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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that Betelgeuse is very likely not on the verge of a supernova, here.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the mapping of asteroid Bennu.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber reposted, after the election, a 2013 essay looking at the changes in British society from the 1970s on.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about the Precambrian Earth, here.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about fear in the context of natural disasters, here.

  • Far Outliers reports on the problems of privateers versus regular naval units.

  • Gizmodo looks at galaxy MAMBO-9, which formed a billion years after the Big Bang.

  • io9 writes about the alternate history space race show For All Mankind.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the posters used in Ghana in the 1980s to help promote Hollywood movies.

  • Language Hat links to a new book that examines obscenity and gender in 1920s Britain.

  • Language Log looks at the terms used for the national language in Xinjiang.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with Jeff Jacoby's lack of sympathy towards people who suffer from growing inequality.

  • Marginal Revolution suggests that urbanists should have an appreciation for Robert Moses.

  • Sean Marshall writes, with photos, about his experiences riding a new Bolton bus.

  • Caryl Philips at the NYR Daily writes about Rachmanism, a term wrongly applied to the idea of avaricious landlords like Peter Rachman, an immigrant who was a victim of the Profumo scandal.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking at the experience of aging among people without families.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the empty space in an atom can never be removed.

  • Strange Maps shares a festive map of London, a reindeer, biked by a cyclist.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how Mongolia twice tried to become a Soviet republic.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers different birds with names starting with x.

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  • Anthropology.net notes a remarkably thorough genetic analysis of a piece of chewing gum 5700 years old that reveals volumes of data about the girl who chew it.

  • 'Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen writes an amazing review of Cats that actually does make me want to see it.

  • Bad Astronomy reports on galaxy NGC 6240, a galaxy produced by a collision with three supermassive black holes.

  • Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog writes about the mechanics of journalism.

  • Centauri Dreams argues that the question of whether humans will walk on exoplanets is ultimately distracting to the study of these worlds.

  • Crooked Timber shares a Sunday morning photo of Bristol.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that India has a launch date of December 2021 for its first mission in its Gaganyaan crewed space program.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the Saturn C-1 rocket.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers if the vogue for minimalism meets the criteria to be considered a social movement.

  • Far Outliers ?notes how, in the War of 1812, some in New England considered the possibility of seceding from the Union.

  • Gizmodo looks at evidence of the last populations known of Homo erectus, on Java just over a hundred thousand years ago.

  • Mark Graham links to a new paper co-authored by him looking at how African workers deal with the gig economy.

  • io9 announces that the Michael Chabon novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is set to become a television series.

  • Joe. My. God. shares a report that Putin gave Trump anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories.

  • JSTOR Daily considers what a world with an economy no longer structured around oil could look like.

  • Language Hat takes issue with the latest talk of the Icelandic language facing extinction.

  • Language Log shares a multilingual sign photographed in Philadelphia's Chinatown.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the document release revealing the futility of the war in Afghanistan.

  • The LRB Blog looks at class identity and mass movements and social democracy.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution suggests that, even if the economy of China is larger than the United States, Chinese per capita poverty means China does not have the leading economy.

  • Diane Duane at Out of Ambit writes about how she is writing a gay sex scene.

  • Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on "OK Boomer".

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews Mexican chef Ruffo Ibarra.

  • Peter Rukavina shares his list of levees for New Year's Day 2020 on PEI.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map indicating fertility rates in the different regions of the European Union.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how quantum physics are responsible for vast cosmic structures.

  • Charles Soule at Whatever explains his reasoning behind his new body-swap novel.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Paris show the lack of meaningful pro-Russian sentiment there.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell talks about his lessons from working in the recent British election.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at a syncretic, Jewish-Jedi, holiday poster.

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  • Garry Wills writes at the NYR Daily about the history of impeachment, here.

  • David Rieff writes at the NYR about Peronism and the new president, in Argentina, here.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the disaster soon to be visited by Brexit on Northern Ireland, here.

  • Matt Seaton writes at the NYR Daily about what the recent British election reveals about the failing health of social democracy in England.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the new movie Atlantics, which looks at migration and Africa.

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  • D-Brief looks at how the Nile River has kept its current course for 30 million years, here.

  • D-Brief notes a study suggesting modern apartments are filled with fungi.

  • House plants do not purify the air, D-Brief reports.

  • D-Brief notes that 0.2% of the methane emitters in California release a third of the methane released in the entire state.

  • A rocky planet in the right orbit in the HR5183 system, with a gas giant in a very eccentric orbit, could have a spectacular sky, D-Brief notes.

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  • Bad Astronomy notes the mystery of distant active galaxy SDSS J163909+282447.1, with a supermassive black hole but few stars.

