rfmcdonald | Entries tagged with europa

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a study suggesting the Milky Way Galaxy took many of its current satellite galaxies from another, smaller one.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks of the importance of having dreams.

Centauri Dreams shares a study explaining how the debris polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs reveals much about exoplanet chemistry.

D-Brief notes that the intense radiation of Jupiter would not destroy potential traces of subsurface life on the surface of Europa.

Dangerous Minds looks at the strange musical career of Vader Abraham, fan of the Smurfs and of the Weepuls.

Aneesa Bodiat at JSTOR Daily writes about how the early Muslim woman of Haajar inspires her as a Muslim.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how an influx of American guns destabilizes Mexico.

The LRB Blog looks at the American abandonment of the Kurds of Syria.

Marginal Revolution notes how many mass protests are driven by consumer complaints.

The NYR Daily has an interview with EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, on the future of sovereignty.

Strange Company looks at the Dead Pig War between the US and the UK on San Juan Island in 1859.

Towleroad features the defense of Frank Ocean of his PrEP+ club night and the release of his new music.

Understanding Society looks at the sociology of norms.

Window on Eurasia suggests Russia and Ukraine each have an interest in the Donbass being a frozen conflict.

Arnold Zwicky looks at the weird masculinity of the pink jock.

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."

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.

The National Observer takes a look at the challenges, both technological and psychological, facing geoengineers as they and us approach our their hour of trial.

Evan Gough at Universe Today shares a proposal for a nuclear-fueled robot probe that could tunnel into the possibly life-supporting subsurface oceans of Europa.

Meghan Bartels at Scientific American notes a new study suggesting that most worlds with subsurface oceans, like Europa, are probably too geologically inactive to support life.

Matt Williams at Universe Today notes a new study demonstrating mechanisms by which exoplanets could develop oxygen-bearing atmospheres without life.

Gaurav Khanna writes at The Conversation about how, drawing on research done for the film Interstellar, it does indeed seem as if supermassive black holes like Sagittarius A* might be used as hyperspace portals if they are also slowly rotating.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the unusual object BST1047+1156, possibly a gas cloud or a faint galaxy.

Keith Kintigh at The Crux takes a look at the poor preservation of critical archeological data, the sort of basic information that would allow much to be reconstructed by future generations.

D-Brief notes that, with global warming, tropical cyclones are moving poleward.

Dead Things notes how the diversity of some styles of ancient tools found in Texas hint at possible pre-Clovis migrations to the Americas.

JSTOR Daily makes the case for lowering the voting age in the United States to 16, on the grounds of the reality of the many 16- and 17-year-olds who prove they can engage with the political process.

At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis takes a look at the importance of fire as an element of the environment in the western United States, something at once feared and appreciated.

The Map Room Blog highlights Navigating New York, an exhibition of ephemera (maps, tools, and others) relating to the New York City transit system running at the excellent New York Transit Museum.

Scientist Conor Nixon writes at the Planetary Society Blog about a recent expedition to the glaciers of Iceland, looking for environments analogous to Europa's.

Drew Rowsome reviews, and praises, the new LGBTQ anthology, Dark Rainbow: Queer Erotic Horror.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the early universe, where supermassive stars led to the formation of supermassive black holes.

Window on Eurasia shares an argument that, after about 2000, the lived experience of millions of Russians with life elsewhere in Europe made it impossible to continue to imagine "Europe" as separate from Russia, even contrasting with Russia.

Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative considers the extent to which a job seeming to be useful would have greater appeal than a less useful but higher-paying job.

Arnold Zwicky considers the origins of the Turkish taffy of his youth.

Centauri Dreams notes the lack of evidence for heat plumes around the Europan crater of Pwyll.

Patrick Nunn at The Crux writes about the new evidence for the millennias-long records preserved remarkably well in oral history.

D-Brief notes the discovery of a two-year cycle in gamma ray output in blazar PG 1553+113.

Bruce Dorminey notes a proposal from French astronomer Antoine Labeyrie to create a low-cost hypertelescope in nearby space.

Gizmodo interviews experts on the possibility of whether people who are now cryogenically frozen will be revived. (The consensus is not encouraging for current cryonicists.)

JSTOR Daily notes how, looking back at old records, we can identify many veterans of the US Civil War suffering from the sorts of psychological issues we know now that military veterans suffer from.

Language Hat notes the beauty of two stars' Arabic names, Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi, beta and alpha Librae.

The LRB Blog takes a look at the encounters of Anthony Burgess with the Russian language.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution is surprised that Canada has allowed China to add deep-sea sensors to its deep-sea observatories in the Pacific, in a geopolitically-concerned American way.

