rfmcdonald | Entries tagged with geopolitics

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Marginal Revolution features a critical if friendly review of the new Emmanuel Todd book, Lineages of Modernity.

Marginal Revolution considers the problems of excessive consumer activism, here.

Marginal Revolution notes a new book looking at natural gas economics in Europe, here.

Marginal Revolution notes new evidence that YouTube algorithms do not tend to radicalize users, here.

Marginal Revolution notes the few countries where the average person was richer in 2009 than in 2019, notably Greece and Venezuela.

NOW Toronto looks at the Pickering nuclear plant and its role in providing fuel for space travel.

In some places like California, traffic is so bad that airlines actually play a role for high-end commuters. CBC reports.

Goldfish released into the wild are a major issue for the environment in Québec, too. CTV News reports.

China's investments in Jamaica have good sides and bad sides. CBC reports.

A potato museum in Peru might help solve world hunger. The Guardian reports.

Is the Alberta-Saskatchewan alliance going to be a lasting one? Maclean's considers.

Is the fossil fuel industry collapsing? The Tyee makes the case.

Should Japan and Europe co-finance a EUrasia trade initiative to rival China's? Bloomberg argues.

Should websites receive protection as historically significant? VICE reports.

Food tourism in the Maritimes is a very good idea. Global News reports.

Atlantic Canada lobster exports to China thrive as New England gets hit by the trade war. CBC reports.

The Bloc Québécois experienced its revival by drawing on the same demographics as the provincial CAQ. Maclean's reports.

Population density is a factor that, in Canada, determines political issues, splitting urban and rural voters. The National Observer observes.

US border policies aimed against migration from Mexico have been harming businesses on the border with Canada. The National Post reports.

The warming of the ocean is changing the relationship of coastal communities with their seas. The Conversation looks.

Archival research in the digital age differs from what occurred in previous eras. The Conversation explains.

The Persian-language Wikipedia is an actively contested space. Open Democracy reports.

Vox notes how the US labour shortage has been driven partly by workers quitting the labour force, here.

Laurie Penny at WIRED has a stirring essay about hope, about the belief in some sort of future.

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.

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.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the findings that the LISA Pathfinder satellite was impacted by hypervelocity comet fragments.

Centauri Dreams reports on what we have learned about interstellar comet Borisov.

Bruce Dorminey notes the ESA's Matisse instrument, capable of detecting nanodiamonds orbiting distant stars.

Gizmodo reports a new study of the great auk, now extinct, suggesting that humans were wholly responsible for this extinction with their hunting.

The Island Review links to articles noting the existential vulnerability of islands like Venice and Orkney to climate change.

Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of Tucker Carlson--perhaps not believably retracted by him--to be supporting Russia versus Ukraine.

Language Hat reports on the new Indigemoji, emoji created to reflect the culture and knowledge of Aboriginal groups in Australia.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes one of the sad consequences of the American president being a liar.

James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the optimism of the spending plans of Labour in the UK, a revived Keynesianism.

Marginal Revolution notes the exceptional cost of apartments built for homeless people in San Francisco.

Strange Maps looks at some remarkable gravity anomalies in parts of the US Midwest.

Towleroad notes the support of Jamie Lee Curtis for outing LGBTQ people who are homophobic politicians.

Understanding Society looks at organizations from the perspective of them as open systems.

Whatever's John Scalzi gives a generally positive review of the Pixel 4.

Arnold Zwicky notes the irony of sex pills at an outpost of British discount chain Poundland.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait observes that a team may have discovered the elusive neutron star produced by Supernova 1987A, hidden behind a cloud of dust.

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber shares a photo he made via the time-consuming 19th century wet-plate collodion method.

Drew Ex Machina's Andrew LePage looks at the Apollo 12 visit to the Surveyor 3 site to, among other things, see what it might suggest about future space archeology.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the story of rural poverty facing a family in Waverly, Ohio, observing how it is a systemic issue.

George Dvorsky at Gizmodo looks at how Mars' Jezero crater seems to have had a past relatively friendly to life, good for the next NASA rover.

Joe. My. God. reports on the latest ignorance displayed by Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, this time regarding HIV.

JSTOR Daily looks at how Climategate was used to undermine popular opinion on climate change.

Language Hat links to an article explaining why so many works of classical literature were lost, among other things not making it onto school curricula.

Language Log shares a photo of a Muji eraser with an odd English label.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests Pete Buttigieg faces a campaign-limiting ceiling to his support among Democrats.

The LRB Blog argues that Macron's blocking of EU membership possibilities for the western Balkans is a terrible mistake.

The Map Room Blog shares a map depicting regional variations in Canada towards anthropogenic climate change. Despite data issues, the overall trend of oil-producing regions being skeptical is clear.

Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the slowing pace of labour mobility in the US, suggesting that home attachment is a key factor.

Frederic Wehrey at the NYR Daily tells the story of Knud Holmboe, a Danish journalist who came to learn about the Arab world working against Italy in Libya.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why thermodynamics does not explain our perception of time.

