It’s not profit science.
Russia is said to be planning a massive military offensive against Ukraine involving 175,000 troops, seemingly in a bid to keep Ukraine out of NATO. / The Washington Post
The US government plans to diplomatically boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. / Quartz
More people died of malaria in 2020 than in 2019. "We became a little too complacent." / Goats and Soda
One theory why the threat to Roe v. Wade may not save Democrats in 2022: We now live in a post-outrage world. / Politico
Elizabeth Spiers: As an adoptee, I'm floored by the idea that adoption is a desirable option for unexpectedly pregnant women. / The New York Times
A visual history of the abortion battle in the United States. / The 19th
One of the best things we've read in a while: "The Abortion I Didn't Have" by novelist Merritt Tierce. / The New York Times Magazine
See also: Tierce's lovely Tournament of Books assessment from 2018. / The Morning News
Why study the history of ideas? You might be able to put old ideas to use, and you may better understand people in the present. / Good Optics
The average sale price of 75 percent of NFTs is $15. Only one percent of NFTs reach prices higher than $1,500. / ARTNews
Researchers find that a 10 percent rise in average wages at Amazon is associated with an increase of 2.3 percent at non-Amazon firms. / National Bureau of Economic Research
The largest oil and gas companies made $174 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year (as gas prices climbed). / The Guardian
Seventeen million vinyl albums were sold In the first half of 2021 alone—an 86 percent jump from 2020. / The Hustle
Demand is up 11 percent over the past two years for human-made stones in engagement rings. / CNN
The largest annual drug survey finds Australians getting much drunker than everybody else, with fewer expressed regrets. / VICE
Actor Michael Sheen sells his houses, gives the proceeds to charity, and declares himself a not-for-profit. / The Guardian
And now a brief chat with a new Sustaining Member, Kate B.!
Kate, I believe you're a Tournament of Books fan. How do you describe the ToB to people? I describe it as a palate cleanser from my everyday reading. For 3/4 of the year I read a mix of everything—non-fiction, literary fiction, and pretty much all of the genres. Just as an example, a book from a series about a crime-fighting dog and his human, told from the point of view of the dog, was on my list of library holds when this year's long list came out. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it had to go to make room for the many great books on the long list, and I will be reading very little but the long and short lists until March rolls around.
Wow. That's a lot of reading. And then there's March itself! My husband works at a university and gets a free vacation day combined with a slow week during Spring Break every year, and we take the time to go somewhere tropical, often with a group of friends. So I spend a week in March on some island, frantically trying to catch up on my ToB reading and sync it up with a week's worth of judgments, and failing to get everyone else to look up from their true crime and space operas.
Lol. Well, we really appreciate it! I am ashamed that it took me this long to become a Sustaining Member. I'm so far into middle age that I'm getting kind of old, so I remember what it was like before the internet (you had to pay for things! And sometimes you had to lug books around in hardcover!) and what it was like in those heady days of the early World Wide Web. (All of this is free? Sweet!) But at this point we all know that we need to put our money into the things that mean something to us, and I finally did. Plus there's half off on a really good looking sweatshirt. Just saying.
Our hearts go out to Kate 💕 and all of our supporters. If you have a moment, check out why we ask for your support via a TMN Membership or a Paypal elbow-bump. Thank you!
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Since 1999, your Headlines are sourced and written by Andrew Womack and Rosecrans Baldwin, and arrive in your inbox, Monday through Saturday. View this edition and the latest Headlines at TMN.