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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Arnold Zwicky reports on some transgender fashion models.

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  • Will a pedestrian death at Yonge and Eglinton lead to an easing of the nightmare for people faced with Eglinton Crosstown construction? blogTO ,a href="https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/09/yonge-eglinton-construction-pedestrian-nightmare/">reports.

  • An automated shuttle is set to pilot in 2020 in east-end Toronto. Global News reports.

  • Jamie Bradburn writes about the Labour Day celebrations in Toronto in 1929, here.

  • blogTO notes the construction of a much-needed pedestrian bridge in Liberty Village, here.

  • Guardian Cities notes official skepticism in Toronto over the Sidewalk Labs proposal in the Port Lands, here.

  • Andrew Wheeler, writing in the Toronto Star, notes that the appearance of institutionally homophobic Chick-fil-A just a few minutes walk from Church and Wellesley, poses a threat that needs to be fought.

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  • CBC reports on the controversies surrounding the creation of a loonie one-dollar coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

  • Daily Xtra reports on the consequences of the election of Jason Kenney and the rise of the UCP to power in Alberta for LGBTQ people.

  • This VICE interview with Queer Eye subject Jess Guilbeaux on her experiences being black and lesbian in Kansas is inspiring.

  • This Radiichina article, noting American concerns over Chinese ownership of Grindr, looks on China's similar and arguably more successful app Blued.

  • This fascinating Vox article by Emily Sandalwood looks at how the Wachowskis represented the trans experience in the Matrix trilogy.

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  • 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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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the newly-named Neptune moon of Hippocamp, and how it came about as product of a massive collision with the larger moon of Proteus.

  • Centauri Dreams also reports on the discovery of the Neptune moon of Hippocamp.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes how the attempt to revoke the citizenship of Shamima Begum sets a terribly dangerous precedent for the United Kingdom.

  • D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting the role of the Deccan Traps volcanic eruptions in triggering the Cretaceous extinction event, alongside the Chixculub asteroid impact.

  • Far Outliers notes the problems of Lawrence of Arabia with Indian soldiers and with Turks.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing takes issue with the state of philosophical contemplation about technology, at least in part a structural consequence of society.

  • Hornet Stories shares this feature examining the future of gay porn, in an environment where amateur porn undermines the existing studios.

  • JSTOR Daily considers the spotty history of casting African-American dancers in ballet.

  • Language Hat suggests that the Académie française will soon accept for French feminized nouns of nouns links to professionals ("écrivaine" for a female writer, for instance).

  • The LRB Blog considers the implications of the stripping of citizenship from Shamima Begum. Who is next? How badly is citizenship weakened in the United Kingdom?

  • Marginal Revolution notes the upset of Haiti over its banning by Expedia.

  • The NYR Daily notes the tension in Turkey between the country's liberal laws on divorce and marriage and rising Islamization.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the moment, in the history of the universe, when dark energy became the dominant factors in the universe's evolution.

  • Towleroad remembers Roy Cohn, the lawyer who was the collaborator of Trump up to the moment of Cohn's death from AIDS.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little takes a look at Marx's theories of how governments worked.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at the existential pressures facing many minority languages in Russia.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the Triangulum galaxy.

  • The Crux notes how innovative planning and recovery missions helped many NASA missions, like the Hubble and Kepler telescopes, improve over time.

  • Sea stars on the Pacific coast of North America, D-Brief notes, are starting to die out en masse.

  • David Finger at the Finger Post shows his readers his recent visit to the Incan ruins at Ollantaytambo, in Peru.

  • Gizmodo notes how astronomers accidentally found the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Bedin I a mere 30 million light years away.

  • JSTOR Daily notes the new evidence supporting the arguments of W.E.B. Dubois that black resistance under slavery helped the Confederacy lose the US Civil War.

  • Language Hat notes the discovery of a new trilingual inscription in Iran, one combining the Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages.

  • Language Log notes the impending death of the Arabic dialect of old Mosul, and notes what its speakers are said to talk like birds.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money thinks that if Cary Booker does not win the Democratic nomination for 2020, he will at least push the discourse leftwards.

  • Marginal Revolution notes new evidence that the post-1492 depopulation of the Americas led directly to the global cooling of the Little Ice Age.

  • Neuroskeptic considers the ways in which emergence, at different levels, could be a property of the human brain.

