[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Dec. 26th, 2019 11:51 am- 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.
[BLOG] Some Monday links
Dec. 23rd, 2019 03:13 pm- Anthropology.net notes a remarkably thorough genetic analysis of a piece of chewing gum 5700 years old that reveals volumes of data about the girl who chew it.
- 'Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen writes an amazing review of Cats that actually does make me want to see it.
- Bad Astronomy reports on galaxy NGC 6240, a galaxy produced by a collision with three supermassive black holes.
- Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog writes about the mechanics of journalism.
- Centauri Dreams argues that the question of whether humans will walk on exoplanets is ultimately distracting to the study of these worlds.
- Crooked Timber shares a Sunday morning photo of Bristol.
- The Dragon's Tales notes that India has a launch date of December 2021 for its first mission in its Gaganyaan crewed space program.
- Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the Saturn C-1 rocket.
- Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers if the vogue for minimalism meets the criteria to be considered a social movement.
- Far Outliers ?notes how, in the War of 1812, some in New England considered the possibility of seceding from the Union.
- Gizmodo looks at evidence of the last populations known of Homo erectus, on Java just over a hundred thousand years ago.
- Mark Graham links to a new paper co-authored by him looking at how African workers deal with the gig economy.
- io9 announces that the Michael Chabon novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is set to become a television series.
- Joe. My. God. shares a report that Putin gave Trump anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories.
- JSTOR Daily considers what a world with an economy no longer structured around oil could look like.
- Language Hat takes issue with the latest talk of the Icelandic language facing extinction.
- Language Log shares a multilingual sign photographed in Philadelphia's Chinatown.
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the document release revealing the futility of the war in Afghanistan.
- The LRB Blog looks at class identity and mass movements and social democracy.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution suggests that, even if the economy of China is larger than the United States, Chinese per capita poverty means China does not have the leading economy.
- Diane Duane at Out of Ambit writes about how she is writing a gay sex scene.
- Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on "OK Boomer".
- Roads and Kingdoms interviews Mexican chef Ruffo Ibarra.
- Peter Rukavina shares his list of levees for New Year's Day 2020 on PEI.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map indicating fertility rates in the different regions of the European Union.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how quantum physics are responsible for vast cosmic structures.
- Charles Soule at Whatever explains his reasoning behind his new body-swap novel.
- Window on Eurasia notes how the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Paris show the lack of meaningful pro-Russian sentiment there.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell talks about his lessons from working in the recent British election.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at a syncretic, Jewish-Jedi, holiday poster.
[BLOG] Some Friday links
Dec. 22nd, 2019 05:41 am- 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.
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Nov. 28th, 2019 02:48 pm- 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.
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
Nov. 2nd, 2019 03:18 pm- 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.
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
Oct. 30th, 2019 12:34 pm- Bad Astronomy looks at ALMA's observations of the birth of binary star system, here.
- The Buzz, at the Toronto Public Library, announces the Governor-General's Literary Awards from 2019, here.
- Centauri Dreams notes how we might be able to find a wormhole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy.
- The Crux commemorates the enormously successful and long-lasting Voyager missions.
- D-Brief notes a self-tending swarm search and rescue drones.
- Bruce Dorminey notes how the first discoveries of exoplanets were a consequence of innovative technology and thinking.
- Steve Attewell at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that he is talking about the new idea in X-Men of a mutant nation-state over at Graphic Policy Radio.
- The LRB Blog notes Manif pour Tous mobilizing against new human reproduction laws in France.
- Marginal Revolution looks at how the drug war in Mexico has been getting worse.
- Neuroskeptic considers: What traits would a human population adapted to contemporary environmental pressures exhibit?
- The NYR Daily looks at a new exhibition of critical Internet-related art by Meriam Bennani.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at a remarkable double gravitational lens, and what it reveals about the universe.
- Window on Eurasia notes that although half of working-age people in Uzbekistan have been educated in the Latin script, many remain fluent in Cyrillic.
- Arnold Zwicky considers the many implications of fried pickles with ranch dressing.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Oct. 29th, 2019 05:10 pm- 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".
- 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.
