Education: School cell phone bans have little to no effect on outcomes
School cell phone bans have little to no effect on academic achievement and skills, attendance, paying attention or online bullying. Some positive effect on "well-being".
Demographics: Portland OR estimated pre-school enrollment collapses
Multnomah County's universal pre-school program had been forecasting over 11,000 kids - but has now cut that to 8,000.
Education, Demographics: LA Schools may have to lay off 6,000 staff
The district has half the enrollment of 20 years ago - and recently handed out +!4 to +24% pay hikes and is basically bankrupt.
Economy: Everything is awful, except when it is not!
Not really, but when all you've got is doomer media and social media it can seem that way.
Economy: Employment to Population Ratio
The economy through 2025 was near all time highs in terms of percent of the working age population having jobs:
Environment: Cumulative burned acreage up to July 27, 2026
Surprised to find acreage burned, so far, is well below average.
Demographics: The continued collapse of families with kids
Big cities are losing youth population even faster than elsewhere.
Government: Which countries surcharge non-residents for park access?
The USS $100/visitor non-resident entrance fee to 11 national parks is among the highest such fees in the world.
Climate: “Carbon offset” carbon capture scams
Last week, 500,000 "carbon credits" in a local forest burned up, releasing their sequestered carbon into the atmosphere.
Personal finance: What an 8% annual return looks like in real life
This was seen on X - and this is true when investing in the stock market!
Nutrition: Why we stopped drinking milk
Fascinating look at the corruption of dietary food recommendations, this time, regarding milk and dairy.
Economy: US median home prices, 1963 to 2023
Reminder – you cannot compare home prices across the decades without taking in to consideration the differences in home sizes. The typical home today is twice the size of one…
Economy: US home foreclosures
Recent reports of an increase in U.S. home foreclosures are misleading as we come off near all time lows in foreclosures:
Economy: How many 100k income earners can buy a home in each market?
This might be misleading'ish.