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  • Bad Astronomy notes the remarkable burst of starbirth at the core of our galaxy one billion years ago, here.

  • Bad Astronomy shares a flyby video of the Mars moon of Phobos.

  • Bad Astronomer reports on a strange storm around the south pole of Jupiter, here.

  • Bad Astronomer reports on an outburst following a debris impact seen by TESS on comet 47P/Wirtanen.

  • Bad Astronomer notes the continuing debate over the dynamic nature of the spiral arms of galaxies.

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  • Architectuul looks at the Portuguese architectural cooperative Ateliermob, here.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at how white dwarf WD J091405.30+191412.25 is literally vapourizing a planet in close orbit.

  • Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog explains
  • Centauri Dreams looks at the slowing of the solar wind far from the Sun.

  • John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the gap between ideals and actuals in the context of conspiracies and politics.

  • The Dragon's Tales reports on how the ESA is trying to solve a problem with the parachutes of the ExoMars probe.

  • Far Outliers reports on what Harry Truman thought about politicians.

  • Gizmodo reports on a new method for identifying potential Earth-like worlds.

  • io9 pays tribute to legendary writer, of Star Trek and much else, D.C. Fontana.

  • The Island Review reports on the football team of the Chagos Islands.

  • Joe. My. God. reports that gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy will compete for the United Kingdom in 2020.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how early English imperialists saw America and empire through the lens of Ireland.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not like Pete Buttigieg.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the London Bridge terrorist attack.

  • The Map Room Blog shares a map of Prince William Sound, in Alaska, that is already out of date because of global warming.

  • Marginal Revolution questions if Cuba, in the Philippines, is the most typical city in the world.

  • The NYR Daily looks at gun violence among Arab Israelis.

  • The Planetary Society Blog considers what needs to be researched next on Mars.

  • Roads and Kingdoms tells the story of Sister Gracy, a Salesian nun at work in South Sudan.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting continued population growth expected in much of Europe, and the impact of this growth on the environment.

  • Strange Maps shares a map of fried chicken restaurants in London.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why a 70 solar mass black hole is not unexpected.

  • John Scalzi at Whatever gives his further thoughts on the Pixel 4.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that, last year, 37 thousand Russians died of HIV/AIDS.

  • Arnold Zwicky starts from a consideration of the 1948 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.

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  • Bad Astronomy notes the very odd structure of galaxy NGC 2775.

  • Dangerous Minds reports on the 1987 riot by punks that wrecked a Seattle ferry.

  • Bruce Dorminey reports on a new suggestion from NASA that the massive dust towers of Mars have helped dry out that world over eons.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how changing technologies have led to younger people spending more social capital on maintaining relationships with friends over family.

  • This forum hosted at Gizmodo considers the likely future causes of death of people in coming decades.

  • In Media Res' Russell Arben Fox reports on the debate in Wichita on what to do with the Century II performance space.

  • Joe. My. God. reports on the decision of Hungary to drop out of Eurovision, apparently because of its leaders' homophobia.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the debunking of the odd theory that the animals and people of the Americas were degenerate dwarfs.

  • Language Hat reports on how the classics can be served by different sorts of translation.

  • Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how Trump's liberation of war criminals relates to folk theories about just wars.

  • The LRB Blog reports from the ground in the Scotland riding of East Dunbartonshire.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting that, contrary to much opinion, social media might actually hinder the spread of right-wing populism.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the nature of the proxy fighters in Syria of Turkey. Who are they?

  • Drew Rowsome interviews Sensational Sugarbum, star of--among other things--the latest Ross Petty holiday farce.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why we still need to be able to conduct astronomy from the Earth.

  • Strange Maps explains the odd division of Europe between east and west, as defined by different subspecies of mice.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how Chinese apparently group Uighurs in together with other Central Asians of similar language and religion.

  • Arnold Zwicky explores the concept of onomatomania.

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  • 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.

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(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.

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

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

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

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

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

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the Elon Musk proposal to terraform Mars by dropping nuclear weapons on the planet's ice caps is a bad idea.

  • James Bow writes about how the introduction of faeries saved his novel The Night Girl.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the storms of Jupiter.

