Welcome to 2025. Lots of interesting end of year recaps this week - with some bonus items from last weeks' break. Enjoy.

• Think Slow - No Mercy No Malice (Prof G)

• Vampire hedgehogs, pirate spiders and fishy fungi - the strangest new species of 2024 (BBC)

• 30 years ago Tomorrow's World predicted 2025 - how did it do? (BBC)

• Desperate for content??? The Best TV And Streaming Shows Of 2024, According To Everyone (Digg) or The Best Movies Of 2024, According To Everyone (Digg)

• The 10 Most Popular Articles of 2024 (Harvard Business Review)

• Seven Trends to Watch in 2025 (Working Knowledge)

• Podcast: A New Year's Message from Sam - Making Sense with Sam Harris (Apple Podcasts)

• How We Got the Lithium-ion Battery (Construction Physics)

• Crypto is for Criming: It’s not digital gold — it’s digital Benjamins. (Krugman Wonks Out)

• How we’ll know if Trump is going to sell America out to China: Keep an eye on the export controls. They are the key. (Noahpinion)

• 11 Best Things of 2024: My favourite book, film, podcast, quote, meme, purchase and more for the year (SatPost by Trung Phan)

• Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used among U.S. teens; some say they’re on these sites almost constantly. (Pew Research)

• 9 Ways to Embrace Winter - Even if You Think You Hate It. (Time)

• Americans have $27 billion in unused gift cards: At least two in five Americans have an unused gift card lying around (Quartz)

• Guide for the perplexed - Google is no longer the best search engine. Perplexity offers several advantages over Google as a search engine, making it a compelling alternative for many. (The Register)

• The Constitution of Kakistocracy: By nominating unqualified loyalists, Trump undermines the Constitution’s vision of merit-based governance. (Lawfare)

• A wonderful life. Victor Brombert who died last month at 101 and was described by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the glories of humanistic scholarship.” Brombert was one of The Ritchie Boys, yet another heroic group we barely know.

• The ones who need little sleep: Short sleepers cruise by on four to six hours a night and don’t seem to suffer ill effects. Turns out they’re genetically built to require less sleep than the rest of us. (Knowable)

What are you reading or listening to?