A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 251 of Dovi’s Digest!
In this week’s added extras:
Winners of the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards include pictures of a fox kit leaping between logs; a flower praying mantis perched on a mushroom; two deer running through a snowy vineyard in Slovenia; two hippos fighting in Zimbabwe; and five cheetahs snacking on a hartebeest in Kenya. See the other winners here.
Warner Bros. Entertainment put several old movies on YouTube for free.
Type in your birthday to see what the Hubble Telescope saw in the universe that day.
Muffin recipes to start your morning with a treat.
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 Jeff C and Steven K. The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great weekend,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Huh? The Valuable Role of Interjections
Utterances like um, wow and mm-hmm aren’t garbage — they keep conversations flowing.
A Virtual Reality Pangolin Made Me Cry and Care More About the Planet: Is This the Real Power of VR Headsets?
For many, constant bad news numbs our reaction to climate disasters. But research suggests that a new type of immersive storytelling about nature told through virtual reality (VR) can both build empathy and inspire us to act.
Shooting an Elephant in Botswana
Trophy hunting is uncomfortable for some in the west, but a lifeline for many locals.
I Used to Teach Students. Now I Catch ChatGPT Cheats
I once believed university was a shared intellectual pursuit. That faith has been obliterated.
The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan
Rappers Used to Sell the Booze. Now They Own It.
E-40 and Ja Rule got real about taking control of the liquor industry’s love affair with hip-hop.
The Chilling Case of Nathan Carman’s Deadly Fishing Trip
Linda Carman vanished on a boating excursion near Block Island, Rhode Island. Her 22-year-old stood to inherit millions. Then came one final surprise.
Quote of the Week:
"I spent the whole morning building a time machine, so that's four hours of my life that I'm definitely getting back" – Olaf Falafel
Word of the Week:
Sonder
son-der/ ˈsɒn dər
the feeling one has on realising that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles:
In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.
Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!
Facts of the Week:
There are 10,000 black holes at the centre of our galaxy.
There are 10,000 planes in the sky at any one time.
1 litre of Dior J’Adore perfume contains 10,000 flowers.
10,000 bridges in Italy are in danger of collapsing.
It takes 1.3 million cars to produce as much carbon dioxide as the UK's microwave ovens.
You can't melt a Cadbury's Flake in a microwave.
Melted chocolate that has dried on a road is a worse hazard than snow.
20% of all the animal road deaths in England take place on the A303.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
(I cannot remember who sent this to me, if it was you, please reach out)
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
(I had a lot of fun with this one)
What emotion is an anagram of a homophone of an antonym of a homophone of an anagram of wolf?
As a reminder…
1. Anagram: When the letters of a word are rearranged to form a new word.
2. Homophone: Words that sound alike but have a different meaning or spelling.
Last week’s brainteaser and answer:
Here's today's brain-bender: What is represented by the phrase "ETAOIN SHRDLU"?
• Hint: The order of the letters is important.
Answer:
It's the approximate order of frequency of the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language.
Steven K added this top-notch fact: this is the order when a typesetter runs their finger down the first line of their text setting.