• The Globe and Mail investigates why Japan is falling in love with robots (by the way, I know we’re supposed to love longform journalism now because it’s long, but you can read either half of this piece and you won’t miss the other half) [The Globe and Mail]
• U.S. Naval War College Professor Tom Nichols argues the U.S. should adopt a minimal deterrent—albeit in a piece that mentions “China” only once and “extended deterrence” never. [The Diplomat]
• Asian Catholics respond to the new Pope. [The Diplomat]
• “So if you’re a hedge fund, for now at least, you’ll receive fully 100% of the face value of any debt you hold in Cypriot banks. If you’re, say, a widowed Cypriot pensioner with €30,000 saved in a Cypriot bank, you’ll wake up Tuesday morning to find that you now have just €27,975.” [Suffragio]
• Yesterday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Mordor) tried to cut the National Science Foundation’s funding of political science. I’m honestly not sure how it failed, but it did (I think? the commenters also seem confused). Phil Schrodt comments that “>the response of the political science community has been astonishingly lame” and I kinda have to agree. [The Monkey Cage, Phil Schrodt]

And some more:

• How low levels of cultural capital affect college decisions [Confessions of a Community College Dean]
• How to Gut a Reform [Mother Jones]