rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.

  • Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.

  • Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.

  • Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn't this have been not mockable but rather creative?

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.

  • Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.

  • Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?

  • The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People's Theatre.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • {anthro}dendum features a post by Kimberly J. Lewis about stategies for anthropologists to write, and be human, after trauma.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports on exoplanet LHC 3844b, a world that had its atmosphere burned away by its parent star.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at Neptune from the perspective of exoplanets discovered near snow lines.

  • D-Brief reports on the new Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, installed at Kitt Peak to help map galaxies and dark energy.

  • Gizmodo
  • looks at how Airbnb is dealing with party houses after a fatal mass shooting.

  • The Island Review shares some drawings by Charlotte Watson, inspired by the subantarctic Auckland Islands.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the late 19th century hit novel Ramona, written by Helen Hunt Jackson to try to change American policy towards indigenous peoples.

  • Language Hat looks at how, until recently, the Faroese language had taboos requiring certain words not to be used at sea.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a proposal to partially privatize American national parks.

  • The LRB Blog looks at what Nigel Farage will be doing next.

  • Marginal Revolution looks at a speculative theory on the origins of American individualism in agrarian diversity.

  • The NYR Daily looks at an exhibition of the artwork of John Ruskin.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw remarks on a connection between Arthur Ransome and his region of New England.

  • Drew Rowsome shares an interview with folk musician Michelle Shocked.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel emphasizes the importance of the dark energy mystery.

  • Towleroad notes a posthumous single release by George Michael.

  • Daniel Little at Understanding Society celebrates the 12th anniversary of his blog, and looks back at its history.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at Ingushetia after 1991.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at All Saints Day.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.

  • Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.

  • Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.

  • James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.

  • Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.

  • The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.

  • D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • The Dragon's Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.

  • io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.

  • Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.

  • Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.

  • The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.

  • Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.

  • The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.

  • Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.

  • Starts With a Bang's Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti's constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Wired explains what would be the point of a crewed mission to the South Pole of the Moon, and what challenges remain.

  • Evan Gough at Universe Today notes the evidence for the surprising depth and complex hydrological cycles of the methane lakes of Titan.

  • Matt Williams at Universe Today reports on the interest of NASA in dispatching a low-cost mission to the Neptune moon Triton.

  • Universe Today looks at the nearby barred spiral galaxy of Messier 83, just 15 million light-years away.

  • Universe Today notes the recent disproof of the theory that dark matter is made up of primordial black holes.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • At Antipope, Charlie Stross announces (among other things) that his series The Laundry Files has been options for television development.

  • D-Brief notes more evidence for the idea that regular exercise can help psychologically, this study suggesting help to long-term memory.

  • At the Everyday Sociology Blog, Karen Sternheimer writes about sociologists who study subjects that matter to them, subjects that might personally involve them, even.

  • Gizmodo notes that astronomers have detected the formation of dark spots on Neptune, akin to those seen by Voyager 2 in its flyby in 1989, for the first time.

  • JSTOR Daily considers how humans can live alongside crocodiles in peace.

  • Language Log considers gāngjīng 杠精, a new Chinese word that may well denote "troll".

  • Erik Loomis writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about beers that can serve industrial purposes like film development.

  • The Map Room Blog notes new maps of a modern Westeros created by designer Jamie Shadrach.

  • Marginal Revolution notes regulatory controversy in Alexandria, Virginia, regarding a potential halal butchery facility for chickens.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews writer L. Kasimu Harris about the inequalities of New Orleans.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shows readers what the galaxy would look like in electromagnetic frequencies other than those of visible light.

  • Arnold Zwicky writes about progress in education.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares Johannes Kroeger's image of the median Earth.

  • The Crux considers when human societies began to accumulate large numbers of aged people. Would there have been octogenarians in any Stone Age cultures, for instance?

  • The Dragon's Tales considers Russia's strategy in Southeast Asia.

  • Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes that one way to fight against fake news is for people to broaden their friends networks beyond their ideological sympathizers.

  • Language Log, noting a television clip from Algeria in which a person defend their native dialect versus standard Arabic, compares the language situation in the Arab world to that of China.

  • Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen explains how the Tervuren Central African museum in Brussels has not been decolonized.

  • The Planetary Society Blog explores the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why, in current physics, the multiverse must exist.

  • Strange Company explores the strange disappearance, in the Arizona desert in 1952, of a young couple. Their plane was found and in perfect condition, but what happened to them?

  • Strange Maps reports on the tragic migration of six Californian raptors, only one of which managed to make it to its destination.

  • Towleroad reports on the appearance of actor and singer Ben Platt on The Ellen Show, talking about his career and coming out.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the apparently widespread mutual dislike of Chechens and Muscovites.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the French Impressionist artists Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Suzanne Valadon, with images of their art.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how the dinosaurs seem to have been killed off 65 million years ago by a combination of geological and astronomical catastrophes.

