Eight magazine articles and/or journal essays that either changed my mind or deepened my opinion on something that matters to me…

1. Mad scientists creating hybrid creatures in secret labs
By Michael Snyder
Michael Snyder’s Substack
Read Time: 9 min.
Michael Snyder must be the most prolific blogger writing about hard-to-believe conspiracies and imminent existential disasters on the World Wide Web. His reports are so constant I couldn’t possibly fact-check half of them if I spent 20 hours a week doing so. That’s one of the reasons I don’t fact-check them. I enjoy them for whatever they are.

On March 11, he put out this one that cited all sorts of crazy experiments going on in laboratories around the world that sound very much like they were taken from a 1970s low-budget screenplay. For example: A team of scientists in Japan has created a “plant-animal hybrid” that utilizes solar-powered tissues. Another team of scientists in Texas has created “a humanized mouse with a fully developed and functional human immune system.” And in Australia, a company known as Cortical Labs has developed the very first “biological computer,” which fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware.

2. “Hi, My Name Is Allan, and I’m a Compulsive Gambler”
By Allan Loeb
The Free Press
Read Time: 11 min.
The tone of this article is casual and very from-the-inside. It reminded me of that book/movie about the mafia guy that ends up as a player in Hollywood.

3. A (short but) fascinating history of Las Vegas
History Facts
Read Time: 7.5 min.
“Rising up from the Nevada desert, the city’s built environment is so extravagant that it’s difficult to imagine a time when its spectacle did not exist, fully formed. Let’s go back and trace the origins of this uniquely American city.” Read more here.

4. “Another Reason to Move to Florida”
By James Freeman
The Wall Street Journal
Read Time: 8.5 min.
My state, Florida, is very business-friendly. In fact, it was recently rated the fourth most tax-competitive state by the Tax Foundation, trailing only Wyoming, South Dakota, and Alaska. All four have forgone individual state income taxes. South Dakota and Wyoming also have no corporate income tax. And now, Gov. Ron DeSantis is considering yet a bolder move for Florida: getting rid of property taxes. Would that bring Florida to the number one position? Almost certainly – so long as cutting waste in local government budgets can offset the end of property taxes. Is that possible? Click here.

5. Crypto tycoon sues collector over $78 million art fraud allegations
Art Law & More
Read Time: 4.0 min.
This short article sent to me by LC, legal counsel on all things related to my nonprofit art collection and future museum of Central American Modern Art, presents a brief, but IMHO accurate, view of the ever-growing dangers of fraud in the world of fine art.

6. “Death Row Inmate Saved by Supreme Court”
By Rupa Subramanya
The Free Press
Read Time: 11.5 min.
“Lea Glossip has been waiting nine years for this moment. The anti–death penalty activist struck up a pen pal friendship with death row inmate Richard Glossip in 2016. Six years later, they married, when he was 59 and she was 32. She always believed that Glossip – who was convicted of murdering his boss in 1998 at the motel in Oklahoma City where he worked – was innocent. So did many others. He had been scheduled to die nine times and had eaten his last meal three times when his case finally went to the Supreme Court. It was his last chance for a reprieve.” Read more here.

7. Male octopuses avoiding being eaten after sex
By Sarah Kuta
The Smithsonian Magazine
Read Time: 6.5
I’ve read about female animals that kill (usually by eating) their mates after mating. The best known are spiders (black widow spiders and jumping spiders). It also happens with anacondas and some octopuses. But in one species of octopus, blue-lined octopuses, natural selection has saved the males from being eaten in a unique way. Click here.

8. “Europe’s Female Leaders Want War”
By John Leake
Focal Points
Read Time: 2.5 min.
The less you know about something, the more you are at liberty to fantasize about it. Click here.