[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomy notes how, in galaxy 3XMM J150052.0+015452 1.8 billion light-years away, a black hole has been busily eating a star for a decade.


• Centauri Dreams considers how relativistic probes might conduct astronomy. How would their measurements be changed by these high speeds?


• The Crux reports on how scientists are trying to save the platypus in its native rivers of Australia.


• D-Brief reports on the quiet past of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on UAV news from around the world.


• Joe. My. God. reports a statement by a Trump biography suggesting that the American president believes in not following laws because of his belief in his own "genetic superiority".


• JSTOR Daily reports on the importance of the longleaf pine in the history of the United States.


• Language Hat considers, in the case of Australia, the benefits of reviving indigenous languages.
  
• Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how the success of Israel in hosting Eurovision is a blow against the Netanyahu government.


• James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the peculiar position of private schools in the UK, and their intersection with public life.


• Marginal Revolution looks at a paper analyzing two centuries of British writers noting that productivity was boosted for the least productive if they lived in London.


• The NYR Daily notes the end of famed French periodical Les temps modernes.


• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes the expected crash of Chinese smallsat Longjiang-2 from its lunar orbit at the end of July.


• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money notes how ex-president of Argentina Cristina Fernández, running for election this year, was lucky in having the economic crash occur after the end of her presidency.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains the different reasons behind the blues of the sky and the ocean.


• Window on Eurasia notes that three hundred thousand Russians have died of HIV/AIDS since the virus manifested on Soviet territory in the late 1980s, with more deaths to come thanks to mismanagement of the epidemic.