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Charlie Stross at Antipope shares an essay he recently presented on artificial intelligence and its challenges for us.

P. Kerim Friedman writes at {anthro}dendum about the birth of the tea ceremony in the Taiwan of the 1970s.

Anthropology net reports on a cave painting nearly 44 thousand years old in Indonesia depicting a hunting story.

Architectuul looks at some temporary community gardens in London.

Bad Astronomy reports on the weird history of asteroid Ryugu.

The Buzz talks about the most popular titles borrowed from the Toronto Public Library in 2019.

Caitlin Kelly talks at the Broadside Blog about her particular love of radio.

Centauri Dreams talks about the role of amateur astronomers in searching for exoplanets, starting with LHS 1140 b.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber looks at what is behind the rhetoric of "virtue signalling".

Dangerous Minds shares concert performance from Nirvana filmed the night before the release of Nevermind.

Bruce Dorminey notes new evidence that, even before the Chixculub impact, the late Cretaceous Earth was staggering under environmental pressures.

Myron Strong at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about how people of African descent in the US deal with the legacies of slavery in higher education.

Far Outliers reports on the plans in 1945 for an invasion of Japan by the US.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing gathers together a collection of the author's best writings there.

Gizmodo notes the immensity of the supermassive black hole, some 40 billion solar masses, at the heart of galaxy Holm 15A 700 million light-years away.

Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res writes about the issue of how Wichita is to organize its civic politics.

io9 argues that the 2010s were a decade where the culture of the spoiler became key.

The Island Review points readers to the podcast Mother's Blood, Sister's Songs, an exploration of the links between Ireland and Iceland.

Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of the lawyer of the killer of a mob boss that the QAnon conspiracy inspired his actions. This strikes me as terribly dangerous.

JSTOR Daily looks at a study examining scholarly retractions.

Language Hat shares an amusing cartoon illustrating the relationships of the dialects of Arabic.

Language Log lists ten top new words in the Japanese language.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the dissipation of American diplomacy by Trump.

The LRB Blog looks at the many problems in Sparta, Greece, with accommodating refugees, for everyone concerned.

Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting the decline of the one-child policy in China has diminished child trafficking, among other crimes.

Sean Marshall, looking at transit in Brampton, argues that transit users need more protection from road traffic.

Russell Darnley shares excerpts from essays he wrote about the involvement of Australia in the Vietnam War.

Peter Watts talks about his recent visit to a con in Sofia, Bulgaria, and about the apocalypse, here.

The NYR Daily looks at the corporatization of the funeral industry, here.

Diane Duane writes, from her own personal history with Star Trek, about how one can be a writer who ends up writing for a media franchise.

Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections considers the job of tasting, and rating, different cuts of lamb.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at a nondescript observatory in the Mojave desert of California that maps the asteroids of the solar system.

Roads and Kingdoms interviews Eduardo Chavarin about, among other things, Tijuana.

Drew Rowsome loves the SpongeBob musical.

Peter Rukavina announces that Charlottetown has its first public fast charger for electric vehicles.

The Russian Demographics Blog considers the impact of space medicine, here.

The Signal reports on how the Library of Congress is making its internet archives more readily available, here.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how the incredibly isolated galaxy MCG+01-02-015 will decay almost to nothing over almost uncountable eons.

Strange Company reports on the trial and execution of Christopher Slaughterford for murder. Was there even a crime?

Strange Maps shares a Coudenhove-Kalergi map imagining the division of the world into five superstates.

Understanding Society considers entertainment as a valuable thing, here.

Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine announces his new book, Où va l'argent des pauvres?

John Scalzi at Whatever looks at how some mailed bread triggered a security alert, here.

Window on Eurasia reports on the massive amount of remittances sent to Tajikistan by migrant workers, here.

Arnold Zwicky notes a bizarre no-penguins sign for sale on Amazon.

Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.

Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.

Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.

Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.

The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.

Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.

Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn't this have been not mockable but rather creative?

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.

Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.

Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.

Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?

The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.

Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People's Theatre.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.

Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.

Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.

Centauri Dreams reports on the emergent ARIEL telescope, here.

Centauri Dreams reports on the return of Hayabusa2 from Ryugu, here.

Centauri Dreams shares a new map showing all of the landforms of Titan.

Centauri Dreams looks at the propulsion technology of the electric sail.

Centauri Dreams looks at the once-surprising number of planets found in multiple star systems.

(A day late, I know; I crashed after work yesterday.)