  • The NYR Daily features an excerpt from the new Édouard Louis book, Who Killed My Father, talking about the evolution relationship with his father over time.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw muses on the potential for a revival of print journalism in Australia.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews journalist Jason Rezaian on the subject of his new book about his long imprisonment in Iran.

  • Drew Rowsome writes about how censorship, on Facebook and on Blogspot, harms his writing and his ability to contribute to his communities.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel writes about how galaxy clusters lead to the premature death of stellar formation in their component galaxies.

  • Window on Eurasia notes a new poll from Ukraine suggesting most Orthodox Christians there identify with the new Ukrainian national church, not the Russian one.

  • Arnold Zwicky talks about language, editing, and error.

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  • Zoe Todd at {anthro}dendum writes about white hostility in academia, specifically directed towards her Indigenous background.

  • Architectuul writes about 3650 Days, a book celebrating a architectural festival in Sarajevo.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes a proposal to look for Planet Nine by examining its impact on the local microwave background, legacy of the Big Bang.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing considers the relationship between the natural and the artificial.

  • This remarkable essay at Gizmodo explains how the random selection of locations on maps by cartographers can create real-world problems for people who live near these arbitrary points.

  • Language Log looks at a visual pun in a recent K-Pop song.

  • Conrad Landin at the LRB Blog bids farewell to HMV, a store done in perhaps as much by predatory capitalism as by the changing music business.

  • Marginal Revolution notes the impact of the federal government shutdown on Washington D.C.

  • James Kirchick writes at the NYR Blog about pioneering activist Frank Kameny and his fight against the idea of a cure for gayness.

  • Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares a recipe for a quick Asian peanut soup, with photo.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why a particular lava flow has blue lava.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, by virtue of its independence and sheer size, will be a major player in the Orthodox world.

  • Arnold Zwicky starts one post by noting how certain long-necked kitchenware bears a striking resemblance to extinct dinosaurs.

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  • Bad Astronomer notes a serendipitous photo of two galaxies, one in front of the other, and what this photo reveals about their structures.

  • Dangerous Minds notes how, and why, Robert Crumb rejected the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger.

  • D-Brief notes that every hot Jupiter has clouds on its nightside.

  • Earther notes that, after a century and a half, iguanas have been reintroduced to the largest island in the Galapagos.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes how the data self is a shadow of the social self.

  • Gizmodo shares a stunning photo mosaic by Hubble of the Triangulum Galaxy, third-largest component of the Local Group.

  • JSTOR Daily takes a look at the story of William Faulkner and his engagement with Hollywood.

  • Language Log looks at the possibility of outside influence, from other language groups including Indo-European, on a Sinitic word for "milk".

  • Marginal Revolution links to a London Review of Books article looking at the different national reactions to Brexit from each of the EU-27.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how Israel is exporting its technologies developed during the occupation of the Palestinians globally.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog looks at the latest census data on the languages spoken in England.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why astronomers have not yet been able to locate (or exclude as a possibility) Planet Nine.

  • Towleroad notes that the homophobia of Bolsonario began to be implemented on his first day as president of Brazil.

  • Daniel Little at Understanding Society takes a look at some sociological examinations of the research university.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that many congregations in the west and centre of Ukraine once links to the Russian Orthodox Church have switched to the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but that this has not happened in the east.

  • Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the appearance of a conlang in comics.

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  • Ontario PCs have shamefully voted in favour of no longer recognizing gender identity. If this party, forming a government that has already invoked the notwithstanding clause, tries anything else against transgender people, let the fight start. Global News reports.

  • The essay of Peter Knegt at CBC Arts highlighting problems of queer representation in Bohemian Rhapsody needs to be read. Why is so much of the queer content fictionally represented as negative?

  • Peter Knegt at CBC Arts points out that Scott Thompson deserves to be recognized as a Canadian treasure.

  • This Jon Shadel essay at them exploring how the Internet opened up new channels for communication and self-identification as a queer person speaks deeply to me.

  • The Houston Chronicle explores Check Please, Ngozi Ukazu's fantastic queer hockey webcomic.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait goes into more detail about the Milky Way Galaxy's ancient collision with and absorption of dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus.

  • Centauri Dreams considers SETI in the infrared, looking at the proposal to use a laser to signal our existence to observers of our sun.