  • The Crux explains the mystery of a village in Poland that has not seen the birth of a baby boy for nearly a decade.

  • D-Brief looks at the exoplanets of nearby red dwarf Gliese 1061.

  • Cody Delisraty talks of Renaissance painter Fra Angelico.

  • Drew Ex Machina commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares links to some papers about the Paleolithic.


  • JSTOR Daily hosts an essay by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger suggesting that Internet rot might be good since it could let people start to forget the past and so move on.

  • Language Hat questions whether the phrase "free to all" has really fallen out of use.

  • Language Log takes a look about immigration to the United States and Emma Lazarus' famous poem.

  • Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with the suggestion of, among other, Henry Farrell, that we are headed away from globalization towards fortress economies. Redundancy, he suggests, will be more important.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a disturbing paper suggesting users of opioids use them in part for social reasons.

  • The NYR Daily features an exchange on a new law in Singapore seeking to govern fake news.

  • The Power and the Money features a guest post from Leticia Arroyo Abad looking at Argentina before the elections.

  • Drew Rowsome takes a look at a new play by Raymond Helkio examining the life of out boxer Mark Leduc.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers if we can test gravitational waves for wave-particle duality.

  • Arnold Zwicky shares photos of the many flowers of Gamble Garden, in Palo Alto.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the German city of Nordlingen, formed in a crater created by the impact of a binary asteroid with Earth.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the possibility that the farside of the Moon might bear the imprint of an ancient collision with a dwarf planet the size of Ceres.

  • D-Brief notes that dredging for the expansion of the port of Miami has caused terrible damage to corals there.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at the last appearances of David Bowie and Iggy Pop together on stage.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that China is on track to launch an ambitious robotic mission to Mars in 2020.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog talks about what sociological research actually is.

  • Gizmodo reports on the discovery of a torus of cool gas circling Sagittarius A* at a distance of a hundredth of a light-year.

  • io9 reports about Angola Janga, an independent graphic novel by Marcelo D'Salete showing how slaves from Africa in Brazil fought for their freedom and independence.

  • The Island Review shares some poems of Matthew Landrum, inspired by the Faroe Islands.

  • Joe. My. God. looks at how creationists are mocking flat-earthers for their lack of scientific knowledge.

  • Language Hat looks at the observations of Mary Beard that full fluency in ancient Latin is rare even for experts, for reason I think understandable.

  • Melissa Byrnes wrote at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the meaning of 4 June 1989 in the political transitions of China and Poland.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how the New York Times has become much more aware of cutting-edge social justice in recent years.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how the memories and relics of the Sugar Land prison complex outside of Houston, Texas, are being preserved.

  • Jason C Davis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the differences between LightSail 1 and the soon-to-be-launched LightSail 2.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks in detail at the high electricity prices in Argentina.

  • Peter Rukavina looks at the problems with electric vehicle promotion on PEI.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at when the universe will have its first black dwarf. (Not in a while.)

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that Belarusians are not as interested in becoming citizens of Russia as an Internet poll suggests.

  • Arnold Zwicky highlights a Pride Month cartoon set in Antarctica featuring the same-sex marriage of two penguins.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers the possibility that interstellar objects like 'Oumuamua might help planets consdense in young systems.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly explains the genesis of news stories.

  • Centauri Dreams explores a remarkable thesis of somehow intelligent, living even, mobile stars.

  • Citizen Science Blog reports on an ingenious effort by scientists to make use of crowdsourcing to identify venerable trees in a forest.

  • The Crux takes a look at the idea of rewilding.

  • D-Brief takes a look at how active auroras can lead to satellite orbits decaying prematurely.

  • Bruce Dorminey reports on a new finding suggesting that the suspected exomoon given the name Kepler-162b I does not exist.

  • JSTOR Daily takes a look at the incident that led to the concept of Stockholm syndrome.

  • Language Log takes a look at the idea of someone having more than one native language. Is it even possible?

  • Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how trade war with the EU is hurting the bourbon industry of the United States.

  • The LRB Blog reports on the aftermath in Peru of the startling suicide of former president Alan Garcia.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting that rising health care costs have hurt the American savings rate and the wider American economy.