Understanding Society's Dan Little looks at Electronic Health Records and how they can lead to medical mistakes.

Whatever's John Scalzi shares a remarkable photo of the night sky he took using the astrophotography mode on his Pixel 4 phone.

Window on Eurasia shares an opinion that the Intermarium countries, between Germany and Russia, can no longer count on the US and need to organize in their self-defense.

Arnold Zwicky shares a photo of his handsome late partner Jacques Transue, taken as a college student.

(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.

CBC looks at the internal splits within British Columbia, between the Liberal-leaning coast and the Alberta-leaning interior, here.

The legal departure of oil company EnCana from its Alberta headquarters is the cause of great upset. CBC reports.

Will Andrew Scheer survive as leader of the Conservative Party, with challengers like Peter MacKay? The National Observer reports.

People in Lloydminister, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, reflect the frustrations of the populations of the two provinces. CBC reports.

Philippe Fournier at MacLean's writes about the sharp rural-urban political split in Canada.

Green Party Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin is interviewed by the National Observer about her goals, here.

The Treaty 8 chiefs have united in opposition to the separation of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Global News reports.

CBC reported on the multiple MP candidates who, genealogist Darryl Leroux found, falsely claimed indigenous ancestry.

Jessica Deer reported for CBC about the near-universal boycott by the Haudenosaunee of #elxn43, and the reasons for this boycott.

Scott Gilmore recently a href="https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-u-s-is-sinking-maybe-its-time-for-canada-to-jump-ship/">suggested at MacLean's that, noting American instability, Canada might do well to secure itself and promote its multilateralism by seeking to join the EU.

Bad Astronomer notes the circumstances of the discovery of a low-mass black hole, only 3.3 solar masses.

Crooked Timber shares a photo of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.

The Crux looks at Monte Verde, the site in Chile that has the evidence of the oldest human population known to have lived in South America.

The Dragon's Tales notes that Russia may provide India with help in the design of its Gaganyaan manned capsule.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing talks of his work, including his upcoming conference and his newsletter, The Convivial Society. (Subscribe at the website.)

Gizmodo shares the Voyager 2 report from the edges of interstellar space.

JSTOR Daily looks at the East India Company and its corporate lobbying.

Language Hat shares an account from Ken Liu of the challenges in translating The Three Body Problem, linguistic and otherwise.

Language Log looks at the problems faced by the word "liberation" in Hong Kong.

Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the implications of the surprising new relationship between Russia and the Philippines.

Marginal Revolution seems to like Terminator: Dark Fate, as a revisiting of the series' origins, with a Mesoamerican twist.

Sean Marshall announces his attendance at a transit summit in Guelph on Saturday the 9th.

Garry Wills writes at the NYR Daily about his experience as a man in the mid-20th century American higher education looking at the rise of women.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the strangely faint distant young galaxy MACS2129-1.

Window on Eurasia considers the possibility of Latvia developing a national Eastern Orthodox church of its own.

Bad Astronomy looks at ALMA's observations of the birth of binary star system, here.

The Buzz, at the Toronto Public Library, announces the Governor-General's Literary Awards from 2019, here.

Centauri Dreams notes how we might be able to find a wormhole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Crux commemorates the enormously successful and long-lasting Voyager missions.

D-Brief notes a self-tending swarm search and rescue drones.

Bruce Dorminey notes how the first discoveries of exoplanets were a consequence of innovative technology and thinking.

Steve Attewell at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that he is talking about the new idea in X-Men of a mutant nation-state over at Graphic Policy Radio.

The LRB Blog notes Manif pour Tous mobilizing against new human reproduction laws in France.

Marginal Revolution looks at how the drug war in Mexico has been getting worse.

Neuroskeptic considers: What traits would a human population adapted to contemporary environmental pressures exhibit?

The NYR Daily looks at a new exhibition of critical Internet-related art by Meriam Bennani.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at a remarkable double gravitational lens, and what it reveals about the universe.

Window on Eurasia notes that although half of working-age people in Uzbekistan have been educated in the Latin script, many remain fluent in Cyrillic.

Arnold Zwicky considers the many implications of fried pickles with ranch dressing.

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.

What will become of the Azerbaijani language in education in Iran? More here.

Is a Russia-Belarus state union feasible? More here.

Is Estonia, as some would have it, a viable model for the Finnic Mordvin peoples of the Russian interior? More here.

Will Russia be happy with its alliance with China if this makes it a secondary partner, a relatively weaker exporter of resources? More here.

How many Muslims are there in Moscow, and what import does the controversy over their numbers carry? More here.

Is the Russian fertility rate set to stagnate, leading to long-term sharp decline? More here.

If 10% of the Russian working-age population has emigrated, this has serious consequences for the future of Russia. More here.

Irredentism in Kazakhstan, inspired by the example of Crimea, is just starting to be a thing. More here.

The decline of Russian populations in the north of Kazakhstan, and the growth of Uzbeks, is noteworthy. More here.

