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  • Bad Astronomer considers how a stellar-mass black hole of 70 solar masses got so unaccountably huge.

  • Alex Tolley at Centauri Dreams considers the colours of photosynthesis, and how they might reveal the existence of life on exoplanets.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares some links on humans in the Paleolithic.

  • Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the scripts of jokes.

  • Gizmodo reports on the repurposed China-Netherlands radio telescope operating from an orbit above the far side of the Moon.

  • JSTOR Daily considers the political rhetoric of declinism.

  • Language Log considers the controversy over the future of the apostrophe.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog notes a YouGov prediction of a Conservative majority in the UK and how this prediction is not value-neutral.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper from India noting how caste identities do affect the labour supply.

  • Ursula Lindsay at the NYR Daily considers if the political crisis in Lebanon, a product of economic pressures and sectarianism, might lead to a revolutionary transformation of the country away from sectarian politics.

  • Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections looks at some of the many complicated and intermingled issues of contemporary Australia.

  • The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest projects funded by the ESA.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares ten beautiful photos taken in 2019 by the Hubble.

  • Strange Company reports on the strange unsolved disappearance of Lillian Richey from her Idaho home in 1964.

  • Window on Eurasia shares a Russian criticism of the Ukrainian autocephalous church as a sort of papal Protestantism.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the positive potential of homoeros.

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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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  • Centauri Dreams notes how gas giants on eccentric orbits can easily disrupt bodies on orbits inwards.

  • Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber suggests that the political culture of England has been deformed by the trauma experienced by young children of the elites at boarding schools.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at the haunting art of Paul Delvaux.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the work of Tressie McMillan Cottom in investigating for-profit higher education.

  • Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.

  • Gizmodo shares the Boeing design for the moon lander it proposes for NASA in 2024.

  • io9 shares words from cast of Terminator: Dark Fate about the importance of the Mexican-American frontier.

  • JSTOR Daily makes a case against killing spiders trapped in one's home.

  • Language Hat notes a recovered 17th century translation of a Dutch bible into the Austronesian language of Siraya, spoken in Taiwan.

  • Language Log looks at the origin of the word "brogue".

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the payday lender industry.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a new biography of Walter Raleigh, a maker of empire indeed.

  • The NYR Daily looks at a new dance show using the rhythms of the words of writer Robert Walser.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how, in a quantum universe, time and space could still be continuous not discrete.

  • Strange Company looks at a court case from 1910s Brooklyn, about a parrot that swore.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy notes an affirmative action court case in which it was ruled that someone from Gibraltar did not count as Hispanic.

  • Window on Eurasia notes rhetoric claiming that Russians are the largest divided people on the Earth.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at lizards and at California's legendary Highway 101.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how variable gravity is on irregular asteroid Bennu.

  • Bruce Dorminey reports on how the European Southern Observatory has charted the Magellanic Clouds in unprecedented detail.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links looking at the Precambrian Earth.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the late 1950s race to send probes to the Moon.

  • Gizmodo shares some stunning astronomy photos.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the saltwater roads, the routes that slaves in Florida used to escape to the free Bahamas.

  • Language Log looks at some examples of bad English from Japan. How did they come about?

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money rejects the idea of honouring people like Condoleezza Rice.

  • Marginal Revolution considers the idea of free will in light of neurology.

  • Corey S Powell at Out There interviews James Lovelock on his new book Novacene, in which Lovelock imagines the future world and Gaia taken over by AI.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the water shortages faced by downstream countries in Central Asia.

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  • 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".

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  • Anthro{dendum} features an essay examining trauma and resiliency as encountered in ethnographic fieldwork.

  • Architectuul highlights a new project seeking to promote historic churches built in the United Kingdom in the 20th century.

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait examines Ahuna Mons, a muddy and icy volcano on Ceres, and looks at the nebula Westerhout 40.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the recent mass release of data from a SETI project, and notes the discovery of two vaguely Earth-like worlds orbiting the very dim Teegarden's Star, just 12 light-years away.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes that having universities as a safe space for trans people does not infringe upon academic freedom.

  • The Crux looks at the phenomenon of microsleep.

  • D-Brief notes evidence that the Milky Way Galaxy was warped a billion years ago by a collision with dark matter-heavy dwarf galaxy Antlia 2, and notes a robotic fish powered by a blood analogue.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that India plans on building its own space station.

