Dovi’s Digest Volume 40
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual and physical needs
Hi all, and welcome to Volume 40 of Dovi’s Digest.
As many of you know, I’m quite the fan of infographics. When I’m not trawling the deepest darkest corners of the internet for articles, I’m often found on infographic websites or blogs. This dovetails quite nicely with the theme of the last few weeks: the Mars rover Perseverance, which landed on/crashed into (this is published before the event) the Martian surface last night. The infographic allows us to visualise exactly how damn far away Mars is, and how incredible the engineering is in order to get there. In this vein, one of the earliest Digests (when it was still just a weekly email blast!) had a very cool article on the quest of one man to dive to the deepest part of each ocean (Thirty-six Thousand Feet Under the Sea). Here’s another visualisation to show just how deep the sea actually is.
A few short weeks ago I posted a few articles on GameStop, the stock that everyone was talking about, and what it meant for the finance industry. Next week, CEOs of some of the world’s top hedge funds, the CEO of Reddit, and the CEO of Robinhood, an app that has become a retail investing behemoth, will be grilled by a congressional committee. Also in the hotseat will be Redditor/vlogger/some guy aka deepf**kingvalue/Roaring Kitty/ Keith Gill, a retail investor who allegedly made tens of millions of dollars on one bet. While the article below isn’t his story, it’s certainly a story about someone who made a killing on the stock.
There were many (11!!) correct answer to last week’s riddle, well done to Daniel Rabinovitch, Rabbi Sam Thurgood, Natasha Salant, Liron Gordon, Rachel Amar, Kevin Levy, David Greenway, Hazel Levine, my mom (hi mom!), David Flax, and Ori Tobias. This week’s riddle is below.
There are quite a few new signups this week, so welcome to you all. A quick crash course: if you find anything that piques your interest, send it my way and it will go in the newsletter! I don’t mind if it’s an article, tweet, cartoon, brainteaser or anything else, every submission is welcome.
In addition, a fair amount of the articles are from websites that have monthly article limits. My official line is to either subscribe or bookmark articles until the next month. HOWEVER, if one was so inclined, opening the articles in incognito/private browsing mode would bypass this necessity.
In this edition you’ll find out about the real ailment that is Diet Coke addiction, why declining COVID cases aren’t all that they seem, a beginner’s guide to drones, and one of my last Mars articles, among others. I hope you enjoy them all.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
All the best
Dovi
And now, the articles:
The Day Malcolm X Was Killed
At the height of his powers, the Black Nationalist leader was assassinated, and the government botched the investigation of his murder.
The Real Thing: My Battle to Beat A 27-Year Diet Coke Addiction
(Courtesy of Elliot Djebreel)
I have been obsessed with the sugar-free soda since I was four, spending £500 a year on up to seven cans a day. This is what happened when I tried to quit.
How Long Can COVID Cases Keep Plummeting?
(Courtesy of Daniel Sobel)
There’s a mysterious element to the good news.
“How Many Funerals Will Come Out of This One?”
(Courtesy of Josh Hovsha)
A look inside the insular culture of ultra-orthodox Jewish community that has been both a vector for the virus and its victim.
Your Guide to the Drone Age
Everything you need to know about flying robots.
The Beach Bum Who Beat Wall Street and Made Millions on GameStop
Mike McCaskill spent years scouring the stock market and betting on long shots. Then he found the opportunity that changed his life—and helped spark the mother of all short squeezes.
When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong
A recent mission atop a Hawaiian volcano shows humans still have much to learn before they set foot on another world.
Quote of the Week:
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
Facts of the Week:
If human eyes were in the same proportion as cats’ eyes, they’d be eight inches across.
Honesty boxes with eyes stuck on the wall next to them produce more money.
Painting eyes on cows’ bottoms stops lions attacking them.
Listening to talk radio can put pumas off their food.
King George VI’s wedding was not broadcast on the radio in case people listened without removing their hats.
Not realising his microphone was switched on, Ronald Reagan once joked that the US was about to bomb Russia.
There are an estimated 14 485 nuclear weapons in the world today.
Tweet of the Week:
Cartoon of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Which of the following words does not belong with the others?
TRAP LIVED SHORT BATS REGAL
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Try to solve this Word Pyramid.
How it works: Take the letters of the word “pea” and rearrange them into a word that starts with “h.” Do the same for each of the new words you create until you get to the bottom.
pea
h _ _ _
s _ _ _ _
_ _ r _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ n
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ l
Answer:
pea
heap
shape
phrase/seraph
sharpen
shrapnel
DD35 Brainteaser
Using only the common +, -, x, ÷ (no shtick or funny business), you have to use each number exactly once, and end up with final total of 24.
For example: 1,1,3,9
The answers could be (9+3)x(1+1), or ((9-1)x3)/1
Peppadew: 2,2,2,7
Jalapeño: 5,6,6,9
Cayenne: 3,3,7,7
Habanero: 1,4,5,6
Carolina Reaper: 3,3,8,8
Answer:
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