In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it wants to colonize Mars thoroughly, with a constitution that governs people who will fly there, and live in a legal regime. A space scholar says this ambition is dubious, and quite impossible until international diplomacy and space law change drastically.
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This week, Bollywood actor Milind Soman was seen running fully naked on a Goa beach, to much aplomb and lust from Internet users. Around the same time, film actor Poonam Pandey was arrested in Goa for making a vulgar video with her partner, which has led many to question the gendered hypocrisy of who gets to bare all.
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The embattled concept of “love jihad” is once again in the news, this time due to the Uttar Pradesh government’s announcement that they will bring in a stringent law to combat the practice. While the anti-love jihad camp is dressing their fight up in wanting to protect unsuspecting Hindu women, the real reason may be to curb religious conversion.
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As lockdowns ease and people start to become lax over Covid19 protection measures, here’s a New York Times simulation of exactly how coronavirus particles travel exist in our surroundings, and how masks help us stay safe from them.
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Oregon became the first U.S. state this week to decriminalize hard drugs, including heroin. Activists are hailing the move as positive and powerful, in the fight to destigmatize drug addiction and ensure the rights of people with addiction are protected under the law.
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As the entire world turns their attention toward the U.S. elections, and the American people wait with bated breath to find out what’s to become of their democracy, turns out there’s a whole lot at stake for India too.
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What’s similar between the current state of democracies around the world and The Office? One Atlantic writer says Dwight Schrute, and his ability to inhabit anarchy in mundane ways.
