A Bit More Detail

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that Betelgeuse is very likely not on the verge of a supernova, here.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the mapping of asteroid Bennu.


• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber reposted, after the election, a 2013 essay looking at the changes in British society from the 1970s on.


• The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about the Precambrian Earth, here.


• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about fear in the context of natural disasters, here.


• Far Outliers reports on the problems of privateers versus regular naval units.


• Gizmodo looks at galaxy MAMBO-9, which formed a billion years after the Big Bang.


• io9 writes about the alternate history space race show For All Mankind.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the posters used in Ghana in the 1980s to help promote Hollywood movies.


• Language Hat links to a new book that examines obscenity and gender in 1920s Britain.


• Language Log looks at the terms used for the national language in Xinjiang.


• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with Jeff Jacoby's lack of sympathy towards people who suffer from growing inequality.


• Marginal Revolution suggests that urbanists should have an appreciation for Robert Moses.


• Sean Marshall writes, with photos, about his experiences riding a new Bolton bus.


• Caryl Philips at the NYR Daily writes about Rachmanism, a term wrongly applied to the idea of avaricious landlords like Peter Rachman, an immigrant who was a victim of the Profumo scandal.


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking at the experience of aging among people without families.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the empty space in an atom can never be removed.


• Strange Maps shares a festive map of London, a reindeer, biked by a cyclist.


• Window on Eurasia notes how Mongolia twice tried to become a Soviet republic.


• Arnold Zwicky considers different birds with names starting with x.

• Anthropology.net shares in the debunking of the Toba catastrophe theory.


• Architectuul features Mirena Dunu's exploration of the architecture of the Black Sea coastal resorts of Romania, built under Communism.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of sleep hygiene and of being well-rested.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the filaments of Orion, indicators of starbirth.


• Centauri Dreams notes how solar sails and the Falcon Heavy can be used to expedite the exploration of the solar system.


• D-Brief notes the discovery of debris marking the massive flood that most recently refilled the Mediterranean on the seafloor near Malta.


• Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca uses a recent sickbed experience in Paris to explore the genesis of Bemelmans' Madeline.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money noted recently the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, trigger of a world-historical catastrophe.


• The LRB Blog hosts Sara Roy's defense of UNRWA and of the definition of the Palestinians under its case as refugees.


• The NYR Daily notes how the regnant conservative government in Israel has been limiting funding to cultural creators who dissent from the nationalist line.


• Roads and Kingdoms uses seven food dishes to explore the history of Malta.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why, even though dark matter is likely present in our solar system, we have not detected signs of it.


• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the field of machine learning, and notes the ways in which its basic epistemology might be flawed.


• Window on Eurasia notes how the dropping of the ethnonym "Mongol" from the title of the former Buryat-Mongol autonomous republic sixty years ago still makes some Buryats unhappy.

• Centauri Dreams notes the remarkably complex system of Proxima Centauri, with multiple belts and more possible planets, as does D-Brief.


• D-Brief notes the discovery of a new sort of fusion reactions, involving not atoms but quarks.


• Hornet Stories notes a new acoustic cover of the Kinky Boots song "Not My Father's Son."


• Language Hat takes a brief look at Cyrillic, since the Soviet era written in Cyrillic script.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the Trump Administration is unconcerned by the latest report regarding catastrophic climate change.


• The LRB Blog notes how Armenia and Armenians remember past genocides and current refugee flows.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes the further extension of the Dawn mission at Ceres.


• Drew Rowsome shares some of Stephen King's tips for aspiring writers.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how some long-exposure Hubble photographs of galaxies picked up nearby asteroids.


• John Scalzi shares his cover of "Rocket Man".


• Window on Eurasia wonders if ISIS is spreading into Russia via migrant workers from Central Asia.

• Bad Astronomy shares photos of the ripple made by moon Daphnis in the rings of Saturn, as does the Planetary Society Blog.


• The Broadside Blog questions whether readers actually like their work.


• Centauri Dreams notes evidence for the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet in the protoplanetary disk of TW Hydrae.


• Dangerous Minds links to the 1980s work of Lydia Lunch.


• Far Outliers reports on how the Afghanistan war against the Soviets acted as a university for jihadists from around the world.


• Kieran Healy looks at some failures of Google Scholar.


• Language Hat reports on a fascinating crowdsourced program involving the transcription of manuscripts from Shakespeare's era, and what elements of pop history and language have been discovered.


• The LRB Blog compares Trump's inauguration to those of Ronald Reagan.


• The Map Room Blog links to an exhibition of the maps of Utah.


• Understanding Society reports on a grand sociological research project in Europe that has found out interesting things about the factors contributing to young people's support for the far right.


• Window on Eurasia reports on instability in the binational North Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, describes the spectre of pan-Mongolism, and looks at the politicization of biker gangs in Russia.

• CBC notes the baffling decision of New Brunswick to create a minister of Celtic Affairs.


• CNET notes the underperformance of the Blackberry Priv in the American market.


• Gawker reports from the scene of Mongolia's only gay bar.


• The Inter Press Service looks at urban poverty in Buenos Aires.


• The National Post reports the origins of a Bangladeshi Islamist terrorist in the Canadian city of Windsor.


• The New Yorker reports on how Republicans profess upset by Trump's anti-Hispanic statemens yet support his candidacy.


• NOW Toronto notes the return of the Sam the Record Man sign this summer.


• Open Democracy makes the claim that underdevelopment in Brazil, and South America, stems from the political fragmentation of rivers.


• Universe Today describes how one photographer takes photos of the night sky from cities.

• Bloomberg notes Petrobras' dismissal of rumours it is threatened by the impeachment, observes that many Europeans expect a chain reaction of departures if the United Kingdom leaves, notes that a return to high economic growth in Israel will require including the Palestinian minority, and
  looks at Panamanian efforts to convince the world that the country is not a tax haven.


• The Globe and Mail remembers Mi'kMaq teacher Elsie Basque, and looks at how Mongolia is trying to adapt to the new economy.


• Bloomberg View states the obvious, noting that an expected event is not a wild swan.


• CBC notes Rachel Notley's tour of Fort McMurray.


• The Inter Press Service notes the denial of everything about the Rohingya.


• MacLean's looks at further confusion in Brazil.


• Open Democracy notes a push for land reform in Paraguay and looks at the devastation of Scotland's Labour Party.


• Wired notes the dependence of intelligence agencies on Twitter, proved by Twitter shutting an intermediary down.

• blogTO notes a Toronto vigil for the Jordanian pilot murdered by ISIS.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about friends and age gaps.


• Centauri Dreams draws from Poul Anderson
  
• Crooked Timber considers trolling.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper wondering why circumbinary exoplanets are so detectable.


• The Dragon's Tales looks at robots: robots which put out fires on American navy ships, robots in China which do deliveries for Alibaba, robots which smuggle drugs.


• Far Outliers notes Singapore's pragmatism and its strong military.


• Language Log notes the language of language diversity.


• Marginal Revolution wonders about the prospects of the Euro-tied Danish crown.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes the approach of Ceres.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer considers scenarios for a profitable Nicaragua Canal and notes the oddities of Argentina.


• Registan looks at Mongolian investment in Tuva, and other adjacent Mongolian-influence Russian regions.


• Savage Minds looks at Iroquois linguistic J.N.B. Hewitt.


• Seriously Science notes how immigrant chimpanzees adapt tothe vocalizations of native chimps.


• Spacing Toronto talks about the need for an activist mayor in Toronto.


• Torontoist examines the history of important black bookstore Third World Books and Crafts.


• Towleroad notes many young gay/bi students are looking for sugar daddies, and notes the failure of Slovakia's anti-gay referendum.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes a new Bosnian Serb law strictly regulating offensive speech online.


• Window on Eurasia notes the collapse of the Russian world, suggests Russia should not be allowed a role in Donbas, argues that a Ukrainian scenario is unlikely in the Latvian region of Latgale and in the Baltics more broadly, and looks at the growth of fascism in Russia.

• blogTO starts a discussion as to the problems facing the retail chain Target here in Toronto. It starts off by noting that the chain was built on the footprint of Zellers.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to the paper arguing that Beta Pictoris b has an eight-hour day.


