Dovi's Digest Volume 214
Blink and it's gone...👀🖼
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 214 of Dovi’s Digest.
We’ve all felt left out at some point in our lives. Sports teams, birthday parties, friend groups – the experience of that rejection is universal. It’s mostly harmless and just washes over us, part of the flotsam of life. On the odd occasion they may have a more lasting impact ala Ted Bundy or the guys from Columbine, but it’s unlikely (regardless, be nice).
I remember well the first time I felt left out. It involved a magic eye picture in the mid 90s (incredibly mundane, I know). Most of you will remember them: the seemingly random groups of colours and shapes which resolve themselves into a 3D picture. Everyone else I knew could make it work, and I couldn’t. Whether it’s because I wasn’t able to squint or unfocus my eyes, I don’t know, but I can still recall that sense of being out the outside looking in (it didn’t have a profound effect on me, I just wanted to see the picture, and my recollection is more the frustration of not being able to do something everyone could. I think it was of a cow IIRC for those who care).
Magic eye pictures took the world by storm in the 1990s. They were everywhere from billboards (causing bottlenecks and accidents) to the most popular TV shows. Three books of Magic Eye pictures were released and all of them topped the New York Times best sellers list. The ability to pick out a 3D image from nothing seemed to be just that – magic. This week’s headline article is the story of the invention of the pictures, and how they’re able to hack our brains with just some dots. Enjoy!
Do you know a word you think others should know about?
In this week’s added extras:
Eight techniques for evaluating someone’s character.
An entire subreddit devoted to photos of people taken by delivery drivers as proof that they dropped off the food.
This neat interactive shows you what famous figures throughout history were alive at the same time (and how old they were).
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 TWO correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, well done to Chaim E 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:
Can You See It? The Hidden History of Magic Eye Pictures
Hypnotic to some and infuriating to others, the 1990s pop culture sensation still has a dedicated following. Why can’t we look away? (This is an archived page as the original is paywalled. it may take a little time to load.)
The Lows of the High Life
I had never had money, and then I did. For three days in New York, I learned how not to use it.
The Nazi Werewolves Who Terrorised Allied Soldiers at the End of WWII
Though the guerrilla fighters didn’t succeed in slowing the Allied occupation of Germany, they did sow fear wherever they went.
Precipice of Fear: The Freerider Who Took Skiing to its Limits
Jérémie Heitz has pushed freeriding to breathtaking, beautiful new extremes. But as the risks get bigger, the questions do, too.
Listening to Unheard Wu-Tang Clan - the World's Rarest Album
Inside a delicately hand-carved silver box on display in an Australian museum lies the most exclusive, most valuable, and perhaps most infamous album in the world. What does it sound like?
Why Do People Toss Shoes Over Power Lines?
“Shoefiti” is everywhere—but not everyone agrees on what it means. Some suspect it's innocent, while others ascribe darker meanings to a dangling pair of kicks.
Deep-Sea Tourism Is on the Rise. But Is It Safe?
The deep sea is so rarely visited—and so little understood—that it’s regularly compared to outer space. But it’s attracting adventurers intent on experiencing something out of the ordinary.
Quote of the Week:
Why should I care about posterity? What has it ever done for me?” – Groucho Marx
Word of the Week:
(Courtesy of Sienna U)
Peloton
peh·luh·ton/ˈpɛlətɒn/
Noun
the main field or group of cyclists in a race. (In deference to the Tour de France starting this weekend.)
Facts of the Week:
The first Kleenex tissues were made from the same material as the gas mask filters during the First World War.
During the Second World War, the Northern Ireland Assembly building was covered in cow manure to camouflage it.
Defecating causes sloths as much pain as childbirth.
The oldest human settlement in Australia was found by a man looking for a laboratory.
Australians feel they need to earn more than three times as much as people in the Caribbean to be equally happy.
Warriors in Papua New Guinea made daggers from their enemies’ thigh bones.
Fractures can be diagnosed by holding a tuning fork to the bone: If it rings like a bell, all's well.
The Japanese have invented a noise cancelling fork to counteract the sound of people slurping their soup.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Sweden (267,570)
Norway (239,057)
Finland (178,947)
Canada (52,455)
United States (18,617)
Indonesia (17,504)
What does this list represent?
Last week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
Portmanteaus are words that blend two or more words together, because who has time?
We’ll give you a portmanteau, and you have to name the words that were smushed together to form it.
1. Microsoft
2. Hazmat
3. Contrail
4. Verizon
5. Endorphin
6. Cyborg
7. Pixel
Answer:
1. Microsoft = microcomputer and software
2. Hazmat = hazardous and material
3. Contrail = condensation and trail
4. Verizon = veritas (Latin for “truth”) and horizon
5. Endorphin = endogenous and morphine
6. Cyborg = cybernetic and organism
7. Pixel = picture and element