  • Russell Darnley takes a look at the innovative fish weirs of the Aborigines on Australia's Darling River.

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at Russian Doll and the new era of television.

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes the formal end of the Mars rover expeditions. Spirit and Opportunity can rest easy.

  • Drew Rowsome praises Out, a one-man show at Buddies in Bad Times exploring what it was like to be out in the late 1970s.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that a search for dark matter has revealed evidence of the radioactive decay of pretty but not perfectly stable isotope xenon-124.

  • Window on Eurasia considers the likely impact of new Ukrainian president Volodymir Zelensky on Ukrainian autocephaly.

  • Arnold Zwicky celebrated the penguin drawings of Sandra Boynton, starting from her World Penguin Day image from the 25th of April.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that methane hydrates on the ocean floor will only pose a catastrophic risk of climate change if we do nothing about climate change generally.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the massive flare detected on L-dwarf ULAS J224940.13-011236.9.

  • Crooked Timber considers a philosophical conundrum: What should individuals do to combat climate change? What are they responsible for?

  • The Crux considers a few solar system locations that future generations of hikers might well want to explore on foot.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Pete Buttigieg is becoming a big star in his father's homeland of Malta.

  • Language Log considers the idea of learning Cantonese as a second language.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the policy innovations of Elizabeth Warren.

  • The Map Room Blog looks at how the Russian government is apparently spoofing GPS signals.

  • Marginal Revolution reports a claim by Peter Thiel that the institutionalization of science since the Manhattan Project is slowing down technological advances. Is this plausible?

  • Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes that the Mars InSight probe has detected marsquakes.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, finally, astronomers have found the first cold gas giants among the exoplanets, worlds in wide orbits like Jupiter and Saturn.

  • Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy notes how some of the praise for Daenerys Targaryen by Elizabeth Warren reveals interesting and worrisome blind spots. (Myself, I fear a "Dark Dany" scenario.)

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that Russia is not over the fact that Ukraine is moving on.

  • Frances Woolley at the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes issue with the argument of Andray Domise after an EKOS poll, that Canadians would not know much about the nature of migration flows.

  • For Easter, Arnold Zwicky considered red and white flowers, bearing the colours of the season.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows four different images of nearby stellar nursery NGC 1333.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the hot Saturn TOI-197, and the way it was detected.

  • D-Brief notes how galaxy NGC-1052 DF2 has been confirmed as the second galaxy apparently lacking in dark matter.

  • Gizmodo notes new confirmation, from an orbiting probe, that Curiosity detected methane emanating from Mars back in 2013.

  • Hornet Stories tries to correct some misconceptions about the Burning Man festival.

  • The Island Review links to a New York Times profile of post-Maria Puerto Rico.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Martin Shkreli has been tossed into solitary confinement.

  • JSTOR Daily notes the work of psychologists in the 1930s US who profiled individuals who did not fit the gender binary. Would these people have identified themselves as trans or non-binary now?

  • The LRB Blog notes the fondness of Jacob Rees-Mogg for extreme-right German politicians from the AfD.

  • Language Log shares a written ad in Cantonese from Hong Kong.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money compares China now to the Untied States of the past, and finds interesting correspondences.

  • Marginal Revolution notes the deep and significant commitment of China under Mao to providing foreign aid.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the complex, once-overlooked, life and career of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer of "The Yellow Wallpaper".

  • Out There notes that, while dark matter is certainly real, "dark matter" is a poor name for this mysterious substance.

  • Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the challenges to be faced by Hayabusa 2 when it fires a sampling probe into asteroid Ryugu.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how into the universe a spaceship could travel if it accelerated consistently at one gravity.

  • Strange Company examines the life and adventures of Jeffrey Hudson, a royal dwarf in 17th century England.

  • Daniel Little at Understanding Society builds on the work of V.K. Ramachandran in considering the ethics of development ethnography.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the new identification of Azerbaijanis as victims of genocide by neighbours, and what this means for the relations of Azerbaijan.

  • Arnold Zwicky has fun, in a NSFW fanfic way, with figures from comics contemporary and old.

