Les Liens du Lundi

Current and stale affairs, hot and cold takes:

• BBC News, Hesitant hitmen jailed over botched assassination in China. A lesson in the dangers of infinite subcontracting.
  
• Jacqualine Maley (SMH), When we tell Meghan Markle to suck it up, what does that say about us?. Doesn't just cover Meghan - also has some choice criticisms of That Leunig Cartoon.
  

Good News:

• BBC news, Rats taught to drive tiny cars to lower their stress levels. Good news because a. adorable rats driving tiny cars and b. useful brain science. However, I note my initial response on Twitter: 'key difference between me and rats, discovered by science'.
  

Longer political and/or climate science

• Sam Wallman (Overland Blog), What became of the right to strike:
  

  In order to remain within the law, workers can only apply for the permission to strike when they are negotiating for a new agreement with their employer (typically every three or four years) and even then, the strike application can be denied by Fair Work Australia if it’s deemed to have a damaging effect on the economy. Which surely is a potential feature of every effective strike in human history.
  Last year, Sydney rail workers planned a strike that ticked all the legal boxes. They followed the letter of the law, yet Fair Work vetoed the plan, and the union followed their orders to avoid the risk of having to pay millions of dollars in fines. Individuals in some industries can now be fined up to $42,000 for striking.
  Decisions such as the one that Fair Work took on this occasion can either have a chilling effect or galvanise people in opposition. So far, it’s been more the former than the latter.

  
  

Longer historical, cultural, scientific, misc

• Matt Zoller Seitz (Vulture), Disney is quietly placing classic Fox movies in into its vault:
  

  Disney officially declined to comment for this piece, but a film distributor with firsthand knowledge of the company’s policy says it is directed at theaters that screen first-run Disney and Fox content alongside older titles. The distributor said that screenings of vintage Fox films would still be allowed at nonprofit theaters such as Film Forum in New York and Segundo’s Old Town Music Hall, and in some other venues, including outdoor screenings in public spaces and at museums and cultural institutions (particularly ones dedicated to cinema, such as the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago). And there might be some exemptions granted for special occasions such as anniversaries. But each instance would be considered on a case-by-case basis, with no guarantee that the decision will go the theater’s way, no matter what Fox films it had been able to wrangle a week, a month, or a year earlier.

  
  
• Cathrynne Henshall (Conversation AU), It's not just about your feelings, okay? The best end for a racehorse might be the knackery. I agree with this assessment: there's not much humanitarian point legislating against horse deaths when their post-racing lives are not likely to be high quality. However, I would say there's not much point doing that *without* addressing the inhumanity of the racing industry, and this article doesn't seem to address that.
  
• Shalailah Medhora (Triple J Hack), I felt broken: what it's like living with Borderline Personality Disorder. I saw at least one very negative response to this piece online, as well as several positive. It's primarily based on first-hand accounts, particularly Eliza Berlage, who I have considerable respect for.
  
• Chris Catling (Current Archaeology), Time to axe the Anglo-Saxons? Not actually a response to the ISXX race debate, but a critique of the migration theory. One which, after studying Celtic Studies with someone who firmly declared there's no such thing as a Celt (The Ikea store map as map of 'Swedish invasions of modern Britain is a familiar analogy to me), I have been waiting for... oh, THIRTEEN YEARS to see articulated.
  

I'm some way behind on link posts, but also short of time. More on Thursday!