[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• 'Nathan Smith at Apostrophen points out the profound wrongness of a same-sex romance novel that has (for starters) protagonists involved in LGBT conversion camps described sympathetically.


• Centauri Dreams notes the exciting new detailed surface map of Titan. Among other things, that world has a sea level common to all its liquid bodies, and they have sharp shores.


• The Crux notes a new effort to understand Antarctica underneath the ice. What happened the last time its ice melted?


• Bruce Dorminey notes that Venus is actually really important for astronomers who are interested in extraterrestrial life.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog explains why it is important to learn about social theory if you're a sociologist. Discourse matters.


• Far Outliers notes the many translations of Hawaii's "TheBus" into the Asian languages spoken there.


• Hornet Stories notes research suggesting that product ads targeting LGBTQ markets can have good knock-on effects for these products' general market share.


• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox has started a series looking back at some of the best songs of 1978.


• JSTOR Daily notes two education papers suggesting ways art education can improve empathy among students.


• Language Hat notes a genetic study of populations in the Chachapoyas region of coastal Peru suggesting people there were not displaced by Incan expansion.


• Language Log reports on a study that examines connections between a person's lexical diversity and the progress of degenerative brain health issues.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the possibility that Russian money may have been funneled through the NRA.


• The NYR Daily reports on the intensely personal performance art of Patty Chang.


• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest discoveries and events surrounding the Dawn probe in its permanent Ceres orbit.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes evidence that extrasolar visitor 'Oumuamua has been deeply shaped by its encounters with cosmic particles.


• Transit Toronto shares detailed depictions of some of the new public art installations to be housed in six stations on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.


• Window on Eurasia notes the growing presence of Central Asian migrants in the smaller communities of Russia. (Chinese, unsurprisingly, have not made it there.)