  • Centauri Dreams examines Kepler 1658b, a hot Jupiter in a close orbit around an old star.

  • The Crux reports on the continuing search for Planet Nine in the orbits of distant solar system objects.

  • D-Brief notes how researchers have begun to study the archaeological records of otters.

  • Cody Delistraty profiles author and journalist John Lanchester.

  • Far Outliers reports on the terrible violence between Hindus and Muslims preceding partition in Calcutta.

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests the carnival of the online world, full of hidden work, is actually an unsatisfying false carnival.

  • Hornet Stories reports that São Paulo LGBTQ cultural centre and homeless shelter Casa 1 is facing closure thanks to cuts by the homophobic new government.

  • io9 reports on one fan's attempt to use machine learning to produce a HD version of Deep Space Nine.

  • JSTOR Daily takes a look at the increasing trend, at least in the United States and the United Kingdom, to deport long-term residents lacking sufficiently secure residency rights.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the literally medieval epidemics raging among the homeless of California.

  • Marginal Revolution considers how the Book of Genesis can be read as a story of increasing technology driving improved living standards and economic growth.

  • The NYR Daily interviews Lénaïg Bredoux about #MeToo in France.

  • The Planetary Society Blog considers the subtle differences in colour between ice giants Uranus and Neptune, one greenish and the other a blue, and the causes of this difference.

  • The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares beautiful photos of ice on a stream as he talks about his creative process.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers what the universe was like back when the Earth was forming.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on a statement made by the government of Belarus that the survival of the Belarusian language is a guarantor of national security.

  • Arnold Zwicky was kind enough to share his handout for the semiotics gathering SemFest20.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • What is up with the unexpectedly colourful Neptunian Trojan asteroids? Scientific American reports.

  • Universe Today notes the very recent discovery of outer system body FarFarOut, 140 astronomical units away.

  • Universe Today looks at the latest evidence for the existence of Planet Nine, in the twisted orbits of outer solar system bodies.

  • Daily Galaxy notes that a hundred million black holes, almost all of them unknown to us, likely exist in the Milky Way Galaxy.

  • Evan Gough at Universe Today reports on the mysterious recurring nova M31N 2008-12a, exploding once a year off in the Andromeda Galaxy.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Architectuul talks about the remarkable and distinctive housing estates of south London, like Alexandra Road, currently under pressure from developers and unsympathetic governments.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at Bennu, set to be visited by the OSIRIS-REx probe.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about meeting people you've met online via social networks, making friends even. Myself, I've done this all the time: Why not use these networks to their fullest in a fragmented vast world?

  • Centauri Dreams celebrates the now-completed mission of the exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope.

  • D-Brief looks at the distinctive seasons of Triton, and the still-open questions surrounding Neptune's largest moon.

  • At JSTOR Daily, Nancy Bilyeau writes about the import of the famous Gunpowder Plot of 1605, something often underplayed despite its potential for huge change and its connection to wider conflicts.

  • Language Hat notes the name of God in the Hebrew tradition, Yahweh. Where did it come from?

  • Language Log shares an interesting idea for helping to preserve marginalized languages: Why not throw a language party celebrating the language?

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the question of what historical general or military leader would do best leading the armies of the living dead.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the problems with Erdogan's big investments in public infrastructure in Turkey, starting with the new Istanbul airport.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the possibility of life in the very early universe. Earth-like life could have started within a billion years of the Big Bang; Earth life might even have begun earlier, for that matter.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shows a map of Europe identifying which countries are the more chauvinistic in the continent.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the strength of the relatively recent division between Tatars and Bashkirs, two closely related people with separate identities grown strong in the Soviet era.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes evidence that white dwarf Gaia J1738–0826 is eating its planets.

  • Crux takes a look at the stars closely orbiting Sagittarius A* at the heart of the galaxy like relativity-proving S2.

  • D-Brief notes a recent proposal for an unmanned probe to Uranus and Neptune.

  • Dangerous Minds shows the eerily decomposing sculptures of YuIchi Ikehata.

  • Bruce Dorminey explores the provocative idea of era in the early Moon where it was briefly habitable.

  • Far Outliers explores the reasons why George Orwell has become so popular lately.

  • Hornet Stories notes that Tom Daley has recently posed nude for a painting by the celebrated David Hockney.

  • JSTOR Daily explores the reality behind the imminent arrival of the laser gun into militaries worldwide.

  • Language Hat notes that the Austrian state of Vorarlberg sponsors an interesting contest, of performances of songs--including pop songs--in local dialect.

  • The LRB Blog notes the severity of the forest fires in Greece, aggravated by climate change, systematic corruption, and recent austerity.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shares photos of asteroid Ryugu taken by the Hayabusa2 probe.

