[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the German city of Nordlingen, formed in a crater created by the impact of a binary asteroid with Earth.


• Centauri Dreams reports on the possibility that the farside of the Moon might bear the imprint of an ancient collision with a dwarf planet the size of Ceres.


• D-Brief notes that dredging for the expansion of the port of Miami has caused terrible damage to corals there.


• Dangerous Minds looks at the last appearances of David Bowie and Iggy Pop together on stage.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that China is on track to launch an ambitious robotic mission to Mars in 2020.


• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog talks about what sociological research actually is.


• Gizmodo reports on the discovery of a torus of cool gas circling Sagittarius A* at a distance of a hundredth of a light-year.


• io9 reports about Angola Janga, an independent graphic novel by Marcelo D'Salete showing how slaves from Africa in Brazil fought for their freedom and independence.


• The Island Review shares some poems of Matthew Landrum, inspired by the Faroe Islands.


• Joe. My. God. looks at how creationists are mocking flat-earthers for their lack of scientific knowledge.


• Language Hat looks at the observations of Mary Beard that full fluency in ancient Latin is rare even for experts, for reason I think understandable.


• Melissa Byrnes wrote at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the meaning of 4 June 1989 in the political transitions of China and Poland.


• Marginal Revolution notes how the New York Times has become much more aware of cutting-edge social justice in recent years.


• The NYR Daily looks at how the memories and relics of the Sugar Land prison complex outside of Houston, Texas, are being preserved.


• Jason C Davis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the differences between LightSail 1 and the soon-to-be-launched LightSail 2.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks in detail at the high electricity prices in Argentina.


• Peter Rukavina looks at the problems with electric vehicle promotion on PEI.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at when the universe will have its first black dwarf. (Not in a while.)


• Window on Eurasia suggests that Belarusians are not as interested in becoming citizens of Russia as an Internet poll suggests.


• Arnold Zwicky highlights a Pride Month cartoon set in Antarctica featuring the same-sex marriage of two penguins.