Tax the billionaires (even a little)
A study finds the effective tax rate for the United States’ 400 wealthiest individuals is 24%, compared with 45% for top labor income earners. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
Scotland passes the world’s first national “community wealth building” legislation requiring public finance to support local and sustainable development. / TFN
Should buses in New York City be free? The research says yes, “or very close to it.” / Homo Economicus
Regarding the billions of taxpayer dollars that billionaire President Trump wants the government—that he leads—to pay him personally: he says don’t worry, it’ll go to charity. / NPR
Unrelated: Some new ideas for naming groups of things, like a cringe of cybertrucks. / Robert Stephens
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is sentenced to life in prison for leading an insurrection. / CNN
Where is tourism rising fastest? According to the United Nations: Brazil, Bhutan, and Egypt. / BBC News
Why are electric vehicle makers so reliant on China? It accounts for roughly 60% of global rare earth mining and 91% of processing capacity. / rest of world
AI agents are hiring humans to do real-world tasks on a new platform. / WIRED
See also: Arizona’s legislature is considering making all phone apps age-gated, using commercial databases to track user age and parental relationships. / Reclaim the Net
An endocrinologist prescribing GLP-1 therapies says he’s seeing an uptick in eating disorders and disordered eating. / STAT
“Losing weight on GLP-1 drugs is different in almost every respect from doing it the old-fashioned way.” Joshua Hunt accounts for his shrinking waistline. / GQ
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Alice Robb says the “girlboss” era of 2013-20 should be honored in light of “burnout feminism.” / Bloomberg [$]
At Milan Cortina, every major sport category but ice hockey features mixed-gender events. “It’s really fun because we are accountable to each other.” / The Atlantic [$]
Fashion photographs from the 1980s by Bill Cunningham for Details Magazine. / Flashbak
A new fake leather is made from beer-brewing byproducts rather than plastics. Also: 10 things better purchased second-hand. / dezeen, Valet Mag
To appreciate the amount of thought that goes into road signs, “one needs only to look at some of those that failed to make the grade.” / Engelsberg Ideas
And now a brief chat with new supporting member Guptan K.!
Hi, Guptan! When did you start reading TMN? I first stumbled onto TMN around mid-July 2025 through Kottke.org, via a link in their Rolodex. At the beginning, I read TMN casually, dropping in now and then for a few months. After about three or four months, it became part of my daily routine.
We love to hear it! (And we love Kottke, it’s how we found today’s collective nouns link.) What keeps you coming back? What keeps me coming back is the sheer range of topics TMN manages to cover in a single day. There’s always something unexpected, smart, offbeat, or quietly fascinating. I have noticed a fairly heavy tilt toward AI lately. The pieces are interesting, no question, but the volume is hard to miss. I’ve shared quite a few links I first found through TMN, and more than once I’ve just pointed curious friends straight to the source aka TMN. So if there’s been even a modest bump in traffic, I’ll happily take partial credit.
Thank you for sharing! Final question, is there any particular reason you decided to support today? If I’m being completely honest? A little guilt. I’ve shared so many of your articles with family and friends that it finally felt only fair to chip in. They’ve enjoyed a lot of what I’ve sent along, enough that I’ve stopped playing middleman and just told them to head straight to TMN. At this point, the secret’s out, so supporting felt like the right thing to do.
In the members area, unlocked links from the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the Atlantic ↓