  • Roads and Kingdoms reports on a T-bone steak heavy breakfast lasting twenty hours in Bilbao.
  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes a joke political party in Hungary that wants to make the country smaller.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow is caught between its Ukrainian goals and its Russian links.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Crux takes a look at some of the lost moons of the early solar system, including those of Jupiter, Saturn inward of Titan, and Neptune before its encounter with Triton.

  • D-Brief notes that, in its relatively warm and watery youth, the Moon could conceivably have supported life.

  • Dangerous Minds shares photos, and a precise, of the ball--the Diner de Têtes Surrealistes--thrown in 1972 by the Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Guy at the Château de Ferrières outside of Paris.

  • Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at how students' race can complicate the act of studying abroad. http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2018/07/race-and-studying-abroad.html
  • Imageo notes the heat wave aggravating forest fires in California and Oregon.

  • JSTOR Daily considers if, perhaps, the Ford Pinto received an undeservedly negative reputation from its contemporaries.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a Matthew Yglesias analysis about the usability of swing voters in the American context.

  • At the LRB Blog, Anne Orford draws from the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki the argument that international politics is much too important to be decided by two men alone and their translators.

  • The Map Room Blog shares some remarkable infrared images of Titan, looking beneath that world's clouds.

  • Marginal Revolution notes one report suggesting that oil revenues could lead to a tripling of the size of the GDP of Guyana in five years.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel illustrates the discovery of an ancient galaxy almost entirely absorbed into the Andromeda Galaxy, M32p.

  • Towleroad reviews the new Broadway play Straight White Men, which has an interesting take on this hitherto-dominant portion of North American society.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Centauri Dreams shares a cool design for a mid-21st century Triton landing mission.

  • Crooked Timber argues American conservative intellectuals have descended to hackwork.

  • D-Brief notes the surprisingly important role that eyebrows may have played in human evolution.

  • Dead Things notes how a hominid fossil discovery in the Arabian desert suggests human migration to Africa occurred almost 90 thousand years ago, longer than previously believed.

  • Hornet Stories notes that biphobia in the LGBTQ community is one factor discouraging bisexuals from coming out.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox gives a favourable review to Wendell Berry's latest, The Art of Loading Brush.

  • JSTOR Daily explores the connections between Roman civilization and poisoning as a means for murder.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the early 20th century American practice of redlining, denying minorities access to good housing, still marks the maps of American cities.

  • The LRB Blog notes how the 1948 assassination of reformer Gaitan in Bogota changed Colombia and Latin America, touching the lives of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fidel Castro.

  • The Map Room Blog notes that Spacing has launched a new contest, encouraging creators of inventive maps of Canadian cities to do their work.

  • The NYR Daily notes a new exhibit of Victorian art that explores its various mirrored influences, backwards and forwards.

  • At the Planetary Society Blog, Jason Davis explores TESS, the next generation of planet-hunting astronomy satellite from NASA.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares photos of planetary formation around sun-like star TW Hydrae.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that a combination of urbanization, Russian government policy, and the influence of pop culture is killing off minority languages in Russia.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Anthropology.net's Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that environmental change in Kenya may have driven creativity in early human populations there.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how astronomers use stellar occultations to investigate the thin atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton.

  • Centauri Dreams notes how melting ice creates landscape change on Ceres.

  • D-Brief suggests
  • Dangerous Minds shares Paul Bowles' recipe for a Moroccan love charm.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog investigates the transformation of shopping malls and in the era of Amazon Prime.

  • At In Medias Res, Russell Arben Fox engages with Left Behind and that book's portrayal of rural populations in the United States which feel left behind.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how Roman Catholic nuns on the 19th century American frontier challenged gender norms.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money is critical of Tex-Mex cuisine, calling it an uncreative re-presentation of Mexican cuisine for white people in high-calorie quantities.

  • The NYR Daily shared this thought-provoking article noting how Irish America, because of falling immigration from Ireland and growing liberalism on that island, is diverging from its ancestral homeland.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews The Monument, a powerful play currently on in Toronto that engages with the missing and murdered native women.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes, in a photo-heavy post, how galaxies die (or at least, how they stop forming stars).

  • Towleroad shares a delightful interview with Adam Rippon conducted over a plate of hot wings.

  • Window on Eurasia shares an alternate history article imagining what would have become of Russia had Muscovy not conquered Novgorod.

  • Worthwhile Canadian Initiative notes the very sharp rise in public debt held by the province of Ontario, something that accelerated in recent years.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests, in the era of Cambridge Analytica and fake news, that many journalists seem not to take their profession seriously enough.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Charlie Stross at Antipope writes about why he reads so little science fiction these days. (Too little plausible world-building and exploration of our world, he argues.)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait enthuses about the Falcon Heavy launch yesterday, while Lawyers, Guns and Money is much less impressed with the Falcon Heavy launch, calling it representative of the new global plutocracy.

