Every year | 250 grams of plastic

That’s a heaped dinner plate’s worth of shredded plastic, as pictured below.

“A plateful of plastic | Visualising the amount of microplastic we eat” – Reuters

Tonight at midnight | “Pennsylvania is the state where the most objects are dropped (or raised) on New Year’s Eve. Here are just some of the strange items used to celebrate the arrival of January 1.“ – The Morning Call

Slower growth | “2019 U.S. Population Estimates Continue to Show the Nation’s Growth Is Slowing” – US Census Bureau

All right, Philly! | “Enthusiasm, hope and ‘old guard’ warnings follow naming of Philly’s first black female police head” – The Inquirer

Contrarians count | OPINION: “Paul Muschick: Taxpayers will miss the last Republican on Allentown school board” – The Morning Call

“The Truth About Dentistry | It’s much less scientific—and more prone to gratuitous procedures—than you may think.” – The Atlantic (The internet’s most engaging story of 2019 – a longer read.)

Con job | OPINION: “The biggest business con of 2019: fleecing workers while bosses get rich” – Robert Reich column, The Guardian

Revenge killings never work | “Iraqi protesters attempt to storm US embassy in Baghdad” – Al Jazeera