The different Russian proposals for the future of the Donbas, an analyst notes, are built to keep Ukraine a neutral country. More here.

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.

Adam Fish at anthro{dendum} compares different sorts of public bathing around the world, from Native America to Norden to Japan.

Charlie Stross at Antipope is unimpressed by the person writing the script for our timeline.

Architectuul reports on an architectural conference in Lisbon.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the eruption of the Raikoke volcano in Kamchatka.

Centauri Dreams looks at what the Voyager spacecraft have returned about the edge of the solar system.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea of bipartisanship if it means compromising on reality, allegorically.

The Crux counts the number of people who have died in outer space.

D-Brief notes that the Andromeda Galaxy has swallowed up multiple dwarf galaxies over the eons.

Dead Things notes the identification of the first raptor species from Southeast Asia, Siamraptor suwati.

The Dragon's Tales notes a paper tracing the origins of interstellar comet 2/Borisov from the general area of Kruger 60.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the privilege allowing people access to affordable dental care.

Gizmodo tells how Alexei Leonov survived the first spacewalk.

io9 looks at the remarkable new status quo for the X-Men created by Jonathan Hickman.

Selma Franssen at the Island Review writes about the threats facing the seabirds of the Shetlands.

JSTOR Daily looks at what led Richard Nixon to make so many breaks from the American consensus on China in the Cold War.

Language Log notes an undergraduate course at Yale using the Voynich Manuscript as an aid in the study of language.

Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains her recent experience of the socialized health care system of Israel for Americans.

The LRB Blog looks at how badly the Fukuyama prediction of an end to history has aged.

The Map Room Blog shares a few maps of the new Ottawa LRT route.

Marginal Revolution notes a paper establishing a link between Chinese industries undermining their counterparts in Mexico and Mexican social ills including crime.

Sean Marshall reports from Ottawa about what the Confederation Line looks like.

Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily looks at the power of improvisation in music.

Roads and Kingdoms looks at South Williamsburg Jewish deli Gottlieb's.

Drew Rowsome reviews the new Patti Smith book, Year of the Monkey.

The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking as the factors leading into transnational movements.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the question of the direction(s) in which order in the universe was generated.

Window on Eurasia shares a report noting the very minor flows of migration from China to Russia.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the politics in the British riding of Keighley.

Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguin socks.

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 Astronomy notes the remarkably eccentric orbit of gas giant HR 5138b.

Centauri Dreams notes the impact that large-scale collisions have on the evolution of planets.

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber noted yesterday that babies born on September 11th in 2001 are now 18 years old, adults.

The Crux notes that some of the hominins in the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain, ancestors to Neanderthals, may have been murdered.

D-Brief reports on the cryodrakon, a pterosaur that roamed the skies above what is now Canada 77 million years ago.

Dangerous Minds looks at the political artwork of Jan Pötter.

Gizmodo notes a poll suggesting a majority of Britons would support actively seeking to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations.

io9 has a loving critical review of the first Star Trek movie.

JSTOR Daily shares, from April 1939, an essay by the anonymous head of British intelligence looking at the international context on the eve of the Second World War.

Language Log notes a recent essay on the mysterious Voynich manuscript, one concluding that it is almost certainly a hoax of some kind.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the future of the labour movement in the United States.

Marginal Revolution considers what sort of industrial policy would work for the United States.

Yardena Schwartz writes at NYR Daily about the potential power of Arab voters in Israel.

Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections explains why, despite interest, Australia did not launch a space program in the 1980s.

Drew Rowsome provides a queer review of It: Chapter Two.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how government censorship of science doomed the Soviet Union and could hurt the United States next.

Window on Eurasia notes how, in the Volga republics, recent educational policy changes have marginalized non-Russian languages.

Arnold Zwicky shares a glossy, fashion photography-style, reimagining of the central relationship in the James Baldwin classic Giovanni's Room, arranged by Hilton Als.

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".

Real estate in Hamilton, Ontario, is quite affordable by GTA standards. Global News reports.

Québec City has a new farmer's market to replace an old. CBC reports.

San Jose, California, is set to embark on a grand experiment in cohousing, CityLab reports.

These vast abandoned apartment blocks in the desert outside of Tehran speak of economic underperformance, to say the least. Messynessychic has it.

Now that Hong Kong has not just competition from other cities in China but is finding itself outmatched by the likes of Shenzhen and Shanghai, the city-state's bargaining power is accordingly limited. The SCMP reports.

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.

D-Brief reports on the abundance of plastic waste found buried in the beaches of the Cocos Islands.

Joe. My. God. notes that the US has imposed tariffs against India.

JSTOR Daily looks at the strange history of phrenology.

Lawyers, Guns and Money takes note of the Trump Administration's honouring of Arthur Laffer.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks at the electricity price crisis that might determine who gets to be elected president of Argentina.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how the Pauli Exclusion Principle makes matter possible.

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy argues against importing the principles of the Berlin Wall to the US-Mexico border.

Window on Eurasia shares concerns that Russia is trying to expand its influence in the east of Belarus.

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