rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Marginal Revolution features a critical if friendly review of the new Emmanuel Todd book, Lineages of Modernity.

  • Marginal Revolution considers the problems of excessive consumer activism, here.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a new book looking at natural gas economics in Europe, here.

  • Marginal Revolution notes new evidence that YouTube algorithms do not tend to radicalize users, here.

  • Marginal Revolution notes the few countries where the average person was richer in 2009 than in 2019, notably Greece and Venezuela.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

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

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

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

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

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

  • JSTOR Daily considers the political rhetoric of declinism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the positive potential of homoeros.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomy notes the very odd structure of galaxy NGC 2775.

  • Dangerous Minds reports on the 1987 riot by punks that wrecked a Seattle ferry.

  • Bruce Dorminey reports on a new suggestion from NASA that the massive dust towers of Mars have helped dry out that world over eons.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how changing technologies have led to younger people spending more social capital on maintaining relationships with friends over family.

  • This forum hosted at Gizmodo considers the likely future causes of death of people in coming decades.

  • In Media Res' Russell Arben Fox reports on the debate in Wichita on what to do with the Century II performance space.

  • Joe. My. God. reports on the decision of Hungary to drop out of Eurovision, apparently because of its leaders' homophobia.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the debunking of the odd theory that the animals and people of the Americas were degenerate dwarfs.

  • Language Hat reports on how the classics can be served by different sorts of translation.

  • Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how Trump's liberation of war criminals relates to folk theories about just wars.

  • The LRB Blog reports from the ground in the Scotland riding of East Dunbartonshire.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting that, contrary to much opinion, social media might actually hinder the spread of right-wing populism.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the nature of the proxy fighters in Syria of Turkey. Who are they?

  • Drew Rowsome interviews Sensational Sugarbum, star of--among other things--the latest Ross Petty holiday farce.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why we still need to be able to conduct astronomy from the Earth.

  • Strange Maps explains the odd division of Europe between east and west, as defined by different subspecies of mice.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how Chinese apparently group Uighurs in together with other Central Asians of similar language and religion.

  • Arnold Zwicky explores the concept of onomatomania.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Victor Mair at Language Log takes a look at the many and varied colloquialisms in the different varieties of Chinese.

  • Robert Hymes writes a guest post at Language Log examining the word "mare" and its relatives across language families.

  • Mark Liberman at Language Log considers how the name of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is to be pronounced.

  • Victor Mair at Language Log takes a look at the English dialect of Yorkshire.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

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

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

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

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

  • Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

  • Anthrodendum features a guest post from editors introducing a series on fieldwork and trauma.

  • Crooked Timber's John Quiggin takes a stab at trying to define neoliberalism as an ideology, not just a catch-all phrase.

  • The Crux looks at desalination, a difficult process that we may need to use regardless of its difficulty.

  • D-Brief notes that narcissism is linked to lower levels of stress and depression.

  • Jezebel notes the return and legacy of Bratz dolls.

  • Joe. My. God. shares the Sam Smith cover of the Donna Summer classic "I Feel Love", along with other versions of that song.

  • JSTOR Daily considers if graphene will ever become commercially usable.

  • Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an analysis warning about commercial debt. Another 2008?

  • Marginal Revolution points to some papers suggesting that cannabis usage does not harm cognition, that the relationship is if anything reversed.

  • Daphne Merkin at the NYR Daily looks back at her literary life, noting people now gone.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the new Daniel MacIvor play Let's Run Away.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy looks at how the Trump Administration lost two cases against sanctuary cities.

  • Window on Eurasia considers, briefly, the idea of Gorbachev giving to Germany Kaliningrad, last remnant of East Prussia.

  • Worthwhile Canadian Initiative looks at the rises in health spending directed towards young people. Is this a warning sign of poor health?

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at Gaysper, and then at other queer ghosts.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Adam Fish at anthro{dendum} compares different sorts of public bathing around the world, from Native America to Norden to Japan.

  • Charlie Stross at Antipope is unimpressed by the person writing the script for our timeline.

  • Architectuul reports on an architectural conference in Lisbon.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the eruption of the Raikoke volcano in Kamchatka.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at what the Voyager spacecraft have returned about the edge of the solar system.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea of bipartisanship if it means compromising on reality, allegorically.

  • The Crux counts the number of people who have died in outer space.

  • D-Brief notes that the Andromeda Galaxy has swallowed up multiple dwarf galaxies over the eons.