Antipope's Charlie Stross has a thought experiment: If you were superwealthy and guaranteed to live a long health life, how would you try to deal with the consequence of economic inequality?

Vikas Charma at Architectuul takes a look at the different factors that go into height in buildings.

Bad Astronomy notes S5-HVS1, a star flung out of the Milky Way Galaxy by Sagittarius A* at 1755 kilometres per second.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares photos from two Manhattan walks of hers, taken in non-famous areas.

Centauri Dreams looks at habitability for red dwarf exoplanets. Stellar activity matters.

Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber shares words from a manifesto about data protection in the EU.

Dangerous Minds shares photos from Los Angeles punks and mods and others in the 1980s.

Bruce Dorminey notes a ESA report suggesting crew hibernation could make trips to Mars easier.

Gizmodo notes that the Hayabusa2 probe of Japan is returning from asteroid Ryugu with a sample.

Imageo shares photos of the disastrous fires in Australia from space.

Information is Beautiful reports on winners of the Information is Beautiful Awards for 2019, for good infographics.

JSTOR Daily explains how local television stations made the ironic viewing of bad movies a thing.

Kotaku reports on the last days of Kawasaki Warehouse, an arcade in Japan patterned on the demolished Walled City of Kowloon.

Language Hat notes how translation mistakes led to the star Beta Cygni gaining the Arabic name Albireo.

Language Log reports on a unique Cantonese name of a restaurant in Hong Kong.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an analysis of his suggesting the military of India is increasingly hard-pressed to counterbalance China.

The LRB Blog notes the catastrophe of Venice.

Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting states would do well not to place their capitals too far away from major population centres.

Justin Petrone at North! remarks on a set of old apple preserves.

The NYR Daily looks at how the west and the east of the European Union are divided by different conceptions of national identity.

Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reports from his town of Armidale as the smoke from the Australian wildfires surrounds all. The photos are shocking.

Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog lists some books about space suitable for children.

Drew Rowsome reviews the Canadian film music stand, inspired by the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting that, in Switzerland, parenthood does not make people happy.

The Signal notes that 1.7 million phone book pages have been scanned into the records of the Library of Congress.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains the concept of multi-messenger astronomy and why it points the way forward for studies of astrophysics.

Strange Maps looks at how a majority of students in the United States attend diverse schools, and where.

Strange Company explores the mysterious death of Marc-Antoine Calas, whose death triggered the persecution of Huguenots and resulted in the mobilization of Enlightenment figures like Voltaire against the state. What happened?

Towleroad hosts a critical, perhaps disappointed, review of the major gay play The Inheritance.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at the power of individual people in political hierarchies.

Window on Eurasia shares an opinion piece noting how many threats to the Russian language have come from its association with unpopular actions by Russia.

Arnold Zwicky explores queens as various as Elizabeth I and Adore Delano.

Bad Astronomy notes a new detailed study suggesting that asteroid Hygeia is round. Does this mean it is a dwarf planet?

The Buzz notes that the Toronto Public Library has a free booklet on the birds of Toronto available at its branches.

Crooked Timber looks forward to a future, thanks to Trump, without the World Trade Organization.

D-Brief notes how the kelp forests off California were hurt by unseasonal heat and disease.

Bruce Dorminey notes an impending collision of supergalactic clusters.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how judgement can complicate collective action.

Language Hat looks at the different definitions of the word "mobile".

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=44807

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how, if anything, climate scientists make conservative claims about their predictions.

Marginal Revolution wonders if planned power outages are a good way to deal with the threat of wildfires in California.

The NYR Daily looks at the ethnic cleansing being enabled by Turkey in Kurdish Syria.

Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews archeologist Arthur Lin about his use of space-based technologies to discovery traces of the past.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks at the staggering inequality in Chile, driver of the recent protests.

At Roads and Kingdoms, Anthony Elghossain reports from the scene of the mass protests in Lebanon.

Drew Rowsome tells how his balcony garden fared this year.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at stellar generations in the universe. (Our sun is a third-generation star.)

Strange Company looks at the murder of a girl five years old in Indiana in 1898. Was the neighbor boy twelve years old accused of the crime the culprit?

Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine takes a look at social mobility in France.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little considers economic historians and their study of capitalism.

Window on Eurasia looks at the pro-Russian policies of the Moldova enclave of Gagauzia, and draws recommendations for Ukraine re: the Donbas.

Universe Today looks at the explosions of sand which mark spring on Mars, here.

