Today’s Readings 1/17/2013

I just can’t seem to make it to ten, what are y’all reading?

1. The problem of gun semantics: exactly what is an “assault weapon”? (NYT) and the former Australian Prime Minister weighs in on his experience in implementing successful gun control following a 1996 massacre. (NYT)
2. Fecal transplants (exactly as it sounds) are shown to work to control intestinal infections. There is much we don’t know about the intestinal ecosystem. (NYT)
3. A retreat from Afghanistan might call a return to all the problems that got us there in the first place. I often diverge with my liberal comrades on the subject of Afghanistan, the poorest and most fractured country in the world. We were right to go and had much to offer. (Bloomberg)
4. Get rid of the debt ceiling now. (Bloomberg)
5. Japan cuts its already deficient welfare system even further, amidst greying and growing inequality. (Japan Times)
6. Globalization out of control? There’s not as much of it as you may think. Personally, we need more international trade and more connections, not less. (Conversable Economist)
7. Our (the US’s)  incarceration rates are out of control. At this rate, will all Americans will be incarcerated by the end of the century? (Discourse Net)
8. The dark side of big data and surveillance culture. (Fiscal Times)
9. The fastest growing economy of the 21st century will be Nigeria. (Quartz)