American Enthusiasm, Romanian Mercenaries, and European Bankruptcy
1st of February 2025.
Hello,
Here's the best of what I have published on Medium (free to access from this email):
Here's the cool stuff I have learned:
The poorest US states are as rich as Germany.
African countries are lacking in economic growth. Among the reasons is that 80% of employment in Africa is informal.
Romanian mercenaries are waging a war for the DR of Congo, destabilized by its Rwandan neighbor.
Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon that leads people to see colors when they hear sounds or taste flavors when they see words, for example.
The Curse of Timur is the rumor that whoever opens his tomb will face calamity. When Soviet archeologists opened it in 1941, Hitler invaded the USSR a week later.
A good article on how Daniel Lubetzky founded KIND, a healthy snack company, which he sold for $5 billion.
I stopped drinking alcohol in February 2020. I wasn’t alone. Five years later, a bunch of companies making non-alcoholic drinks have sprouted.
Two entrepreneurs grew their ski pole side hustles to $220k in 3 months.
We ran out of human knowledge to train the AIs.
We’re getting close to being able to simulate a human cell.
Roman air pollution may have impacted the average intelligence of the inhabitants over time. This is my theory for the economic downfall of Wallonia, once the second economy in the world.
Increasing the number of schooling hours from 4.5 hours to 8 hours had no effect on student grades in Mexico City, but it did…lead to an increase in divorce by 12%.
Since European airlines are no longer able to fly over Russia, Chinese airlines are now rushing into those airways.
Six weeks of personalized AI tutoring gave students the same gains as 2 years of learning.
Gas is so expensive and solar panels so cheap that Egypt is now rushing to install them.
This article highlights the impact that the UK’s departure has had on the EU which became less pragmatic, less efficient, and less business-friendly as a result.
Being nice and working well can help you get hired by big companies despite poor academic grades.
Rare genetic mutation has given rise to a new human blood group, identified after 50 years.
A good article on genetic error accumulation across a lifetime.
Saudi Arabia is considering building a skyscraper 2 kilometers high.
An interesting essay about the concept of consent from women’s perspective.
Vibes are growing in importance in how we make decisions in everyday life.
Data from OKCupid outlines that the average man is extremely unattractive to the average woman.
Read this if you want to create your own apps as a non-technical person using AI.
Young people are no longer interested in a career, which means they no longer want to evolve in companies.
In fact, GenZ is more fed up with work than ever, mainly because they’re aware of its transactional nature and that they can be made redundant at any moment. This is likely going to lead to the revival of the small local business (butchery, bakery, etc). GenZ, unlike previous generations, seeks meaning over anything else.
With low sales, high borrowing costs, and no state support, many small Russian businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Google’s marketing AI model is now open to everyone.
The Starbucks latte index is a measurement that compares the cost of a Starbucks latte in local currency as a percentage of the average income.
Average personality of fans of movie genres. Sports fans seem to be the nicest people. Sources.
Distribution of feelings about Trump across different countries. Source.
Sexlessness is soaring among the category of the population in prime child-bearing age.
Young people are spending much more time alone than in the past.
Frequency of cat and dog ownership in different countries.
Life expectancy at birth in China. Good policies matter.
I’ll stop here.
Take care.
Aure :)