Dovi's Digest Volume 219

The need for speed 🏃‍♀️‍💨👟

Aug 02, 2024

A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs

Hello all! Welcome to Volume 219 of Dovi’s Digest.

Last week, my intro was devoted to my love (and unhealthy watching habits) of the Olympic Games. It has been a productive week, where I have once again brushed up on my ability to differentiate between a piaffe, a half pass, and a half halt in dressage, remember the different rules of the three types of fencing (epee, foil, sabre), and watching the gymnastics and alternating between “I could do that” and “are their abs made of steel?!”.

In this week’s edition we carry on the Olympic theme (to a degree). If you were to boil down the essence of the Olympic Games to one word, that word would most likely be faster. Sure there are events for distance, accuracy, or strength, but the marquee events are athletics and swimming.

Humans have been obsessed with speed since we first jumped onto a horse. From there it evolved to trains, then cars, to jet powered planes that far exceed the speed of sound, to rockets that put up payloads that travel at tens of thousands of kilometres an hour (the international space station travels as 28,000km/h, and the Apollo 10 capsule reached nearly 40,000km/h).

Here on Earth, scientists are finding ways to make humans themselves faster through what probably wouldn’t be your first thought: shoes. In the last few years marathon times have come down drastically as the shoes get lighter, while giving more and more spring to each step. But nothing compares to the new shoe from On (the Swiss brand part-owned by Roger Federer). It’s a “spray on” shoe. Made from a single thread 1500m long (just short of a mile), it moulds perfectly to your feet, giving a custom fit. This week’s headline article is about the athlete who wears it, and how she hopes to keep breaking records.

The second article is also about speed, but not from the shoe. It explains how the athletic track itself can make runners faster.

Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!

In this week’s added extras:

A chart of the highest-paid athletes at the Paris Olympics.

Did the Minions evolve, or were they created?

The rarest move in chess.

For the first time, NASA can see into craters on the moon where the sun literally doesn’t shine.

The 100 best album covers of all time, according to Rolling Stone.

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!

Refer a friend

There were FIVE correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, well done to Josh H, Chaim E, Ryan S, Avi F, 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:

Is This the Craziest Sneaker You Have Ever Seen?

On and Hellen Obiri are taking the running-shoe game to a whole new level. Yes, spray-on shoes are happening.

What Makes An Athletics Track Fast?

To the casual observer one athletics track probably looks much like another.

My Family And Other Nazis

My father did terrible things during the second world war, and my other relatives were equally unrepentant. But it wasn’t until I was in my late 50s that I started to confront this dark past.

The Many Lives of Null Island

(Courtesy of Yisroel G)

Null Island is a long-running inside joke among cartographers. It is an imaginary island located at a real place: the coordinates of 0º latitude and 0º longitude, a location in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa where the Prime Meridian meets the Equator, hundreds of miles from any real dry land.

Quote of the Week:

“It's tough to be good at something you're not interested in. It's nearly impossible to be great at something you're not obsessed with.” – Shane Parrish

Word of the Week:

Riposte

ruh·powst/rɪˈpɒst/

Noun

A quick, clever reply to an insult or criticism.
In the context of fencing, a quick return thrust.

Facts of the Week:

Summer and autumn are the times when Google searches for “hair loss” peak.
Pulling someone's hair is a legal tackle in American football: If it reaches to their jersey, it counts as part of the uniform.
To catch cheating footballers, scientists have invented anti-diving shin pads.
The backs of playing cards used to be left blank so people could make notes on them.
The translator of Finnegans Wake into Chinese is having to write footnotes for 80% of the words.
Detective Speechley is a spokesman for the NYPD.
Stephen Hawking wrote “Galeelaeo” and “Ahristottal” in his lecture notes so his speech machine would pronounce them properly.

Cartoon of the Week:

Tweet of the Week:

Headline of the Week:

Brainteaser of the Week:

If…

11 people watch BOXING

50 people watch GOLF

102 people watch ICE SKATING

151 people watch ATHLETICS

507 people watch DIVING

How many people watch CYCLING?

Last week’s Brainteaser and Answer:

There are fewer than 30 students in a class. Half of the students play chess, one quarter play basketball, and one-seventh read comics. How many of the students play basketball?

Answer:

Seven students play basketball. Here’s how to find the answer.