The Mars moons of Phobos and Deimos are excellent first stops for crewed missions, Universe Today argues here.

Universe Today notes that, in their hot youth, metal asteroids like Psyche might have had volcanoes ejecting molten iron.

The supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy GSN 069 is eating something on a 9 hour cycle. Universe Today explains.

What is killing star formation in the distant galaxies of the Virgo Cluster? The Conversation reports.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports suggestions the bizarre happenings at Boyajian's Star could be explained by an evaporating exomoon.

Centauri Dreams looks at how the crowdsourced evScope telescope is being used to support the Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojans.

The Crux explains the phenomenon of misophobia.

D-Brief shares suggestions that an asteroid collision a half-billion years ago released clouds of dust that, reaching Earth, triggered the mid-Ordovician ice age.

Dangerous Minds shares video of a perhaps underwhelming meeting of William Burroughs with Francis Bacon.

io9 makes the case for more near-future space exploration movies like Ad Astra.

Joe. My. God. notes a Trump retweeting of the lie that Ilham Omar celebrated on 9/11.

JSTOR Daily notes how fire could destroy the stressed rainforest of the Amazon.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how few judges in the US have been impeached.

The LRB Blog looks at how the already tenuous position of Haitians in the Bahamas has been worsened by Dorian.

The Map Room Blog looks at the importance of the integrity of official maps in the era of Trump.

Marginal Revolution looks at the political importance of marriage ceremonies in Lebanon and Gaza.

Drew Rowsome interviews the Zakar Twins on the occasion of their new play Pray the Gay Away, playing in Toronto in October.

The Russian Demographic Blog shares statistics on birthrates in the different provinces of the Russian Empire circa 1906.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on the first experiment done on the photoelectric effect, revealing quantum mechanics.

Window on Eurasia looks at growing anti-Chinese sentiments in Central Asia.

Arnold Zwicky looks at "The Hurtful Dog", a Cyanide and Happiness cartoon.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how variable gravity is on irregular asteroid Bennu.

Bruce Dorminey reports on how the European Southern Observatory has charted the Magellanic Clouds in unprecedented detail.

The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links looking at the Precambrian Earth.

Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the late 1950s race to send probes to the Moon.

Gizmodo shares some stunning astronomy photos.

JSTOR Daily reports on the saltwater roads, the routes that slaves in Florida used to escape to the free Bahamas.

Language Log looks at some examples of bad English from Japan. How did they come about?

Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money rejects the idea of honouring people like Condoleezza Rice.

Marginal Revolution considers the idea of free will in light of neurology.

Corey S Powell at Out There interviews James Lovelock on his new book Novacene, in which Lovelock imagines the future world and Gaia taken over by AI.

Window on Eurasia notes the water shortages faced by downstream countries in Central Asia.

The Buzz shares a TIFF reading list, here.

Centauri Dreams notes the growing sensitivity of radial velocity techniques in finding weird exoplanet HR 5183 b, here.

The Crux reports on circumgalactic gas and the death of galaxies.

Dead Things notes the import of the discovery of the oldest known Australopithecine skull.

Dangerous Minds reports on pioneering 1930s queer artist Hannah Gluckstein, also known as Gluck.

Gizmodo notes that, for an unnamed reason, DARPA needs a large secure underground testing facility for tomorrow.

JSTOR Daily looks at how Jim Crow laws affected Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century US.

Language Hat looks at a new project to study Irish texts and language over centuries.

Language Log shares some Chinglish signs from a top university in China.

Lawyers, Guns and Money shares an interview with Jeffrey Melnick suggesting Charles Manson was substantially a convenient boogeyman.

Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting marijuana legalization is linked to declining crime rates.

Susan Neiman at the NYR Daily tells how she began her life as a white woman in Atlanta and is ending it as a Jewish woman in Berlin.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at Hayabusa2 at Ryugu.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel celebrated the 230th anniversary of Enceladus, the Saturn moon that might harbour life.

Window on Eurasia notes how global warming is harming the rivers of Siberia, causing many to run short.

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.

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."

Centauri Dreams considers the recent study of near-Earth asteroid 1999 KW4, looking at it from the perspective of defending the Earth and building a civilization in space.

Ingrid Robeyns at Crooked Timber continues a debate on universal basic income.

The Dragon's Tales considers if India does need its own military space force.

JSTOR Daily looks at how foster care in the United States (Canada, too, I'd add) was also synonymous with sending children off as unpaid farm labourers.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money shares a proposal, linking immigration to high-income countries to the idea of immigration as reparation for colonialism.

