A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello friends. Welcome to Volume 121 of Dovi’s Digest.
Yesterday afternoon, I had an entire intro and Digest written about the usual esoterica that fills each week’s edition. Of course, the news beamed round the world last night made me reconsider. The Queen wasn’t my head of state, yet she probably had more of an impact on my life then the actual president of South Africa. This is mainly because my father grew up in what was then Rhodesia, one of the last bastions of colonial life. He grew up with afternoon tea, cucumber sandwiches, and gin and tonics at sundown. My late grandmother, a loyal royalist, spoke with a tinge of that old English accent, and her love of the manor culture conferred on me my love of cricket.
Regardless of whether she was your monarch or not, she had an outsize role on the world stage, standing for something that seemed to be above politics.
So, as a nod to her majesty, for this week’s headline article I’ll be reaching far into the DD archives, all the way back to Volume 5, and to the article written in 2017 about what will happen when the Queen dies, and the ceremonies, rites, and traditions we will see unfold over the next few days and weeks.
Do you enjoy the Digest? Would you like it to get better? Then please consider sharing it, as the more articles I’m sent, the better it is. It only takes a few seconds, and all you need to do is click here 👇. Thank you!
There were THREE correct answers to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Daniel Frichol, Ariel Subotzky and Josh Hazan. The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
There are many other articles to read should you not care about pomp and ceremony. Read about why setting a slightly lower bar could make you happier, whether using AI in skill competitions is cheating, what makes or breaks a chess world champion, how your hands can give away what you’re really thinking, why we can't enough of cannibalism, and some real-life castaways ala Life of Pi. Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week (and God save the King),
Dovi
And now, the articles:
“London Bridge is Down”: The Secret Plan for the Days After the Queen’s Death
She is venerated around the world. She has outlasted 13 US presidents. She stands for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign will ever end. That’s why the palace has a plan.
What We Gain from a Good-Enough Life
A new book challenges us to abandon greatness in favour of more attainable goals.
He Used AI To Win a Fine-Arts Competition. Was It Cheating?
One judge said the striking piece evoked Renaissance art. But some critics compared it to “entering a marathon and driving a Lamborghini to the finish line”.
Brilliance And Blunders Have Defined the World Chess Championship
A perfect game is not only possible, but achievable. So why haven’t we seen one?
The Movements That Betray Who You Are
The accents that creep into the way we speak can reveal a lot about where we are from, but there are also subtle clues visible in our faces and the way we move.
Why Are We So Hungry for Books About Cannibals?
How they’ve eaten their way into our minds.
How a Shipwrecked Crew Survived 10 Days Lost at Sea
The story of how three crewmen lived more than a week in the middle of the Pacific in a wrecked sailboat with almost nothing.
Quote of the Week:
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katharine Hepburn
Facts of the Week:
Gavin Barwell, former MP and author of How to Win a Marginal Seat, lost his marginal seat.
Applause is forbidden inside the Houses of Parliament.
Police guarding the outside of the Houses of Parliament are under orders to feel inside men's underpants.
In 1930s New Zealand, there was an outbreak of exploding trousers.
During the First World War, an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre on the Western Front.
The Western Front was supplied with 500 ferrets a month to catch rabbits.
Rabbits are repelled by the butterfly Bush.
The skunk cabbage melts the frozen ground around it by generating heat like an animal.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
What are the next three numbers in this series?
4, 6, 12, 18, 30, 42, 60, 72, 102, 108, ?, ?, ?
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
A group of people are in a room. Everyone is wearing either an orange or an indigo birthday hat. Each person can see the other people’s hats but not their own.
One of them shouts, “If you can see at least 6 orange hats and at least 6 indigo hats, raise your glass!”
Exactly 12 people raise their glasses.
How many people are in the room?
Answer: 18
We know that there are at least 6 people with orange hats and 6 people with indigo hats. But since no one can see their own hats, there must be more people.
If there are 7+ people with an orange hat and 7+ people with an indigo hat, then there are 14+ people who would raise their glasses - more than the actual 12. Therefore there must be 6 people with a hat of one colour (say, orange), and more than 6 with a hat of the other colour (indigo).
The people with an orange hat can see only 5 other orange hats, so they don’t raise their glasses. But all people with an indigo hat will raise their glasses. Therefore there are 12 people with indigo hats. Add the 6 with an orange hat, and we get a total of 18.