Key 🛠️ retweeted
Prices in Osaka and Bangkok are ~same despite 4x wage difference.
I knew Japan was cheap these days but WOW.
And Japan has all the standard First World attributes like drinkable tap water, clean air, safe roads.
Explains why everyone and their dog are going to Japan in 2026.
🤖 Made with AI
Key 🛠️ retweeted
When Europeans first settled the Great Plains, so many of them developed mental issues that "Prairie Madness" was coined.
Severe isolation combined with the flattest land, lack of trees, and extremely bipolar weather literally broke many of them.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Rome’s decline or northern Europe’s rise? In the genetic-score data, both and at different times. My new analysis of 1,454 ancient genomes confirms the early Italian lead and later northern catch-up.
substack.davidepiffer.com/p/…
Key 🛠️ retweeted
“Fun” fact:
19th-c. Russian landlords were increasingly experimenting with plantation slavery!
Fortunately, emancipation happened before the trend could really take off.
(The figures given in the screenshot are massively overstated.)
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Why are first-born siblings smarter than 2nd-, 3rd-, or later-born siblings?
To figure out the answer, we have to talk about what the answer is not🧵
First, the effect is about social order: if a prior child died young, the biological second child has an IQ like a first-born.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Capitalism as tool is the obvious way it should be viewed. To view it as an ideology is to admit your a soulless materialist who values money more than anything else, and your god is "graph go up"
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Around 1,000 Greek words can’t be traced to any Indo-European language. Where do they come from?
In this issue of the Linguistic Discovery newsletter, we’ll dig through layers of linguistic history to reveal the mystery language that influenced Ancient Greek.
linguisticdiscovery.com/post…
Key 🛠️ retweeted
60% of the economy + the ruling party in Transistria are controlled by a single corporation
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Many people cite GDP to show off which country is "the richest" or use GDP per capita to show off who is more productive. I find it more interesting to look at what people end up OWNING and what they CAN BUY for that money.
As long as you calculate everything in US$ and don't adjust for purchasing power it doesn't mean anything. Yes, US salaries are often double that of Japan, but then real estate or even food prices are easily 3-5 times as high. So here's the top 30 of MEDIAN* NET WEALTH per adult ADJUSTED FOR PURCHASING POWER.
The US being way down is not surprising considering that people are notoriously indebted all the time, and buy everything on credit, but it also shows how litte their already small savings can get them.
*Median is more realistic than average here, because in the US the high number of billionaires would actually skew the results upwards, not reflecting reality very well.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Garrett Jones analyzed the correlation between IQ and income
Within nations, 1 IQ point correlated with a 1 percent increase in earnings
But…
Between nations, 1 IQ point correlated with a 7% increase in GDP per capita
Higher group IQ has more power than higher individual IQ
Key 🛠️ retweeted
This is why republicans can’t blindly follow the free market. It sent factory jobs overseas in the 80’s, encouraged illegal immigration and illegal labor, and now it’s replacing literally every white collar job. Corporate greed will kill our country just as much as the Leftists
Key 🛠️ retweeted
Totally possible.
Every few months now, we get another LiDAR scan result showing yet another city that's been hidden by the Amazon.
Here's one from a paper published in July:
This quoted post is unavailable.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
When Brazil privatized its hospital services, it led to more services at a lower cost with no cost in quality. How did they do it? By giving managers the freedom to hire, fire, and change procurement.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
In a poll of 25 different countries, Americans are the most anti-AI.
The most pro-AI countries are South Korea, India, Israel, and Nigeria.
What happened to us? We used to believe in ourselves and the future.
Now we're a nation of pessimists and cowards.
Key 🛠️ retweeted
I made a website—wattsmybill (dot) org—to monitor data center effects on electricity prices!
TL;DR: They're not doing much!
Check out my article on it here: cremieux.xyz/p/i-made-a-webs…