The LRB Blog considers the ever-growing presence of the dead on networks like Facebook.

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad at the NYR Daily looks at how Bellingcat and other online agencies have transformed investigative journalism.

The Russian Demographics Blog shares a speech by the head of the Bank of Japan talking about the interactions of demographic change and economic growth.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the mystery behind the great mass of early black hole J1342+0928.

Strange Company looks at the unsolved Christmas 1928 disappearance of young Melvin Horst from Orrville, Ohio. What happened?

Window on Eurasia notes that Uzbekistan is moving the Latin script for Uzbek into closer conformity with its Turkish model.

Architectuul looks at some architecturally innovative pools.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Wolf 359, a star made famous in Star Trek for the Starfleet battle there against the Borg but also a noteworthy red dwarf star in its own right.

Centauri Dreams looks at how the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will play a vital role in interplanetary navigation.

The Crux considers the "drunken monkey" thesis, the idea that drinking alcohol might have been an evolutionary asset for early hominids.

D-Brief reports on what may be the next step for genetic engineering beyond CRISPR.

Bruce Dorminey looks at how artificial intelligence may play a key role in searching for threat asteroids.

The Island Review shares some poetry from Roseanne Watt, inspired by the Shetlands and using its dialect.

Livia Gershon writes at JSTOR Daily about how YouTube, by promising to make work fun, actually also makes fun work in psychologically problematic ways.

Marginal Revolution notes how the relatively small Taiwan has become a financial superpower.

Janine di Giovanni at the NYR Daily looks back at the 2000 intervention in Sierra Leone. Why did it work?

Jamais Cascio at Open the Future looks back at a 2004 futurological exercise, the rather accurate Participatory Panopticon. What did he anticipate correctly? How? What does it suggest for us now to our world?

The Planetary Society Blog notes that LightSail 2 will launch before the end of June.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how the discovery of gas between galaxies helps solve a dark matter question.

Strange Company shares a broad collection of links.

Window on Eurasia makes the obvious observation that the West prefers a North Caucasus controlled by Russia to one controlled by Islamists.

Arnold Zwicky takes a look at American diner culture, including American Chinese food.

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.

Architectuul notes the recent death of I.M. Pei.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes what, exactly, rubble-pile asteroids are.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about definitions of home.

Centauri Dreams considers white dwarf planets.

The Crux notes how ultra-processed foods are liked closely to weight gain.

D-Brief observes that a thin layer of insulating ice might be saving the subsurface oceans of Pluto from freezing out.

Bruce Dorminey notes the critical role played by Apollo 10 in getting NASA ready for the Moon landings.

The Dragon's Tales notes the American government's expectation that China will seek to set up its own global network of military bases.

Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the Soviet Union's Venera 5 and 6 missions to Venus.

Far Outliers looks at the visit of U.S. Grant to Japan and China.

Gizmodo notes a recent analysis of Neanderthal teeth suggesting that they split with Homo sapiens at a date substantially earlier than commonly believed.

io9 notes the sheer scale of the Jonathan Hickman reboots for the X-Men comics of Marvel.

Joe. My. God. shares the argument of Ted Cruz that people should stop making fun of his "space pirate" suggestion.I am inclined to think Cruz more right than not, actually.

JSTOR Daily notes the wave of anti-black violence that hit the United States in 1919, often driven by returned veterans.

Language Hat shares a recognizable complaint, written in ancient Akkadian, of bad customers.

Language Log shares a report of a village in Brittany seeking people to decipher a mysterious etching.

This Scott Lemieux report at Lawyers, Guns and Money about how British conservatives received Ben Shapiro is a must-read summary.

Benjamin Markovits at the LRB Blog shares the reasons why he left his immigrant-heavy basketball team in Germany.

Marginal Revolution looks at one effort in Brazil to separate people from their street gangs.

The NYR Daily looks at how ISIS, deprived of its proto-state, has managed to thrive as a decentralized network.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences and perceptions of his native region of New England, in southeastern Australia.

The Planetary Society Blog notes how the Chang'e 4 rover may have found lunar mantle on the surface of the Moon.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that while Argentine president Mauricio Macri is polling badly, his opponents are not polling well.

Roads and Kingdoms shares a list of things to do in see in the Peru capital of Lima.

The Signal examines how the Library of Congress engages in photodocumentation.

Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal explains how he is helping native insects by planting native plants in his garden.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how scientific illiteracy should never be seen as cool.

Towleroad notes the questions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as to why Truvada costs so much in the United States.

Window on Eurasia notes how family structures in the North Caucasus are at once modernizing and becoming more conservative.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes how the distribution of US carriers and their fleets at present does not support the idea of a planned impending war with Iran.

Arnold Zwicky examines the tent caterpillar of California.

Architectuul writes about the exciting possibility of using living organisms, like fungi, as custom-designed construction materials.

Bad Astronomy looks at first-generation stars, the first stars in the universe which exploded and scattered heavy elements into the wider universe.

Caitlin Kelly writes at the Broadside Blog, as an outsider and an observer, about the American fascination with guns.

The Toronto Public Library's Buzz lists some top memoirs.

Centauri Dreams considers the vexed issue of oxygen in the oceans of Europa. There may well not be enough oxygen to sustain complex life, though perhaps life imported from Earth might be able to thrive with suitable preparation.

The Crux looks at the well-established practice, not only among humans but other animals, of using natural substances as medicines.

D-Brief looks at the NASA Dart mission, which will try to deflect the tiny moon of asteroid Didymos in an effort to test asteroid-diversion techniques.

io9 reports George R.R. Martin's belief that Gandalf could beat Dumbledore. I can buy that, actually.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the local reactions to Woodstock.

Language Hat looks at the language in a 19th century short story by Nikolai Leskov, concerned with the difficulties of religious conversion for a people whose language does not encompass the concepts of Christianity.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a book review of his examining the Marshall mission to Nationalist China after the Second World War.

Marginal Revolution links to survey results suggesting that, contrary to the Brexit narratives, Britons have actually been getting happier over the past two decades.

The NYR Daily reports on an exhibition of the universe of transgressive writer Kathy Acker in London.

Drew Rowsome reviews the innovative new staging of the queer Canadian classic Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times.

Towleroad reports on the progress of Pete Buttigieg.

Window on Eurasia notes that Russia and Ukraine are becoming increasingly separated by their very different approaches to their shared Soviet past.

Arnold Zwicky looks at the latest evolutions of English.

Architectuul takes a look at "infrastructural scars", at geopolitically-inspired constructions like border fences and fortifications.

Centauri Dreams notes what we can learn from 99942 Apophis during its 2029 close approach to Earth, just tens of thousands of kilometres away.

D-Brief reports on the reactions of space artists to the photograph of the black hole at the heart of M87.

Dangerous Minds shares the first recording of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

The Dragon's Tales notes that Germany has begun work on drafting laws to cover space mining.

Gizmodo reports on what scientists have learned from the imaging of a very recent impact of an asteroid on the near side of the Moon.

io9 makes the case that Star Trek: Discovery should try to tackle climate change.

Joe. My. God. notes that Verizon is seeking a buyer for Tumblr. (Wouldn't it be funny if it was bought, as other reports suggest might be possible, by Pornhub?)

JSTOR Daily reports on a 1910 examination of medical schools that, among other things, shut down all but two African-American medical schools with lasting consequences for African-American health.

Language Log asks why "Beijing" is commonly pronounced as "Beizhing".

Simon Balto asks at Lawyers, Guns and Money why the murder of Justine Ruszczyk by a Minneapolis policeman is treated more seriously than other police killings, just because she was white and the cop was black. All victims deserve the same attention.

Russell Darnley at Maximos62 shares a video of the frieze of the Parthenon.

The NYR Daily responds to the 1979 television adaptation of the Primo Levi novel Christ Stopped at Eboli, an examination of (among other things) the problems of development.

Peter Rukavina is entirely right about the practical uselessness of QR codes.

Daniel Little at Understanding Society points readers towards the study of organizations, concentrating on Charles Perrow.

Window on Eurasia notes the argument of one Russian commentator that Russia should offer to extend citizenship en masse not only to Ukrainians but to Belarusians, the better to undermine independent Belarus.

Arnold Zwicky shares photos of some of his flourishing flowers, as his home of Palo Alto enters a California summer.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the many galaxies in the night sky caught mid-collision.

Centauri Dreams reports on the plan of China to send a probe to explore near-Earth co-orbital asteroid 2016 HO3 and comet 133P.

Gizmodo reports, with photos, on the progress of the Chang'e 4 and the Yutu 2 rover, on the far side of the Moon.

