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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • Garry Wills writes at the NYR Daily about the history of impeachment, here.

  • David Rieff writes at the NYR about Peronism and the new president, in Argentina, here.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the disaster soon to be visited by Brexit on Northern Ireland, here.

  • Matt Seaton writes at the NYR Daily about what the recent British election reveals about the failing health of social democracy in England.

  • The NYR Daily looks at the new movie Atlantics, which looks at migration and Africa.

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

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

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

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

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

  • JSTOR Daily considers the political rhetoric of declinism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the positive potential of homoeros.

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  • Bad 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.

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  • 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.

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  • Ending free coffee for municipal employees in the Québec community of Pierrefonds created massive controversy. CBC reports.

  • The mayor of the Francophone city of Edmundston in New Brunswick has encouraged immigrant Québec students hurt by immigration changes to come to his community. CTV News reports.

  • The price of crystal meth in Saskatoon is apparently as low as $3 a bag. Global News reports.

  • Guardian Cities notes how Louisville, low on trees, is trying to regreen the city as a way to deal with rising temperatures.

  • Open Democracy considers if the DUP is about to lose its strongholds in Belfast.

  • Guardian Cities looks at the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, a place where Palestinians can access their metropolis (and their partners).

  • CityLab shares photos of the wonderful new public library of Helsinki.

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  • 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.

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

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

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

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

  • Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  • {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.

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  • Bad Astronomy notes the mystery of distant active galaxy SDSS J163909+282447.1, with a supermassive black hole but few stars.

  • Centauri Dreams shares a proposal from Robert Buckalew for craft to engage in planned panspermia, seeding life across the galaxy.

  • The Crux looks at the theremin and the life of its creator, Leon Theremin.

  • D-Brief notes that termites cannibalize their dead, for the good of the community.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at William Burroughs' Blade Runner, an adaptation of a 1979 science fiction novel by Alan Nourse.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes a new study explaining how the Milky Way Galaxy, and the rest of the Local Group, was heavily influenced by its birth environment.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at why the Chernobyl control room is now open for tourists.

  • Dale Campos at Lawyers. Guns and Money looks at the effects of inequality on support for right-wing politics.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the decay and transformation of British politics, with Keith Vaz and Brexit.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper explaining why queens are more warlike than kings.

  • Omar G. Encarnación at the NYR Daily looks at how Spain has made reparations to LGBTQ people for past homophobia. Why should the United States not do the same?

  • Corey S. Powell at Out There shares his interview with physicist Sean Carroll on the reality of the Many Worlds Theory. There may be endless copies of each of us out there. (Where?)

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why 5G is almost certainly safe for humans.

  • Strange Company shares a newspaper clipping reporting on a haunting in Wales' Plas Mawr castle.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at all the different names for Africa throughout the years.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy considers, in the case of the disposal of eastern Oklahoma, whether federal Indian law should be textualist. (They argue against.)

  • Window on Eurasia notes the interest of the government of Ukraine in supporting Ukrainians and other minorities in Russia.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at syntax on signs for Sloppy Joe's.

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  • 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.

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  • CTV News notes that election day is here in Canada.

  • CTV News shares a list of answers to frequently asked questions about #elxn43 requirements.

  • Philippe Fournier at MacLean's notes that #elxn43 is shaping to be perhaps the most uncertain federal election in Canada since 1979, at least.

  • Kai Cheng Thom at Daily Xtra addresses the despair of a voter wondering if they should vote at all. Even in dark times, there must be some room for hope, for creative responses.

  • Andrew Coyne at the National Post points out the obvious, that Canadians should not feel smug about dysfunction in the US and Britain.

  • Chris Selley at the National Post argues against electoral reform.

  • CBC shares stories of Syrian refugees, now citizens, voting for the first time in #elxn43.

  • The diffusion of extremist sentiments in Canada in the past few years is a real concern. NOW Toronto has it.

  • This CBC opinion suggests that expatriates from Canada, non-resident in the country, should not have a right to vote.

  • Andrew Scheer, once notable for his vocal support for Brexit, is now much quieter about the issue. CBC reports.

  • Peter Henderson at NOW Toronto argues that Ed the Sock has become the voice of a responsible conservatism.

  • The claims of Andrew Scheer that the political party that wins the most seats gets to form the government in the Canadian system are obviously wrong. Global News has it.

  • Who, exactly, forms the middle class in Canada, that demographic that Trudeau and Scheer have been claiming to address? CBC reports.

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  • 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".

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • Bad Astronomer notes the latest news on interstellar comet 2/Borisov.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly emphasizes how every writer does need an editor.

  • Centauri Dreams notes how the gas giant GJ 3512 b, half the mass of Jupiter orbiting a red dwarf star closely, is an oddly massive exoplanet.

  • Gina Schouten at Crooked Timber looks at inter-generational clashes on parenting styles.

  • D-Brief looks at the methods of agriculture that could conceivably sustain a populous human colony on Mars.

  • Bruce Dorminey argues that we on Earth need something like Starfleet Academy, to help us advance into space.

  • Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how the socio-spatial perspective helps us understand the development of cities.

  • Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res listens to the Paul McCartney album Flaming Pie.
  • io9 looks at Proxima, a contemporary spaceflight film starring Eva Green.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how the intense relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia began in, and reflected, the era of Jim Crow.

  • Language Hat notes a report suggesting that multilingualism helps ward off dementia.

  • Language Log takes issue with the names of the mascots of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the emergence of a ninth woman complaining about being harassed by Al Franken.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a new paper arguing that the Washington Consensus worked.

  • The NYR Daily shares an Aubrey Nolan cartoon illustrating the evacuation of war children in the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

  • At Out of Ambit, Diane Duane shares a nice collection of links for digital mapmakers.

  • The Planetary Society Blog looks at how the European Space Agency supports the cause of planetary defense.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews Kenyan writer Kevin Mwachiro at length.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on how a mysterious fast radio burst helped illuminate an equally mysterious galactic halo.

  • Strange Company reports on the mysterious and unsolved death in 1936 of Canadian student Thomas Moss in an Oxfordshire hayrick.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes how Mount Etna is a surpassingly rare decipoint.

  • Understanding Society considers the thought of Kojève, after Hegel, on freedom.

  • Window on Eurasia looks at the falling numbers of Russians, and of state support for Russian language and culture, in independent Central Asia.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how individual consumer responses are much less effective than concerted collective action in triggering change.

  • Arnold Zwicky reports on some transgender fashion models.

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  • The Ottawa Citizen looks at the problems of the Confederation Line in the evening, here.

  • CBC Montreal takes a look at a 1930s tourist brochure from Montréal. The city was represented in interesting ways.

  • Wired looks at how skyscraper designs in London are being changed for the benefit of cyclists.

  • Guardian Cities reports on "Ma cité va briller", the viral challenge from the Paris suburb of Garges-lès-Gonesse that inspired competition to clean up cities across the Francophone world.

  • Atlas Obscura looks at how the Venetian Republic took great advantage of its expertise in cryptography in the Renaissance.

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  • Kingston is experiencing a serious housing crisis, exacerbated by the return of students to such educational institutions as Queen's. Global News reports.

  • CBC looks at how, on the eve of the federal election, issues like cost of living are big even in relatively affordable Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

  • CityLab looks at controversy in Paris over the reconstruction of the Gare du Nord station, here.

  • Vice shares photos of Gibraltar on the eve of Brexit, here.

  • Guardian Cities shares photos of the wordless images advertising shops in the city of Brazzaville, here.

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