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What’s gooood homies! Welcome to Volume 137 of Dovi’s Digest.
Well, another year is ending. Time marches on inexorably, taking us all closer to the great beyond. It’s the time of year that people begin to question their lives, and all the mistakes they made. They also look at the world, and often decide that the year was a total dumpster fire. Thankfully, I’m here to take the edge off.
2022 has been damn hard for me as well. It’s a year where I’ve genuinely struggled through large parts of it. But, I’m still here, I’m still standing, and I’m still creating content (lucky for you). One of the brighter lights in this year has been the Digest for me. In a year where I’ve been plagued by injuries stopping me from exercising, DD has provided an outlet for me. It’s given me a semblance of routine, knowing that I have a deadline, and knowing that there are people relying on me for their weekly dose of thing to make them think, or at least go “WTF”. So, as we go into a new year (which is just another day, don’t let it get to you), I just wanted to thank you all sincerely.
There is a lot of bad news around (think Russia), but there are a myriad good things that happened this year which got buried by the algorithm. I’m here to share some of them with you, in the form of best of lists. I know it’s a little lazy, but there are so many cool things, it’s hard to pick just seven.
In addition, there are so many best of photo competitions. Here’s the link to the comedy wildlife awards (think a bear being punched by a salmon), the nature in focus awards (mainly in urban settings), and the drone photo awards, which are just a few of my faves.
Onwards and upwards!
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 Ariel Subotzky, Adam Frame, Ryan Subotzky, and Ayelet Garber. The answers and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
An Incomplete Guide To This Very Weird Year, In Charts
From concerts to crypto and from unions to Ukraine: 14 charts that explain this wild year.
52 Things I Learned in 2022
(Courtesy of Yisroel Greenberg)
The Best Inventions Of 2022
200 innovations changing how we live.
The Most Ingenious Engineering Feats Of 2022
Solar-powered consumer gadgets, an AI that can generate images from text, and more ground-breaking tech are the Best of What’s New.
The Coolest Archaeological Discoveries of 2022
Let's revisit the best old stuff that made headlines this year.
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2022
“Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.”
Quote of the Week:
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” - W. C. Fields
Facts of the Week:
“Got the morbs” was Victorian slang for “temporary melancholia”.
“Muffin-walloper” was Victorian slang for a “gossip”.
“Loitersacke” was 17th-century slang for a “slacker”.
Argon is Greek for “lazy”.
When the chemical compound thioacetone was first distilled, it smelled so bad that it caused anyone within a mile of the lab to vomit and fall unconscious.
Scientists can’t tell what sex a person is by studying their brain alone.
By swabbing your phone screen, a researcher can find out what you eat, where you’ve been, and what medicine you take.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Find a three-letter word that has one syllable – but when you add one letter to the end, the word becomes three syllables.
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Change one letter in each of the following words to make new words that are all linked by a common theme.
Flat
Scab
Lord
Lodge
Mine
Kit
Quick
Keep
Answer:
They’re all types of cars. Fiat, SAAB, Ford, Dodge, Mini, Kia, Buick, Jeep.