[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at planetary nebulas, beautiful byproducts of the ends of stars.


• Centauri Dreams shares an essay by Mark Millis looking at how NASA evaluates proposed new propulsion methods.


• Bruce Dorminey takes a look at some interesting facts about the development of the Boeing 747.


• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing considers the ways in which deepfakes, allowing for alternate personalities online, evoke the Bunburying of Oscar Wilde.


• Gizmodo notes that neutron star collisions might well reveal mysterious quark matter, if only they occurred within sight of us.


• JSTOR Daily considers the sensuous nature of the Jane Austen novel Persuasion.


• Language Log considers a potential case for Sinitic origins in the Balto-Slavic word for "iron".


• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the weakness of the centre as a major pull for American voters.


• Marginal Revolution links to a paper concluding that Chinese workers are not being exploited by the manufacturing companies that may employ them.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how the curvature of space-time under gravity can be measured.


• Window on Eurasia considers two Kazakhstan observers who argue the country should switch from Kazakh-Russian bilingualism to Kazakh-English bilingualism.


• Arnold Zwicky considers, after the Gay & Lesbian Review, the representation of different communities in the LGBT+ acronym, the utility of simple symbols, like "&" or "+".