Before the pandemic, I was occasionally posting lists of things I learned over the previous month on my old blog. I thought I would re-start that practice here, since it always gave me a lot of pleasure compiling the list.
An expert interviewed by NPR gave a 15-20% probability to the likelihood of Putin using a tactical nuclear weapon in the invasion of Ukraine
Source: Up First Podcast
Electronic monitoring as an alternative to prison significantly decreased recidivism in Sydney, Australia
Source: Williams and Weatherburn (2022), Probable Causation podcast, my reading notes
Being around men freaks out lab mice, who then behave differently in tests
Source: Invisible women newsletter
The African Black Rain Frog looks like a sad avocado
Source: Someone on Twitter, who posted this image as part of a meme:
One-third of unemployment spells begin as temporary layoffs in the U.S. and the role of increases in temporary layoffs in recession-related unemployment has changed over time.
Source: NBER Digest of Gertler, Huckfeldt, and Trigari (2022)
High schoolers who attended a STEM summer program were more likely to graduate from college and major in STEM fields, even those that just attended a 1-week program.
Source: NBER Digest of Cohodes, Ho, and Robles (2022)
As of 2012 commercial ships must use less-polluting fuel or abatement equipment within 200 miles of the U.S. coast, which reduced fine particulate matter in nearby counties by 4 percent. Those counties experienced improvements in infant health
Source: NBER Digest of Hansen-Lewis and Marcus (2022)
Black widows aren’t actually very deadly. Once indoor plumbing was common and men were no longer being bitten during their visits to outhouses, there have been very few, if any, deaths from black widow bites. But bites still hurt a lot.
Source: This American Life
Harper's Ferry was an important supply location for the Lewis and Clark expedition
Source: Harper's Ferry National Park Visitor Center
U.S. schools are being targeted with false active shooter reports
Source: Up First Podcast
There was a pandemic of Psittacosis (avian chlamydia) in the U.S. in 1929, traced to parrots imported for Christmas
Scorpions live all over the United States (and world), not just in the desert. Most are not dangerous to humans
Source: Short Wave Podcast
In 1944 a scientist at the University of Minnesota ran this insane experiment where he starved a bunch of young men to see what happened when a human body was deprived of food
Source: Revisionist History Podcast
The Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont gives up to 3 free pints of ice cream a day to employees and a quasi-barter economy with ice cream used as a medium of exchange has developed in the town.
Source: Planet Money Podcast
Delware has more corporations than people
Source: Planet Money Podcast
The U.S. doesn’t have the highest incarceration rate anymore. Not that we’re in good company, but El Salvador, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and Cuba now all have higher prison to population ratios.
Source: John Pfaff on Twitter
38% of people going through perimenopause experience depressive symptoms, and it’s probably higher for people who have previously had depression
Source: Short Wave Podcast
There are annual spikes in gun purchases (or at least background checks for gun purchases) around Christmas and in the spring when people get tax refunds
Source: Jillian Carr seminar (no link to share on this TIL, but here’s her website)
On April Fools day in the 1950s, the BBC ran a short special on spaghetti grown on and harvested from trees.
Source: Criminal Podcast (mostly covering another hoax BBC broadcast on ghosts)
Iran is providing Russia drones and other weapons.
Source: Up First Podcast
The maternity leave questions were discontinued from the SIPP in the 2014 and 2018 panels (I knew they added fathers in 2019, but didn’t realize the questions weren’t asked of mothers between 2008 and 2019)
Source: Searching through the SIPP codebooks, and confirmed in this working paper
A contraceptive gel for men is in clinical trials.
Source: This seems to be contraceptive week. This was covered in both the Visible Women Podcast and Shortwave Podcast
Caterpillars turn into goo in their chrysalis/cocoon as they turn into butterflies
Source: RadioLab
The Iranian protests have continued for 40(+) days, even as the Iranian government have been trying to quell the protests with live ammunition.