Dragonman, Memory, Animals, China, Shopping
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Dragonman
Michael Paterniti | GQ | 7th March 2018
Mel Bernstein calls himself “the most armed man in America”. The owner of 200 machine guns, he is one of the country’s largest independent gun dealers. Massacres are good for his business: “No gun sells quicker than the weapon used in the most recent mass shooting”. His store near Colorado Springs specialises in “people-hunting guns”, including AK-47s and AK-15s. “As long as you pass the background check, pay for the gun, and take two steps out of that door, I’m not responsible” (7,100 words)
Where Your Childhood Memories Went
Ferris Jabr | Nautilus | 8th March 2018
At six months of age, infants’ memories last for at least a day; at nine months, for a month; by age two, they last for a year. So where do those memories go when we grow older? Freud thought that they were repressed. Recent research suggests that connections to the earliest memories are lost as the brain grows and becomes more complex in childhood. “We think it’s an accessibility issue, but it’s a semantic issue too. If a memory becomes impossible to access, then it is effectively erased” (2,140 words)
We Should Genetically Disenhance Animals In Factory Farms
Jonathan Latimer | Practical Ethics | 6th March 2018
Philosophical essay. If factory-farming is to continue — which it is almost sure to do, whatever the objections from animal-lovers and ethical shoppers — then should we genetically engineer animals, for the purposes of factory-farming, to feel no pain, or, better still, to have no awareness at all? On balance, yes. The counter-arguments are that disabling animals is bad, so we should not do it; and that factory farming is bad, so we should not do anything that helps to make it more acceptable (1,970 words)
Xi Jinping Amends China’s Constitution
Jerome Cohen | 8th March 2018
President Xi Jinping’s constitutional coup has divided China, and is sure to increase Western worries about China’s ambitions and intentions. Within China, the broad masses back Xi, whereas the elites fear an increasingly dictatorial president-for-life. “The impact on the educated classes may approach that of the Party’s June 4th 1989 military slaughter of students, workers and intellectuals near Tiananmen Square. There has already been a spike in Chinese interest in emigration.” (1,485 words)
Pick Up Some Milk From The GOP Store
Tyler Cowen | Bloomberg | 8th March 2018
How would the American economy adapt if households made their buying decisions on a consistently partisan basis? “Imagine a right-wing supermarket chain and a left-wing alternative. The right-wing chain could offer discounts for NRA members and send money to the Republican Party. The left-wing version might have a commercial relationship with Planned Parenthood, sell more vegan products and take special care to promote women up through the ranks” (800 words)
Video of the day Reduced Museum
What to expect:
Computer-generated imagery. Morphing shapes and textures. Stones, marbles, beads, brushes, jellyfish (2’24”)
Thought for the day
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, beautiful old people are works of art
Eleanor Roosevelt
Podcast of the day Felix Salmon | Writers We Admire
Robert Cottrell talks to Felix Salmon about finance, philanthropy, newspapers, editors, podcasts and video
(17m 50s)