  • D-Brief notes a study of Neanderthal children's teeth that documents their hazardous environment, faced with cold winters and lead contamination.

  • The Island Review shares three lovely islands-related poems by writer Naila Moreira.

  • JSTOR Daily asks an important question: Can the United States and China avoid the Thucydides trap, a war of the rising power with the falling one? Things seems uncertain at this point.

  • Mark Liberman at Language Log looks at the continuing lack of progress of machine translation.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a recent discussion on the Roman Republic, noting how imperialism and inequality led to that polity's transformation into an empire. Lessons for us now?

  • The Map Room Blog shares a Canadian Geographic map describing the different, declining, populations of caribou in the north of Canada.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting that global pandemics will not necessarily kill us all off, that high-virulence infections might be outcompeted and, even, controllable.

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at historical reasons for the prominence of Rembrandt in the British artistic imagination.

  • Towleroad notes that Massachusetts voted to keep transgender rights protected.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that the quality of Russian taught in schools in Uzbekistan is declining. I wonder: Is this a matter of a Central Asian variety emerging, perhaps?

  • Livio di Matteo at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes a look at the long-run economic growth of Australia, contrasting it with the past and with other countries. In some ways, Canada (among others) is a stronger performer.

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  • Centauri Dreams looks at the latest images of asteroid Bennu provided by the OSIRIS-REx probe.

  • The Crux notes the impact of genetic research on theories of language among the Neanderthals. If they were, as seems very likely, users of language, did their language use differ from that of homo sapiens sapiens?

  • D-Brief notes that climate change leads to changes in the microbiology of soils. (What effect would this have on the environment? Unknown, as of yet.)

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that the Indian aircraft Vikramaditya has just had its second refit completed.

  • Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the social construction of geography. How are categories created, for instance?

  • Far Outliers looks at efforts to educate prisoners of war in the Second World War-era United States, to use them even as test-beds for a wider reeducation of their societies.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing, considering the idea of the society of the spectacle of Debord after the thoughts of Foucault, notes the early prediction of a fusion between surveillance and spectacle, of a fusion between the two.

  • Hornet Stories notes the anti-gay policies of the government of Tanzania government, arguing that country cannot be allowed to be a second Chechnya.

  • JSTOR Daily notes how the rhetoric of Richard Nixon helped pave the way for Donald Trump.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money argues that even if the Democratic Party loses today's elections in the United States, Americans should still have hope, should still work for a better future. I wish you all luck, myself.

  • The Map Room Blog looks at Stanford University's archive of the Maps of the Office of Strategic Studies.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining immigrant success in Sweden, noting the complicating picture of general success: Children of more deprived refugees do better than more favoured ones.

  • The NYR Daily looks at early feminist Ernestine Rose.

  • Roads and Kingdoms looks at the work of Cambodian architect Dy Preoung, who during the Khmer Rouge era managed to preserve his work on Angkor Wat.

  • Drew Rowsome looks at the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, focusing on its queer elements.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel examines how black holes actually do evaporate.

  • Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy notes the signal flaws with the argument that migrants should stay at home and fix their country. (What if they have no chance to, for instance?)

  • Window on Eurasia notes that the West has a vested interest in the survival of Lukashenka in Belarus, if only because a sudden liberalization could well lead to a Russian invasion.

  • Nick Rowe at the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes a look at "bicycle disequilibrium theory".

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers nearby galaxy NGC 6744, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy that may look like the Milky Way.

  • D-Brief notes the remarkable ceramic spring that gives the mantis shrimp its remarkably powerful punch.

  • Far Outliers notes how the north Korean port of Hamhung was modernized in the 1930s, but also Japanized, with few legacies of its Korean past remaining.

  • Joe. My. God. notes how the Trump administration plans to define being transgender out of existence. Appalling.

  • Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes the ways in which the Internet has undermined the traditions which support American political institutions. Can new traditions be made?

  • Lawyers, Guns, and Money notes how the Trump's withdrawal from the INF treaty with Russia on nuclear weapons harms American security.

  • Rose Jacobs at Lingua Franca writes about ways in which derision, specifically of other nationalities, enters into English slang.

  • Marginal Revolution notes that, in an article surveying the Icelandic language, a report that sales of books in Iceland have fallen by nearly half since 2010.

