Dovi’s Digest Volume 69
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Guten tag! Welcome to Volume 69 (nice) of Dovi’s Digest.
Most generations have some sort of “JFK moment”. That second in time in which we know that something has happened that has fundamentally changed the world, but we’re not sure how. The sort of thing that we know exactly where we were when we heard the news. For the silent generation, it was the Pearl Harbor attack. For the boomers, the aforementioned JFK assassination or the Moon landing. For gen X it was the fall of the Berlin wall.
However, for millennials (of which I, and many of you are a part), it is undoubtedly the September 11 attacks.
I can tell you exactly where I was and how I felt. My family was in London at the time, and we were at the Royal Airforce Museum in Hendon. In fact, I can even tell you which exhibit I was in. The flying boat. I remember my father getting a call on his cell phone, him telling us that we need to leave, and me being very annoyed as we hadn’t got to the Spitfires yet. We watched the north tower fall whilst sitting on the edge of the hotel bed and were glued to the tv the rest of the day, watching the endless loop of the planes crashing into the towers, a damaged pentagon, and a smoking field in Pennsylvania.
The reason I’m telling you this is that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and boy did we have no idea what we were in for. A few wars, entire governments built on national security, and worst of all, having to take our shoes off at some airports.
So of course, this week’s headline article is about that world-changing event. And about one victim (and his family) in particular. I also recommend reading the article “The Falling Man”, which was included in Volume 18 of the digest, and still makes me wonder.
In addition to this super fun topic, we ask whether birds have a sense of self, why the best Kermit meme templates came from a bad movie, a subterranean orchestra(ish), and my (probably) final article on the 2020 Olympics, and what there is to learn from each sport. I hope you enjoy them all.
There were ZERO correct answers to last week’s brainteaser, well done to no one at all!! I’ll leave this week’s one up for another week.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind
Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11.
Do Birds Know What They Look Like?
A conversation with a bird expert.
An Oral History of Kermit in the Gulag
While ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ wasn’t the most successful Muppet film, it did generate some of the most memorable Kermit the Frog memes.
What I Learned from Watching Every Sport at the Tokyo Olympics
Cheers, tears, and life lessons are all part of the journey.
We Risk Not Understanding the Central Mystery of Life
A professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience discusses his work to develop a scientific explanation for how the brain conjures consciousness.
The Hidden Melodies of Subways Around the World
When train doors close, these jingles warn riders to stand clear.
Plants, Heavy Metals, and the Lingering Scars of World War I
A closer look at the hardy residents of some of our most damaged landscapes.
Quote of the Week:
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” – Dr Seuss
Facts of the Week:
The official names of Scotland's salt spreading trucks include Sir Andy Flurry, Ready Spready Go, and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang.
Bin lorries in Taiwan play music to alert residents to bring out their rubbish.
7% of the land in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is covered in rubbish dumps.
There is more than 180 tonnes of rubbish on the Moon.
Every time there's a full moon, Sri Lanka has a public holiday.
In China, public holidays last a week because it takes so long to travel across the country.
23 March is a Bolivian public holiday called the Day of the Sea, on which the landlocked country mourns the loss of its coastline in 1893.
Aston Martin has developed a luxury submarine.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Can you decipher this phrase? (Hint: It’s kinda punny)
O_er_t_o_
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Well, it’s above.
Answer: n/a