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NOW Toronto looks at the Pickering nuclear plant and its role in providing fuel for space travel.

In some places like California, traffic is so bad that airlines actually play a role for high-end commuters. CBC reports.

Goldfish released into the wild are a major issue for the environment in Québec, too. CTV News reports.

China's investments in Jamaica have good sides and bad sides. CBC reports.

A potato museum in Peru might help solve world hunger. The Guardian reports.

Is the Alberta-Saskatchewan alliance going to be a lasting one? Maclean's considers.

Is the fossil fuel industry collapsing? The Tyee makes the case.

Should Japan and Europe co-finance a EUrasia trade initiative to rival China's? Bloomberg argues.

Should websites receive protection as historically significant? VICE reports.

Food tourism in the Maritimes is a very good idea. Global News reports.

Atlantic Canada lobster exports to China thrive as New England gets hit by the trade war. CBC reports.

The Bloc Québécois experienced its revival by drawing on the same demographics as the provincial CAQ. Maclean's reports.

Population density is a factor that, in Canada, determines political issues, splitting urban and rural voters. The National Observer observes.

US border policies aimed against migration from Mexico have been harming businesses on the border with Canada. The National Post reports.

The warming of the ocean is changing the relationship of coastal communities with their seas. The Conversation looks.

Archival research in the digital age differs from what occurred in previous eras. The Conversation explains.

The Persian-language Wikipedia is an actively contested space. Open Democracy reports.

Vox notes how the US labour shortage has been driven partly by workers quitting the labour force, here.

Laurie Penny at WIRED has a stirring essay about hope, about the belief in some sort of future.

Charlie Stross at Antipope shares an essay he recently presented on artificial intelligence and its challenges for us.

P. Kerim Friedman writes at {anthro}dendum about the birth of the tea ceremony in the Taiwan of the 1970s.

Anthropology net reports on a cave painting nearly 44 thousand years old in Indonesia depicting a hunting story.

Architectuul looks at some temporary community gardens in London.

Bad Astronomy reports on the weird history of asteroid Ryugu.

The Buzz talks about the most popular titles borrowed from the Toronto Public Library in 2019.

Caitlin Kelly talks at the Broadside Blog about her particular love of radio.

Centauri Dreams talks about the role of amateur astronomers in searching for exoplanets, starting with LHS 1140 b.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber looks at what is behind the rhetoric of "virtue signalling".

Dangerous Minds shares concert performance from Nirvana filmed the night before the release of Nevermind.

Bruce Dorminey notes new evidence that, even before the Chixculub impact, the late Cretaceous Earth was staggering under environmental pressures.

Myron Strong at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about how people of African descent in the US deal with the legacies of slavery in higher education.

Far Outliers reports on the plans in 1945 for an invasion of Japan by the US.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing gathers together a collection of the author's best writings there.

Gizmodo notes the immensity of the supermassive black hole, some 40 billion solar masses, at the heart of galaxy Holm 15A 700 million light-years away.

Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res writes about the issue of how Wichita is to organize its civic politics.

io9 argues that the 2010s were a decade where the culture of the spoiler became key.

The Island Review points readers to the podcast Mother's Blood, Sister's Songs, an exploration of the links between Ireland and Iceland.

Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of the lawyer of the killer of a mob boss that the QAnon conspiracy inspired his actions. This strikes me as terribly dangerous.

JSTOR Daily looks at a study examining scholarly retractions.

Language Hat shares an amusing cartoon illustrating the relationships of the dialects of Arabic.

Language Log lists ten top new words in the Japanese language.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the dissipation of American diplomacy by Trump.

The LRB Blog looks at the many problems in Sparta, Greece, with accommodating refugees, for everyone concerned.

Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting the decline of the one-child policy in China has diminished child trafficking, among other crimes.

Sean Marshall, looking at transit in Brampton, argues that transit users need more protection from road traffic.

Russell Darnley shares excerpts from essays he wrote about the involvement of Australia in the Vietnam War.

Peter Watts talks about his recent visit to a con in Sofia, Bulgaria, and about the apocalypse, here.

The NYR Daily looks at the corporatization of the funeral industry, here.

Diane Duane writes, from her own personal history with Star Trek, about how one can be a writer who ends up writing for a media franchise.

Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections considers the job of tasting, and rating, different cuts of lamb.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at a nondescript observatory in the Mojave desert of California that maps the asteroids of the solar system.

Roads and Kingdoms interviews Eduardo Chavarin about, among other things, Tijuana.

Drew Rowsome loves the SpongeBob musical.

Peter Rukavina announces that Charlottetown has its first public fast charger for electric vehicles.