  • The NYR Daily looks at two recent movies, one autobiographical and one fictional, looking at dads in space.

  • Jason Perry at the Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest imagery of the volcanoes of Io.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the possibility that time travel might not destroy the universe via paradoxes.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that the experience of post-Soviet Estonia with its two Orthodox churches might be a model for Ukraine.

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  • CityLab wonders how the new CAQ government of Québec will come into conflict with Valérie Laplante in Montréal, a city that wants mass transit not highways and that voted against the CAQ.

  • CityLab considers what could become of The Mall, the neglected central park of Cleveland.

  • Osaka just cut its ties with San Francisco over that city's erection of a monument honouring the comfort women of Second World War Japan. VICE reports.

  • This article in Guardian Cities examining the Chinese creation of a virtually new and highly autonomous city, Port City, on Sri Lanka to support China's aspirations in the Indian Ocean is revealing.

  • Kris Janssens at the Inter Press Service looks at how the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville is being transformed by Chinese investment and trade into a regional metropolis.

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  • At the CLGA, Craig Jennex writes about the early activism of Canadian LGBT activist Jim Egan, writing letters to defend gay people in post-war homophobic times.

  • Them profiles the Queer Appalachia Instagram account and its creators.

  • Them reports on a survey suggesting that one-fifth of young Latinx people in the US identify as queer.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on a lesbian sex scandal at a Renaissance Italy convent.

  • The Nib shares a delightful, and historically accurate, cartoon describing how out German aristocrat Baron von Steuben played a critical role in the success of the Americans in their war of independence.

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  • Masha Gessen at The New Yorker reports on the arguments of American queer historian Martin Duberman about mistakes that gay rights movement has made.

  • Arshy Mann at Daily Xtra reports on how, in Russia and Poland and Hungary and now Brazil, homophobia is being used as a mobilizing tool by the far right.

  • Them reports on a study suggesting LGBTQ people are twenty times as likely to be social activists as cishets. (The overall rates, though, are still low.)

  • Mike Miksche writes at Them about the genesis of the famous Andrew Holleran novel Dancer from the Dance and its impact.

  • Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy points to a compelling argument at the Wall Street Journal why the Obergefell decision legalizing gay marriage nation-wide in the United States will not be revisited. (I hope.)

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  • Centauri Dreams shares a proposal for unmanned probe missions to future incoming extrasolar asteroids like 'Oumuamua.

  • The Crux considers, in the context of recent (perhaps surprising) context, how scientists will one day record dreams.

  • Hornet Stories shares the report on a poll of younger gay people about the idea of monogamous relations versus open ones, suggesting there are signs a strong preference for monogamy isn't well thought out.

  • Imageo notes that global warming, by leading to the breakup of icecaps, will worsen the sea ice hazard to maritime shipping.

  • JSTOR Daily notes how social workers are called to support serious social reform.

  • Language Hat notes a monument to the Cyrillic alphabet erected in Antarctica by Bulgarians.

  • In the era of Trump, Lingua Franca takes a look at the origin of the phrase "useful idiots".

  • Marginal Revolution notes a recent article observing the decline of German cuisine in the United States. Who, or what, will save it?

  • At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla talks about the latest exciting discoveries from Titan, including the odd distribution of nitrogen in its atmosphere and surface.

  • Towleroad notes how the discomfort of Ben Carson with transgender people leads him to consider the needs of homeless transgender people as secondary to this discomfort.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that Cossacks in Russia are close to gaining recognition as a separate people.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests--jokes?--that intellectual history from 1900 can be explained substantially in terms of the uncritical adoption of a nomad science, starting from race science and continuing to today with Harry Potter.

  • Arnold Zwicky <a href="https://arnoldzwicky.org/2018/03/22/the-sociolinguistics-of-chicano-english-sh-ch-in-el-barrio/><U>shares</u></a> a post reporting on a PhD student's thesis, studying features of Chicano English.</li> </ul>
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  • NOW Toronto gives a glowing review to Love, Simon, one that praises the film for its quality and for its importance.

  • CBC reports on how Toronto police seem to have badly mishandled Abdulbasir Faizi.

  • The inquiry into the alleged McArthur murders most definitely should be independent of police chief Saunders. NOW Toronto reportsA.

  • This story of how a recipe for pickled cucumbers survived the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s is powerful. Taste Cooking has it.