Language Log looks at the deep influence of the Persian language upon Marathi.
https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=44807
[NEWS] Six technology links
Oct. 24th, 2019 03:38 pm- 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.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Oct. 22nd, 2019 05:48 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a study suggesting the Milky Way Galaxy took many of its current satellite galaxies from another, smaller one.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks of the importance of having dreams.
- Centauri Dreams shares a study explaining how the debris polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs reveals much about exoplanet chemistry.
- D-Brief notes that the intense radiation of Jupiter would not destroy potential traces of subsurface life on the surface of Europa.
- Dangerous Minds looks at the strange musical career of Vader Abraham, fan of the Smurfs and of the Weepuls.
- Aneesa Bodiat at JSTOR Daily writes about how the early Muslim woman of Haajar inspires her as a Muslim.
- Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how an influx of American guns destabilizes Mexico.
- The LRB Blog looks at the American abandonment of the Kurds of Syria.
- Marginal Revolution notes how many mass protests are driven by consumer complaints.
- The NYR Daily has an interview with EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, on the future of sovereignty.
- Strange Company looks at the Dead Pig War between the US and the UK on San Juan Island in 1859.
- Towleroad features the defense of Frank Ocean of his PrEP+ club night and the release of his new music.
- Understanding Society looks at the sociology of norms.
- Window on Eurasia suggests Russia and Ukraine each have an interest in the Donbass being a frozen conflict.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at the weird masculinity of the pink jock.
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
Sep. 18th, 2019 08:09 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that mysterious Boyajian's Star has nearly two dozen identified analogues, like HD 139139.
- James Bow reports from his con trip to Portland.
- Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog notes the particular pleasure of having old friends, people with long baselines on us.
- Centauri Dreams describes a proposed mission to interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov).
- The Crux notes how feeding cows seaweed could sharply reduce their methane production.
- D-Brief notes that comet C/2019 Q4 is decidedly red.
- Bruce Dorminey notes a claim that water-rich exoplanet K2-18b might well have more water than Earth.
- Gizmodo reports on a claim that Loki, biggest volcano on Io, is set to explode in a massive eruption.
- io9 notes that Warner Brothers is planning a Funko Pop movie.
- Joe. My. God. notes the claim of Donald Trump that he is ready for war with Iran.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how people in early modern Europe thought they could treat wounds with magic.
- Language Hat considers how "I tip my hat" might, translated, sound funny to a speaker of Canadian French.
- Language Log considers how speakers of Korean, and other languages, can find word spacing a challenge.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the partisan politics of the US Supreme Court.
- At the NYR Daily, Naomi Klein makes a case for the political and environmental necessity of a Green New Deal.
- Peter Watts takes apart a recent argument proclaiming the existence of free will.
- Peter Rukavina tells how travelling by rail or air from Prince Edward Island to points of the mainland can not only be terribly inconvenient, but environmentally worse than car travel. PEI does need better rail connections.
- The Russian Demographics Blog examines how different countries in Europe will conduct their census in 2020.
- Window on Eurasia shares the arguments of a geographer who makes the point that China has a larger effective territory than Russia (or Canada).
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at a 1971 prediction by J.G. Ballard about demagoguery and guilt, something that now looks reasonably accurate.
- Arnold Zwicky considers models of segregation of cartoon characters from normal ones in comics.
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Sep. 12th, 2019 07:23 pm- Bad Astronomy notes the remarkably eccentric orbit of gas giant HR 5138b.
- Centauri Dreams notes the impact that large-scale collisions have on the evolution of planets.
- Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber noted yesterday that babies born on September 11th in 2001 are now 18 years old, adults.
- The Crux notes that some of the hominins in the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain, ancestors to Neanderthals, may have been murdered.
- D-Brief reports on the cryodrakon, a pterosaur that roamed the skies above what is now Canada 77 million years ago.
- Dangerous Minds looks at the political artwork of Jan Pötter.
- Gizmodo notes a poll suggesting a majority of Britons would support actively seeking to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations.
- io9 has a loving critical review of the first Star Trek movie.