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  • Architectuul profiles the construction of the Modern Berlin Temple built to a design by Mies van der Rohe in 1968.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the beauty of galaxy M61.

  • D-Brief notes new evidence that Mars sustained rivers on its surface at a surprising late date.

  • Gizmodo notes a theory that the oddly shaped ring moons of Saturn might be product of a collision.

  • Hornet Stories suggests/u> that recent raids on gay bars in New Orleans might be driven by internecine politics within the LGBTQ community.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that a court in the Cayman Islands has recently legalized same-sex marriage there.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the origins of the Chipko activists of 1960s and 1970s India, whose tree-hugging helped save forests there.

  • Language Log notes the story of Beau Jessep, who got rich off of a business creating English names for Chinese children.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money, looking at the introduction of public healthcare in Saskatchewan and wider Canada, notes the great institutional differences that do not make that a close model for public healthcare in the US now.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the close relationship over time between population growth and economic and technological change.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews documentary filmmaker Nadir Bouhmouch about a Amazigh community's resistance to an intrusive mine on their territory.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog notes, correctly, that one reason why Ukrainians are more prone to emigration to Europe and points beyond than Russians is that Ukraine has long been included, in whole or in part, in European states.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that we still do not know why antimatter does not dominate in our universe.

  • Understanding Society features a guest post from Indian sociologist V.K. Ramachandran talking about two visits four decades apart to one of his subjects.

  • Vintage Space makes a compelling case for people not to be afraid of nuclear rockets in space, like the vintage never-deployed NERVA.

  • Window on Eurasia takes issue with the bilingual radio programs aired in Russian republics, which subtly undermine local non-Russian languages.

  • Arnold Zwicky starts with lilacs, which include hybrids tolerant of the California climate, and goes on to explore lavender in all of its glories, queer and otherwise.

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  • The 2017 Pojang earthquake in South Korea was caused by an experimental geothermal power plant, water injected into the ground creating new instabilities. VICE reports.

  • Universe Today notes that, newly upgraded, LIGO will begin searching for gravitational waves anew on 1 April.

  • Universe Today examines the factors which making landing large masses on Mars so technically challenging.

  • Universe Today considers which sorts of circumstellar habitable zone are the best to search for seekers of extraterrestrial life.

  • Motherboard notes astronomers' study of the relatively Sun-like pre-main sequence star of DM Tauri, which may now be forming a solar system like our own.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes new evidence that the Pathfinder probe landed, on Mars, on the shores of an ancient sea.

  • The Crux reports on tholins, the organic chemicals that are possible predecessors to life, now found in abundance throughout the outer Solar System.

  • D-Brief reports on the hard work that has demonstrated some meteorites which recently fell in Turkey trace their origins to Vesta.

  • Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog explores sociologist Eric Klinenberg's concept of social infrastructure, the public spaces we use.

  • Far Outliers reports on a Honolulu bus announcement in Yapese, a Micronesian language spoken by immigrants in Hawai'i.

  • JSTOR Daily considers the import of the autobiography of Catherine the Great.

  • Language Hat reports, with skepticism, on the idea of "f" and "v" as sounds being products of the post-Neolithic technological revolution.

  • Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen is critical of the idea of limiting the number of children one has in a time of climate change.

  • Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on death, close at hand and in New Zealand.

  • Strange Company reports on the mysterious disappearance, somewhere in Anatolia, of American cyclist Frank Lenz in 1892, and its wider consequences.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel identifies five types of cosmic events capable of triggering mass extinctions on Earth.

  • Towleroad reports on the frustration of many J.K. Rowling fans with the author's continuing identification of queer histories for characters that are never made explicit in books or movies.

  • Window on Eurasia has a skeptical report about a Russian government plan to recruit Russophones in neighbouring countries as immigrants.

  • Arnold Zwicky explores themes of shipwrecks and of being shipwrecked.

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  • James Nicoll at Tor writes about some of the bizarre multicellular life forms of the ancient past of Earth.

  • Universe Today looks at the evidence for ancient rivers flowing on the southern highlands of Mars.

  • Universe Today notes evidence for continuing volcanic activity on Mars.

  • Universe Today examines Messier 79, a globular cluster in our galaxy that may have come from outside.

