I browsed through Vox.com’s archive after not having visited the site for a while, and they do have some good material (in addition to a fair amount that I do not find that attractive). Here is some of the recent stuff I liked best:
- This is why alcohol doesn’t come with nutrition facts. Alcohol is under a separate regulatory body that is presumably more susceptible to industry pressure. Related: How parents dole out sugary drink to their kids. Depressing.
- How cyclists, not drivers, first fought to pave US roads. In the 1890s and early 1900s, before the car’s time, it was early cyclists who had the most need for paved roads in stead of dirt roads. And these were not fitness types, but rather early technology adopters, who later were the first to switch to cars.
- The great invention gap between rich and poor kids — and why it matters. Based on research by Bell, Chetty, Jaravel, Petkova, and van Reenen that is so interesting that it should get its own blog post. Key sentence: “Patent rates grow exponentially with childhood income.”
- Google Feud turns Google autocomplete into a soul-crushing game. Silly and funny.
- Everything you need to know about marijuana legislation (focussed on the US)
- The Census predicts the share of immigrants will surge over the next 50 years. Because of birth rate dynamics; in the US.
- 22 maps and charts that will surprise you
, a book about the telecommunication industry in the US from the telephone onwards, I learnt something about censorship in Hollywood. Between 1930 and 1968, the film industry imposed a set of moral guidelines known as the 
(1978) by Tim Krabbé. Wonderful book. Dutch amateur road cyclist Tim Krabbé recounts how he raced the Tour de Mont Aigoual, known from Tour de France, interspersed with stories from his cycling career, Tour de France, and the nature of road racing. Recommended.
(2001) by Stephen King. Very nice little book from Stephen King, where he tells about his becoming and experience of a writer. Part autobiographical, with King telling about his childhood experiences of pain, childhood and adolescence writing effort and other things, part practical advice, like read and write a lot, be disciplined, have someone in mind to write for. I do not know if I learned too much about actual writing, but I liked the anecdotes and the stories anyway. Recommended.
(2001) by Ian J. Deary. Got 
(2008) by Richard Flanagan. A young woman suddenly finds herself a suspect in a terrorism case in an Australia that has instituted draconian terrorism laws. She is presumed guilty be the media, and consequently by the rest of the society. It is important to consider where we are heading regarding terrorism, etc., but the moral lessons are here way too spelled out – long passages describing how the protagonist now that she is treated unfairly comes to realize that was how she used to treat others, etc. And there is a caricature villain from the media. Not recommended.
(2014) by Susan Pinker. Though quite concerned about causal identification I am not part of the 
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