The Russian Demographics Blog considers the impact of space medicine, here.

The Signal reports on how the Library of Congress is making its internet archives more readily available, here.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how the incredibly isolated galaxy MCG+01-02-015 will decay almost to nothing over almost uncountable eons.

Strange Company reports on the trial and execution of Christopher Slaughterford for murder. Was there even a crime?

Strange Maps shares a Coudenhove-Kalergi map imagining the division of the world into five superstates.

Understanding Society considers entertainment as a valuable thing, here.

Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine announces his new book, Où va l'argent des pauvres?

John Scalzi at Whatever looks at how some mailed bread triggered a security alert, here.

Window on Eurasia reports on the massive amount of remittances sent to Tajikistan by migrant workers, here.

Arnold Zwicky notes a bizarre no-penguins sign for sale on Amazon.

The Crux takes a look at how those people who actually are short sleepers work.

D-Brief looks at a study noting how the moods of people are determined by the strengths of their phones' batteries.

Dan Lainer-Vos at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at statistical certainty at a time of climate change.

JSTOR Daily looks at how, and why, the New England Puritans believed human bone might have medical power.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the press coverage that created the alleged Clinton uranium scandal.

The Map Room Blog shares maps noting that, already, since the late 19th century much of the world has warmed more than 2 degrees Celsius.

Strange Company shares a diverse collection of links.

Daniel Pfau at Towleroad writes about possible deep evolutionary roots of homosexuality.

Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian republic of Karelia, despite its border with Finland, suffers from repression.

Architectuul profiles architectural photographer Lorenzo Zandri, here.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting red dwarf stars, by far the most common stars in the universe, have plenty of planets.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares 11 tips for interviewers, reminding me of what I did for anthropology fieldwork.

Centauri Dreams notes how water ice ejected from Enceladus makes the inner moons of Saturn brilliant.

The Crux looks at the increasingly complicated question of when the first humans reached North America.

D-Brief notes a new discovery suggesting the hearts of humans, unlike the hearts of other closely related primates, evolved to require endurance activities to remain healthy.

Dangerous Minds shares with its readers the overlooked 1969 satire Putney Swope.

The Dragon's Tales notes that the WFIRST infrared telescope has passed its first design review.

Gizmodo notes how drought in Spain has revealed the megalithic Dolmen of Guadalperal for the first time in six decades.

io9 looks at the amazing Jonathan Hickman run on the X-Men so far, one that has established the mutants as eye-catching and deeply alien.

Joe. My. God. notes that the Pentagon has admitted that 2017 UFO videos do, in fact, depict some unidentified objects in the air.

JSTOR Daily looks at the origin of the equestrian horseback statue in ancient Rome.

Language Log shares a bilingual English/German pun from Berlin.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson at Jefferson's grave.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution looks at a new book arguing, contra Pinker perhaps, that the modern era is one of heightened violence.

The New APPS Blog seeks to reconcile the philosophy of Hobbes with that of Foucault on biopower.

Strange Company shares news clippings from 1970s Ohio about a pesky UFO.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the idea of shooting garbage from Earth into the sun does not work.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps explains the appearance of Brasilia on a 1920s German map: It turns out the capital was nearly realized then.

Towleroad notes that Pete Buttigieg has taken to avoiding reading LGBTQ media because he dislikes their criticism of his gayness.

Arnold Zwicky looks at diners and changing menus and slavery.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that mysterious Boyajian's Star has nearly two dozen identified analogues, like HD 139139.

James Bow reports from his con trip to Portland.

Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog notes the particular pleasure of having old friends, people with long baselines on us.

Centauri Dreams describes a proposed mission to interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov).

The Crux notes how feeding cows seaweed could sharply reduce their methane production.

D-Brief notes that comet C/2019 Q4 is decidedly red.

Bruce Dorminey notes a claim that water-rich exoplanet K2-18b might well have more water than Earth.

Gizmodo reports on a claim that Loki, biggest volcano on Io, is set to explode in a massive eruption.

io9 notes that Warner Brothers is planning a Funko Pop movie.

Joe. My. God. notes the claim of Donald Trump that he is ready for war with Iran.

JSTOR Daily looks at how people in early modern Europe thought they could treat wounds with magic.

Language Hat considers how "I tip my hat" might, translated, sound funny to a speaker of Canadian French.

Language Log considers how speakers of Korean, and other languages, can find word spacing a challenge.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the partisan politics of the US Supreme Court.

At the NYR Daily, Naomi Klein makes a case for the political and environmental necessity of a Green New Deal.

Peter Watts takes apart a recent argument proclaiming the existence of free will.

