Dovi's Digest Volume 16
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual and physical needs
Hi All, and welcome to Volume 16 of Dovi’s Digest.
This is it! The big edition! My sweet sixteen! Finally, I feel like I am writing a real newsletter, with a real mailing list. So, welcome to the new permanent home of Dovi’s Digest! As I’m sure you can tell, I’m pretty excited by this development. Please make sure to tell your friends about this awesome newsletter and send them to dovi.substack.com to sign up and get this sweet content for themselves.
In other news, there was sport, some international things and some domestic stuff too.
More importantly, in this week’s edition we have (amongst other things) a beautifully written essay on loss, a piece on the toxic culture of talk shows and how it’s hidden, as well as the unravelling of an old maths problem, not by mistake, but certainly backhandedly. Not realising that the problem had stumped mathematicians for nearly 50 years, grad student Lisa Piccirillo saw the problem, thought “that’s ridiculous, we should be able to solve that” and did it as homework. The Boston Globe wrote an additional article on it which is slightly lighter, but I highly recommend reading both. I enjoyed my deep dive into 4D mathematics, and I hope you do too.
There were two correct answers to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Dovi Flax and Audrey Brom (Hi Mom!). In addition, I left out Justin Benatar last week, even though he gave the correct answer. I am deeply and truly sorry and am glad I have set the record straight. The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming!
All the best
Dovi
And now, the articles:
On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed By Pandemic
The acclaimed novelist Jesmyn Ward lost her beloved husband – the father of her children – as COVID-19 swept across the country. She writes through their story, and her grief.
Have you been stuck lately? Procrastinating? Difficulty making a decision? Take a walk.
The Making of Ellen DeGeneres, the Nicest Person on Television
Ellen DeGeneres has come a long way from the girl born in Metairie, Louisiana, who worked as a waitress and a part-time vacuum saleswoman before her standup career took off, and wrote jokes in what she’s since called a “flea infested basement” in Texas.
Why Do Mosquitos Bite Some People More Than Others?
Blood type, metabolism, exercise, shirt colour and even drinking beer can make individuals especially delicious to mosquitos.
Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem
It took Lisa Picirillo less than a week to answer a long standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway.
The Mesmerising Geometry of Malaysia’s Most Complex Cakes (Courtesy of Ori Tobias)
Bold colours and designs set kek lapis Sarawak apart.
Unlucky Charms: The Rise and Fall of Billion-Dollar Jewellery Empire Alex and Ani
Astrology, private equity, a $1.1 billion gender discrimination lawsuit, and a precariously built bangle behemoth.
Quote of the Week:
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Søren Kierkegaard
Facts of the Week:
Because Sweden is going cashless, Swedish criminals have been reduced to stealing owls.
Zero does not exist in nature.
Cartoon of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Using the first three shape’s values as a guide, find the value that corresponds to the last shape.
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
What number is missing from this sequence?
1 3 4 3 9 5 16 4 25 _ 36 3
Answer:
4. the sequence shows each perfect square up to 36, followed by the number of letters in the word for its square root – in this case “five”.
Is there something you particularly liked or didn’t like? Let me know at dovisdigest@gmail.com