I enjoyed Clay Hickson's thumbprint illustrations (which remind me of Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book) as much as the 74 facts that The New York Times collected from its stories during 2020.
Here are a few:
- Japan's legal system has a 99 percent conviction rate.
Carlos Ghosn, at Home but Waiting for the Next Move - In Thailand, the military has staged 18 coups since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932.
Thai Soldier in Mass Shooting Had Business Clash With His Commander - Samsung was founded in 1938 as a shop selling vegetables and dried fish.
Samsung: The Tech Monster That Conquered the World - Before the Industrial Revolution, the principal sources of noise were thunder, church bells and cannon fire.
Loud, Louder, Loudest: How Classical Music Started to Roar - In March, as the coronavirus pandemic intensified, Americans bought two million guns, the busiest month for sales since January 2013.
Father of School Shooting Victim Takes On Smith & Wesson - Black women, on average, earn 64 cents for every dollar a white man earns, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute.
The Stark Racial Inequity of Personal Finances in America - "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley's 1932 science fiction novel, is set in a future with chemical birth control, mood stabilizers, genetic engineering, videoconferencing and television.
'Brave New World' Arrives in the Future It Predicted - Before taking what would become a famous photograph of Florence Owens Thompson known as "Migrant Mother" in 1936, Dorothea Lange drove 20 miles past the camp where Ms. Thompson was staying before deciding to turn around.
America at Hunger's Edge - The world's population is expected to start shrinking in about 45 years.
Matthew Yglesias Thinks There Should Be 'One Billion Americans' - John le Carré did not compete for, nor accept, book prizes. In 2011, when he was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, he asked that his name be withdrawn.
John le Carré, a Master of Spy Novels Where the Real Action Was Internal
