[BLOG] Some Sunday links

[rfmcdonald]

• The Buzz, over at the Toronto Public Library, recommends some audiobooks, here.


• Centauri Dreams features an essay, by Kostas Konstantindis, exploring how near-future technology could be used to explore the oceans of Europa and Enceladus for life.


• Far Outliers takes a look at the many languages used in Persia circa 500 BCE.


• Hornet Stories notes that Fox News has retracted a bizarrely homophobic op-ed on the Olympics by one of its executives.


• JSTOR Daily explores what is really involved in the rumours of J. Edgar Hoover and cross-dressing.


• Language Hat, in exploring Zadie Smith, happens upon the lovely word "cernuous".


• Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an article, and starts a discussion, regarding the possibility of a North Korean victory early in the Korean War. What would have happened next?


• The NYR Daily notes that Donald Trump is helping golf get a horrible reputation.


• Supernova Condensate examines the science-fiction trope of artificial intelligence being dangerous, and does not find much substance behind the myth. If anything, the direction of the fear should lie in the other direction.


• Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at two books which consider the origins of the Cold War from an international relations perspective. What were the actors trying to achieve?


• Window on Eurasia makes the argument that the powerful clan structures of post-Soviet Dagestan are not primordial in origin, but rather represent attempts to cope with state failure in that Russian republic.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the existential problems facing Capita from a Coasian perspective. How is its business model fundamentally broken?


• Arnold Zwicky, in taking apart an overcorrection, explains the differences between "prone" and "supine."