  • Wired notes how improvements in gravitational wave astronomy technology will lead to amazing amounts of detail about our cosmic neighbourhood in the near future.

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  • Have fossils of the movements of ancient animals 2.1 billion years ago been found? CBC reports.

  • Increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, it turns out, will not accelerate tree growth. CBC reports.

  • Motherboard reports that vast "mountains" may exist, hidden deep inside the molten interior of the Earth.

  • Universe Today reports on Hubble observations of the atmospheres of outer-system ice giants Uranus and Neptune.

  • Universe Today reports on the startling assertion of Elon Musk that, in the foreseeable future, a round-trip ticket to Mars might cost only $US 100 thousand.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the evidence for the massive collision that left exoplanet Kepler 107c an astoundingly dense body.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly tells her readers the secrets of the success of her relationship with her husband, Jose.

  • Centauri Dreams notes what the New Horizons probe has found out, of Ultima Thule and of Pluto, by looking back.

  • The Crux shares the obituaries of scientists from NASA for the Opportunity rover.

  • D-Brief reports that NASA has declared the Opportunity rover's mission officially complete.

  • Dead Things introduces its readers to Mnyamawamtuka, a titanosaur from Tanzania a hundred million years ago.

  • Drew Ex Machina shares a stunning photo of Tropical Cyclone Gita, taken from the ISS in 2018.

  • Far Outliers notes how the Indian Army helped save the British army's positions from collapse in the fall of 1914.

  • Joe. My. God. notes a Christian group in the United States trying to encourage a boycott of supposedly leftist candy manufacturers like Hershey's.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at why covenant marriage failed to become popular.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains the hatred for new Congressperson Ilham Omar.

  • The Planetary Society Blog links to ten interesting podcasts relating to exploration, of Earth and of space.

  • Drew Rowsome interviews Tobias Herzberg about Feygele, his show in the Rhubarb festival at Buddies in Bad Times.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at the evidence, presented by (among others) Geneviève von Petzinger, suggesting that forty thousand years ago cave artists around the world may have shared a common language of symbols.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that the policies of Putin are contributing to a growing sense of nationalism in Belarus.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the good news: The Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way in 4.5 billion years, not 3.9 billion!

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that a new Chinese ground station built in Argentina has not made the promised outreach to locals, with no visitors' centre and rumours aplenty.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog explains the importance of doing literature reviews.

  • Far Outliers notes the Pakhtuns, a Muslim ethnicity of the British Raj in what is now Pakistan noteworthy for being a major source of recruits in the Indian Army.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes Iris Murdoch, particularly her emphasis on learning as a process of engaging with something greater on its terms.

  • Gizmodo reports on how space sciences appreciate the work done by the noble rover Opportunity on Mars.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century African-American artists have represented Haiti in the works.

  • Language Hat takes note of some of the mechanisms by which linguistics can neglect the study of indigenous languages.

  • Language Log takes a look at the Latin motto of the University of Pennsylvania, a source still of unintentional humour.

  • Marginal Revolution takes a look at the high levels of dysfunction in Nigeria, from fighting between herders and farmers to the incapacity of the national government.

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at the concept of internal exile, starting with Russia and spiraling out into the wider world.

  • Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a payphone that is one of the few remaining used artifacts of old Island Tel.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper considering the demographic peculiarities of the societies of the semi-periphery as contrasted to those of the core.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes</> the surprisingly large amount of information astronomers will be able to extract from the first image of an Earth-like exoplanet.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that North Caucasians in Russia no longer stand out as having higher-than-average birth rates in Russia.

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  • D-Brief looks at the exciting Hera mission planned by the European Space Agency to binary asteroid 65803 Didymos in 2026, some years after a NASA experiment there.

  • D-Brief notes that the CubeSats brought to Mars with the InSight mission have gone silent.

  • Can features of the surface of Charon be explained by a subsurface ocean escaping and flooding? D-Brief considers.

  • D-Brief reports that the ALMA radiotelescope has found clouds of organics around young star V883 Ori.

  • D-Brief looks at the massive jet, dozens of light years long, issuing from a young star in the nebula LHA 120-N 180B in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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