[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Anthropology.net reports on the discovery of footprints of a Neanderthal band in Le Rozel, Normandy, revealing much about that group's social structure.


• Bad Astronomer's Phil Plait explains why standing at the foot of a cliff on Mars during local spring can be dangerous.


• Centauri Dreams shares a suggestion that the lakes of Titan might be product of subterranean explosions.


• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber considers how, and when, anger should be considered and legitimated in discussions of politics.


• The Crux looks at the cement mixed successfully in microgravity on the ISS, as a construction material of the future.


• D-Brief looks at what steps space agencies are considering to avoid causing harm to extraterrestrial life.


• The Dragon's Tales notes new evidence that the Anthropocene, properly understood, actually began four thousand years ago.


• Jonathan Wynn writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about how many American universities have become as much lifestyle centres as educational communities.


• Far Outliers reports on how, in the 13th century, the cultural differences of Wales from the English--including the Welsh tradition of partible inheritance--caused great instability.


• This io9 interview with the creators of the brilliant series The Wicked and the Divine is a must-read.


• JSTOR Daily looks at a paper considering how teachers of German should engage with the concept of Oktoberfest.


• Language Hat looks at a new study examining the idea of different languages being more efficient than others. (They are not, it turns out.)


• Language Log looks at the history of translating classics of Chinese literature into Manchu and Mongolian.


• Erik Loomis considers the problems the collapse of local journalism now will cause for later historians trying to do research in the foreseeable future.


• Marginal Revolution reports on research suggesting that markets do not corrupt human morality.


• Neuroskeptic looks in more detail at the interesting, and disturbing, organized patterns emitted by organoids built using human brain cells.


• Stephen Baker at The Numerati writes, with photos, about what he saw in China while doing book research. (Shenzhen looks cool.)


• The NYR Daily notes the import of the working trip of Susan Sontag to Sarajevo in 1993, while that city was under siege.


• Robert Picardo at the Planetary Society Blog shares a vintage letter from Roddenberry encouraging Star Trek fans to engage with the Society.


• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the economy of Argentina in a pre-election panic.


• Strange Company looks at the life of Molly Morgan, a British convict who prospered in her exile to Australia.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, in 1939, many Soviet citizens recognized the import of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; they knew their empire would expand.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at the treatment of cavemen, as subjects and providers of education, in pop culture.