World religions, by population

 The Pew research center has been keeping an eye on religious affiliations around the world. More than half of us are Christians or Muslims.  Only about two tenths of one percent of us are Jews. Their headline takeaway is the growing number of unaffiliated:

Nearly a quarter of the world’s population is religiously unaffiliated 

 

 

How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020
Muslims grew fastest; Christians lagged behind global population increase  By Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia Fahm 

Open Letter from NAS Members to U.S. Senators and Representatives urging support for science

In a victory of optimism over experience, I continue to sign a small fraction of the open letters that come my way.  Also, it's good to exercise Americans' right to petition the government for the redress of grievances.

Below is a link to a letter organized by Professor Walter Leal with well over 1,000 signatures from members of the National Academy of Sciences. (Organizing NAS members to petition the government isn't so easy, since it has to be done without the help of the NAS, which as a government-related organization is being quite cautious in these times.)

Letter to Congress Requesting Protection of Science Funding in the FY26 Budget

Or, if you prefer to hear the letter read out loud, that takes about three minutes on this YouTube video (which also shows the text, but not the signers).

 

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Here's another take on more or less the same subject, from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

 The Wrecking of American Research Federal policy made universities in the United States the envy of the world. One presidency could end that.
Broken Promise  By Karin Fischer

" as the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the country’s research edifice is in danger of collapse, battered by a wrecking ball known as the Trump administration."

Incinerating food aid

 Here's a story from The Atlantic about a decision that captures the Trump administration's policies towards food aid, carbon emissions, and the Biden administration:

The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food
Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste. By Hana Kiros 

"Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it. Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow, according to current and former government employees with direct knowledge of the rations. Within weeks, two of those sources told me, the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash.

...

"Sometime near the end of the Biden administration, USAID spent about $800,000 on the high-energy biscuits,"

Cellular agriculture points the way to removing killing from the food chain

Here's a story from the Washington Post about growing fish-flesh and meat from cells in a lab. The story emphasizes sustainability, but this may be a process that could one day return fish and poultry to the diets of ethical vegetarians. (Of course this is one of those things that could be coming tomorrow and always will be...)

No bones, no scales, no problem: The first lab-grown salmon sold in the U.S.  Wildtype’s cell-cultivated salmon is the first seafood to earn FDA approval, marking a significant milestone for the alternative protein industry.  By Allyson Chiu

"The Coho salmon, pinkish orange and streaked with lines of white fat, wasn’t wild-caught in Alaska or farmed in Chile. It comes from cells grown in tanks at a former microbrewery in San Francisco, and in late May it became the first cell-cultured seafood to receive safety approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

...

"At least two lab-grown chicken products have previously gotten the FDA’s green light. But the okay for the salmon, made by California-based Wildtype, marks a significant milestone for the alternative protein industry, which has been working to produce substitutes for traditional meat and fish that can help meet the world’s growing demand for food while minimizing environmental and climate impacts. "

International trade in prison cells: Sweden and Estonia

 The Guardian has the story:

Sweden set to rent cells in Estonian jails as it runs out of room for its prisoners by Miranda Bryant

"Sweden is moving away from criminal rehabilitation in favour of US-style mass incarceration, experts have said, as the country prepares to rent places in Estonian jails to help house its rapidly expanding prison population.

...

"Under an agreement signed by Stockholm and Tallinn in June, up to 600 prison places in the Baltic country are expected to be made available.

"According to a recent Kriminalvården report, Sweden’s prison population could – in the most extreme scenario – grow from 7,800 this year to 41,000 in 2034 as a result of more punitive policies driven by the far right.

...

"The number of children facing lengthy periods in prison is particularly striking: in recent years, a change in approach has led to children as young as 15 being jailed for 10 years or more.

"The government, which depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, is now considering a proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 14 for severe offences.

"The main opposition party, the centre-left Social Democrats, have said they would support such a move. The Sweden Democrats have called for the age to be lowered to 13."

The repugnance of slavery (1847)--an open letter

  The civil war was preceded by a schism among Northern and Southern Baptists over the institution of slavery.  The recent rediscovery of an original document puts that story in the news.

The NYT has the story:

Discovery of 178-Year-Old Baptist Antislavery Document Elates Faith Leaders.  The handwritten resolution, signed by 116 Baptist ministers from Massachusetts who called slavery “repugnant,” was thought to have been lost.  By Aishvarya Kavi

"The scroll was handwritten in 1847, just two years after Baptists in the United States split, with the Southern congregations breaking off over their Northern counterparts’ condemnation of slavery.

"Using forceful language, 116 Baptist ministers in Massachusetts had signed their name to what they called “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,” condemning the system as “entirely repugnant.”

...

"At the time, the increasingly forceful stance by the Baptist ministers in Massachusetts against slavery reflected the widening divide between the North and South

...
"That national breach would become so wide that, 14 years after the document’s signing, it would lead to the Civil War."

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This offers a ray of hope to those of us who today sometimes sign open letters.

Banks fire back at buyout firms in war for (young) talent

 Investment banks build defenses against private equity firms hiring their analysts covertly, years in advance.

Here's the story from the WSJ:

Inside the Wall Street Recruitment Wars Pitting Banks Against Buyout Firms
Recent graduates who haven’t started their gigs at big banks are being recruited for jobs that don’t start for another couple of years  By AnnaMaria Andriotis, Ben Glickman  and Alexander Saeedy  

"Speed-dating-style interviews that can drag on until 3 a.m. Job offers that require a response within a day. A fear that your current boss might find out what you’re doing. All for positions that don’t even start for two to three years.

...

The tactics reached a fever pitch in recent years, kicking off earlier and earlier, prompting a crackdown this summer at big banks fed up with the poaching of their young employees.

Morgan Stanley implemented a formal policy in May that requires analysts to promptly disclose if they have secured future employment elsewhere, according to a person familiar with the matter. Analysts who are found to be in violation of the rule are at risk of disciplinary action, including being fired.

Goldman Sachs also recently decided to ask analysts every three months if they have accepted a future job at another firm. In a memo to this year’s incoming hires, JPMorgan Chase said analysts would be fired if they accepted future-dated job offers in their first 18 months."

HT: Bo Cowgill, Eric Budish