Tim Parks at the NYR Daily talks about the importance of translation, as a career that needs to be supported while also needing critiques.

Drew Rowsome takes a look at two shows on young people coming out, the web series It's Complicated and the documentary Room to Grow.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that the evidence of the existence of a potential Planet Nine in our solar system is not necessarily that strong.

Strange Maps shares a map of Europe in 1920, one oriented towards Americans, warning of famine across a broad swathe of the continent including in countries now no longer around.

Window on Eurasia notes that, in multiethnic Dagestan, Russian has displaced other local languages as a language of interethnic communication.

Arnold Zwicky announces the creation, at his blog via the sharing of a Liz Climo cartoon, of a new category at his blog relating to pandas.

Jon Cohen at Science Magazine describes the ever-worsening HIV/AIDS epidemic in Florida, with governmental inaction made worse by the diversity of the epidemic's pathways.

Maine coastal landowners are taking Nova Scotia business Acadian Seaplants to court over its harvesting of rockweed, and the legal fight centres over whether rockweed is an animal or a plant by state law. The National Post reports.

Wood Buffalo National Park, in northern Alberta, is undergoing serious degradation. Are the tar sands to blame? The National Post reports.

In some polar areas of Europa, sheltered from the radiation of Jupiter by ice, signs of life might be detectable mere centimetres below the surface. VICE's Motherboard reports.

Universe Today reports on the discovery of a star in galaxy NGC 7424, partner to supernova SN 2001ig, that survived its partner's explosion.

There definitely is something to the idea that oceans, and other large bodies of water, can be healing. The immenseness of Lake Ontario (to name one body) is sublime. Global News reports on one study.

The scale of the disaster in California's Salton Sea, drying up and poisoning the nearby land, is appalling. The Verge shows the scene.

NASA notes one mechanism for the gradual recycling of the ocean of Europa, up into its outer icy crust. Universe Today reports.

Some Earth bacteria could thrive in the predicted environment of Enceladus. Universe Today reports.

Cold environments still watery thanks to substantial amounts of brine could support life, conceivably on worlds as distant as Pluto. Universe Today reports.

Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase's Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.

Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.

Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.

Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.

D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.

Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo's Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.

The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.

Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?

The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.

Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul's Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.

Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.

At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.

JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)

Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?

Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?

The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.

Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)

The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.

Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.

Progressive Download's John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.

Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can't wait to see it.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

'Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen links to a giveaway of paranormal LGBT fiction.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares some stunning photos of Jupiter provided by Juno.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly looks at the desperate, multi-state strike of teachers in the United States. American education deserves to have its needs, and its practitioners' needs, met.

Centauri Dreams looks at PROCSIMA, a strategy for improving beamed propulsion techniques.

Crooked Timber looks at the history of the concept of the uncanny valley. How did the concept get translated in the 1970s from Japan to the wider world?

Dangerous Minds shares a 1980s BBC interview with William Burroughs.

The Dragon's Tales links to a paper tracing the origin of the Dravidian language family to a point in time 4500 years ago.

JSTOR Daily notes Phyllis Wheatley, a freed slave who became the first African-American author in the 18th century but who died in poverty.

Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.

Language Log looks at the forms used by Chinese to express the concepts of NIMBY and NIMBYism.

Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.

The NYR Daily notes that, if the United States junks the nuclear deal with Iran, nothing external to Iran could realistically prevent the country's nuclearization.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest findings from the Jupiter system, from that planet's planet-sized moons.

Roads and Kingdoms notes that many Rohingya, driven from their homeland, have been forced to work as mules in the illegal drug trade.

Starts With A Bang considers how early, based on elemental abundances, life could have arisen after the Big Bang. A date only 1 to 1.5 billion years after the formation of the universe is surprisingly early.

Strange Maps' Frank Jacobs notes how the centre of population of different tree populations in the United States has been shifting west as the climate has changed.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little takes a look at mechanisms and causal explanations.

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative's Frances Woolley takes a look at an ECON 1000 test from the 1950s. What biases, what gaps in knowledge, are revealed by it?

The Buzz, over at the Toronto Public Library, recommends some audiobooks, here.

Centauri Dreams features an essay, by Kostas Konstantindis, exploring how near-future technology could be used to explore the oceans of Europa and Enceladus for life.

Far Outliers takes a look at the many languages used in Persia circa 500 BCE.

Hornet Stories notes that Fox News has retracted a bizarrely homophobic op-ed on the Olympics by one of its executives.