  • Dead Things notes the identification of the first raptor species from Southeast Asia, Siamraptor suwati.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes a paper tracing the origins of interstellar comet 2/Borisov from the general area of Kruger 60.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the privilege allowing people access to affordable dental care.

  • Gizmodo tells how Alexei Leonov survived the first spacewalk.

  • io9 looks at the remarkable new status quo for the X-Men created by Jonathan Hickman.

  • Selma Franssen at the Island Review writes about the threats facing the seabirds of the Shetlands.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at what led Richard Nixon to make so many breaks from the American consensus on China in the Cold War.

  • Language Log notes an undergraduate course at Yale using the Voynich Manuscript as an aid in the study of language.

  • Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains her recent experience of the socialized health care system of Israel for Americans.

  • The LRB Blog looks at how badly the Fukuyama prediction of an end to history has aged.

  • The Map Room Blog shares a few maps of the new Ottawa LRT route.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a paper establishing a link between Chinese industries undermining their counterparts in Mexico and Mexican social ills including crime.

  • Sean Marshall reports from Ottawa about what the Confederation Line looks like.

  • Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily looks at the power of improvisation in music.

  • Roads and Kingdoms looks at South Williamsburg Jewish deli Gottlieb's.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the new Patti Smith book, Year of the Monkey.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking as the factors leading into transnational movements.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the question of the direction(s) in which order in the universe was generated.

  • Window on Eurasia shares a report noting the very minor flows of migration from China to Russia.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the politics in the British riding of Keighley.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguin socks.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes new research on where the sun is located within the Milky Way Galaxy.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the value of slow fashion.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the different gas giants that our early methods have yet to pick up.

  • Crooked Timber shares a lovely photo looking back at Venice from across its lagoon.

  • D-Brief notes that upcoming space telescopes might find hundreds of rogue planets thanks to microlensing.

  • io9 notes that Marvel will soon be producing Warhammer40K comics.

  • The Island Review shares some poetry and photography by Ken Cockburn inspired by the Isle of Jura.

  • JSTOR Daily notes that different humpback whale groups have different songs, different cultures.

  • Language Hat tries to find the meaning of the odd Soviet Yiddish word "kolvirt".

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the history of Elizabeth Warren as a law teacher.

  • Map Room Blog shares information from Google Maps about its use of data.

  • Marginal Revolution notes that in 2016, not a single child born in the United Kingdom was given the name Nigel.

  • Peter Watts talks about AI and what else he is doing.

  • The NYR Daily marked the centennial of a horrible massacre of African-Americans centered on the Arkansas community of Elaine.

  • Emily Margolis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at how the Apollo moon missions helped galvanize tourism in Florida.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the constitutional crisis in Peru.

  • Drew Rowsome takes a look at A Streetcar Named Desire.

  • Peter Rukavina looks at a spreadsheet revealing the distribution of PEI public servants.

  • Spacing reviews a book imagining how small communities can rebuild themselves in neoliberalism.

  • Towleroad shares the criticism of Christine and the Queens of the allegedly opportunistic use of queer culture by Taylor Swift.

  • Understanding Society considers, sociologically, the way artifacts work.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy argues that the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China should be a day of mourning, on account of the high human toll of the PRC.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests the Russian generation of the 1970s was too small to create lasting change.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at how underwear ads can be quite sexualized.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Is the argument of Piketty that billionaires should be taxed out of existence for the benefit of all really as bad as this columnist thinks it? Bloomberg has it.

  • I do agree with this Open Democracy column suggesting a badly-handled guaranteed minimum income scheme could be a disaster.

  • It is a sad irony that the stresses of poverty have been confirmed to accelerate the aging of poor people. VICE reports.

  • Exercise plays a key role in helping slow down the aging process. The Conversation reports.

  • Vox looks at claims of supercentenarians, and finds that poor record-keeping if not outright fraud is responsible for many.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.

  • D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.

  • Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.

  • Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.

  • Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)

  • JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.

  • Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.

  • Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.

  • Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people's language.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

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

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

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

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

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

  • The Crux looks at the phenomenon of microsleep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Language Log looks at the complexities of katakana.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Westerlund-1, a massive star cluster with many bright stars in our galaxy.

  • Centauri Dreams notes a finding that giant planets like Jupiter are less likely to be found around Sun-like stars.

  • D-Brief notes how, in a time of climate change, birds migrated between Canada and the equator.

