Religion and Congress: Jeff, Diamant, "Faith on the Hill: The religious composition of the 119th Congress,” Pew Research Center, Jan. 2, 2025.

Time to move to TikTok?:  The share of adults reading news articles online in the US has fallen from 70 to 50 per cent since 2013. The share of Britons and Americans now consuming no conventional news media at all has ballooned from 8 to around 30 per cent... "Why the TikTok era spells trouble for the establishment,” …

The Bible Boom: "Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period."> Via “Top Links 585 Mexico’s laborious economy. VW exits Xinjiang. …

The year in homicide: "Murder likely fell at the fastest rate ever recorded in 2024 after falling at the fastest rate ever recorded in 2023 based on an assessment of 2024 crime data from numerous sources. The Real-Time Crime Index has murder down 16 percent in 309 cities with available data through October 2024, the FBI …

But… Via “Top Links 589 How US arrivistes do it better. Exceptionalism weighed. Sino-Saudi ties. The global cotton boom and slavery in Egypt,” Adam Tooze, Chartbook, Dec. 16, 2024.

In FY 2023 (October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), the federal government spent about $6.2 trillion, or about $18,400 per person. This was down 8.5% from the previous fiscal year but up 15.9% from FY 2019. “How much does the government spend, really?” USAfacts.com, Dec. 16.

Lives saved by vaccines: 1974 to ??? : "The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine..." "Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine,” New York Times, Dec. 13, 2024. …

Baker/tarot card reader-turned-Chief of Staff: People who know [Argentine President Milei well say that his most enduring relationship is with his sister, Karina; he dedicated his book "The Path of the Libertarian" to her, as well as to his dogs. Until Karina became the head of Milei’s Presidential campaign, , she supported herself by selling …

A billionare with... a dollar fifty?: Mr. Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world’s media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions. Mr. Trump called him a “highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene.” The president-elect even lavished what may be …

Living in the Multiverse, less interesting than the fate of bitcoin in El Salvador?: Willow’s performance on this benchmark is astonishing: It performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 1025 or 10 septillion years. If you want to write it out, it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. This mind-boggling number exceeds …

Sad about what's happening to Earth, suspicious of those who want to try to stop it: Eight-in-ten Americans say climate news makes them feel frustrated about the level of political disagreement on the issue. A large share (73%) also say climate news has made them feel sad about what’s happening to the Earth. At the same time, 51% of U.S. adults say they’ve felt suspicious of the …

Can you bear it?: Even if something is not edible, bears will try to eat it-scented air freshen-ers, cherry lip balm. The black bear is the terrestrial equivalent of a shark, the sharpest nose in the ocean; its sense of smell is seven times better than a blood-hound's, several thousand times better than a human's. A …

Did GIs create the canon?: Did GIs create the canon? William Faulkner only really became popular after the publication of Malcolm Cowley’s The Portable Faulkner, a paperback edition issued to GIs during the war. True for The Great Gatbsy too. "almost 155,000 copies were distributed in a special Armed Services Edition, …

Takeout's triumph: The pandemic also solidified the shift toward takeout and delivery: Nearly three-quarters of restaurant meals are now consumed offsite, according to data shared with me by the National Restaurant Association, up from about 60 percent in 2019. “How America Lost Its Taste for the Middle,” The …

Flying cars, China's "low-altitude economy, and its underemployed youth: The “low-altitude economy” is a big trend in China at the moment. XPeng, one of China’s leading EV manufacturers, recently released a low-altitude flying car for instance. Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly common in Chinese cities, and various regions are actively developing low-altitude …

China's Manufacturing Advantage: In the year 2000, the United States and its allies in Asia, Europe, and Latin America accounted for the overwhelming majority of global industrial production, with China at just 6% even after two decades of rapid growth. Just thirty year later, UNIDO projects that China will account for 45% of all …