JSTOR Daily explores what is really involved in the rumours of J. Edgar Hoover and cross-dressing.

Language Hat, in exploring Zadie Smith, happens upon the lovely word "cernuous".

Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an article, and starts a discussion, regarding the possibility of a North Korean victory early in the Korean War. What would have happened next?

The NYR Daily notes that Donald Trump is helping golf get a horrible reputation.

Supernova Condensate examines the science-fiction trope of artificial intelligence being dangerous, and does not find much substance behind the myth. If anything, the direction of the fear should lie in the other direction.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at two books which consider the origins of the Cold War from an international relations perspective. What were the actors trying to achieve?

Window on Eurasia makes the argument that the powerful clan structures of post-Soviet Dagestan are not primordial in origin, but rather represent attempts to cope with state failure in that Russian republic.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the existential problems facing Capita from a Coasian perspective. How is its business model fundamentally broken?

Arnold Zwicky, in taking apart an overcorrection, explains the differences between "prone" and "supine."

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at how contemporary lunar probes are prospecting for ice deposits on the dry Moon.

Centauri Dreams notes new models for the evolution of the orbit of the early Moon, and how this could well have influence the environment of the young Earth.

Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea that sponsoring women's entrepreneurship, rooted in the belief that women are limited by their income, is enough to deal with deeper gender inequity.

D-Brief notes that a brain implant--specifically, one making use of deep brain stimulation--actually can significantly improve memory in implantees.

Gizmodo notes that extrasolar objects like 'Oumuamua may well have played a significant role in interstellar panspermia, introducing life from one system to another.

At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone does the work and finds out that the Amish are not, in fact, destined to eventually repopulate the US, that despite high fertility rates Amish fertility rates have consistently fell over time, influenced by external issues like the economy.

JSTOR Daily has a thought-provoking essay taking a look at the feedback loops between envy and social media. Does social media encourage too narrow a realm of human achievements to be valued?

Language Hat notes a new book, Giorgio Van Straten's In Search of Lost Books, noting all those texts which once existed but have since gone missing.

Lawyers, Guns and Money, noting the strongly negative reaction to Katie Roiphe's essay in Harper's against feminism, takes care to note that "disagreement" is not at all the same thing as "silencing".

The NYR Daily looks at the many ways in which Sweden has been taken as a symbol for progressivism, and the reasons why some on the right look so obsessively for signs that it is failing.

At the Planetary Society Blog, Casey Dreier writes about the ways in which the Falcon Heavy, if it proves to be as inexpensive as promised, could revolutionize the exploration of (for instance) outer system ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus.

Drew Rowsome quite likes Rumours, a performance of the famous Fleetwood Mac album of that name, at Toronto's Coal Mine Theatre.

Bloomberg notes the impending commercial introduction of DNA tests that can be used to recommend particular diets for customers.

The Gaia satellite found a vast cluster of stars hidden by our bright neighbour Sirius. Universe Today reports.

Icy worlds like Europa and Enceladus, famous for their subsurface water oceans, might have surfaces too fluffy for probes to land safely. Universe Today reports.

The introduction of driverless trucks at the Suncor tar sands developments in Alberta will save on wear and tear, but will also cost 400 jobs. The Toronto Star reports.

This claim that University of Alberta researchers have decrypted the Voynich manuscript and found it written in a variant of Hebrew seems, perhaps, optimistic. The National Post reports.

Anthropology.net notes that the discovery of an ancient Homo sapiens jawbone in Israel pushes back the history of our species by quite a bit.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of spiral galaxy NGC 1398.

Centauri Dreams considers the ways in which the highly reflective surface of Europa might be misleading to probes seeking to land on its surface.

The Dragon's Tales rounds up more information about extrasolar visitor 'Oumuamua.

Far Outliers considers the staggering losses, human and territorial and strategic, of Finland in the Winter War.

Hornet Stories notes preliminary plans to set up an original sequel to Call Me Be Your Name later in the 1980s, in the era of AIDS.

Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res considers if Wichita will be able to elect a Wichitan as governor of Kansas, for the first time in a while.

io9 takes a look at the interesting ways in which Star Wars and Star Trek have been subverting traditional audience assumptions about these franchises.

JSTOR Daily links to a paper examining what decision-makers in North Vietnam were thinking on the eve of the Tet offensive, fifty years ago.

The LRB Blog takes a look at a new book examining the 1984 IRA assassination attempt against Margaret Thatcher.

The Map Room Blog links to an article examining how school districts, not just electoral districts, can be products of gerrymandering.

Marginal Revolution seeks suggestions for good books to explain Canada to non-Canadians, and comes up with a shortlist of its own.

