interviews are the ones where there is much hubris coming into the challenge, and humility and tears at the end.
But why would these celebrities, including the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Shaquille OāNeal, Daniel Radcliffe, and Dave Grohl ever agree to put themselves through such pain in front of millions of people? This weekās headline article delves into just that question, as well as the history of how the show started, and how it got so popular.
A small note on the story about Tiger Global. On Tuesday the original tiger, billionaire hedge fund mogul Julian Robertson, passed away. His firm Tiger Management, spawned more than 200 other funds run by his ācubsā, one of which is Tiger Global (a nod to where Chase Coleman III got the name).Ā
Do you enjoy the Digest? Would you like it to get better? Then please consider sharing it, as the more articles Iām sent, the better it is. It only takes a few seconds, and all you need to do is click here š. Thank you!
There were SO MANY correct answers to last weekās brainteaser. Well done to Dovi Joel, Daniel Frichol, Bianca Shulman, Ariel Subotzky, Chaim Ehrlich, Yali Friedman, Hazel Levine, Steven Kaplan, Cheryl Geliebter, and Justin Benatar. The answer and this weekās riddle are below. To answer a riddle, please just reply like you would on a normal email.
Hot wings not spicy enough for you? Then you can also learn about a man who pioneered big data gambling (and became an almost billionaire in the process), what a football shirt sponsor can tell us about the companyās overall health, what happens to a hedge fund when they throw money indiscriminately at tech, the secret life of tech in the Amish community, and the lengths women in the 19th century had to go to in order to secure a divorce. Ā Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Wings, Sweat, and Tears
For stars like Kevin Hart, Idris Elba, and Lorde, eating spicy wings is the key to relatability.
The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code
Bill Benter did the impossible: He wrote an algorithm that couldnāt lose at the track. Close to a billion dollars later, he tells his story for the first time.
How Football Shirts Chart the Rise and Fall of Tech Giants
Sponsoring a football club is about more than just advertising, it's a status symbol.
The Lost Nuclear Bombs That No One Can Find
The US has lost at least three nuclear bombs that have never been located ā they're still out there to this day. How did this happen? Where could they be? And will we ever find them?
Masters of the Bubbleverse
Secretive hedge fund Tiger Global changed the rules on tech investing. Then it all went bad.
How the Amish Use Technology
Community membersā relationships to smartphones or the internet reflect local values and nuances of group identity.
Escape From the Gilded Cage
Even if her husband was a murderer, a woman in a bad marriage once had few options. Unless she fled to South Dakota.
Quote of the Week:
āLiberate yourself from pain and help others by hammering out your stories and turning them into art.ā ā Emily Morris
Facts of the Week:
Pittsburgh police classify condoms as āinstruments of crimeā to help them prosecute sex workers.
A single sex act by parasitic flukeworms can last for over 40 years.
When two earthworms mate, they both have children.
Castrator pea crabs live inside the genitals of limpets.
Chinese street barbers shave the inside of their customersā eyelids.
20-20 vision is not perfect, just normal.
The only things anyone has ever seen are photons.
Sea urchins are the only known animals that can see without having eyes.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Ariel, Josh and Bianca work at a shop that sells pens, erasers, and pencils.
Ariel says: āSeven pens and five erasers cost the same as six pencils.ā
Josh says: āFour pens and nine pencils cost the same as five erasers.ā
Bianca says: āSix pencils and three erasers cost the same as four pens.ā
Only one is lying. Can you tell us who?
a) Ariel
b) Josh
c) Bianca
To answer, just press reply like you would to a normal email. š
Last Weekās Brainteaser and Answer:
84% of people reading this will not find the the mistake in this: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z.
Answer:
The the