[BLOG] Some Monday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen argues compellingly that stories featuring queer protagonists should also have other queer characters (among other things).


• James Bow talks about the origins and the progress of his new novel, The Sun Runners.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the recent hopeful analysis of Ross 128b, still a strong candidate for a relatively Earth-like world.


• Crooked Timber starts a discussion on having elections in the European Parliament being based on transnational lists.


• D-Brief notes a hauntingly musical study of the plasma of Saturn's ring system.


• Hornet Stories reports on N.K. Jemisin's article that bigots are not good writers of fiction. I'm inclined to agree: People who cannot imagine the lives of others as legitimate have issues with plausible characterization.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Nicola Sturgeon opened Pride in Glasgow on the same day as Trump's visit, saying there was where she wanted to be regardless.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the winding history of New York State's Adirondacks, as a protected area.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the evidence for the unwitting involvement of Glenn Greenwald and Wikileaks as agents of Russia in support of Trump.


• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, considers the genesis of the phrase "Sherpas of the Beltway." How problematic is it?


• Marginal Revolution suggests that Canadian public opinion in support of open immigration rests on borders being controlled.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that the strange behaviour of Boyajian's Star can be explained by dust alone.


• Window on Eurasia speculates that Russia might be on the verge of another wave of regional reorganizations, amalgamating some provinces and other territories into others.


• Arnold Zwicky points out the achievements of Samantha Allen, a journalist writing for The Daily Beast.