The FADER Weekend Reading List

David Destino, The Atlantic (7/21)

To be honest, this week was pretty stressful. There were Twitter beefs galore, the Sandra Bland tragedy, and another shooting. How does one deal with not the just stress, but also the overwhelming anxiety about the state of the world we live in? Well, one of the best ways may be to try meditation. David Destino writes in his piece for The Atlantic, "prompting yourself to act with kindness often requires not only vigilance but a bit of willpower," and practicing meditation encourages "mindfulness," which is a way of approaching life, and every day interactions with patience and acceptance. Destino's research suggests that practicing this may actually lead to increase in compassion, which is something we all could use, don't you think?

The Onion (7/21)

The 2016 presidential race is in full swing, and we've been hearing a lot about the seemingly hundreds of Republican dudes running for office. Erin Gloria Ryan wrote up a handy guide to help us differentiate all these guys, but the one we won't have trouble recognizing is the endless source of *face-palm*ing, Donald Trump. Check out The Onion's spin on Trump (and then watch Jon Stewart's musical tribute to "the candidate version of the hot dog-crust pizza").

Amy Maxmen, Wired (7/22)

Thanks to a gene-editing technique called Crispr-Cas9, there now exists the power to quickly and easily alter DNA. Crispr promises "direct access to the source code of life," according to Maxman and the team of scientists she interviewed. There are endless possibilities to do good and save lives by changing the structure of diseases, foods, and more, but it also has the potential to make loads of money and/or create sci-fi level disaster. Read about it here.

K.K. Rebecca Lai, Haeyoun Park, Larry Buchanan, and Wilson Andrews, New York Times (7/22)

On July 10th, an African-American woman from Chicago named Sandra Bland was arrested by a Texas state trooper after a traffic stop. She died three days later in a jail cell. Her death appeared to be a suicide, but the investigation is still going on and her cause of death remains in dispute. The New York Times put together an interactive piece of the dashcam videos from the state trooper's vehicle, detailing the events leading up to Sandra Bland's arrest.

Meaghan O'Connell, The Cut (7/23)

One of The Cut's motherhood columnists, Meaghan O'Connell, wrote a piece the other day that applies not just to moms, but to everyone who is sexually active. There are so many birth control options out there these days, from the pill to IUDs and beyond. But extra hormones are not for everyone. O'Connell suggests returning to that old school form of BC, The Condom. Yeah, your boy may complain that it desensitizes his thang, but it's safer than pulling out (this article assumes you know your partner is clean as can be, BTW). As O'Connell puts it, "Like putting on sunglasses before you look into the sun—it’s still the sun. It’s still powerful. There’s still light."

Felicia Chou, NASA.com (7/23)

Yo, so, apparently there is another Earth out there. And its name is Earth 2.0. The universe is crazy, man. Read about it here.

Bonus: A Russian Tycoon Is Spending $100 Million to Hunt For Aliens