Kenan Malik at the NYR Daily takes a look at contemporary efforts to justify the British Empire as good for its subjects. Who is doing this, and why?

'Nathan Smith at Apostrophen points out that claiming to disagree with homosexuality while respecting gay people is nonsensical. https://apostrophen.wordpress.com/2018/01/11/queer-isnt-an-opinion/

Centauri Dreams notes the innovative cheap PicSat satellite, currently monitoring Beta Pictoris with its known exoplanet. https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=39109

Corey Robin at Crooked Timber argues that Trump is shaky, weaker than American democracy. (Not that that is going that well, mind.) http://crookedtimber.org/2018/01/13/trumps-power-is-shakier-than-american-democracy/

The Crux points out the sentient, including emotions, of any number of animal species. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/01/11/animals-feelings-sentient/

Far Outliers notes some German commanders in western Europe who quickly surrendered to the Allies in the Second World War, and why they did that. http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2018/01/quick-german-surrenders-in-west.html

Hornet Stories notes how a court decision dealing with a Romanian man and his American husband could lead to European Union-wide recognition of same-sex marriage. https://hornetapp.com/stories/european-union-gay-marriage/

JSTOR Daily notes how air pollution is a human rights issue. https://daily.jstor.org/why-air-pollution-is-a-socioeconomic-issue/

Language Hat notes how the use of the apostrophe in the newly Latin script-using Kazakh language is controversial. http://languagehat.com/apostrophe-catastrophe-in-kazakhstan/

Geoffrey Pullim at Lingua Franca shares a passage from Muriel Spark's fiction depicting students' reactions to learning foreign languages. https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/01/11/a-foreign-way-which-never-really-caught-on

The LRB Blog tells the story of Omid, an Iranian who managed to smuggle himself from his home country to a precarious life in the United Kingdom. https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2018/01/15/behzad-yaghmaian/omids-journey/

The Map Room Blog shares a newly-updated map of "Trumpworld" the world as seen by Donald Trump. http://www.maproomblog.com/2018/01/trumpworld/

Marginal Revolution notes research indicating that dolphins have a grasp on economics, and what this indicates about their sentience. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/dolphin-capital-theory.html

The Planetary Society Blog notes how the upcoming Europa Clipper probe will be able to analyze Europa's oceans without encountering plumes of water. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2018/20180111-no-plumes-no-problem.html

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer suggests that, with the declining import of informal rules in American politics, a future Democratic-majority Congress might be able to sneak through statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. http://noelmaurer.typepad.com/aab/2018/01/breaking-norms-by-adding-states.html

Rocky Planet reports on the disastrous mudflows that have hit southern California after the fires. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/rockyplanet/2018/01/12/mudflows-devastate-parts-of-southern-california/

Drew Rowsome praises new horror from Matt Ruff. http://drewrowsome.blogspot.com/2018/01/lovecraft-country-matt-ruffs-multi.html

Peter Rukavina talks about his positive experiences with a walk-in mental health clinic on the Island. https://ruk.ca/content/i-went-mental-health-walk-clinic-and-so-can-you

Strange Company talks about the bizarre 1982 disappearance of one Donald Kemp. Did he even die? http://strangeco.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-strange-exit-of-donald-kemp.html

Towleroad notes that Peter Thiel is trying to buy Gawker, perhaps to destroy its archives. http://www.towleroad.com/2018/01/gawker-peter-thiel/

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares one picture of a vast galaxy cluster to underline how small our place in the universe is.

The Boston Globe's The Big Picture shares some photos of Syrian refugee families as they settle into the United States.

Centauri Dreams looks at the Dragonfly proposal for a Titan lander.

The Crux notes the exceptional vulnerability of the cultivated banana to an otherwise obscure fungus.

Bruce Dorminey notes NASA's preparation of the Clipper mission to investigate Europa.

The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas takes a look at the role of surveillance in the life of the modern student.

Hornet Stories has a nice interview of Sina Grace, author of Marvel's Iceman book.

Joe. My. God. reshared this holiday season a lovely anecdote, "Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians."

JSTOR Daily took a look at why Americans like dieting so much.

The LRB Blog considers the Thames Barrier, the meager protection of London against tides in a time of climate change.

The Map Room Blog notes the digitization of radar maps of Antarctica going back to the 1960s.

Marginal Revolution seems cautiously optimistic about the prospects of Morocco.
Russell Darnley at maximos62 is skeptical about the prospects of the forests of Indonesia's Riau province.

Stephanie Land at the NYR Daily talks about how she managed to combine becoming a writer with being a single mother of two young children.

