Dovi's Digest Volume 13
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual and physical needs
Hi All, and welcome to Volume 13 of Dovi’s Digest.
This week marked 75 years since the dropping of the Atomic Bomb and the official end of WWII. This week’s edition includes two articles on these world and era defining events. If you enjoyed them (particularly the Slate article), I highly recommend you go google a bit about what the atomic age brought to us as consumers. You’ll find yourself falling down a delightful rabbit hole that includes glow in the dark soft drinks and toilet seats, radioactive toys and so many more amazing examples.
In addition, I’ve included an article about the Wittgensteins, a fabulously wealthy family filled with geniuses. For those of you who have been reading the Digest for a while, you may recognise the name, as Ludwig Wittgenstein was a friend and contemporary of Frank Ramsey. The article in question “The Man Who Thought Too Fast” is linked here.
A few weeks ago, I posted an article about micronations. This week I was sent this great video courtesy of Dylan Berger that gives us an inside look at Molossia, a micronation in Nevada, USA. These pieces are supplemented by close encounters with the whale kind, why the NATO alphabet sucks and an Olympic level bank robber.
There were two correct answers to last week’s riddle. Well done to Moshe Wolberg and anonymous. The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
There are a whole host of new subscribers this week, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to A) Welcome you and B) tell you a little bit about how this weekly newsletter works.
A) Welcome! It’s great to have you aboard (insert name here)!
B) The basics are that it hits your inbox every Friday morning. Now it gets pretty complicated. What you need to do is send me articles that you’ve found interesting, so I can then share it with everyone else. Whether it’s politics, science, sport or miscellaneous, there is a place for it here. In fact, the more arcane, the better.
But wait! There’s more! For an infinite time only, I also accept submissions for any of the other sections. Is there a cartoon that’s tickled your funny bone? Or maybe a quote that has really made you think? Well, send that over too!
A final piece of advice for newcomers and old hands alike. My articles may use up your free allowance on certain sites (The New Yorker, The Atlantic et al). You can open the links in private/incognito windows, and avoid this problem.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming!
All the best
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Sleepwalking Into the Atomic Age
The decision to bomb Hiroshima wasn’t a decision at all.
It Might Be Time to Update the Old “Alpha-Bravo-Charlie” Spelling Alphabet
But it’s hard to break old habits.
Human Collateral: British Banking’s Long-Neglected Connection with Slavery in Brazil
(Courtesy of Jade Weiner)
Long after the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies, banks still held slaves as security against loans.
What I Saw When I Came Eye to Eye with a Whale
Sperm whales are extraordinarily intelligent animals with deep family traditions and the ability to communicate across oceans with sonic clicks. But when Rowan Jacobsen had a close encounter with one in the Caribbean, he saw a creature far stranger than he ever imagined.
A Nervous Splendour
The Wittgenstein family had a genius for misery.
Daughters of the Bomb
On the 75th anniversary of the A-Bomb, a Japanese American writer speaks to one of the last living survivors.
The Bicycle Thief
Tom Justice was once a cyclist chasing Olympic gold. Then he began using his bike for a much different purpose: robbing banks.
Quote of the Week:
“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
Facts of the Week:
Brahms once got drunk and used a word so shocking it broke up the party and no one would repeat it.
Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “I’ve fallen in love or I imagine I have; went to a party and lost my head. Bought a horse which I don’t need at all.”
Cartoon of the Week:
(Courtesy of Josh Hazan)
Brainteaser of the Week:
Sue planted four times as many apple seeds as she planted orange seeds. 15% of the apple seeds grew into trees and 10% of the orange seeds grew into trees.
If a total of 420 trees grew from the seeds, how many orange seeds did Sue plant?
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
The following fictitious compound is primarily made up of the following elements. Two large components, however, have been omitted: what percentage does the compound have of gold and silver?
Al = 22%
Sn = 10%
Pt = 8%
Fe = 2%
Ag = ?
Au = ?
Answer:
Ag = 40%, Au = 12%. The difference in the alphanumeric values of the first and second letters of each element is doubled.
Is there something you particularly liked or didn’t like? Let me know at dovisdigest@gmail.com