Dovi's Digest Volume 209
John Lennon was wrong, maybe we do need the borders 🗽😜🇮🇪🙅
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 209 of Dovi’s Digest.
In so many ways, humans are wonderful. We adopt other species into our family units, even if they look nothing like us. When we see another creature in distress, we often try to help, even at our risk. We create things, the shinier the better, for the sake of it. We continually strive to be better as a species, whether it’s through going faster (horse>space shuttle), buuld bigger or reach higher.
We’re also cute. We say “ow” even if we haven’t hurt ourselves, but just in case. We get drowsy when the sun goes down and cocoon ourselves in soft bedding. When we say goodbye, we put our arms around each other. To show our love we bring each other flowers. We say hello by clasping hands. For pleasure we listen to arrangements of sounds, or press our lips together, or smoke dried leaves, or get drunk on old fruit. Sometimes when we’re sad little dewdrops form in our eyes, but this also happens when we’re happy.
And despite all of this goodness, we can also be assholes. We can see a great example of this with the video portal that was set up a few weeks ago between New York and Dublin. Conceived by the Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys, each portal consists of a large screen and camera, which livestreams between the two locations. The original was set up in 2021 between Vilnius in Lithuania and Lublin in Poland to “fulfil the desire to unify and develop empathy in onlookers” and is still active. The one between New York and Dublin was open for less than a week. Within a day, people in Dublin were holding up images of the twin towers burning on 9/11 and a woman in New York flashed the portal for a few minutes (which begs the question “is flash the right word for it?”). It has since reopened, hopefully for a longer time. More on what went wrong in this week’s headline article.
Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!
In this week’s added extras:
This video of the “babies race” held between innings at a baseball ground in Savannah, Georgia.
The online game One Button Four Lights is as simple as it sounds. There is one button, and players must figure out how to use it to turn on four lights. If there are instructions, we wouldn’t know – the whole website is in Japanese. Try it for yourself here.
Spectacular photos of the Northern Lights around the world taken during last week’s solar storm.
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 TEN correct answers to last week’s brainteaser. Well done toJeff C, Chaim E, Sam T, Josh H, Yona K, Yisroel G, Ryan S, Eli B, Daniel R, and Ariel S!! The answer and this week’s puzzle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great weekend,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
How Things Went Wrong for the New York-Dublin “Portal”
(Courtesy of Josh H)
The outdoor video link between the two cities was temporarily shut down after some questionable behaviour on both sides.
How TikTok Created a New Accent – and Why It Might Be the Future of English
People on TikTok have developed a specific accent - would you recognise it if you heard it?
Rubbing Your Eyes Is Way More Harmful Than You Think
While it may feel good, the damage is too real.
The Mystery of the Blue Whale Songs
Earth’s largest animals are singing in ever-lower tones, and nobody knows why.
Emoji history: The Missing Years ♥
(Courtesy of Yisroel G)
Poison, Bribes, and Murder in the Seedy Underbelly of 90s Heavyweight Boxing
Tim “Doc” Anderson, once a respected boxer, is in prison for killing the promoter he believes poisoned him in the ring.
The Vatican’s Secret Role in the Science of IVF
More than half a century ago, men of science and men of faith gathered together to unlock the mysteries of female fertility. The answer: urine from the brides of Christ. And lo, those nuns gaveth.
Quote of the Week:
“The rain, it raineth on the just and also on the unjust fella: but chiefly on the just, because the unjust steals the just’s umbrella.” – Victorian judge Lord Bowen of Colwood
Word of the Week:
(Courtesy of Ellen D)
Nebulous
neh·byoo·luhs/ˈnɛbjʊləs/
Adjective
1. in the form of a cloud or haze; hazy.
"a giant nebulous glow"
2. (of a concept) vague or ill-defined.
"Nebulous concepts like quality of life"
Facts of the Week:
Joe Davis won the 1933 World Snooker Championship in a building named after himself.
The only basketball coach at Kansas university with a losing record was James Naismith, the man who invented basketball.
From 1541 to 1555, playing bowls was illegal for commoners, except on Christmas Day.
25% of the world's prisoners are in the US.
When Oscar Wilde was in prison, he had special dispensation to have his light on at night so he could keep reading.
A restaurant in Connecticut gives diners a free book with their meal.
Timothy Dexter wrote a book with no punctuation, but included a sheet of punctuation marks for the reader to distribute as they pleased.
The exclamation mark was originally called the “point of admiration”.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Here are 30 letter pairs that make up 10 six-letter words. Use the clues provided to find all 10 words, using each letter pair only once. Race your coworkers!
AG CE CT ED ED EL EN ER ES ES ES EV EW FI HS IM IS IS IT LA LE LE NO NT OF SE SU TA UG VI
1. Gift
2. Polished
3. Joyful sounds
4. Stranger Things character
5. TV watcher
6. Important matters
7. Choose
8. Google Search option
9. Workplace
10. Sounds
Last week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Below are two columns containing the numbers 1–9. The left hand column adds to 21, and the right one adds to 24. Move a single card so that the two columns add to the same total.
One solution is to turn 9 upside down to make 6. Other answers include: putting the 1 on top of the 5, putting the 3 on the 9, or the 5 on the 7.
Thanks for the "one button four lights" game. It was great!
Reminds me of "four second frenzy" - a series of different games where you have 4 seconds to work out the rules and win the game.