[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that methane hydrates on the ocean floor will only pose a catastrophic risk of climate change if we do nothing about climate change generally.


• Centauri Dreams reports on the massive flare detected on L-dwarf ULAS J224940.13-011236.9.


• Crooked Timber considers a philosophical conundrum: What should individuals do to combat climate change? What are they responsible for?


• The Crux considers a few solar system locations that future generations of hikers might well want to explore on foot.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Pete Buttigieg is becoming a big star in his father's homeland of Malta.


• Language Log considers the idea of learning Cantonese as a second language.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the policy innovations of Elizabeth Warren.


• The Map Room Blog looks at how the Russian government is apparently spoofing GPS signals.


• Marginal Revolution reports a claim by Peter Thiel that the institutionalization of science since the Manhattan Project is slowing down technological advances. Is this plausible?


• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes that the Mars InSight probe has detected marsquakes.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, finally, astronomers have found the first cold gas giants among the exoplanets, worlds in wide orbits like Jupiter and Saturn.


• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy notes how some of the praise for Daenerys Targaryen by Elizabeth Warren reveals interesting and worrisome blind spots. (Myself, I fear a "Dark Dany" scenario.)


• Window on Eurasia suggests that Russia is not over the fact that Ukraine is moving on.


• Frances Woolley at the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes issue with the argument of Andray Domise after an EKOS poll, that Canadians would not know much about the nature of migration flows.


• For Easter, Arnold Zwicky considered red and white flowers, bearing the colours of the season.