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Over 22,000 people died by gun-induced suicide in 2016; more than 2/3rds of all gun-related deaths and about 1/2 of all suicides. [1] They did not have to die. In states where guns are more prevalent, such as Wyoming, where 63% of households own guns, suicide rates are higher than in states where guns are less prevalent. [2] Stricter gun control and better gun-ownership education are important tools to reduce suicide. Most suicide attempts occur with little planning. A study of hospitalized Chinese suicide-survivors reported that almost 25% had considered suicide for less than 10 minutes before their attempt, while over 50% had considered suicide for less than 2 hours. [3] This data is corroborated in many other studies. [4] The anguish that induces suicide is often temporary and humans are notoriously bad at predicting how we will feel in the future. This leads to very high post-attempt long-term survival rates. About 75% of people who attempt but fail at suicide will never try...

Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards are a helpful step to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but state and federal governments should also focus more on fostering a transportation revolution: on-demand driverless electric pods. People talk about driverless cars, yet the commercialization of truly driverless pods, as opposed to driver-assisting vehicles, [1] presents us with a ‘horseless carriage’ moment. At the turn of the 20 th century, when cars were still in early development and just coming to the public’s attention, people referred to cars as ‘horseless carriages’. [2] Cars even looked like horse-drawn buggies. [3] As the name ‘horseless carriage’ suggests, people of that time had not fully grasped the revolutionary nature of cars. Similarly, today, most people are not well-versed in the transformational potential of on-demand driverless pods, and how they can help reduce emissions. [4] The naming convention, driverless car , embodies tw...

“Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.” These words invariably begin every oral argument before the Supreme Court. Such formalism stands in rigid defiance against a blustery world of ubiquitous multi-word contractions, 24-hour news through 140 characters, and vulgar politics. Sometimes formalism is used as a tool of exclusion, such as when fancy restaurants maintain a dress code, thereby setting a minimum wealth and image standard for diners. But formalism can also be harnessed to unlock closed doors and open old-boys’ clubs to new members and radical ideas. The crisscrossing beams of formalism that undergird the process of arguing before the nation’s highest court, of which ‘may it please the Court’ is but one, often provide a powerful platform to elevate progressive agendas. As radical right-wing American politicians continue to rise out of various political backwaters in the wake of President Trump’s Bannonism, one cannot help but appreciate the formalist mortar that bin...

I want to briefly address what Professor Susan Marks, of the London School of Economics, calls ‘planned misery’. [1] In her writing, planned misery “denotes misery that belongs with the logic of particular socio-economic arrangements.” [2] To me, this definition invites reflection about how global capitalism is structured such that human, labor and environmental rights abuses perpetrated in developing countries in industries like mining, textiles, and electronics seem unavoidable. There is a very positive side to globalization over the past 30 years. Namely, the combination of increased foreign investor protections and lower trade barriers have increased the flow of capital to poor countries, redistributing industrial resources from rich countries to the global poor, and increasing standards of living throughout the developing world. The quintessential contemporary model for this story is China but there are many other examples. For instance, China’s economic miracle might be put ...