• The Dragon's Tales observes that India's new aircraft carrier, the I.N.S. Vikamaditya, has begun its first trials.


• Eastern Approaches notes the ongoing chaos in eastern Ukraine.


• Joe. My. God. and Towleroad both note that the governor of Kentucky is defending that American state's ban on same-sex marriage by suggesting it's needed to keep up the birth rate.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes note of the foolishness of Rob Ford.


• The New APPS Blog notes ongoing tensions between two strands of biopolitics, the first emphasizing collective public health and the second individual responsibility.


• Registan argues that Mongolian investment in the neighbouring Russian republic of Tuva could change the status quo in Siberia.


• Steve Munro worries that the new streetcars of the TTC will be used as excuses to remove stops, thus undermining the new streetcars.


• Whatever's John Scalzi thinks Heinlein could win a Hugo today. (Ongoing controversy in science fiction.)


• Window on Eurasia argues that Russia is objectively more fascist than Ukraine, suggests Russia isn't strong enough to launch a Cold War and will merely destabilize the world, and claims (after a Russian general) that Russia isn't strong enough to adequately oppose NATO.

• Crooked Timber's Tedra Osell gives a very positive review of a monograph by Ari Kelman describing the long, complicated process of memorializing the United States' Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1864.


• Daniel Drezner thinks that arguments the liberal world order hasn't been working well post-2008 are wrong, not least because they rest on the assumption that things were going well before then.


• Eastern Approaches notes that political cohabitation in Georgia between President Mikheil Saakashvili and new Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian Dream opposition isn't working because the two sides are so divided on, well, everything.


• GNXP's Razib Khan argues that lifting China's one-child policy wouldn't change fertility rates, which a) were declining before the policy's imposition and b) are now as low as elsewhere in East Asia.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer writes about the Chavez-era changes to the Venezuelan military. His take? In general, these reforms, which include the entrenchment of a popular militia with links to Chavez's revolutionary institutions and efforts at conscription, are confused.


• Torontoist's Chris Riddell notes the multiple failed plans before the final, successful, 2006 plan to transform the Don Valley Brick Works into something.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Orin Kerr, who on the Aaron Swartz case has generally been critical of the arguments made by his supporters, recommends to his readers the long articles he thinks provide the best overviews on the case. Controversy ensues in the comments and on Twitter.


• Window on Eurasia reports on the resurgence of Buddhism in Russia, especially in the traditionally Buddhist republics of Kalmykia and Buryatia, and its implications on links with Mongolia.

In the 1200s, Genghis Khan and the Mongolian army built an empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, ruling over a fifth of all land on Earth and over 100 million people. And all that conquering reshaped the Earth, reducing carbon dioxide levels enough to offset a year's worth of gasoline usage today.

Stanford researchers considered four of the most traumatic periods in the last 1200 years - the Mongol invasions of 1200 to 1380, the Black Death that killed 25 million Europeans between 1347 and 1400, the European conquest of the Americas between 1519 and 1700 that killed as much as 90% of the native population, and the fall of China's Ming dynasty from 1600 to 16450. All these cataclysmic events involved tremendous loss of life and agricultural devastation, the latter of which can be traced in the historical record through analysis of soil samples.

Still, for all their human carnage and crop destruction, none of these events really affected the Earth itself in a fundamental way. The only exception was the Mongol invasion, which dropped global carbon dioxide levels by about 0.1 part per million. This made forests absorb back about 700 million tons of carbon dioxide, roughly equivalent to the amount released in a year's worth of gasoline demand.

Those might seem like major effects, but the last two hundred years of industrialization has created an entirely new scale. As lead researcher Julia Pongratz explains:

"Since the pre-industrial era, we have increased atmospheric CO2 [or carbon dioxide] concentration by about 100 parts per million, so this is really a different dimension.

Part of the problem is that heavy agriculture and deforestation elsewhere overwhelmed any local effects of these tragedies. The indigenous peoples of the Americas had a relatively small agricultural footprint, which means their mass slaughter and death had little ecological impact. The Black Plague and Ming Dynasties both took place over only about a half-century, which is too short a time-span for trees to regrow and new carbon to be stored.