  • Earther notes the recording of the song of the endangered North Pacific right whale.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the role of emotional labour in leisure activities.

  • Far Outliers looks at how Japan prepared for the Battle of the Leyte Gulf in 1944.

  • Gizmodo looks at astronomers' analysis of B14-65666, an ancient galactic collision thirteen billion light-years away, and notes that the European Space Agency has a planned comet interception mission.

  • io9 notes how the plan for Star Trek in the near future is to not only have more Star Trek, but to have many different kinds of Star Trek for different audiences.

  • Joe. My. God. notes the observation of Pete Buttigieg that the US has probably already had a gay president.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the many ways in which the rhetoric of Celtic identity has been used, and notes that the archerfish uses water ejected from its eyes to hunt.

  • Language Hat looks at why Chinese is such a hard language to learn for second-language learners, and looks at the Suso monastery in Spain, which played a key role in the coalescence of the Spanish language.

  • Language Log looks at the complexities of katakana.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the death of deposed Egypt president Mohammed Morsi looks like a slow-motion assassination, and notes collapse of industrial jobs in the Ohio town of Lordstown, as indicative of broader trends.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the death of Mohamed Morsi.

  • The Map Rom Blog shares a new British Antarctic Survey map of Greenland and the European Arctic.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how non-religious people are becoming much more common in the Middle East, and makes the point that the laying of cable for the transatlantic telegraph is noteworthy technologically.

  • Noah Smith at Noahpionion takes the idea of the Middle East going through its own version of the Thirty Years War seriously. What does this imply?

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at a Lebanon balanced somehow on the edge, and looks at the concentration camp system of the United States.

  • The Planetary Society Blog explains what people should expect from LightSail 2, noting that the LightSail 2 has launched.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw points readers to his stories on Australian spy Harry Freame.

  • Rocky Planet explains, in the year of the Apollo 50th anniversary, why the Moon matters.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews, and praises, South African film Kanarie, a gay romp in the apartheid era.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper examining the relationship between childcare and fertility in Belgium, and looks at the nature of statistical data from Turkmenistan.

  • The Strange Maps Blog shares a map highlighting different famous people in the United States.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why different galaxies have different amounts of dark matter, and shares proof that the Apollo moon landings actually did happen.

  • Towleroad notes the new evidence that poppers, in fact, are not addictive.

  • Window on Eurasia warns about the parlous state of the Volga River.

  • Arnold Zwicky takes an extended look at the mid-20th century gay poet Frank O'Hara.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait considers the question of where, exactly, the dwarf galaxy Segue-1 came from.

  • Centauri Dreams considers the import of sodium chloride for the water oceans of Europa, and for what they might hold.

  • D-Brief wonders if dark matter punched a holy in the Milky Way Galaxy.

  • JSTOR Daily warns that the increasing number of satellites in orbit of Earth might hinder our appreciation of the night sky.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the complications of democracy and politics in Mauritania.

  • Marginal Revolution wonders about the nature of an apparently very decentralized city of Haifa.

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There notes that, while our knowledge of the Big Bang is certainly imperfect, the odds of it being wrong are quite, quite low.

  • The Planetary Society Blog looks at the Hayabusa 2 exploration of asteroid Ryugu.

  • Vintage Space examines how Apollo astronauts successfully navigated their way to the Moon.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at press discussion in Russia around the decriminalization of soft drugs like marijuana.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at a comic depicting a "mememobile."

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Abell 30, a star that has been reborn in the long process of dying.

  • Centauri Dreams uses the impending launch of LightSail 2 to discuss solar sails in science fiction.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber, as part of a series of the fragility of globalization, considers if migration flows can be reversed. (He concludes it unlikely.)

  • The Crux considers if the record rain in the Midwest (Ontario, too, I would add) is a consequence of climate change.

  • D-Brief notes that the failure of people around the world to eat enough fruits and vegetables may be responsible for millions of premature dead.

  • Dangerous Minds introduces readers to gender-bending Italian music superstar Renato Zero.

  • Dead Things notes how genetic examinations have revealed the antiquity of many grapevines still used for wine.

  • Gizmodo notes that the ocean beneath the icy crust of Europa may contain simple salt.

  • io9 tries to determine the nature of the many twisted timelines of the X-Men movie universe of Fox.