  • The Buzz shares some of the favourite books of 2017 of staff members at the Toronto Public Library.

  • Centauri Dreams examines the recent study providing tantalizing data hinting at the potential environments of the TRAPPIST-1 planets.

  • Cody Delistraty links to an essay of his analyzing the grand strategy of Macron for France, and for Europe.

  • Dangerous Minds reports on how one man's nostalgia for the 1990s led him to create a video rental store.

  • Gizmodo reports on how scientists made, under conditions of exceptional heat and pressure, a new kind of ice that may exist in the cores of Uranus and Neptune.

  • Hornet Stories takes pointed issue with an astonishingly tone-deaf essay that demonstrates the existence of racism in the leather community.

  • JSTOR Daily links to papers suggesting that referenda are not necessarily good for democracy.

  • Language Hat looks at the surprisingly profound roots of singing in nonsense, in different cultures and over the age of the individual.

  • The LRB Blog reports from a visit paid by one of its writers to the US embassy in London so disdained by Trump.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting that there has been a consistent slowing of gains to life expectancy in rich countries since 1950, hinting perhaps at a maximum lifespan (for now?).

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that the ozone hole has stopped repairing itself, quite possibly because of global warming.

  • Towleroad reports on a sort of brunch-based passing of the torch from the old five castmembers of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to the new five.

  • Window on Eurasia shares what seems to be a fair take on the history of Jews in Siberia.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Centauri Dreams shares, from JPL, the schedule for Cassini in its last days of existence. Goodbye, dear probe.

  • Dangerous Minds shares some classic illustrations from a Persian book called Lights of Canopus.

  • The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper suggesting that gas giants can stabilize debris disks.

  • Far Outliers shares excerpts from the diary of a Japanese soldier fighting in New Guinea in the Second World War.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the real suffering that high rents impose on the poor in American cities.

  • The Map Room Blog shares some nice X-ray maps of New York City subway stations.

  • The Planetary Society Blog shares more vintage Voyager photos of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune ...

  • Roads and Kingdoms tells of the marvelous cookies made on the dying Venetian island of Burano.

  • Drew Rowsome considers, at length and with personal references, the differences between "art" and "porn". NSFW.

  • Understanding Society considers the latest thinking on causal mechanisms in modern sociology.

  • Window on Eurasia wonders if non-Russian languages in Russia are attacked out of anxiety over Russian's own decline, and speculates that if integration of mostly Muslim immigrants goes poorly in Moscow, the city could get locked in sectarian conflict.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • The waters off the Maritimes, it seems, have enjoyed unusually warm temperatures this year. The Globe and Mail reports.

  • What will become of the forest of British Columbia if locals do not protect it from over-logging? National Observer considers.

  • What, exactly, is this mysteriously invisible high-mass body acting as a gravitational lens in intergalactic space? VICE describes the mystery.

  • The Planetary Society Blog, in commemoration of the Voyagers, shares its archived materials on the probes' discoveries, right here.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Antipope Charlie Stross takes a look at the parlous state of the world, and imagines what if the US and UK went differently.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at Sirius, including white dwarf Sirius B.

  • Centauri Dreams considers Cassini's final function, as a probe of Saturn's atmosphere.

  • D-Brief notes the discovery that diamonds rain deep in Neptune (and Uranus).

  • Bruce Dorminey reports on a NASA scientist's argument that we need new interstellar probes, not unlike Voyager 1.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the way a course syllabus is like a Van Halen contract rider.

  • Language Hat takes a look at the palimpsests of St. Catherine's Monastery, deep in the Sinai.

  • Language Log looks at the etymology, and the history, of chow mein.

  • The LRB Blog recounts a visit to Mount Rushmore in the era of Trump.

  • Marginal Revolution takes a look at the question of why Mexico isn't enjoying higher rates of economic growth.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw considers the extent to which politics these days is just sound and fury, meaning nothing.

  • Mark Simpson links to an essay of his explaining why we should be glad the Smiths broke up in 1987.

  • Speed River Journal's Van Waffle considers the import, to him and the environment, of a spring near his cottage.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the abundance of black holes in our galaxy, more than one hundred million.

  • Unicorn Booty notes that smoking marijuana might--might--have sexual benefits.

  • Window on Eurasia shares an argument that ethnic Russians in Russia share issue in common with whites in America, and reports on an argument made by one man that ethnic Russians in republics need not learn local languages.

Profile

rfmcdonald: (Default)rfmcdonald

February 2021

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
212223242526 27
28      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 3rd, 2025 11:10 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios