[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares one picture of a vast galaxy cluster to underline how small our place in the universe is.


• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture shares some photos of Syrian refugee families as they settle into the United States.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the Dragonfly proposal for a Titan lander.


• The Crux notes the exceptional vulnerability of the cultivated banana to an otherwise obscure fungus.


• Bruce Dorminey notes NASA's preparation of the Clipper mission to investigate Europa.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas takes a look at the role of surveillance in the life of the modern student.


• Hornet Stories has a nice interview of Sina Grace, author of Marvel's Iceman book.


• Joe. My. God. reshared this holiday season a lovely anecdote, "Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians."


• JSTOR Daily took a look at why Americans like dieting so much.


• The LRB Blog considers the Thames Barrier, the meager protection of London against tides in a time of climate change.


• The Map Room Blog notes the digitization of radar maps of Antarctica going back to the 1960s.


• Marginal Revolution seems cautiously optimistic about the prospects of Morocco.
  
• Russell Darnley at maximos62 is skeptical about the prospects of the forests of Indonesia's Riau province.


• Stephanie Land at the NYR Daily talks about how she managed to combine becoming a writer with being a single mother of two young children.


• Out There argues a lunar fuel depot could help support crewed interplanetary exploration.


• Science Sushi notes genetic evidence the lionfish invasion of the North Atlantic off Florida began not with a single escape but with many.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the argument an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri could have significant technological spinoffs.


• Supernova Condensate makes the point, apropos of nothing at all, that spaceship collisions can in fact unleash vast amounts of energy.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, while Kazakhs see practical advantages to cooperation with Russia, they also see some problems.