Felipe Contreras

Still can’t believe they did this.

The "greater male variability" hypothesis is pretty robust. At SAT 1400, female applicants to Columbia outnumber males. At 1600, males outnumber females nearly 2-to-1.

An interactive website of warfare across Chinese imperial history. 3,735 battles geolocated and split by dynastic period. Drawn from the PLA Press' comprehensive chronology of Chinese warfare (中国历代战争年表) All data on site: chinawarfare.pages.dev

Marathon finishing time distribution proves one of my biggest leadership lessons: Deadlines work! … even if they are somewhat arbitrary

America has too many bus stops. Removing excess bus stops speeds up bus services, makes them more reliable, and reduces transit costs, all of which boosts ridership. For example: San Francisco has an average of eight stops per mile, whereas European cities tend to have only four stops per mile. Moving to a European model only adds 1–3 mins of extra walking to get to a stop. Portland saw a six percent increase in bus speeds from a project which increased average stop spacing by just 90 feet. SF boosted ridership by 14% by removing some stops. Other cities have used limited stop services to boost ridership by 25–33%! New at Works in Progress, @nithin_vejendla on a rare example of a transit reform that is at once fast, cheap, and effective. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-unit…

In 1960, the world used ~1.5 hectares of farmland per person. By 2023, that fell to ~0.62, less than half. Innovation diffused the "population bomb."

At its peak in 1914, Europe controlled nearly 100 overseas colonies. Within 70 years, almost all of them were gone. The largest land empire in human history dissolved faster than it was built.

"Misinformation" and "disinformation" were spun up from nothing in 2016 to justify a massive, partisan censorship apparatus to police the Internet under the guise of fact-checking.

Over 130 years, living standards in advanced economies have increased more than tenfold. US GDP per capita went from ~$5,700 (1890) to ~$72,400 (2024) (x12.6). The Euro area: from ~$4,400 to ~$57,300 (x13.2) But this growth wasn't smooth. It came in waves

In March 2023, Claude had an estimated IQ of 64. Today, Claude Opus 4.6 scores 133 on the Mensa Norway test. GPT-5.2 Thinking hits 141. Gemini 3 Pro, 142. That's a jump from cognitively impaired to gifted in three years. No human population has ever improved that fast, the Flynn effect gives us ~3 IQ points per decade. AI just did 70 points in 36 months.

The deterrent effect of gathering DNA from people arrested for felonies is large, and illustrates something important about crime. 1/2

Schools have become “thicker” institutions. Enrollment growth has been outpaced by teachers and support staff, and far outpaced by principals and aides.

The average adult height in China and the US is now roughly equal. Many have not fully realized just how much China has grown—in this case, literally.

🚨: After 48 years of travel, NASA 's Voyager 1 is nearing one light-day from Earth, almost 16 billion miles away. A proud milestone for humanity, and a humbling reminder of how small we are in an infinite universe.

The least religious state in the United States is Maine - 55% of people claim no religious affiliation. However, there are six European countries who are more secular: Netherlands Sweden Norway Belgium United Kingdom Iceland

Over 12,000 people were arrested in the UK in 2023 for speech-related offenses, including social media posts. Bizarrely, this has only been a right-wing talking point, "liberals" largely remain quiet. Standard indicators of democracy do not flag any issues. So if 4chan wants to mock the UK Censorship Agency with hamster pics, it seems quite deserved.. ht @glukianoff

Realtime economics for Econ students. Short run price -elasticity of demand for oil. I have just run a "quick and dirty" regression with monthly data 2022- 2025. I obtain an elasticity of -0.0644 A 1% reduction in the quantity supplied to the market triggers a 16% increase in the price @Bellmanequation @dandolfa @miguelolea @kiguel @DWinkelried @Shin_Mkto

The data center buildout has allowed Loudoun County to lower property tax rates by 38% since 2010, translating to average savings of about $3,400 per year for homeowners.

Washing machines are the *only* modern invention which every single Amish group has embraced at least to some extent Washing clothes is truly the worst chore without modern technology, bar none

@simongerman600 Meanwhile over the same period, that Europe’s economic centre of gravity has hardly budged, the world’s economic centre of gravity has moved firmly away from Europe.