Dovi’s Digest Volume 44
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual and physical needs
Hello everybody! Welcome to Volume 44 of Dovi’s Digest.
After the Gamestop run, I thought we’d be done with the tech associated fads at least for a few months. And boy was I wrong. The new buzzword on the virtual streets? NFT. It stands for Non Fungible Token and very basically, they’re the rights to a piece of digital “art” whether it’s a tweet, a photo, or a song. The British artist Beeple auctioned off the NFT for a piece of his art for $69 million. Jack Dorsey (the co-founder and CEO of Twitter) auctioned off his first tweet for north of $2 million, and a 10 second video clip of LeBron James dunking sold for $208 000. It was the last one in the list that caused most of the commotion, and what led to the other two. What a world we live in.
Last week was the 10th anniversary of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which most of us remember for the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Nearly 16 000 people died that day, and many of the bodies have never been found. This week’s edition has two articles relating to it, one about a man who learned how to SCUBA dive in order to try find his wife’s body (“I Have No Choice But to Keep Looking”) and one about the people trying to restore memories that were damaged that day (“The Memory Hunters”). I highly recommend both articles.
The other articles this week are much lighter, and I enjoyed all of them. My favourites are the lost tourist and particularly the juggling one. I hope you get as many feel good smiles out of it as I did.
There were NO correct answer to last week’s riddle, well done to Myer Brom! This week’s riddle is below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
All the best
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Craft Brewers Are Running Out of Names, And Into Legal Spats
With so many craft breweries now in operation, just about every beer name you can imagine is taken. That's making it harder for newcomers to name that brew without risking a legal fight.
Why the NFT Craze Is a Bubble Waiting to Pop
The latest collectible boom is fuelled by speculators, not enthusiasts.
The Bizarre Tale of The World's Last Lost Tourist, Who Thought Maine Was San Francisco
How a well-meaning sentence changed a man’s life.
“MOOCs Failed, Short Courses Won”
Education-technology company Coursera launched a bid to become a publicly traded company last week, giving industry experts a glimpse at its financial inner workings. The company is losing money, but it might be finding a way to monetize MOOCs.
Are Hit Songs Becoming Less Musically Diverse?
In 2014, Snoop Dogg asked 50 Cent what he missed most about the past, when hip hop “was what it was.” 50 Cent replied “authenticity”.
The Improbable Rise of Competitive Juggling Means a New Breath-taking Sport
A circus act turned extraordinary sport is making its case for the Olympics.
The Memory Hunters
If you had 60 seconds inside your home before it was set to be destroyed, what would you grab? Jewellery perhaps, or a beloved childhood toy, but for many people there is nothing as priceless as a family photo.
“I Have No Choice but to Keep Looking”
Five years after the tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Japan, a husband still searches the sea for his wife, joined by a father hoping to find his daughter.
Quote of the Week:
“My feelings are too loud for words and too shy for the world.”
― Dejan Stojanovic
Facts of the Week:
Football World Cup referees have to learn swear words in other languages.
TITSUP is a military acronym for Total Inability To Support Usual Performance.
SWIPERS is a retail industry acronym for Seemingly Well-Intentioned Patrons Engaging in Routine Shoplifting.
TASER is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle.
In 2016, Australian police offered cash prizes to any drivers they found to be sober.
The oldest known boomerang is from Poland.
Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia, is named after an artificial mound in Poland.
Infographic of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Cartoon of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
What number should appear next in this sequence?
5 13 29 61 125 ?
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Starting with the word “Dovi’s”, change only one letter at a time, such that after each change it still results in a regular common English word. Transition to the word “forty”, then again to the word “three”.
Answer:
Dovis
doves
dives
fives
fires
sires
sores
sorts
forts
forty
forts
sorts
sores
sires
sired
shred
shrew
threw
three
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