Peter Rukavina tells how travelling by rail or air from Prince Edward Island to points of the mainland can not only be terribly inconvenient, but environmentally worse than car travel. PEI does need better rail connections.

The Russian Demographics Blog examines how different countries in Europe will conduct their census in 2020.

Window on Eurasia shares the arguments of a geographer who makes the point that China has a larger effective territory than Russia (or Canada).

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at a 1971 prediction by J.G. Ballard about demagoguery and guilt, something that now looks reasonably accurate.

Arnold Zwicky considers models of segregation of cartoon characters from normal ones in comics.

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.

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.

Charlie Stross hosts at Antipope another discussion thread examining Brexit.

Architectuul takes a look at five overlooked mid-20th century architects.

Bad Astronomy shares a satellite photo of auroras at night over the city lights of the Great Lakes basin and something else, too.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the directions love has taken her, and wonders where it might have taken her readers.

Centauri Dreams reports on the Hayabusa 2 impactor on asteroid Ryugu.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the claims of Steven Pinker about nuclear power.

D-Brief notes the detection, in remarkable detail, of a brilliant exocomet at Beta Pictoris.

The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility that China might be building a military base in Cambodia.

Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the importance of small social cues, easily overlookable tough they are.

Far Outliers notes the role of Japan's imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, in post-war Japan.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing writes about the potential inadequacy of talking about values.

Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting the surprising and potentially dangerous diversity of bacteria present on the International Space Station.

Mark Graham shares a link to a paper, and its abstract, examining what might come of the creation of a planetary labour market through the gig economy.

Hornet Stories takes a look at Red Ribbon Blues, a 1995 AIDS-themed film starring RuPaul.

io9 notes that Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke are co-writing a Pan's Labyrinth novel scheduled for release later this year.

Joe. My. God. notes a new study suggesting 20% of LGBTQ Americans live in rural areas.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the Bluestockings, the grouping of 18th century women in England who were noteworthy scholars and writers.

Language Hat notes an ambitious new historical dictionary of the Arabic language being created by the emirate of Sharjah.

Language Log examines, in the aftermath of a discussion of trolls, different cultures' terms for different sorts of arguments.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how early forestry in the United States was inspired by socialist ideals.

The Map Room Blog links to a map showing the different national parks of the United Kingdom.

Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, noting the new findings from the Chixculub impact, notes how monitoring asteroids to prevent like catastrophes in the future has to be a high priority.

The New APPS Blog explains how data, by its very nature, is so easily made into a commodity.

The NYR Daily considers the future of the humanities in a world where higher education is becoming preoccupied by STEM.

Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews Bear Grylls about the making of his new documentary series Hostile Planet.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw considers the pleasures of birds and of birdwatching.

Jason C. Davis at the Planetary Society Blog noted the arrival of the Beresheet probe in lunar orbit.

Drew Rowsome reviews the new amazing-sounding play Angelique at the Factory Theatre.

The Russian Demographics Blog notes a paper that makes the point of there being no automatic relationship between greater gender equality and increases in fertility.

The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress has made use of the BagIt programming language in its archiving of data.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel comes up with questions to ask plausible visitors from other universes.

Strange Company notes the mysterious deaths visited on three members of a British family in the early 20th century. Who was the murderer? Was there even a crime?

Towleroad notes the activists, including Canadian-born playwright Jordan Tannahill, who disrupted a high tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London over the homophobic law passed by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei.

Window on Eurasia notes rising instability in Ingushetia.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that the British surveillance of Huawei is revealing the sorts of problems that must be present in scrutiny-less Facebook, too.

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.

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.

Colby King writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about furnace, kiln, and oven operators as recorded in the American Community Survey. What experiences do they have in common, and which separate them?

Far Outliers reports on the work of the Indian Labourer Corps on the Western Front, collecting and recycling raw materials from the front.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing makes the case that the seeming neutrality of modern digital technologies are dissolving the established political order.

Joe. My. God. notes a report from Andrew McCabe suggesting that Trump did not believe his own intelligence services' reports about the range of North Korean missiles, instead believing Putin.

JSTOR Daily notes how the interracial marriages of serving members of the US military led to the liberalization of immigration law in the United States in the 1960s.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the connections of the police in Portland, Oregon, to the alt-right.

Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution shares a report of the discovery of English-speaking unicorns in South America that actually reveals the remarkable language skills of a new AI. Fake news, indeed.

The NYR Daily shares a short story by Panashe Chigumadzi, "You Can't Eat Beauty".

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw welcomes a new fluidity in Australian politics that makes the elections debatable.

