rfmcdonald | Entries tagged with science

The rescue of cats from the Newfoundland outport of Little Bay Islands, now abandoned, was a success. Global News reports.

Cats in Australia may be in a position to ravage vulnerable survivors of the wildfires. Wired reports.

The Purrsong Pendant is a new fitness tracker for cats. CNET reports.

Humans do need to be able to read the body language of cats, and not only to figure out when they are in pain. CP24 reports.

Is anyone surprised cats might eat human corpses? Newsweek reports.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the question of Betelgeuse going supernova, here.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how black holes might, or might not, spit matter back out, here.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes a report suggesting the local excess of positrons is product not of dark matter but of nearby pulsar Geminga, here.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel lists some of the most distant astronomical objects so far charted in our universe, here.

The question of whether or not a god did create the universe, Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang suggests, remains open.

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

Centauri Dreams looks at the mapping of asteroid Bennu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arnold Zwicky considers different birds with names starting with x.

JSTOR Daily considers whether koalas are actually going extinct, here.

JSTOR Daily looks at the life and accomplishments of Alexander Von Humboldt, here.

JSTOR Daily looks at how a move to California doomed the Oneida Community, here.

JSTOR Daily considers how the genetically diverse wild relatives of current crops could help our agriculture, here.

JSTOR Daily looks at the devastating flood of Florence in 1966, here.

JSTOR Daily points out there is no template for emotional intelligence, here.

JSTOR Daily explores some remarkable lumpy pearls, here.

JSTOR Daily notes an 1870 scare over the future of men, here.

JSTOR Daily reports on the staging of war scenes for the 1945 documentary The Battle of San Pietro, here.

JSTOR Daily considers the bioethics of growing human brains in a petri dish, here.

This Wired obituary for Lil Bub, arguing that the time for the Internet to be a place fo whimsy is over, does make me sad.

Norwegian forest cats look amazing! The Dockyards has photos.

The Pallas cats newly in the Calgary Zoo are, rightfully, becoming big hits. Cottage Life has more.

Ottawa cat Smudge, already a meme hit, has become a celebrity. CBC Ottawa has more.

Unsurprisingly, cats bond with their owners in the same sort of way as dogs and even human infants. More here.

Happily, record numbers of cats are being adopted from shelters, given new homes. Global News reports.

Some few people are apparently good are deciphering the expressions of cats, 15% of the total in one study sample. VICE reports.

Apparently upwards of 95% of dolphins are right-handed. Global News reports.

A dead sperm whale has been found in Scotland, choked on a hundred kilograms of plastic waste. CBC reports.

Tracking the heart rate of a blue whale is something that we can do. CBC reports.

Nearly a hundred cetaceans held in a Russian facility seem to be doing well after being released to their ocean home. CBC reports.

The policies of Elizabeth Warren could, if she was elected, impact the seafood industry of Atlantic Canada. (As, I think, they should.) CBC reports.

Whale populations can, if we treat them well, help save the climate from catastrophe. VICE makes the case.

Climate change is playing a major role in the wildfires of California. Are we now in the Fire Age? Global News considers.

The new normal of the Arctic Ocean is to be ice-free. Global News reports.

Plants first reached land through unexpected horizontal gene transfers. CBC reports.

Zebra mussels have made it to the Lake of the Woods. Global News reports.

An artificial leaf that turns carbon dioxide into usable fuel is a remarkable technology. Universe Today reports.

Earth once hosted nine human species; now it has one. What happened? National Pot considers.

Thanks to better medical care and preventative measures, people have longer healthy lifespans than ever before. Global News reports.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the findings that the LISA Pathfinder satellite was impacted by hypervelocity comet fragments.

Centauri Dreams reports on what we have learned about interstellar comet Borisov.

Bruce Dorminey notes the ESA's Matisse instrument, capable of detecting nanodiamonds orbiting distant stars.

Gizmodo reports a new study of the great auk, now extinct, suggesting that humans were wholly responsible for this extinction with their hunting.

The Island Review links to articles noting the existential vulnerability of islands like Venice and Orkney to climate change.

Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of Tucker Carlson--perhaps not believably retracted by him--to be supporting Russia versus Ukraine.

Language Hat reports on the new Indigemoji, emoji created to reflect the culture and knowledge of Aboriginal groups in Australia.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes one of the sad consequences of the American president being a liar.

James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the optimism of the spending plans of Labour in the UK, a revived Keynesianism.

Marginal Revolution notes the exceptional cost of apartments built for homeless people in San Francisco.

Strange Maps looks at some remarkable gravity anomalies in parts of the US Midwest.

Towleroad notes the support of Jamie Lee Curtis for outing LGBTQ people who are homophobic politicians.

Understanding Society looks at organizations from the perspective of them as open systems.

Whatever's John Scalzi gives a generally positive review of the Pixel 4.

Arnold Zwicky notes the irony of sex pills at an outpost of British discount chain Poundland.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares a stunning photo taken by a friend of the Pleiades star cluster.

The Buzz, at the Toronto Public Library, shares a collection of books suitable for World Vegan Month, here.

Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber considers, with an eye towards China and the Uighurs, how panopticon attempts can stray badly on account of--among other things--false assumptions.

Gizmodo considers how antimatter could end up providing interesting information about the unseen universe.

Joe. My. God. reports from New York City, where new HIV cases are dropping sharply on account of PrEP.

JSTOR Daily shares a vintage early review of Darwin's Origin of Species.

Language Hat examines the origins of the semicolon, in Venice in 1494.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money shares a critical report of the new Jill Lepore book These Truths.

The LRB Blog reports from the Museum of Corruption in Kyiv, devoted to the corruption of the ancient regime in Ukraine.

Marginal Revolution shares a new history of the Lakota.

The NYR Daily looks at the photography of Duane Michals.

The Russian Demographics Blog looks at population trends in Russia, still below 1991 totals in current frontiers.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why some of the lightest elements, like lithium, are so rare.

Window on Eurasia shares the opinion of a Russian historian that Eastern Europe is back as a geopolitical zone.

Arnold Zwicky considers Jacques Transue in the light of other pop culture figures and trends.

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.

Bad Astronomer notes a new study explaining how climate change makes hurricanes more destructive.

Centauri Dreams shares a mosaic photo of the sky with Alpha Centauri highlighted.

The Crux shares a paper explaining why the bubonic plague rarely becomes mass epidemics like the Black Death of the 14th century.

D-Brief notes the new ESA satellite ARIEL, which will be capable of determining of exoplanet skies are clear or not.

Gizmodo consults different experts on the subject of smart drugs. Do they work?

JSTOR Daily explains why Native Americans are so prominent in firefighting in the US Southwest.

Language Log looks at evidence for the diffusion of "horse master" between speakers of ancient Indo-European and Sinitic languages.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the election of Chesa Boudin as San Francisco District Attorney.

The LRB Blog considers the apparent pact between Farage and Johnson on Brexit.

Marginal Revolution looks at a paper examining longer-run effects of the integration of the US military on racial lines in the Korean War.

The NYR Daily looks at how Big Pharma in the US is trying to deal with the opioid epidemic.

The Signal explains how the Library of Congress is expanding its collections of digital material.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how future generations of telescopes will be able to directly measure the expansion of the universe.

The Volokh Conspiracy explains why DACA, giving succor to Dreamers, is legal.

Window on Eurasia notes that, after a century of tumult, the economy of Russia is back at the same relative ranking that it enjoyed a century ago.

Arnold Zwicky reports on an old butch cookbook.

D-Brief looks at how the Nile River has kept its current course for 30 million years, here.

D-Brief notes a study suggesting modern apartments are filled with fungi.

House plants do not purify the air, D-Brief reports.

D-Brief notes that 0.2% of the methane emitters in California release a third of the methane released in the entire state.

A rocky planet in the right orbit in the HR5183 system, with a gas giant in a very eccentric orbit, could have a spectacular sky, D-Brief notes.

At JSTOR Daily, Stephanie Larson looks at how and why cats have been used in horror films.

BBC reports on a black cat that was returned to its owners on Halloween six years after it disappeared.

Sarah Basford as Lifehacker AU explains what different cat vocalizations man.

Cats show love in many different ways. Non Pareil Online reports.

Stephen Dowling at BBC Future looks at the different mistakes we make that keep us from understanding the friendliness of cats.

Bad Astronomy notes a new detailed study suggesting that asteroid Hygeia is round. Does this mean it is a dwarf planet?

The Buzz notes that the Toronto Public Library has a free booklet on the birds of Toronto available at its branches.

Crooked Timber looks forward to a future, thanks to Trump, without the World Trade Organization.

D-Brief notes how the kelp forests off California were hurt by unseasonal heat and disease.

Bruce Dorminey notes an impending collision of supergalactic clusters.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how judgement can complicate collective action.

Language Hat looks at the different definitions of the word "mobile".

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=44807

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how, if anything, climate scientists make conservative claims about their predictions.

Marginal Revolution wonders if planned power outages are a good way to deal with the threat of wildfires in California.

The NYR Daily looks at the ethnic cleansing being enabled by Turkey in Kurdish Syria.

Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews archeologist Arthur Lin about his use of space-based technologies to discovery traces of the past.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks at the staggering inequality in Chile, driver of the recent protests.

At Roads and Kingdoms, Anthony Elghossain reports from the scene of the mass protests in Lebanon.

Drew Rowsome tells how his balcony garden fared this year.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at stellar generations in the universe. (Our sun is a third-generation star.)

Strange Company looks at the murder of a girl five years old in Indiana in 1898. Was the neighbor boy twelve years old accused of the crime the culprit?

Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine takes a look at social mobility in France.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little considers economic historians and their study of capitalism.

Window on Eurasia looks at the pro-Russian policies of the Moldova enclave of Gagauzia, and draws recommendations for Ukraine re: the Donbas.

Brian Koberlein at Universe Today considers the question of what was the first colour in the universe. (Is it orange?)

Matt Williams at Universe Today considers how comets and other bodies could be exporting life from Earth to the wider galaxy.

