Dovi’s Digest Volume 261
It’s getting chilly 🛀❄️🧊🥶
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hello all! Welcome to Volume 261 of Dovi’s Digest!
I want to start by saying thank you to the many of you for the kind words and congratulating me on five years of the Digest, it is so appreciated, and it reminds me of one of the reasons I put it out each week: external validation.
Over the years I’ve told you all about my quirks and fads in which I’d recently taken an interest. My latest one isn’t new to the scene, but it’s only recently that I’ve got access to it.
Ice baths. A few months ago, a friend invited me to see his new set up, I got in for three minutes (advice was for one minute, but I’m an idiot with a male ego) and I was hooked. The initial 30s was just pure panic. Your body goes fully into overdrive: fight or flight. You hyperventilate, your pupils dilate, and you want to scream. I slowly calmed down, and since then it takes me three or four breaths and I’m in the zone. I come out feeling refreshed, energised, and far superior to the losers who only last 2 minutes. Sure, the first few times I needed a hot shower 45 minutes later to stop shivering, but at the time I felt like a GOD. Over the last weeks I’ve gone almost daily as support for a friend who picked up an injury just before the Comrades ultra-marathon (90km of hills for the uninitiated, and mentioned a year ago in Digest Volume 211 https://dovi.substack.com/p/dovis-digest-volume-211), and on Sunday ran it in under nine hours, a ridiculous pace of sub 6 minutes per km. He attributes the ice baths to helping him cross the finish line in one piece.
Once the domain of Lewis Pugh, Wim Hof, and professional athletes, over the last few years, we’ve seen a proliferation of ice baths and their acolytes. It’s exactly what it says on the tin: a freezing cold bath. Not that complex right? The jury is still out, but there is anecdotal evidence showing that regular ice baths lower cortisol levels, increase circulation, can mitigate against injuries, stop inflammation and a few studies have even shown a mood uplift after bathing. Read more about the practice, its history, and its benefits in this week’s headline article.
In this week’s added extras:
Think you’re chilly? Try growing up in the world’s coldest city.
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the moon.
Navigate from one country to another by naming the nations in between. Keen cartophiles can also try their luck at more local options, including UK counties, US states and – for the real pros – Swiss cantons. Click here to play
A thread of the most well-timed photos.
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 actually FOUR correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, but all of them inexplicably went to junk. I sincerely apologise to Ariel S, Chaim E, Jeff C, and Ayelet!!! 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:
Are Ice Baths Good for You? The Benefits and Risks of a Cold Plunge
The trend is anything but new and goes all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians.
What’s the Longest Word in English?
Spoiler alert: Despite what you might have heard, it’s not “antidisestablishmentarianism.”
In Death, New Life: The Science and Symbolism of a Whale Fall
When a whale dies, its body creates a new mini ecosystem on the ocean floor—a process full of biological and poetic lessons for those willing to learn them.
Can Medieval Sleeping Habits Fix America’s Insomnia?
The history of “first sleep” and “second sleep” holds surprising lessons about pre industrial life, 21st-century anxiety, and the problem with digging for utopia in the past.
Can a $700 Calendar Save Your Marriage?
Your spouse can’t read your mind. But these products promise to “externalize the primary caregiver’s brain.”
Toxic truth? The Cookware Craze Redefining “Ceramic” and “Nontoxic”
Designer brands such as Always Pan and Caraway are booming – but safety experts are raising questions.
Exploding Cargo. Hacked GPS Devices. Spoofed Coordinates. Inside New Security Threats in the Skies.
Some experts suspect that a series of aviation incidents traces back to Russian aggressors. The sophistication only rivals the potential for danger—and the sky’s the limit.
Quote of the Week:
“Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” - GK Chesterton
Word of the Week:
(Courtesy of Emily F)
Eldritch
EL-dritch /ˈɛldrɪtʃ/
adjective
weird and sinister or ghostly. Strange or unnatural in a way that inspires fear.”
"An eldritch screech"
Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!
Facts of the Week:
Only female bees can sting.
Jellyfish stinging cells explode with an acceleration a million times greater than a Ferrari's.
Sloths move three times faster in water than on land.
When the Arctic Sea ice melts, it will be possible to swim in a straight line from Antarctica to Norway.
Norway's deepest fjord is 100 metres deeper than the combined height of the Empire State Building and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, was built by Samsung.
40 leopards live in Dubai, and 40% of their diet is provided by the city's dogs.
The Mesolithic diet was mostly hazelnuts.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
What is the lowest number to have the same value as ten times the number of letters in its name?
Last week’s brainteaser:
Try to identify a famous historical figure from the following clues:
1. The person’s first and last names both contain seven letters.
2. Their full name only contains two different consonants (that occur multiple times).
3. Thirteen of the 14 letters in this person’s name occur in the first half of the alphabet (A–M), with the remaining letter being an “O.”
Who is it?
Answer:
Galileo Galilei