[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait considers the possibility that the remarkably low-density 'Oumuamua might be a cosmic snowflake.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the challenges of free-lance writing, including clients who disappear before they pay their writers for their work.


• Centauri Dreams notes that observations of cosmic collisions by gravitational wave astronomy are becoming numerous enough to determine basic features of the universe like Hubble's constant.


• D-Brief notes that the Hayabusa2 probe is set to start mining samples from asteroid Ryugu.


• Dangerous Minds remembers radical priest and protester Philip Berrigan.


• At the Everyday Sociology Blog, Irina Seceleanu explains why state defunding of public education in the United States is making things worse for students.


• Far Outliers notes how many of the communities in South Asia that saw soldiers go off to fight for the British Empire opposed this imperial war.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the decidedly NSFW love letters of James Joyce to Nora Barnacle. Wasn't Kate Bush inspired by them?


• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the failure of the California high-speed rail route reveals many underlying problems with funding for infrastructure programs in the United States.


• Marginal Revolution notes the creepy intrusiveness of a new app in China encouraging people to study up on Xi Jinping thought.


• The Planetary Society Blog looks at what is to be expected come the launch of the Beresheet Moon lander by Israeli group SpaceIL.


• Daniel Little at Understanding Society considers the philosophical nature of the Xerox Corporation.


• Window on Eurasia notes that the Russian Orthodox Church seems not to be allowing the mass return of its priests who lost congregations to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Russia.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell considers the astute ways in which El Chapo is shown to have run his business networks.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at two recent British films centering on displays of same-sex male attraction, The Pass and God's Own Country.