before the pandemic, new england colleges had more than 2x more applicants than southwestern colleges.

at current trajectories, southwestern college applicants will surpass new england in two years.

I think a lot of people would be genuinely surprised that the US is not only not declining on the world stage, it's currently gaining in global economic share.

US GDP increased 1.4 trillion dollars last year, which is equivalent to adding the entire country of Spain.

Ever wonder what the “Judaica” section at the official UPenn bookstore looks like? Take a look… Notice anything funny about it? Maybe the fact that not a single book is about anything related to Judaism. What is happening at the Ivy League is nothing shy of a dystopian society.

A psychoanalyst explains why for people feeling “burnt out”, simply trying to relax doesn’t always work econ.st/3vLElo9 👇

Five-alarm fire for Biden:

Trump is crushing him 52-30 on inflation—better than practically any other head-to-head issue.

But Trump barely talks about policies to reduce inflation and his team's econ messaging—tariffs, devaluation, deportation—is almost entirely inflationary.

Friendly reminder that the group that is the most politically engaged is atheists.

Atheists engage in about twice as many political activities as white evangelicals.

50% of atheists made a political donation in 2020.

It was 26% of white evangelicals.

Huge statement from Ali Karimi— Iran’s most celebrated soccer star and probably the most famous and popular Iranian celebrity.

Welcome to the post religious right:

“unabashedly hierarchical, as well as sometimes also scornful of Christian-inflected concern for the weak.” unherd.com/2024/04/the-fu…

In 2017, I did something dumb. There was a total solar eclipse passing through the US, but I was in NY, far from the path. Was I really gonna get on a plane to see a cool thing for two minutes? Nah. I had shit to do.

The day came. I put my stupid glasses on and saw the sun

Hamas has rejected another hostage deal ceasefire proposal. Every chance it has to relieve the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, it rejects. Why is there no focus on its blocking any humanitarian pause? Why no pressure on it to end the suffering of Gazans? Past time to do so.

10 paradoxical truths from 10 brilliant men

1. C.S. Lewis: Originality is best attained via copying.

2. Nietzsche: Compassion is a psyop designed by the weak to redirect resources from the most deserving to the least.

3. Chesterton: You need to hate the world enough to change

From brain imaging data, practically nothing can be deduced about the psychological state of a particular person. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

bad news for biden: his approval ratings
good news for biden: his approval ratings, compared to his peers

This is cold comfort for Democrats, since Biden isn't running to win 'highest approval rating-over-replacement among developed-democracy leaders'

But it's an important thing to remember if you're trying to answer the Q: Why is Biden so unpopular? (Answer: Everyone is, kind of.)

A review in Nature, by Candice Odgers, asserts that I have mistaken correlation for causation and that “there is no evidence that using these platforms is rewiring children’s brains or driving an epidemic of mental illness.” Both of these assertions are untrue.

New evidence of rapid moral perception.

People engage in moral thin-slicing--they identify moral transgressions from visual scenes presented in the blink of an eye (< 100 ms), in ways that are consistent with judgments made with no time constraints. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

“the share of Hispanic Americans who have a favorable view of Trump has doubled over the last year from around 20 percent to 40 percent.” nationalreview.com/2024/03/americ…

These #Palestinian poll results (from March 2024) tell a depressing story:
- 71% say 10/7 attacks were 'correct'
- 91% say #Hamas committed no war crimes in this conflict
- 59% say Hamas should control #Gaza after the war is over
- Hamas has double the popular support of #Fatah ,

WOW -- Jake Sullivan just ripped Hamas and the media, noting they're not talking about how Hamas is the one who's refusing to negotiate on releasing hostages in exchange for a #ceasefirenow :

“One of the things that I have found somewhat absent from the [media] coverage is that

I recently sat down and read these three books. They are required reading for anyone concerned about our civilizational crises. Very happy for my friends Brad Wilcox Tim Carney and Abigail Shrier for having researched and written such essential works.