Rohingya, Menopause, Minor Nazi Crimes, Stoya, Change Trays, Capital Punishment

Rohingya: Asia’s Persecuted Boat People

Michael Peel | Financial Times | 3rd June 2015 | | Read with 1Pass

Thousands of Rohingya people are fleeing Myanmar by sea, but no country will take them. Hundreds are drowning, others are enslaved or killed by traffickers. Those who remain are forced into closed camps in Myanmar, where nobody — not even Aung San Suu Kyi — will speak up for them. The Muslim Rohingya have neither citizenship nor voting rights in Myanmar, and may soon be denied the freedom to have children (2,100 words)

Pause

Mary Ruefle | Granta | 1st June 2015

Going through menopause. "Hot flashes are the least of it. I am not here to talk about hot flashes. You begin to lie. You have the urge to shoplift and if you drive an automobile you have the urge to ram your car into the car in front. Nothing can prepare you for this. The one thing no one will tell you is that these feelings and this behavior will last ten years. That is, a decade of your life. Ask your doctor if this is true and she will deny it" (1,300 words)

Ethics Of A Nazi Judge

Herlinde Pauer-Studer & J David Velleman | Aeon | 2nd June 2015

To massacre millions of Jews was perfectly legal in the Third Reich; but it was illegal to steal their belongings, or to kill other prisoners for no good reason. Which placed Georg Konrad Morgen in a surreal position. As the wartime Nazi judge charged with rooting out corruption in the concentration camps, he prosecuted some of history's greatest monsters, including the commandant of Buchenwald — but for merely incidental crimes (3,250 words)

What Porn Actors Don’t Talk About

Stoya | New Statesman | 1st June 2015

As always, the taboo is wages. But think around $1,000 per scene. "Why do performers get paid this much? There’s a cost of doing business that includes transportation, an insane level of personal grooming, and STI testing fees, which range from $155 to $210. Having sex in front of cameras is still highly stigmatised work, and negatively affects employment options later in life. There is also that risk of mechanical injuries" (960 words)

Japanese Change-Trays

Alice Gordenker | Japan Times | 23rd May 2015

A short history of Japanese change-trays, always used in cash transactions, which spirals into a charming note on Japanese shopping culture. "Offering change in a tray feels more polite than simply placing money in a customer’s hand. Japanese prefer not to touch other people’s hands and the tray creates desirable distance. So you could say that using a tray is an expression of reserve as well as an extension of good customer service" (990 words)

After Lethal Injection

Maurice Chammah et al | Marshall Project | 1st June 2015

American states seek alternative execution methods if the Supreme Court bans Midazolam for lethal injections. Oklahoma, "the nation’s laboratory for capital punishment”, plans to suffocate prisoners with nitrogen. According to a state senator: “When they first proposed it, I said: I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I suppose that might work. Not that I’ve ever executed someone. But I assume somebody must have done some research” (5,200 words)

Video of the day: Stereoscopic Kandinsky

What to expect: A Kandinsky painting brought to life and set to music (1'02")

Thought for the day

Where do I find all the time to not read so many books?
Karl Kraus