  • Centauri Dreams shares a proposal from Robert Buckalew for craft to engage in planned panspermia, seeding life across the galaxy.

  • The Crux looks at the theremin and the life of its creator, Leon Theremin.

  • D-Brief notes that termites cannibalize their dead, for the good of the community.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at William Burroughs' Blade Runner, an adaptation of a 1979 science fiction novel by Alan Nourse.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes a new study explaining how the Milky Way Galaxy, and the rest of the Local Group, was heavily influenced by its birth environment.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at why the Chernobyl control room is now open for tourists.

  • Dale Campos at Lawyers. Guns and Money looks at the effects of inequality on support for right-wing politics.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the decay and transformation of British politics, with Keith Vaz and Brexit.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper explaining why queens are more warlike than kings.

  • Omar G. Encarnación at the NYR Daily looks at how Spain has made reparations to LGBTQ people for past homophobia. Why should the United States not do the same?

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There shares his interview with physicist Sean Carroll on the reality of the Many Worlds Theory. There may be endless copies of each of us out there. (Where?)

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why 5G is almost certainly safe for humans.

  • Strange Company shares a newspaper clipping reporting on a haunting in Wales' Plas Mawr castle.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at all the different names for Africa throughout the years.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy considers, in the case of the disposal of eastern Oklahoma, whether federal Indian law should be textualist. (They argue against.)

  • Window on Eurasia notes the interest of the government of Ukraine in supporting Ukrainians and other minorities in Russia.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at syntax on signs for Sloppy Joe's.

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  • This r/mapporn map shows the scale of the collapse of Irish as a spoken language across most of Ireland. Was this avoidable?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map shows a Canada where the 1837 rebellions were successful, with an autonomous Upper Canada and a Lower Canada with a Patriote state. Doable?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map depicts a common alternate history trope, that of an independent but culturally Russian Alaska. What would it take for this to happen?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map depicts a world where Eurasia, from Germany to Korea, was dominated by a successfully industrializing Russian Empire. Was this common fear of the belle époque actually achievable?

  • This r/mapporn map shows the different proposals for different territorial configurations of the Canadian Prairies. (I like the ones with north-south divisions.)

  • Was a single South Africa covering most of British Southern Africa with relatively liberal racial policies, as Jan Smuts wanted, actually achievable? r/imaginarymaps hosts the map.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.

  • Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.

  • The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.

  • D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.

  • Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.

  • Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.

  • Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.

  • Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.

  • Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.

  • io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.

  • JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.

  • Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of "their" as a singular.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.

  • Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.

  • Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.

  • Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.

  • The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.

  • The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.

  • Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.

  • Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.

  • Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, "depose".

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  • Bad Astronomer notes the latest news on interstellar comet 2/Borisov.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly emphasizes how every writer does need an editor.

  • Centauri Dreams notes how the gas giant GJ 3512 b, half the mass of Jupiter orbiting a red dwarf star closely, is an oddly massive exoplanet.

  • Gina Schouten at Crooked Timber looks at inter-generational clashes on parenting styles.

  • D-Brief looks at the methods of agriculture that could conceivably sustain a populous human colony on Mars.

  • Bruce Dorminey argues that we on Earth need something like Starfleet Academy, to help us advance into space.

  • Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how the socio-spatial perspective helps us understand the development of cities.

  • Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res listens to the Paul McCartney album Flaming Pie.
  • io9 looks at Proxima, a contemporary spaceflight film starring Eva Green.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how the intense relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia began in, and reflected, the era of Jim Crow.

  • Language Hat notes a report suggesting that multilingualism helps ward off dementia.

  • Language Log takes issue with the names of the mascots of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the emergence of a ninth woman complaining about being harassed by Al Franken.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a new paper arguing that the Washington Consensus worked.

  • The NYR Daily shares an Aubrey Nolan cartoon illustrating the evacuation of war children in the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

  • At Out of Ambit, Diane Duane shares a nice collection of links for digital mapmakers.

  • The Planetary Society Blog looks at how the European Space Agency supports the cause of planetary defense.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews Kenyan writer Kevin Mwachiro at length.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on how a mysterious fast radio burst helped illuminate an equally mysterious galactic halo.

  • Strange Company reports on the mysterious and unsolved death in 1936 of Canadian student Thomas Moss in an Oxfordshire hayrick.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes how Mount Etna is a surpassingly rare decipoint.

  • Understanding Society considers the thought of Kojève, after Hegel, on freedom.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at the falling numbers of Russians, and of state support for Russian language and culture, in independent Central Asia.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how individual consumer responses are much less effective than concerted collective action in triggering change.