Out There argues a lunar fuel depot could help support crewed interplanetary exploration.

Science Sushi notes genetic evidence the lionfish invasion of the North Atlantic off Florida began not with a single escape but with many.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the argument an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri could have significant technological spinoffs.

Supernova Condensate makes the point, apropos of nothing at all, that spaceship collisions can in fact unleash vast amounts of energy.

Window on Eurasia notes that, while Kazakhs see practical advantages to cooperation with Russia, they also see some problems.

GRIST points out that the massive growth in electricity consumption in bitcoin mining is starting to have an impact on the overall global environment.

CBC reports on the analysis of the fossil of Halszkaraptor escuilliei, a dinosaur that evokes a contemporary heron more than anything else.

Universe Today reports on a study suggesting that worlds like Europa and Enceladus, with habitable oceans located beneath icy surfaces, are far more common than Earth-like worlds in conventional circumstellar habitable zones.

Centauri Dreams links to archival video painstakingly collected from the Voyager missions.

Citizen Science Salon notes ways ordinary people can use satellite imagery for archaeological purposes.

Good news: Asian carp can't find a fin-hold in Lake Michigan. Bad news: The lake is so food-deprived nothing lives there. The Crux reports.

D-Brief notes that, once every second, a fast radio burst occurs somewhere in the universe.

Dangerous Minds looks at the psychedelic retro-futurism of Swedish artist Kilian Eng.

Dead Things notes the recovery of ancient human DNA from some African sites, and what this could mean for study.

Cody Delistraty reconsiders the idea of the "coming of age" narrative. Does this make sense now that we have abandoned the idea of a unitary self?

The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining the evolution of icy bodies around different post-main sequence stars.

The Great Grey Bridge's Philip Turner notes anti-Putin dissident Alexei Navalny.

Hornet Stories notes reports of anti-gay persecution in Azerbaijan.

Language Log takes a look at the dialectal variations of southern Ohio.

Lawyers, Guns and Money starts a discussion about what effective disaster relief for Puerto Rico would look like.

The LRB Blog looks at the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Mexico, and the story of the buried girl who was not there.

Marginal Revolution notes that Toronto real estate companies, in light of rent control, are switching rental units over to condos.

Naked Anthropologist Laura Agustín takes a look at the origins and stories of migrant sex workers.

The NYR Daily talks about the supposedly unthinkable idea of nuclear war in the age of Trump.

Drew Rowsome gives a strongly positive--and deserved review to the Minmar Gaslight show The Seat Next to the King, a Fringe triumph now playing at the Theatre Centre.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how so many outer-system icy worlds have liquid water.

Towleroad features Jim Parsons' exploration of how important is for him, as a gay man, to be married.

Window on Eurasia suggests Russian language policy limiting minority languages in education could backfire, and wonders if Islamization one way people in an urbanizing North Caucasus are trying to remain connected to community.

Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.

D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.

The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans' habitability.

The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.

Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.

Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, "My Immortal", has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.

Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)

Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.

At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.

Livejournal's pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.

Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry's Auroville Café.

Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.

Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.

Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
[NEWS] Five science links: geoengineering, Europa probe, ocean worlds, oxygen, black hole portals
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
[NEWS] Five science links: HIV/AIDS in Florida, Maine rockweed, Wood Buffalo, Europa, SN 2001ig
[NEWS] Links on oceans near and far: mental health, Salton Sea, Europa, Enceladus, Pluto
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
[BLOG] Some Monday links
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
[BLOG] Some Friday links
[NEWS] Some sci-tech links: DNA tests, stars, Europa and Enceladus, driverless trucks, Voynich
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
[NEWS] Three science links: bitcoin and the environment, Halszkaraptor escuillei, ocean worlds
[BLOG] Some Monday links
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

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Assorted Personal Notations, Essays, and Other Jottings

Entries tagged with europa

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[NEWS] Five science links: geoengineering, Europa probe, ocean worlds, oxygen, black hole portals

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[NEWS] Five science links: HIV/AIDS in Florida, Maine rockweed, Wood Buffalo, Europa, SN 2001ig

[NEWS] Links on oceans near and far: mental health, Salton Sea, Europa, Enceladus, Pluto

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[BLOG] Some Monday links

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

[BLOG] Some Friday links

[NEWS] Some sci-tech links: DNA tests, stars, Europa and Enceladus, driverless trucks, Voynich

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[NEWS] Three science links: bitcoin and the environment, Halszkaraptor escuillei, ocean worlds

[BLOG] Some Monday links

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

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February 2021

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