  • The way in which LGBTQ rights became a hot political issue in the recent Italian elections is not good. Open Democracy reports.

  • The politicization of homophobia across the former Soviet Union is horrible. Open Democracy reports.

  • Why do so many people on the American right insist that Obama is gay? VICE reports.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that a recent massive flare at Proxima Centauri, one that made the star become a thousand times brighter, not only makes Proxima b unlikely to be habitable but makes it unlikely Proxima has (as some suggested) a big planetary system.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that South Korea, contrary to earlier reports, is not going to ban cryptocurrency.

  • Hornet Stories notes that six American states--Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma--have seen the introduction of legislation replacing marriage with a marriage contract, on account of marriage equality.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the deep similarities and differences between serfdom in Russia and slavery in the United States, both formally abolished in the 1860s.

  • Language Hat links to a Telegraph article reporting on the efforts of different people to translate different ancient languages.

  • The New APPS Blog notes that, after Delta dropped its discount for NRA members, the pro-NRA governor of Georgia dropped tax breaks for the airline.

  • This call for the world to respond to the horrors in Syria, shared at the NYR Daily, is likely to fall on deaf ears.

  • At Strange Maps, Frank Jacobs shares some maps showing areas where the United States is truly exceptional.

  • Supernova Condensate notes how nested planetary orbits can be used to trace beautiful spirograph patterns.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how no one in the Soviet Union in 1991 was prepared to do anything to save the Soviet Union.

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  • Eddie Chong at anthro{dendum} shares a listing of anthropology-relevant links from around the blogosphere.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a quick look at the sociology of food.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that a court ruling making same-sex marriage imaginable has helped an evangelical Christian candidate leap to the front of Costa Rica's presidential elections.

  • JSTOR Daily explains the import of President's Day to, among others, non-Americans.

  • Language Hat examines the spelling of the Irish word "imbolc" or "imbolg", used to describe a festival marking the start of spring.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money calls for legal enforcement of supply chains for minerals and the like, to ensure that they were not produce through human exploitation (for instance).

  • Miranda Vane at the LRB Blog introduces her readers to the northern English sport of Cumberland & Westmorland Wrestling.

  • Marginal Revolution highlights the argument of a commenter who argued that self-driving trucks cannot perform on themselves the tasks that human truckers are expected to. (Yet?)

  • The NYR Daily examines the transformation of Putin in office from mere oligarch to the world's leading kleptocrat.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw celebrates a new Australian satirical newssite, the Betoota Advocate.

  • At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla notes new findings suggesting some Kuiper belt objects have huge moons, relatively and absolutely.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that while a powerful laser cannot rip up space literally, it can do pretty remarkable things nonetheless.

  • Towleroad shares an essay by Cyd Ziegler talking about the importance of gay Atlantis Cruise ships for him, in the light of a scandal onboard a ship involving a fatal drug overdose.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at, among other things, tulip trees and magnolias.

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  • anthro{dendum} hosts Alexia Maddox's essay on her experience doing ethnographic work on Darknet drug markets.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about how the creative life, contrary to some imaginings, is not self-sustaining. It desperately needs external support--an outside job, perhaps.

  • Bruce Dorminey writes about how the climate of Chile, especially the Atacama, is perfect for astronomy.

  • JSTOR Daily shares a paper talking about how Alexander Pushkin, the 19th century Russian author, was demonstrably proud of his African ancestry.

  • Language Hat links to a new article on rongorongo, the mysterious and undeciphered script of the Rapa Nui of Polynesian Easter Island.

  • Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, notes in passing the oddness of restrictions imposed by customs in Chile on taking ordinary books into the country.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes a bizarrely parochial article from the New York Times talking down to Los Angeles.

  • The Map Room Blog links to some interesting articles, from The New York Times recently and from the Atlantic in 2012, about the art of gerrymandering.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the import of the Nunes memo for Trump and Russian-American relations.

  • Roads and Kingdoms considers the simple pleasures of a snack featuring canned fish by the beach in Mallorca.

  • Drew Rowsome quite approves of this year's gay romance film Sebastian, set here in Toronto.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, contrary to predictions, most satellite galaxies orbit in the same plane as their hosts. This is a problem for dark matter.
  • Towleroad notes that some are lobbying Amazon not to locate its HQ2 in a city without human rights protections for LGBT people.

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