[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Antipope Charlie Stross wonders if one way to deal with the overaccumulation of wealth by elites is to get them to spend it in vast showy projects, like a crash program for nuclear fusion or a colonization of the upper atmosphere of Venus.


• Centauri Dreams reacts to the discovery of the nearby and literally ice-cold brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5.


• Crooked Timber's Corey Robin argues that a recent American court case regarding a whistleblower highlights a tension between an individual's freedoms as a citizens and limits as a private individual.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to two papers suggesting that a star's circumstellar habitable zone could expand inwards if a planet is different from Earth, one pointing to slower-rotating planets and the other to lower-mass planets than Earth.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on the fascinating recovery of evidence of hunting nine thousand years ago from the bottom of Lake Huron.


• Writing at the Financial Times' The World blog, Edward Luce is worried about Narendra Modi.


• Language Log comments on browser plug-ins and other like things which adjust text to fit prescriptivist dictates.


• James Nicoll seems much less impressed than the Volokh Conspiracy's Ilya Somin in the idea of science fiction writers being criticized for their ideologies.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer argues that a chart suggesting there's a low chance of civil war in Ukraine actually suggests no such thing on closer analysis.


• Towleroad notes that Russia's anti-gay laws are now being implemented in Crimea.


• Window on Eurasia's links warn of the need for NATO to defend its own, highlight Belarus' stated interest in a foreign policy that balances the European Union with the Russian sphere, and quotes Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Cemilev on the Crimean Tatars' continued dissidence and hope for rescue.