[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Centauri Dreams considers the idea of dispatching a fleet of sail-equipped probes to map the asteroid belt.


• Crux considers the importance of the invention of zero for mathematics.


• D-Brief notes that Scotland's oldest snow patch is set to melt imminently.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper looking at the stability of multiplanetary systems in star clusters.


• Imageo notes the modest recovery of icecaps in the Arctic this summer.


• Language Log notes the importance of Kazakhstan's shift to using the Latin script for the Kazakh language.


• The LRB Blog reports on a writer's visit to Helsinki.


• The Map Room Blog notes a giant relief map of Guatemala, built to reinforce claims to what is now Belize.


• The NYR Daily considers the continued salience of race in the fragile liberal-democratic world, in America and Europe.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer wonders if the heavy-handed Spanish government is trying to trigger Catalonian independence.


• Roads and Kingdoms considers the palm wine of Senegal, and its vendors.


• Understanding Society considers the Holocaust, as an experience sociological and otherwise.


• The Volokh Conspiracy makes a libertarian case for open borders.


• Whatever's John Scalzi celebrates his meeting mutual fan Alison Moyet.


• Window on Eurasia notes how Belarus' cautious Belarusianization is met by Russia's pro-Soviet nostalgia.