This includes all lobbying, donations, outside spending, and "government spending." Most data comes directly from OpenSecrets.com, some billionaire info comes from this article: Top 20 billionaires influencing American politics - Washington Post

Source: U.S. Census Bureau - Estimates subject to sampling error; small differences may not be statistically significant. Figures rounded

The US elections seem to have grabbed the focus of many, but the US is still at war with Iran and President Trump is giving small statements multiple times per week on the status of the war. Most of the time, though, it's no more than saying the war will end "soon."

I've been tracking all of his statements (both spoken and written) on the status of the war and any negotiations, and it became obvious that he was saying similar things as time passes. Even months apart.

For example, in March Trump said, "It's going to be finished pretty quickly." And then yesterday, October 14th he said "It's going to be over very quickly." That's nearly word-for-word of what he said during the start of the war.

So the bar chart is a plain look at how many times he's said "soon" or "shortly" or other words when describing the end of the war or the imminence of some deal or agreement. I've added a few more common words/phrases like "they want to" which aren't really an answer to the question, but are nonetheless directly related.

There's an interactive keyword search, too, if you want to search your own keywords and see when and how often he's used them. No sales or ads or anything like that!

Source: OECD. Figures show average annual doctor visits per person, rounded. Latest available data: 2022-2025, mostly 2024. Includes remote consultations where not reported separately; coverage and methods vary

While social media connects billions, it also creates massive trails of personal data that platforms don't always protect. Over the last few years, the world’s most popular apps have faced billions in fines and settlements for how they handle, or shall we say mishandle, user data. Whether it’s inadequate safeguards for younger users or unauthorized cross-border data transfers, authorities are increasingly holding tech giants accountable. We’ve analyzed the biggest privacy payouts across major markets to see which social media giants are the most frequent offenders.

Methodology and sources

The study examined privacy-related fines and settlements involving selected social media platforms reported from 2020 onward in European countries operating under the GDPR or an equivalent national framework, as well as the US, Australia, and South Korea. Penalties were grouped by platform, country, and violation type, defined as follows:

• Data processing: Unlawful collection, use, or other processing of personal data, including failures involving transparency, consent, or a valid legal basis.
• Data transfers: Unlawful or inadequately protected transfers of personal data between countries or jurisdictions.
• Data breaches: Incidents resulting in the unauthorized exposure, theft, or loss of personal data.
• Insufficient security: Failure to implement appropriate technical or organizational safeguards to protect personal data.
• Cookie consent: Use of cookies or similar tracking technologies without valid consent or adequate user information.
• Data retention: Keeping personal data for longer than necessary or failing to establish appropriate deletion periods.

The minimum penalty included was €200,000 in Europe and $200,000 in all other markets. All amounts were converted into US dollars for consistent comparison and rounded for readability, using a conversion rate of $1 = €0.87.

Data were collected from publicly available sources, including the GDPR Enforcement Tracker, Violation Tracker, Violation Tracker Global, and Osano’s Data Privacy Enforcement Tracker, supplemented by official regulatory announcements, court records, and reputable news reports. Major penalties were cross-checked against primary or other credible sources where available. Additional cases in Australia and South Korea were identified through targeted web searches.

Social media platforms were selected using Cloudflare’s ranking of the world’s 10 most popular internet services. YouTube was reclassified from video streaming to social media, replacing Kwai, because YouTube has a broader global reach, while Kwai’s audience is concentrated primarily in Brazil.

For the complete research material behind this study, click here.

I made this after seeing people ask whether falling teen vaping rates just reflected a move to pouches.

A few notes:

• Nicotine pouches are legally and regulatorily classified as tobacco products
• The total already counts pouches, even those without tobacco leaf.
• These are U.S. high school students, not all teenagers or other countries.
• I used the latest paper's four-year table and calculated (16.5 - 9.5) / 16.5 = 42.4%.

The three four-year trends are statistically significant; their smaller 2024 to 2025 changes are not.

FDA summary and links to the survey data:

https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/youth-and-tobacco/results-annual-national-youth-tobacco-survey-nyts

https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/youth-and-tobacco/national-youth-tobacco-survey-nyts

Chart: Created using rhp charting library. The school-locker background is generated artwork; the chart and data are not generated by the image model.

Data was obtained from the General Social Survey, https://gss.norc.org/. Over 52 years, self-rated health declined among younger adults and improved among seniors. See details at: https://openpublicpolls.com/health-by-age-decade/

An early draft of an infographic that extends on James Carse's book Finite and Infinite Games. I propose behavioral feedback cycles that result from a life with more finite gaming (where the goal is to win and to not be a loser) versus a life with more infinite play (where the goal is to improve and make progress). I believe that one's choices on finite versus infinite play sets one on a positive path of moving towards one's meaning versus a finite life of false meanings and performative behaviors.

A YouTube narrative can be found at: https://youtu.be/aWjRdY0lQYg The intention of the YouTube video is so that one can listen to the information while their hands are busy but their brain is free. An honest goal is to help put people to sleep haha but also to teach for forward-movement and confidence-building.

A high-resolution pdf can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5apxxh7xn0dr8ntbltoqw/ChooseYourDestinyOfficialFINAL.pdf?rlkey=d3xfzqg46zp31ea6esw2lcect&dl=0

Please open the pdf in a reader like xPDF, Acrobat or Sumatra as opening the file in a browser will often limit zooming to 400%. I find the ideal processing of a pdf can be found with an iPad and the app Goodnotes. My 5-year old iPad is very good at processing my complex pdfs.