 Vice squad The United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh might have been assassinated last summer. The would-be assassin was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s home before any attempt was made. He had a very specific goal: If Kavanaugh died, President Joe Biden would choose his replacement, likely changing the political orientation of the court. He also planned to kill two more justices. Maxim Lott argues that the way Supreme Court justices are chosen incentivizes these attempted judge-murders: “Right now, it’s ‘just how the system works’ that a murdered judge would get replaced by one with a quite different Constitutional philosophy,” he writes. If a president is assassinated, he or she is replaced by the vice president, reducing the incentive for partisan murder. Lott argues that a similar system for judges, allowing judges to nominate a “vice justice” to take their place in the event of their death, would do likewise. A history of violence The Gebusi tribe of New Guinea once assumed that all premature natural deaths were caused by sorcery. After a death, the sorcerer would be identified, then killed. As a result, 40% of adult deaths between 1940 and 1962 were murders, an anthropologist estimated: The highest ever recorded. But from 1989 until 2017, when the anthropologist’s fieldwork ended, there were zero homicides. What changed? William Buckner argues that profound technological and cultural shifts made the difference. Improved healthcare meant fewer deaths to explain with sorcery. Sorcery accusations were used to settle scores in clan disputes over marriage arrangements, but the society’s increased wealth meant fewer deals were welched on. The arrival of Christianity may have played a role. The rate of violence in a society, Buckner argues, is hugely dependent on cultural and socioeconomic factors. Espress delivery Traditional espresso makers are pretty frightening things. They involved pushing boiling water through a puck of compressed ground coffee at nine times atmospheric pressure. For years, if you wanted an espresso at home, you had to risk scalding yourself on a hissing, steaming contraption that became too hot to use after the third shot it made. But now, you can get high-quality home-made espresso at the tap of a button. And coffee itself has changed, writes Nick Whitaker. It has become a specialty product like wine, with focus on countries of origin and the subtleties of its flavors. The way it has changed has both driven and been driven by changes in coffee technology, and has made millions of lives slightly better, argues Whitaker. “We turned what was once gulping sludge to get out of bed into a truly culinary activity in the morning,” he says, “and of course you are still able to drink the sludge if you prefer it.” |
