[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait urges caution in identifying K2-18b, a mini-Neptune with water vapour in its atmosphere, as Earth-like.


• Centauri Dreams reports on the discovery of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), a likely interstellar comet like 'Oumuamua.


• The Crux reports on the orange roughy, a fish commonly caught as byproduct that can live up to 250 years.


• D-Brief looks at the harm that may be caused by some insecticides to songbirds, including anorexia and delayed migrations.


• Dangerous Minds considers if David Bowie actually did burn his 360-ton Glass Spider stage prop.


• Gizmodo notes the formidable, fanged marsupials once existing in Australia.


• Imageo notes signs that a dreaded blob of hot water, auguring climate change, might now be lurking in the Pacific Ocean.


• io9 notes that Ryan Murphy has shared the official title sequence for the 1984 season of American Horror Story.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the history, in popular culture and actual technology, of the artificial womb.


• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how lightly the Sackler family got off for their involvement in triggering the opioid crisis with OxyContin.


• Marginal Revolution notes many companies are now seeking insurance to protect themselves in the US-China trade war.


• Tim Parks writes at the NYR Daily about how every era tends to have translations which fit its ethos.


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper suggesting that immigration and immigrants do not have major effects on the overall fertility of highly-developed countries.


• Frank Jacobs notes a mysterious 1920s German map of South America that shows Brasilia, the Brazilian capital built only from 1956. What is up with this?


• Window on Eurasia reports on the negative effects of massive migration of workers from Tajikistan on the country's women.