Atheism still has a stigma associated with it here. Not sure now, but there were surveys less than 10 years ago saying that Americans were less likely to vote for an atheist than for a convicted felon (and this was before Trump!). Other polls often use the term “Nones” to refer to people who don’t affiliate with a major religion, but that tends to include atheists, agnostics, areligious people, and some others thrown in there.

There’s a good explainer here: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/

That poll has 17% of Nones as atheist, which would be about 5% of the population, just above the 3% in the chart from OP. Although I bet part of the “agnostics” are agnostic atheists, but don’t use the term. That being said, Pew also has this page: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/age-race-education-and-other-demographic-traits-of-us-religious-groups/#age

That shows that people under 50 are way different. 73% atheist of 69% None is about 50%, which means that a full half of Americans under 50 identify as atheist. So, a BIG generational gap.

My Very Educated Mother’s Cousin Just Served Us Nine Outstanding Pizzas - (Somehow,) Her Quiche Might Get Officially Surpassed

Now, you only have to remember that Makemake and Orcus are in the Kuiper belt (past Neptune’s orbit), and that maybe that Salacia is optional, and you can puzzle out the two repeated letters.

I spent too long on this.

I had an old school friend I visited in Chicago, and her apartment had a locked door in her bedroom against the back wall, and her landlord had just said “it’s not used, just ignore it.” It didn’t even have a doorknob, so she had just ignored it for like 3 years. The building had been there for like 100 years.

Naturally, after some alcohol, I convinced her I could lockpick it, and we pushed her bed to the side and I spent about ten drunken minutes picking the deadbolt. We finally got it open, and discovered it was a straight-up small elevator! None of the lights or buttons worked, and we were worried about it falling, so we got out of there.

To this day, I’m not sure if it was an old building elevator for residents and her room had been a hallway, or if it was some kind of (very small) service elevator, or something for the ADA (handicapped requirements). But it was absolutely fascinating.

Headline could be misleading, but it basically means that (according to one independent analysis) China’s emissions have just stopped growing this year. They are still the world’s largest contributor by far. This hilariously optimistic chart from the same site shows them relative to the US and almost all of Europe:

Still, not gonna knock what is good news, or at least “better than the alternative” news

This sounds insane, but I’m absolutely fascinated by it. I just ran out of cottage cheese yesterday, but I’m going to try making these later this week!

Isn’t most of the insurance for liability? I can see a logic where older cars are less safe, and thus accidents are more likely and would cost more, hence the higher costs. But I’m just guessing.

Newton’s blessings on everyone!

Obviously AI slop! No one is able to spell flourine correctly twice!

I love this! And if you find yourself afraid to even entertain an idea, perhaps you’re afraid that you’ll find it convincing and accept it. We should WANT to be convinced, because that means the different idea holds more merit than our current belief!