A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Guten tag! Welcome to Volume 123 of Dovi’s Digest.
Over the last ten years, there has been a rise in a phenomenon which I call the “Boeing effect”. To the best of my knowledge, women have always preferred taller men. I guess its evolutionary, since a bigger mate is more likely to be able to protect you, and your offspring with have some of the same traits, allowing you to pass on your genes.
We ascribe a lot to height. Napoleon is famously mocked for his height, and his supposedly small stature and fiery temper inspire the term the Napoleon Complex, a popular belief that short men tend to compensate for their lack of height through domineering behaviour and aggression. Never mind the fact that he was only about an inch below the French average at the time (5’5”) and this preconception mainly seems to be because of a series of political cartoons at the time. Looking at American presidents over the last 40 years shows that most of them were over 6 feet tall. People’s height also correlates to a higher salary, higher IQ, and lower risk of heart disease. Success in life can also be affected, the exceptions being those short guys (often from central America) who have killed it in business, and can most often be found on a yacht, smoking a big cigar, wearing Gucci, and not caring that they’re as wide as they are tall.
Back to the Boeing effect: women on dating websites are increasingly putting height requirements on their profiles (or so I am told). “Men under 6’1” need not apply”, “only swipe right if you bang your head on door frames”, and the ever charming “no shorties (<6’2”)”. Now to be perfectly honest, I don’t mind that much, even though I’m “only” about 5’10”. If they want to exclude 70% of men, it’s no skin off the end of my nose. On the flip side of this, there is a growing trend of exalting “short kings”, of how they act more graciously, are less arrogant, and treat their partners better in general. But the short stigma persists.
Which brings us to this week’s headline article. Despite the short king coming into his own, there are still those who are trying to break that mould. In yesteryear, they were sadly thwarted by medical tech and from about 21, you were stuck. However, there is now a radical new surgery that can force you to grow up to an extra 3 inches. And more and more men are opting for it, despite its danger, eye-watering costs and equally eye-watering amounts of pain (purposely breaking a bone can do that to you). Read about it, and the men who are undergoing this procedure below.
I occasionally share a cool infographic with you. It's been a few months since the last one, so here’s one showing who we spend time with during different stages of our lives, how it changes, and why we need to spend as much time with people we care about most because we won’t always be able to.
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 was ONE correct answer to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Kevin Levy. The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
If you’re not interested in life changing surgery, there’s more things to tickle your fancy. Learn how the Queen (apparently a gamer) was sent a gold plated Nintendo, how one of the world’s biggest companies is helping to transform peoples fear of snakes, what the flight recorder we all know as a black box actually is (also, it’s very orange), the man bringing back obscure instruments from the dead, whether a prestigious new outlet may have inadvertently killed the most popular game of 2021, and what took Sigmund Freud so long to see (or at least act on) the growing Nazi threat. Enjoy!
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
I Wish I Was a Little Bit Taller
A growing number of men are undergoing a radical and expensive surgery to grow anywhere from three to six inches. The catch: It requires having both your femurs broken.
Remembering The Strange Tale of Queen Elizabeth II and The Golden Nintendo Wii
Gold-plated 2009 marketing stunt is now a $36,000, one-of-a-kind collectable.
How Facebook Is Saving Snakes
Snake-identification groups on social media are turning serpent haters into appreciators.
What Is a Black Box and How Does It Work?
An inside look at what makes up the nearly indestructible flight recorder.
Meet the Man Recreating Ancient Musical Instruments Lost to Time
Tharun Sekar’s creations include the yazh, a harp-like instrument played in India 2,000 years ago.
Did the New York Times Kill Wordle by Buying It?
The Times’ games chief has thoughts.
The Last Days of Sigmund Freud
Danger surrounded Freud in Nazi-occupied Austria. Why did it take him so long to see it?
Quote of the Week:
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – The Queen
Facts of the Week:
There are more living US astronauts than living Concorde pilots.
The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the distance travelled during the Wright brothers’ first flight.
The first successful all metal passenger plane had wickerwork seats.
A group of raptors in flight is called a kettle.
A group of penguins on land is called a waddle.
A group of sharks is called a shiver.
A group of swans on land is called a bank.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
What do the following words have in common?
1. Assess
2. Banana
3. Dresser
4. Grammar
5. Potato
6. Revive
7. Uneven
8. Voodoo
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Place the numbers from 1 to 49 on the grid below such that all consecutive numbers are either horizontal or vertical neighbours. In other words, 1 is horizontally or vertically adjacent to 2, which is horizontally or vertically adjacent to 3, and so on up to 49.
The shaded squares are the prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43 and 47
Answer:
The numbers 2 and 3 are the only consecutive prime numbers, so they must make up two of the three adjacent shaded cells in the bottom right of the grid. By trying the different permutations it should become clear the only possible way they can be arranged is for the 1 to be in the bottom right square. The keep on going. There are four solutions; they all start and end on the same cell.