[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Centauri Dreams looks at the genesis of ocean worlds. Having a nearly massive star producing lots of radioactive aluminum when it supernovas might be surprisingly important.


• The Crux takes a look at languages newly forming in the world around us, starting with the Australian language of Light Warlpiri. What does this say about humans and language?


• D-Brief notes that researchers have managed to create cyborg rats whose motions are controlled directly by human thought.


• Gizmodo reports on the abandonment by Amazon of its plan for a HQ2 campus in Queens.


• JSTOR Daily shares the perfectly believable argument that people with autism should not be viewed as people incapable of love.


• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Simon Balto writes about how the Ryan Adams scandal demonstrates the male gatekeeper effect in popular music.


• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution comes up with a list of winners and losers of the Amazon decision not to set up HQ2 in Queens. (Myself, I am unconvinced New York City is a loser here.)


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how, despite not interacting directly with normal matter, dark matter can still be heated up by the matter and energy we see around us.


• Window on Eurasia notes how, in many post-Soviet countries including the Baltic States and Ukraine, ethnic Russians are assimilating into local majority ethnic groups.