Matt Williams at Universe Today explores one study suggesting Venus could have remained broadly Earth-like for billions of years.

Matt Williams at Universe Today also notes another story suggesting, based on the nature of the lava of the volcanic highlands of Venus, that world was never warm and wet.

Fraser Cain at Universe Today took a look at the idea of superhabitable worlds, of worlds better suited to supporting life than Earth.

D-Brief notes the glorious science produced by scientists who trained rats to drive miniature cars and found that, in so doing, the rats' stress was relieved.

D-Brief reports on how scientists used gravitational lensing to study a galaxy nine billion light-years away.

D-Brief explains how, in dwarf galaxies, supermassive black holes can stop star formation.

D-Brief looks at how scientists have found the giant Geode of Pulpi was created.

D-Brief notes how dark matter is making some spiral galaxies rotate at well over 500 kilometres a second.

Carl Newport at WIRED argues that past generations have never been as suspicious of technology as we now think, here.

Anthropologist Darren Byler at The Conversation argues, based on his fieldwork in Xinjiang, how Uighurs became accustomed to the opportunities of new technologies until they were suddenly caught in a trap.

James Verini at WIRED notes how the fighting around Mosul in the fall of ISIS could be called the first smartphone war.

National Observer looks at how Québec is so far leading Canada in the development of clean technologies, including vehicles.

VICE reports on how a Christian rock LP from the 1980s also hosted a Commodore 64 computer program.

Megan Molteni at WIRED looks at a new, more precise, CRISPR technique that could be used to fix perhaps most genetic diseases.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.

Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.

The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.

D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.

Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.

Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.

The Dragon's Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.

Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.

Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.

Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.

io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.

JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.

Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of "their" as a singular.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.

The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.

Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.

Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.

Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.

The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.

The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.

Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.

Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.

The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.

Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.

Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.

Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, "depose".

Citizen Science Salon highlights Australian Michelle Neil, here.

Ingrid Robeyns argues at Crooked Timber that the idea of punitive taxation of the superrich is hardly blasphemous.

The Crux looks at the ongoing debate over the age of the rings of Saturn.

io9 notes the sad death of Aron Eisenberg, the actor who brought the character of Nog to life on DS9.

JSTOR Daily shares a debate on the ego and the id, eighty years later.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Mitch McConnell may have started the movement of Elizabeth Warren towards the US presidency.

The Map Room Blog takes a look at the credible and consistent mapping of Star Wars' galaxy.

The NYR Daily looks at Springsteen at 70 as a performer.

Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a New England forest in fall.

The Volokh Conspiracy notes a sticker that straddles the line between anti-Muslim sentiment and misogyny, trying to force people to choose.

Window on Eurasia notes the strong anti-Russian sentiment prevailing in once-independent Tuva.

Kingston will be hosting an open house discussion on the legacies of its most famous resident, John A. MacDonald. Global News reports.

The Toronto Star reports on a beach and land ownership controversy in the Georgian Bay resort Town of the Blue Mountains, here.

CBC Montreal reports on the closure of the Québec City church Très-Saint-Sacrement, after just under a century of operation, here.

Cost increases for the Green Line LRT in Calgary may lead to route changes. Global News reports.

The Brick has taken over the space of Sears in the West Edmonton Mall, offering hope to shopping malls of survival. Global News reports.

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[CAT] Five #caturday links: Newfoundland, Australia, tracking, body language, bodies
[BLOG] Five Starts With A Bang links (@startswithabang)
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
[URBAN NOTE] Ten JSTOR Daily links (@jstor_daily)
[CAT] Seven #caturday links: Lil Bub, Pallas cats, Smudge, adoptions, expressions
[NEWS] Six cetacean links
[NEWS] Seven science links
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: Nile, apartment fungi, house plants, methane, HR 5183
[CAT] Five #caturday links: horror, returns, communications
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
[NEWS] Five Universe Today (@universetoday) links: colours, panspermia, Venus, superhabitable worlds
[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: rats and cars, gravitational lensing, black holes, geodes, dark matter
[NEWS] Six technology links
[BLOG] Some Friday links
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Town of the Blue Mountains, Québec City, Calgary, Edmonton

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A Bit More Detail

Assorted Personal Notations, Essays, and Other Jottings

Entries tagged with science

[CAT] Five #caturday links: Newfoundland, Australia, tracking, body language, bodies

[BLOG] Five Starts With A Bang links (@startswithabang)

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[URBAN NOTE] Ten JSTOR Daily links (@jstor_daily)

[CAT] Seven #caturday links: Lil Bub, Pallas cats, Smudge, adoptions, expressions

[NEWS] Six cetacean links

[NEWS] Seven science links

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: Nile, apartment fungi, house plants, methane, HR 5183

[CAT] Five #caturday links: horror, returns, communications

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[NEWS] Five Universe Today (@universetoday) links: colours, panspermia, Venus, superhabitable worlds

[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: rats and cars, gravitational lensing, black holes, geodes, dark matter

[NEWS] Six technology links

[BLOG] Some Friday links

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Town of the Blue Mountains, Québec City, Calgary, Edmonton

Profile

Navigation

February 2021

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Page Summary

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