Joe. My. God. notes that Bill de Blasio hopes to ban new steel-and-glass skyscrapers in New York City, part of his plan to make the metropolis carbon-neutral.

JSTOR Daily notes a critique of the BBC documentary Planet Earth, arguing the series was less concerned with representing the environment and more with displaying HD television technology.

Language Hat notes the oddities of the name of St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna. How did "Mark" get so amusingly changed?

Language Log looks at how terms for horse-riding might be shared among Indo-European languages and in ancient Chinese.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the grounds for the workers of New York's Tenement Museum to unionize.

The NYR Daily notes the efforts of Barnard College Ancient Drama, at Columbia University, to revive Greek drama in its full with music and dance, starting with a Euripedes performance.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares some iconic images of the Earth from space for Earth Day.

Evan Gough at Universe Today notes the possibility that the asteroid Psyche, in its hot youth, might have had volcanoes ejecting molten iron.

Matt Williams at Universe Today notes a new paper suggesting that, on suitable exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri b, their stars produce environments not much more hostile than those suffered by the early Earth.

Nadia Drake at National Geographic notes the news of the possible discovery of a second exoplanet at Proxima Centauri, c, in a five-year orbit.

Matt Williams at Universe Today shares a study tracing the paths of the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft over millennia of movement in interstellar space.

Jason Pontin at WIRED shares the result of a study of twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, noting how space affected Scott Kelly in negative ways. Long-distance human spaceflight is possible, but more work is definitely needed for it to be safe, even survivable.

Charlie Stross hosts at Antipope another discussion thread examining Brexit.

Architectuul takes a look at five overlooked mid-20th century architects.

Bad Astronomy shares a satellite photo of auroras at night over the city lights of the Great Lakes basin and something else, too.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the directions love has taken her, and wonders where it might have taken her readers.

Centauri Dreams reports on the Hayabusa 2 impactor on asteroid Ryugu.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the claims of Steven Pinker about nuclear power.

D-Brief notes the detection, in remarkable detail, of a brilliant exocomet at Beta Pictoris.

The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility that China might be building a military base in Cambodia.

Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the importance of small social cues, easily overlookable tough they are.

Far Outliers notes the role of Japan's imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, in post-war Japan.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing writes about the potential inadequacy of talking about values.

Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting the surprising and potentially dangerous diversity of bacteria present on the International Space Station.

Mark Graham shares a link to a paper, and its abstract, examining what might come of the creation of a planetary labour market through the gig economy.

Hornet Stories takes a look at Red Ribbon Blues, a 1995 AIDS-themed film starring RuPaul.

io9 notes that Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke are co-writing a Pan's Labyrinth novel scheduled for release later this year.

Joe. My. God. notes a new study suggesting 20% of LGBTQ Americans live in rural areas.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the Bluestockings, the grouping of 18th century women in England who were noteworthy scholars and writers.

Language Hat notes an ambitious new historical dictionary of the Arabic language being created by the emirate of Sharjah.

Language Log examines, in the aftermath of a discussion of trolls, different cultures' terms for different sorts of arguments.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how early forestry in the United States was inspired by socialist ideals.

The Map Room Blog links to a map showing the different national parks of the United Kingdom.

Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, noting the new findings from the Chixculub impact, notes how monitoring asteroids to prevent like catastrophes in the future has to be a high priority.

The New APPS Blog explains how data, by its very nature, is so easily made into a commodity.

The NYR Daily considers the future of the humanities in a world where higher education is becoming preoccupied by STEM.

Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews Bear Grylls about the making of his new documentary series Hostile Planet.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw considers the pleasures of birds and of birdwatching.

Jason C. Davis at the Planetary Society Blog noted the arrival of the Beresheet probe in lunar orbit.

Drew Rowsome reviews the new amazing-sounding play Angelique at the Factory Theatre.

The Russian Demographics Blog notes a paper that makes the point of there being no automatic relationship between greater gender equality and increases in fertility.

The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress has made use of the BagIt programming language in its archiving of data.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel comes up with questions to ask plausible visitors from other universes.

Strange Company notes the mysterious deaths visited on three members of a British family in the early 20th century. Who was the murderer? Was there even a crime?

Towleroad notes the activists, including Canadian-born playwright Jordan Tannahill, who disrupted a high tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London over the homophobic law passed by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei.

Window on Eurasia notes rising instability in Ingushetia.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that the British surveillance of Huawei is revealing the sorts of problems that must be present in scrutiny-less Facebook, too.

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