Drew Rowsome looks at the horror fiction of Justin Cronin.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares some of the key historical images of Pluto, from its discovery to the present.

Window on Eurasia takes a look at the only church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church operating in Russia, in the Moscow area city of Noginsk.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell makes the point that counting on opinion pieces in journalism as a source of unbiased information is a categorical mistake.

Arnold Zwicky looks back, on President's Day at Berkeley, at his experiences and those of others around him at that university and in its community.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at planetary nebulas, beautiful byproducts of the ends of stars.

Centauri Dreams shares an essay by Mark Millis looking at how NASA evaluates proposed new propulsion methods.

Bruce Dorminey takes a look at some interesting facts about the development of the Boeing 747.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing considers the ways in which deepfakes, allowing for alternate personalities online, evoke the Bunburying of Oscar Wilde.

Gizmodo notes that neutron star collisions might well reveal mysterious quark matter, if only they occurred within sight of us.

JSTOR Daily considers the sensuous nature of the Jane Austen novel Persuasion.

Language Log considers a potential case for Sinitic origins in the Balto-Slavic word for "iron".

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the weakness of the centre as a major pull for American voters.

Marginal Revolution links to a paper concluding that Chinese workers are not being exploited by the manufacturing companies that may employ them.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how the curvature of space-time under gravity can be measured.

Window on Eurasia considers two Kazakhstan observers who argue the country should switch from Kazakh-Russian bilingualism to Kazakh-English bilingualism.

Arnold Zwicky considers, after the Gay & Lesbian Review, the representation of different communities in the LGBT+ acronym, the utility of simple symbols, like "&" or "+".

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.

Architectuul celebrates the life and achievements of furniture designer Florence Basset Knoll.

Bad Astronomy notes the remarkably detailed 3d simulation of a solar flare.

At Crooked Timber, John Holbo engages with Corey Robin's article in The New Yorker on the question of why people moving politically from right to left are less prominent than counterparts moving from left to right.

Far Outliers takes a look at the rise and the fall of the international silk trade of China, from Roman times to the 20th century.

At The Frailest Thing, L.M. Sacasas writes about the importance of listening to observers at the "hinges", at the moments when things are changing.

Internet geographer Mark Graham links to a new chapters making the argument that cyberspace is not a novel new territory.

Language Log takes a look at a possible change in the representation of vocal fry as demonstrated in Doonesbury.

Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the background to the possible 2020 presidential bid of ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Marginal Revolution's Alex Tabarrok looks at a history of Aleppo that emphasizes the ancient city's history of catastrophes.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw takes issue with an online map highlighting factory farmers created by pressure group Aussie Farms. How meaningful is it, for starters?

The Russian Demographics Blog notes the timetable of the introduction of syphillis to Poland-Lithuania in the 1490s.

Window on Eurasia looks at Russian population prospects, noting the low fertility among the small cohort of women born in the 1990s.

Arnold Zwicky starts by sharing beautiful paintings and photos of tulips, and ends with a meditation on Crimean Gothic.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that Israeli non-profit SpaceIL plans to launch a lander to the Moon in February.

Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber writes about the material power of ideas and knowledge in 2019.

D-Brief shares the latest images from Ultima Thule.

Earther notes that temperatures in the Arctic have been higher than they have been for more than one hundred thousand years, with moss spores hidden by ice caps for millennia sprouting for the first time.

Far Outliers notes the economic importance, in the early 20th century, of exports of tung oil for China.

JSTOR Daily notes the uneasy relationship of many early psychoanalysts with the occult.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes an alarming report from California showing how the police have been deeply compromised by support for the far right.

Gillian Darley at the LRB Blog writes about a now-forgotten Tolstoyan community in Essex.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution notes a new book by Kevin Erdmann arguing that the United States has been experiencing not a housing bubble but a housing shortage.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the Boomerang Nebula, a nebula in our galaxy colder than intergalactic space.

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy looks at libel law as it relates to the Covington schoolboys' confrontation.

Window on Eurasia notes a window, in the early 1990s, when the independence of the republic of Karelia from Russia was imaginable.

Arnold Zwicky free-associates around blue roses, homoerotic and otherwise.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait writes about the ephemeral nature and historically recent formation of the rings of Saturn.

Centauri Dreams hosts an essay looking at the controversies surrounding the arguments of Avi Loeb around SETI and 'Oumuamua.

D-Brief links to a new analysis of hot Jupiters suggesting that they form close to their stars, suggesting further that they are a separate population from outer-system worlds like our Jupiter and Saturn.

Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the sociology of the online world, using the critical work of Zeynep Tufekci as a lens.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing makes a great point about the seemingly transparent online world: We might, like a protagonist in a Hawthorne story, confine ourselves falsely that we know everything, so becoming jaded.

JSTOR Daily notes how, in the early 20th century, US Park Rangers were actually quite rough and tumble, an irregular police force.

Language Hat looks at the overlooked modernist fiction of Dorothy Richardson.

Language Log examines the origins of the phrase "Listen up".

The LRB Blog visits a Berlin cemetery to note the annual commemoration there of the lives of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

Marginal Revolution considers the proportion of centenarians on Okinawa, and considers if a carbohydrate-heavy diet featuring sweet potatoes is key.Tim Parks at the NYR Daily engages with the idea of a translation being an accomplishment of its own.

Roads and Kingdoms has a fascinating interview with Tanja Fox about the history and development of the Copenhagen enclave of Christiania.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that early returns from New Horizons suggest Ultima Thule is a typical "future comet".

Strange Company shares the story of the haunting of 18th century Gael Donald Bán.

Towleroad shares the account by Nichelle Nichols of how her chance encounter with Martin Luther King helped save Star Trek.

Window on Eurasia notes the different quasi-embassies of different Russian republics in Moscow, and their potential import.

Arnold Zwicky, looking at penguins around the world, notices the CIBC mascot Percy the Penguin.

Dangerous Minds takes note of a robot that grows marijuana.

The Dragon's Tales has a nice links roundup looking at what is happening with robots.

Far Outliers notes the differences between the African and Indian experiences in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles.

L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing recovers a Paul Goodman essay from 1969 talking about making technology a domain not of science but of philosophy.

JSTOR Daily notes the mid-19th century origins of the United States National Weather Service in the American military.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which Jared Kushner is not an amazingly good politician.

The Map Room Blog notes artist Jake Berman's maps of vintage transit systems in the United States.

The NYR Daily examines The Price of Everything, a documentary about the international trade in artworks.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw wonders how long the centre will hold in a world that seems to be screaming out of control. (I wish to be hopeful, myself.)

Drew Rowsome reports on a Toronto production of Hair, 50 years young.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shows maps depicting the very high levels of air pollution prevailing in parts of London.

Window on Eurasia <a href="http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/black-january-in-baku-time-and-place.html'><U>remembers</u></a> Black January in Baku, a Soviet occupation of the Azerbaijani capital in 1990 that hastened Soviet dissolution.</li> </ul>

JSTOR Daily notes the extent to which sister-city relationships actually do matter.

CityLab looks at how the relationship of British cities with their sister-cities in the EU-27, their "twin towns", will be affected by Brexit.

This article at The Conversation makes excellent points about the need for major cities to support local farm economies.

Markus Moos at The Conversation suggests that the philosophical stance of existentialism provides useful angles for thinking about climate change in cities.

Politico Europe hosts an article justly skeptical of the idea of setting up semi-autonomous trade cities under European supervision in Africa to hold off migrants from that continent.

Architectuul looks at the modernist works of Spanish Antonio Lamela, building after the Second World War under Franco.

Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of life-supporting environments on Barnard's Star b, a frozen super-Earth.

The Crux takes a look at how, and when, human beings and their ancestors stopped being as furry as other primates.

D-Brief notes the Russian startup that wants to put advertisements in Earth orbit.

Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the Soyuz 4 and 5 missions, the first missions to see two crewed craft link up in space.

Far Outliers notes
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes the ironies of housing a state-of-the-art supercomputers in the deconsecrated Torre Girona Chapel in Barcelona.

Gizmodo notes a new study claiming that the rings of Saturn may be less than a hundred million years old, product of some catastrophic obliteration of an ice moon perhaps.

Joe. My. God. notes the death of Pulitzer-winning lesbian poet Mary Oliver.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the rising prominence of hoarding as a psychological disorder.

Language Hat shares a manuscript more than a hundred pages long, reporting on terms relating to sea ice used in the Inupiaq language spoken by the Alaska community of Kifigin, or Wales.

Language Log examines the etymology of "slave" and "Slav". (Apparently "ciao" is also linked to these words.)

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that Buzzfeed was right to claim that Trump ordered his lawyer to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project.

Marginal Revolution notes a serious proposal in the Indian state of Sikkim to set up a guaranteed minimum income project.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps links to a map showing visitations of the Virgin Mary worldwide, both recognized and unrecognized by the Vatican.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the continuing controversy over the identity of AT2018cow.

Window on Eurasia suggests that Russians have more to fear from a Sino-Russian alliance than Americans, on account of the possibility of a Chinese takeover of Russia enabled by this alliance.

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