  • Arnold Zwicky reports on some transgender fashion models.

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  • Kingston is experiencing a serious housing crisis, exacerbated by the return of students to such educational institutions as Queen's. Global News reports.

  • CBC looks at how, on the eve of the federal election, issues like cost of living are big even in relatively affordable Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

  • CityLab looks at controversy in Paris over the reconstruction of the Gare du Nord station, here.

  • Vice shares photos of Gibraltar on the eve of Brexit, here.

  • Guardian Cities shares photos of the wordless images advertising shops in the city of Brazzaville, here.

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  • Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.

  • Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.

  • Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.

  • James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.

  • Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.

  • The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.

  • D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • The Dragon's Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.

  • io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.

  • Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.

  • Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.

  • The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.

  • Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.

  • The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.

  • Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.

  • Starts With a Bang's Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti's constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.

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  • The Crux looks at the australopiths, not-so-distant ancestors of modern humans.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the interest of NASA in exploring the lunar subsurface, including lava tubes.

  • Far Outliers looks at the politicking of mid-19th century European explorers in the Sahel.

  • io9 notes that the new Joker film is getting stellar reviews, aided by the performance of Joaquin Phoenix.

  • JSTOR Daily explores how, to meet censors' demands, Betty Boop was remade in the 1930s from sex symbol into housewife.

  • Language Log reports on an utter failure in bilingual Irish/English signage.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money shows that a history of slavery in the US (Canada too, I would add) must not neglect the enslavement of indigenous peoples.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a paper studying San Francisco looking at how rent control did not work.

  • The NYR Daily considers growing protest against air travel for its impact on global climate.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the queer romance film Bathroom Stalls & Parking Lots.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the influence of Russia in the former Soviet Union is undone by Russian imperialism.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the striking imagery--originally religious--of "carnal weapons".

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares images of Jupiter, imaged in infrared by ALMA.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at ocean upwelling on one class of super-habitable exoplanet.

  • D-Brief looks at how the Komodo dragon survived the threat of extinction.

  • Far Outliers reports on a mid-19th century slave raid in the Sahel.

  • Gizmodo notes that the secret US Air Force spaceplane, the X-37B, has spent two years in orbit. (Doing what?)

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the economic underpinnings of medieval convents.

  • Dave Brockington writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the continuing meltdown of the British political system in the era of Brexit, perhaps even of British democracy.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the impact of Brexit on the Common Travel Area.

  • Marginal Revolution reports on how Poland has tried to deter emigration by removing income taxes on young workers.

  • Carole Naggar writes at the NYR Daily about the photography of women photographers working for LIFE, sharing examples of their work.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why time has to be a dimension of the universe, alongside the three of space.

  • Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps shares NASA images of the forest fires of Amazonia.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that many Russophones of Ukraine are actually strongly opposed to Russia, contrary Russian stereotypes of language determining politics.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.

  • D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.

  • Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.

  • Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.

  • Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)

  • JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.

  • Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.

  • Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.

  • Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people's language.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait considers the question of where, exactly, the dwarf galaxy Segue-1 came from.

  • Centauri Dreams considers the import of sodium chloride for the water oceans of Europa, and for what they might hold.

  • D-Brief wonders if dark matter punched a holy in the Milky Way Galaxy.

  • JSTOR Daily warns that the increasing number of satellites in orbit of Earth might hinder our appreciation of the night sky.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the complications of democracy and politics in Mauritania.

  • Marginal Revolution wonders about the nature of an apparently very decentralized city of Haifa.

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There notes that, while our knowledge of the Big Bang is certainly imperfect, the odds of it being wrong are quite, quite low.

  • The Planetary Society Blog looks at the Hayabusa 2 exploration of asteroid Ryugu.

  • Vintage Space examines how Apollo astronauts successfully navigated their way to the Moon.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at press discussion in Russia around the decriminalization of soft drugs like marijuana.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at a comic depicting a "mememobile."

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  • r/imaginarymaps imagines a Germany united along religious lines, Protestant areas falling under Prussia and Catholic ones under Austria.

  • Reddit's imaginarymaps imagines a republican Great Britain. When could republicanism have taken off in the British Isles as a whole?

  • Reddit's imaginarymaps shares a map of a former Portuguese colony of Zambezia, a Lusophone nation stretching from the Atlantic at Namibia east through to Mozambique.

  • This r/imaginarymaps map, imagining a Japan (and northeast Asia generally) split into sheres of influence by rival European powers, treaty ports and all, surely describes a worst-case scenario for 19th century Japan. How likely was this?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines an Iran that, following a 9/11-style attack by Lebanese terrorists in Moscow, ends up partitioned between Soviet and US-Arab spheres of influence.

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  • Architectuul features a photo essay made by Evan Panagopoulos in the course of a hurried three-hour visit to the Socialist Modernist and modern highlights of 20th century Kiev architecture.

  • Bad Astrronomer Phil Plait notes how the latest planet found in the Kepler-47 circumbinary system evokes Tatooine.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at tide and radiation, and their impacts on potential habitability, in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

  • Citizen Science Salon looks at how the TV show Cyberchase can help get young people interested in science and math.

  • Crooked Timber mourns historian David Brion Davis.

  • The Crux looks at how the HMS Challenger pioneered the study of the deeps of the oceans, with that ship's survey of the Mariana Trench.

  • D-Brief looks at how a snowball chamber using supercooled water can be used to hunt for dark matter.

  • Earther shares photos of the heartbreaking and artificial devastation of the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil.

  • Gizmodo shares a beautiful Hubble photograph of the southern Crab Nebula.

  • Information is Beautiful shares a reworked version of the Julia Galef illustration of the San Francisco area meme space.

  • io9 notes that, fresh from being Thor, Jane Foster is set to become a Valkyrie in a new comic.

  • JSTOR Daily explains the Victorian fondness for leeches, in medicine and in popular culture.

  • Language Hat links to an interview with linguist Amina Mettouchi, a specialist in Berber languages.

  • Language Log shares the report of a one-time Jewish refugee on changing language use in Shanghai, in the 1940s and now.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the horror of self-appointed militias capturing supposed undocumented migrants in the southwestern US.

  • Marginal Revolution reports on the circumstances in which volunteer militaries can outperform conscript militaries.

  • At the NYR Daily, Christopher Benfey reports on the surprisingly intense connection between bees and mourning.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw, responding to Israel Folau, considers free expression and employment.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shares a guest post from Barney Magrath on the surprisingly cheap adaptations needed to make an iPhone suitable for astrophotography.

  • Peter Rukavina reports on the hotly-contested PEI provincial election of 1966.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains what the discovery of helium hydride actually means.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little praises the Jill Lepore US history These Truths for its comprehensiveness.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on the growing divergences in demographics between different post-Soviet countries.

  • Arnold Zwicky starts with another Peeps creation and moves on from there.

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  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a Balkans where Muslims remain in larger numbers throughout the peninsula, leading to border changes in the south, particularly.

  • An Ethiopia that has conquered most of the Horn of Africa by the mid-19th century, even going into Yemen, is the subject of this r/imaginarymaps map. Could this ever have happened?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines, here, a unified European Confederation descending from a conquest of Europe by Napoleon. Would this have been stable, I wonder?

  • Was the unification of Australia inevitable, or, as this r/imaginarymaps post suggests, was a failure to unify or even a later split imaginable?

  • Was a unified and independent Bengal possible, something like what this r/imaginarymaps post depicts?

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  • La Presse notes that the Bixi bike-sharing service in Montréal is celebrating its 11th anniversary.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how better policing cut into crime in Camden, New Jersey.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how Brexit and a hardened border will hit the Northern Ireland city of Derry.

  • Guardian Cities reports on the gang that goes around Rome at night making illegal repairs to crumbling infrastructure.

  • CityLab reports on how Cape Town is coping, one year after it nearly ran out of water.

  • Roads and Kingdoms shares tips for travellers visiting Hong Kong.

  • Guardian Cities reports on the families made refugees by Partition who tried to swap homes in Dhaka and Calcutta.

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  • A tiny house put on the market in Oshawa got a surprising amount of buzz before its sale. Global News reports.

  • The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares photos for a nearby crossing for the new Kitchener-Waterloo Ion light rail project, set to open very soon.

  • MTLBlog shares a map showing the distribution of some notable immigrant communities in Montréal.

  • Guardian Cities reports on how authorities in Accra are trying to deal with noise pollution produced by the city's many churches and preachers.

  • Roads and Kingdoms notes how elderly singles in Beijing use Changpu River Park as a place to meet new partners.

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  • Rosie Di Manno writes at the Toronto Star about the import of the concert that Sting threw in Oshawa for newly unemployed GM workers there.

  • Chicago is going to house some innovative new public housing designs, combining low-cost homes for access to physically attached libraries and their educational opportunities. WTTW reports.

  • CBC takes a look at the desperate last gap of the Montreal Star, forty years ago.

  • CBC reports on the mass excavation of tens of thousands of bodies, and their study by experts, conducted as part of a program of commuter rail construction at a site in London.

  • Ozy looks at the decline of Bulawayo, the second city of Zimbabwe.

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