  • Bruce Dorminey lists five overlooked facts about the Apollo 11 mission.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that the US House of Representatives has approved the creation of a US Space Corps analogous to the Marines.

  • JSTOR Daily considers tactics to cure groupthink.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, looking at the experience of Hong Kong, observes how closely economic freedoms depend on political freedom and legitimacy.

  • Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog explains his rationale for calculating that the Apollo project, in 2019 dollars, cost more than $US 700 billion.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the star R136a1, a star in the 30 Doradus cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is the most massive star known to exist.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how Circassians in Syria find it very difficult to seek refuge in their ancestral lands in the North Caucasus.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks, in occasionally NSFW detail, at the importance of June the 16th for him as a date.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the German city of Nordlingen, formed in a crater created by the impact of a binary asteroid with Earth.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the possibility that the farside of the Moon might bear the imprint of an ancient collision with a dwarf planet the size of Ceres.

  • D-Brief notes that dredging for the expansion of the port of Miami has caused terrible damage to corals there.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at the last appearances of David Bowie and Iggy Pop together on stage.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that China is on track to launch an ambitious robotic mission to Mars in 2020.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog talks about what sociological research actually is.

  • Gizmodo reports on the discovery of a torus of cool gas circling Sagittarius A* at a distance of a hundredth of a light-year.

  • io9 reports about Angola Janga, an independent graphic novel by Marcelo D'Salete showing how slaves from Africa in Brazil fought for their freedom and independence.

  • The Island Review shares some poems of Matthew Landrum, inspired by the Faroe Islands.

  • Joe. My. God. looks at how creationists are mocking flat-earthers for their lack of scientific knowledge.

  • Language Hat looks at the observations of Mary Beard that full fluency in ancient Latin is rare even for experts, for reason I think understandable.

  • Melissa Byrnes wrote at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the meaning of 4 June 1989 in the political transitions of China and Poland.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how the New York Times has become much more aware of cutting-edge social justice in recent years.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how the memories and relics of the Sugar Land prison complex outside of Houston, Texas, are being preserved.

  • Jason C Davis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the differences between LightSail 1 and the soon-to-be-launched LightSail 2.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks in detail at the high electricity prices in Argentina.

  • Peter Rukavina looks at the problems with electric vehicle promotion on PEI.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at when the universe will have its first black dwarf. (Not in a while.)

  • Window on Eurasia suggests that Belarusians are not as interested in becoming citizens of Russia as an Internet poll suggests.

  • Arnold Zwicky highlights a Pride Month cartoon set in Antarctica featuring the same-sex marriage of two penguins.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

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

  • Architectuul looks at the photography of Roberto Conte.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Increasing the housing supply will not necessarily decrease inequality. CityLab reports.

  • American cities need more public spaces, for the health and well-being of all. The Atlantic reports.

  • Having large populations of educated Millennials is a good problem for cities. Bloomberg reports.

  • Atlas Obscura profiles some cool systems of mass transit from around the world.

  • CityLab observes how beauty in a city can boost its growth.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Centauri Dreams reports on how dataset mining of K2 data revealed 18 more Earth-sized planets.

  • Crooked Timber speculates on how Clarence Thomas might rule on abortion given his public rulings.

  • D-Brief observes that some corals in Hawaii appear to thrive in acidic waters. Is there hope yet for coral reefs?

  • Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about how sociology and history overlap, in their subjects and in their methods.

  • Far Outliers examines how the last remnants of Soviet power faded quickly around the world in 1991.

  • Gizmodo looks at how an image of a rare albino panda has just been captured.

  • Joe. My. God. notes how Christian fundamentalists want to make the east of Washington State into a 51st state run by Biblical law.

  • JSTOR Daily notes how trees can minimize algae blooms in nearby water systems.

  • Victor Mair at Language Log takes issue with problematic pop psychology regarding bilingualism in Singapore.

  • Lawyers, Guns, and Money takes issue with trying to minimize court decisions like (for instance) a hypothetical overthrow of Miranda v. Arizona. (Roe v. Wade is what they are concerned with.)

  • The NYR Daily looks at the short storied life of avant-garde filmmaker Barbara Rubin.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why we can never learn everything about our universe.

  • Towleroad notes that downloads of the relationship app Hinge have surged after Pete Buttigieg said he met his now-husband there.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that Ukraine is seeking to have the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from adjacent Russia declared an international body of water.

  • Arnold Zwicky takes a look at what famed gay writer John Rechy is doing these days.

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 Jan. 7th, 2026 02:07 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios