A Bit More Detail

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


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


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


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


• Cody Delistraty profiles author and journalist John Lanchester.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the pleasures of the unmediated life, experienced in her recent vacation.


• This celebration at Centauri Dreams of the forty years of science from the Voyager missions is heart-warming.


• White racism in power is touched upon at Lawyers, Guns and Money.


• Noel Maurer notes that the Philippines, where indiscriminate violence is state policy, no longer counts as a true democracy. Duturte as Marcos?


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map depicting the frequency with which young adults live with parents across Europe. Northwestern Europe stands out.


• Understanding Society looks at an early critique of positivism in sociology.


• Window on Eurasia looks at Belarus' preparation for the Zapad 2017 military exercises with Russia.

• blogTO notes that the Toronto Eaton Centre is set to be subtly renamed.


• Centauri Dreams notes the absence of evidence for extragalactic supercivilizations.


• The Dragon's Gaze observes a new observatory that should be able to detect Earth-like worlds around red dwarfs and links to a paper describing how dwarf planets can heat Kuiper belts.


• The Dragon's Tales notes evidence suggesting the solar system could have ejected a gas giant, notes Canada is on the verge of buying French Mistrals, and looks at a blockade of Crimea by Crimean Tatars and right-wing Ukrainian nationalists.


• Language Hat links to John McWhorter's history of Aramaic.


• Language Log looks at the controversy in South Korea on using Chinese characters in education.


• Languages of the World looks at how different languages address god.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes the current state of our knowledge and planning for Uranus and Neptune.


• pollotenchegg maps language identity in early Soviet Ukraine.


• The Power and the Money speculates as to why Russia is in Syria, and comes up with little that is reassuring.


• The Russian Demographics Blog notes statistics on Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca.


• Spacing Toronto suggests that an answer to the Gardiner East can be found in the rail corridor.


• Window on Eurasia looks at the Russian deployment in Syria, speculates about future intentions in Central Asia and actual issues with Belarus, and suggests a turn to China will not help Asian Russia.


• Zero Geogrpahy maps the generation of academic knowledge.

Sometimes first impressions are poor ones. When the Voyager 2 spacecraft whizzed by Uranus in 1986, the close-up view of the gas giant revealed what appeared to a be a relatively featureless ball. By that point, scientists were used to seeing bright colors and bands on Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus wasn’t quite deemed uninteresting, but the lack of activity was something that was usually remarked upon when describing the planet.

Fast-forward 28 years and we are learning that Uranus is a more complex world than imagined at the time. Two new studies, discussed at an American Astronomical Society meeting today, show that Uranus is a stormy place and also that the images from Voyager 2 had more interesting information than previously believed.

Showing the value of going over old data, University of Arizona astronomer Erich Karkoschka reprocessed old images of Voyager 2 data — including stacking 1,600 pictures on top of each other.

He found elements of Uranus’ atmosphere that reveals the southern hemisphere moves differently than other regions in fellow gas giants. Since only the top 1% of the atmosphere is easily observable from orbit, scientists try to make inferences about the 99% that lie underneath by looking at how the upper atmosphere behaves.

“Some of these features probably are convective clouds caused by updraft and condensation. Some of the brighter features look like clouds that extend over hundreds of kilometers,” he stated in a press release.

• Crooked Timber's Daniel Davies writes about the end of his career as a financial analyst.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper discussing the brown dwarfs of 25 Orionis.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper suggesting that Uranus' moon system is still evolving, with the moon Cupid being doomed in a relatively short timescale. It also wonders if North Korea is exporting rare earths through China.


• Far Outliers notes the Ainu legacy in placenames in Japanese-settled Hokkaido.


• Languages of the World's Asya Perelstvaig examines the complexities surrounding language and dialect and nationality in the Serbo-Croatian speech community in the former Yugoslavia.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw notes the terribly high death rate among Europeans in colonial Indonesia, and how drink was used to put things off.


• The Russian Demographics Blog examines the prevalence of sex-selective abortion in Armenia.


• Torontoist notes Rob Ford's many lies and/or incomprehensions about Toronto's fiscal realities.


• Towleroad suggests that one way to regularize HIV testing would be to integrate it with dentistry appointments.


• Window on Eurasia notes a water dispute on the Russian-Azerbaijan border and argues that the election of a pro-Russian cleric to the head of the Ukrainian section of the Russian Orthodox Church is dooming that church to decline.

• The Dragon's Tales links to a private proposal for the ESA to launch
• The Everyday Sociology Blog's Peter Kaufman finds sociology and mindfulness meditation quite compatible.


• Far Outliers takes a look at the instability of the post-Ottoman Arab kingdoms of the Middle East.


• Joe. My. God. notes that AIDS denialists are trying to shut down YouTube commentary on their ideas by claiming copyright on videos referenced in these commentaries.


• Marginal Revolution notes that Spain is now partaking in the European Union-wide market for health care services.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw observes that, perhaps contrary stereotypes, his Australian region of New England had a very large Chinese population.
  
• J. Otto Pohl notes how the social geography of Accra, Ghana's capital, has changed and not changed over time.


• The Planetary Society Blog features a guest post from Bill Dunford talking of various missions sent to our sun.


• The Volokh Conspiracy announces a week of posts on the position of sharia law in the United States.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Ukrainian Orthodox (Kyiv Patriarchate) as well as Ukrainian Catholics are opposed to Russia, and quotes statistics (the high number of .ru-registered websites outside of Russia, the high Kazakh birth rate, conspiracy theories about Ukraine) which suggest things might be problematic for Russia.

• James Bow reflects on Toronto regional mass transit in the aftermath of the ice storm, and on the events of his life.


• The Dragon's Tales notes a proposal for a 550 kilogram probe to Uranus that could make the trip in six years via electric sail and do good science, and links to a paper taking a look at the ecological consequences of urban living in medieval Cambodia.


• Far Outliers quotes from Keith Lowe's Savage Continent about how the Second World War included many smaller regional wars.


• Geocurrents profiles the ongoing (but not very successful) movement for autonomy in the French region of Brittany.


• Joe. My. God. and Towleroad both note that the Russian Orthodox Church has called for a referendum in Russia on criminalizing gay sex.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a report on a crackdown on striking Cambodian garment workers and remarks on a 1986 paper talking about "sissy boy syndrome".


• Matthew Ingram shares excerpts from an issue of The Globe published in 1864. What an interesting look at period history they provide!


• Torontoist's Kevin Plummer describes the story of Kathleen Boyle, a young woman 17 years old who surprised Toronto in 1930 when she took part in a bank robbery.


• Towleroad reports on a study that gay men, because they have processed more, tend to make better bosses than their straight counterparts.


• Window on Eurasia debunks the idea of Russian flight in Tatarstan, wonders if Russian internal migrants coming to the metropole from its Asian and northern frontier will transform Russian politics, and notes the role played by Chechen leader Dzhokar Dudayev in protecting Estonia from Soviet wrath in 1990-1991.