  • JSTOR Daily observes that the Stonewall Riots were hardly the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US.

  • Language Log looks at the mixed scripts on a bookstore sign in Beijing.

  • Dave Brockington at Lawyers, Guns, and Money argues that Jeremy Corbyn has a very strong hold on his loyal followers, perhaps even to the point of irrationality.

  • Marginal Revolution observes that people who create public genetic profiles for themselves also undo privacy for their entire biological family.

  • Sean Marshall at Marshall's Musings shares a photo of a very high-numbered street address, 986039 Oxford-Perth Road in Punkeydoodle's Corners.

  • The NYR Daily examines the origins of the wealth of Lehman Brothers in the exploitation of slavery.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shares a panorama-style photo of the Apollo 11 Little West Crater on the Moon.

  • Drew Rowsome notes that classic documentary Paris Is Burning has gotten a makeover and is now playing at TIFF.

  • Peter Rukavina, writing from a trip to Halifax, notes the convenience of the Eduroam procedures allowing users of one Maritime university computer network to log onto another member university's network.

  • Dylan Reid at Spacing considers how municipal self-government might be best embedded in the constitution of Canada.

  • The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle pays tribute to the wildflower Speedwell, a name he remembers from Watership Down.

  • Strange Maps shares a crowdsourced map depicting which areas of Europe are best (and worst) for hitchhikers.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the distribution of native speakers of Russian, with Israel emerging as more Russophone than some post-Soviet states.

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  • D-Brief examines the importance of the microbiome in human beings.

  • D-Brief observes that the genetic engineering of two twins in China to make them resistant to HIV might also shorten their lifespans.

  • The poaching of elephants, happily, is decreasing as demand for ivory goes down worldwide. D-Brief reports.

  • D-Brief takes a look at the history of imagined landings on the Moon.

  • D-Brief looks at the long history of O'Neill colonies in popular culture, as imagined settlements in space itself.

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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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  • Matt Thompson at anthro{dendum} writes about the complex, often anthropological, satire in the comics of Charles Addams.

  • Architectuul looks at the photography of Roberto Conte.

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes a new computer model suggesting a supernova can be triggered by throwing a white dwarf into close orbit of a black hole.

  • D-Brief notes how ammonia on the surface of Pluto hints at the existence of a subsurface ocean.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes how the bombardment of Earth by debris from a nearby supernova might have prompted early hominids to become bipedal.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that NASA has awarded its first contract for its plans in lunar space.

  • Far Outliers notes the reactions, within and without the Soviet Union, to the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.

  • Matt Novak at Gizmodo's Paleofuture notes how, in 1995, Terry Pratchett predicted the rise of online Nazis.

  • io9 notes the impending physical release this summer of DVDs of the Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind.

  • JSTOR Daily suggests some ways to start gardening in your apartment.

  • Victor Mair at Language Log claims that learning Literary Chinese is a uniquely difficult experience. Thoughts?

  • The NYR Daily features a wide-ranging interview with EU official Michel Barnier focused particularly, but not exclusively, on Brexit.

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes that an Internet vote has produced a majority in favour of naming outer system body 2007 OR10 Gonggang.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer considers the possibility that foreign investors in Mexico might be at risk, at least feel themselves at risk, from the government of AMLO.

  • The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress archives spreadsheets.

  • Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal looks at magenta spreen, a colourful green that he grows in his garden.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how we on Earth are carelessly wasting irreplaceable helium.

  • Window on Eurasia refers to reports claiming that a third of the population of Turkmenistan has fled that Central Asian state. Could this be accurate?

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  • Bad Astronomy notes how, in galaxy 3XMM J150052.0+015452 1.8 billion light-years away, a black hole has been busily eating a star for a decade.

  • Centauri Dreams considers how relativistic probes might conduct astronomy. How would their measurements be changed by these high speeds?

  • The Crux reports on how scientists are trying to save the platypus in its native rivers of Australia.

  • D-Brief reports on the quiet past of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule.

  • The Dragon's Tales reports on UAV news from around the world.

  • Joe. My. God. reports a statement by a Trump biography suggesting that the American president believes in not following laws because of his belief in his own "genetic superiority".

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the importance of the longleaf pine in the history of the United States.

