Society & Economy
30 articles
How Steam Games Fade
The biggest games on Steam, and how fast the rest fade
The Sound of a Hit
What a popular song actually sounds like, according to 28,000 of them
The Instant Ramen Rankings
The best instant ramen in one reviewer's archive comes from Malaysia, by a nose
How Fast Passwords Fall
The 500 most common passwords all crack in under a minute
Inside the Netflix Catalog
What is actually on Netflix: a catalog built in five years, made mostly of movies, and getting older
What Makes Great Coffee
What actually makes a great cup of coffee
The Candy Power Ranking
The best candy, settled by data
Bob Ross by the Numbers
Every Bob Ross painting, by the numbers
The 2021 Inflation Surge
The 2021 inflation surge was the broadest in decades, not the worst
A World Map of Drinking
A world map of drinking, and what the colors give away
The Bechdel Plateau
The Bechdel test: the pass rate climbed, then stopped
Bird Strikes on Approach
Bird strikes cluster on approach, and big birds do the damage
Premiums and Road Risk
Higher insurance premiums do not mean more dangerous roads
Two Americas of Driving Risk
Two Americas of driving risk, and the insurer charges them the same
The Aging of Congress
Congress got older, but it took a detour first
Disease in the Crimea
In the Crimea, disease killed eight soldiers for every one the enemy did
A Century of Disasters
Five years killed 44% of everyone who died in a natural disaster since 1900
Gas Prices and Driving
Gas prices and American driving look unrelated, until a price spike hits
Money and Life Expectancy
Money buys life expectancy, but the receipt is brutal
When Coders Commit
The 9-to-5 I went looking for was not in the commits
US Health Spending
The US spent $7,194 more per person than Japan and expected to live 7.7 fewer years
The Health-Spending Gap
In 1991 the US health-spending gap crossed $1,000 and never came back
Jobs That Switched Gender
The job that went from all-male to 96% female
College Majors and Pay
Your major sets the odds, not the salary
Box-Office Economics
Spend more, make more, but a third of films still lose money before the lights come up
Aging and Sex Ratios
At 90, there are three women for every man
How People Tip
Tip 18.6% on a small check, 13.3% on a big one
Unemployment by Industry
Construction hit 27% unemployment. Government never cracked 6.
The Jobs That Vanished
Construction lost more than a quarter of its jobs, and never got them back
Who Owns the Economy
Five countries own half the world economy