  • Language Hat considers, in the case of Australia, the benefits of reviving indigenous languages.
  • Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how the success of Israel in hosting Eurovision is a blow against the Netanyahu government.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the peculiar position of private schools in the UK, and their intersection with public life.

  • Marginal Revolution looks at a paper analyzing two centuries of British writers noting that productivity was boosted for the least productive if they lived in London.

  • The NYR Daily notes the end of famed French periodical Les temps modernes.

  • Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes the expected crash of Chinese smallsat Longjiang-2 from its lunar orbit at the end of July.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money notes how ex-president of Argentina Cristina Fernández, running for election this year, was lucky in having the economic crash occur after the end of her presidency.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains the different reasons behind the blues of the sky and the ocean.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that three hundred thousand Russians have died of HIV/AIDS since the virus manifested on Soviet territory in the late 1980s, with more deaths to come thanks to mismanagement of the epidemic.

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  • Architectuul notes the recent death of I.M. Pei.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes what, exactly, rubble-pile asteroids are.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about definitions of home.

  • Centauri Dreams considers white dwarf planets.

  • The Crux notes how ultra-processed foods are liked closely to weight gain.

  • D-Brief observes that a thin layer of insulating ice might be saving the subsurface oceans of Pluto from freezing out.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the critical role played by Apollo 10 in getting NASA ready for the Moon landings.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes the American government's expectation that China will seek to set up its own global network of military bases.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the Soviet Union's Venera 5 and 6 missions to Venus.

  • Far Outliers looks at the visit of U.S. Grant to Japan and China.

  • Gizmodo notes a recent analysis of Neanderthal teeth suggesting that they split with Homo sapiens at a date substantially earlier than commonly believed.

  • io9 notes the sheer scale of the Jonathan Hickman reboots for the X-Men comics of Marvel.

  • Joe. My. God. shares the argument of Ted Cruz that people should stop making fun of his "space pirate" suggestion.I am inclined to think Cruz more right than not, actually.

  • JSTOR Daily notes the wave of anti-black violence that hit the United States in 1919, often driven by returned veterans.

  • Language Hat shares a recognizable complaint, written in ancient Akkadian, of bad customers.

  • Language Log shares a report of a village in Brittany seeking people to decipher a mysterious etching.

  • This Scott Lemieux report at Lawyers, Guns and Money about how British conservatives received Ben Shapiro is a must-read summary.

  • Benjamin Markovits at the LRB Blog shares the reasons why he left his immigrant-heavy basketball team in Germany.

  • Marginal Revolution looks at one effort in Brazil to separate people from their street gangs.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how ISIS, deprived of its proto-state, has managed to thrive as a decentralized network.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences and perceptions of his native region of New England, in southeastern Australia.

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes how the Chang'e 4 rover may have found lunar mantle on the surface of the Moon.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that while Argentine president Mauricio Macri is polling badly, his opponents are not polling well.

  • Roads and Kingdoms shares a list of things to do in see in the Peru capital of Lima.

  • The Signal examines how the Library of Congress engages in photodocumentation.

  • Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal explains how he is helping native insects by planting native plants in his garden.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how scientific illiteracy should never be seen as cool.

  • Towleroad notes the questions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as to why Truvada costs so much in the United States.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how family structures in the North Caucasus are at once modernizing and becoming more conservative.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes how the distribution of US carriers and their fleets at present does not support the idea of a planned impending war with Iran.

  • Arnold Zwicky examines the tent caterpillar of California.

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  • Architectuul takes a look at "infrastructural scars", at geopolitically-inspired constructions like border fences and fortifications.

  • Centauri Dreams notes what we can learn from 99942 Apophis during its 2029 close approach to Earth, just tens of thousands of kilometres away.

  • D-Brief reports on the reactions of space artists to the photograph of the black hole at the heart of M87.

  • Dangerous Minds shares the first recording of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that Germany has begun work on drafting laws to cover space mining.

  • Gizmodo reports on what scientists have learned from the imaging of a very recent impact of an asteroid on the near side of the Moon.

  • io9 makes the case that Star Trek: Discovery should try to tackle climate change.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Verizon is seeking a buyer for Tumblr. (Wouldn't it be funny if it was bought, as other reports suggest might be possible, by Pornhub?)

  • JSTOR Daily reports on a 1910 examination of medical schools that, among other things, shut down all but two African-American medical schools with lasting consequences for African-American health.

  • Language Log asks why "Beijing" is commonly pronounced as "Beizhing".

  • Simon Balto asks at Lawyers, Guns and Money why the murder of Justine Ruszczyk by a Minneapolis policeman is treated more seriously than other police killings, just because she was white and the cop was black. All victims deserve the same attention.

  • Russell Darnley at Maximos62 shares a video of the frieze of the Parthenon.

  • The NYR Daily responds to the 1979 television adaptation of the Primo Levi novel Christ Stopped at Eboli, an examination of (among other things) the problems of development.

  • Peter Rukavina is entirely right about the practical uselessness of QR codes.

  • Daniel Little at Understanding Society points readers towards the study of organizations, concentrating on Charles Perrow.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the argument of one Russian commentator that Russia should offer to extend citizenship en masse not only to Ukrainians but to Belarusians, the better to undermine independent Belarus.

  • Arnold Zwicky shares photos of some of his flourishing flowers, as his home of Palo Alto enters a California summer.

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  • Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.

  • D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.

  • Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.

  • Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.

  • JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.

  • Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.

  • Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.

  • Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.

  • Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.

  • Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.

  • Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.

  • Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.

  • Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.

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  • CityLab reports on a replica of a remarkable proto-bicycle, the laufmaschine, first built in 1815 in response to the climate catastrophe of Mount Tambora.

  • This Wired feature looking at how northern Russians scavenged and reused rocket components launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome is evocative.

  • Seasteading, it turns out, is something that should not be undertaken in waters already claimed by a sovereign power. The National Post reports.

  • The Jasons, a think tank of prominent scientists on contract with the Pentagon for decades, are looking for new backers after their contract's end. NPR reports.

  • Nicole Javorsky reports at CityLab on remarkable efforts to try to seriously plan the design of an outpost on the Moon.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes how the warp in space-time made by the black hole in V404 Cygni has been detected.

  • The Crux reports on the discovery of the remains of a chicha brewery in pre-Columbian Peru.

  • D-Brief notes a new model for the creation of the Moon by impact with primordial Earth that would explain oddities with the Earth still being molten, having a magma ocean.

  • Bruce Dorminey shares the idea that extraterrestrial civilizations might share messages with posterity through DNA encoded in bacteria set adrift in space.

  • The Dragon's Tales reports on progress in drones and UAVs made worldwide.

  • Gizmodo notes some of the privacy issues involved with Alexa.

  • JSTOR Daily explains how some non-mammals, including birds and fish, nurse their young.

  • Language Hat reports on the latest studies in the ancient linguistic history of East Asia, with suggestions that Old Japanese has connections to the languages of the early Korean states of Silla and Paekche but not to that of Koguryo.

  • Language Log considers the issues involved with the digitization of specialized dictionaries.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money remembers the start of the Spanish Civil War.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution points towards his recent interview with Margaret Atwood.

  • The NYR Daily reports on a remarkable new play, Heidi Schreck's What The Constitution Means To Me.

  • Towleroad reports on what Hunter Kelly, one of the men who operatives tried to recruit to spread slander against Pete Buttigieg, has to say about the affair.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that a Russian annexation of Belarus would not be an easy affair.

  • Arnold Zwicky reports on the latest signs of language change, this time in the New Yorker.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the many galaxies in the night sky caught mid-collision.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the plan of China to send a probe to explore near-Earth co-orbital asteroid 2016 HO3 and comet 133P.

  • Gizmodo reports, with photos, on the progress of the Chang'e 4 and the Yutu 2 rover, on the far side of the Moon.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Bill de Blasio hopes to ban new steel-and-glass skyscrapers in New York City, part of his plan to make the metropolis carbon-neutral.

  • JSTOR Daily notes a critique of the BBC documentary Planet Earth, arguing the series was less concerned with representing the environment and more with displaying HD television technology.

  • Language Hat notes the oddities of the name of St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna. How did "Mark" get so amusingly changed?

  • Language Log looks at how terms for horse-riding might be shared among Indo-European languages and in ancient Chinese.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the grounds for the workers of New York's Tenement Museum to unionize.

  • The NYR Daily notes the efforts of Barnard College Ancient Drama, at Columbia University, to revive Greek drama in its full with music and dance, starting with a Euripedes performance.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares some iconic images of the Earth from space for Earth Day.

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