- JSTOR Daily shares, from April 1939, an essay by the anonymous head of British intelligence looking at the international context on the eve of the Second World War.
- Language Log notes a recent essay on the mysterious Voynich manuscript, one concluding that it is almost certainly a hoax of some kind.
- Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the future of the labour movement in the United States.
- Marginal Revolution considers what sort of industrial policy would work for the United States.
- Yardena Schwartz writes at NYR Daily about the potential power of Arab voters in Israel.
- Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections explains why, despite interest, Australia did not launch a space program in the 1980s.
- Drew Rowsome provides a queer review of It: Chapter Two.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how government censorship of science doomed the Soviet Union and could hurt the United States next.
- Window on Eurasia notes how, in the Volga republics, recent educational policy changes have marginalized non-Russian languages.
- Arnold Zwicky shares a glossy, fashion photography-style, reimagining of the central relationship in the James Baldwin classic Giovanni's Room, arranged by Hilton Als.
[BLOG] Some Friday links
Aug. 30th, 2019 05:01 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares a video of the expansion of supernova remnant Cas A.
- James Bow shares an alternate history Toronto transit map from his new novel The Night Girl.
- Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes the Boris Johnson coup.
- The Crux notes a flawed study claiming that some plants had a recognizable intelligence.
- D-Brief notes the mysterious absorbers in the clouds of Venus. Are they life?
- Dangerous Minds shares, apropos of nothing, the Jah Wabbles song "A Very British Coup."
- Cody Delistraty looks at bullfighting.
- Dead Things notes the discovery of stone tools sixteen thousand years old in Idaho which are evidence of the first humans in the Americas.
- io9 features an interview with authors Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz on worldbuilding.
- Joe. My. God. notes that a bill in Thailand to establish civil unions is nearing approval.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how using plastic in road construction can reduce pollution in oceans.
- Language Log looks to see if some police in Hong Kong are speaking Cantonese or Putonghua.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the perplexing ramblings and--generously--inaccuracy of Joe Biden.
- The LRB Blog asks why the United Kingdom is involved in the Yemen war, with Saudi Arabia.
- The Map Room Blog looks at the different efforts aiming to map the fires of Amazonia.
- Marginal Revolution reports on how some southern US communities, perhaps because they lack other sources of income, depend heavily on fines.
- The NYR Daily looks at the complex literary career of Louisa May Alcott, writing for all sorts of markets.
- Window on Eurasia reports on the apparently sincere belief of Stalin, based on new documents, that in 1934 he faced a threat from the Soviet army.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at fixings, or fixins, as the case may be.
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
Jun. 9th, 2019 02:09 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes the first time that an exoplanet, HR 8799e, has been directly observed using optical interferometry.
- Centauri Dreams notes the possibility, demonstrated by the glimpsing of a circumplanetary disc around exoplanet PDS 70b, that we might be seeing a moon system in formation.
- The Citizen Science Salon looks what observers in Antarctica are contributing to our wealth of scientific knowledge.
- The Dragon's Tales shares links to articles looking at the latest findings on the Precambrian Earth.
- The Frailest Thing's L.M. Sacasas writes about his ambivalent response to a Twitter that, by its popularity, undermines the open web.
- Gizmodo notes that NASA is going to open up the International Space Station to tourists.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how croquet, upon its introduction in the 19th century United States, was seen as scandalous for the way it allowed men and women to mix freely.
- Shakezula at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the unaccountable fondness of at least two Maine Republican legislators for the Confederacy.
- Marginal Revolution suggests that the economic success of Israel in recent decades is a triumph of neoliberalism.
- Stephen Ellis at the NYR Daily writes about the gymnastics of Willem de Kooning.
- Drew Rowsome profiles out comic Brendan D'Souza.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the still strange galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, apparently devoid of dark matter.
- John Scalzi at Whatever shares his theory about a fixed quantity of flavor in strawberries of different sizes.
- Window on Eurasia looks at a contentious plan for a territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
Jun. 8th, 2019 12:12 pm- Architectuul looks at some architecturally innovative pools.
- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Wolf 359, a star made famous in Star Trek for the Starfleet battle there against the Borg but also a noteworthy red dwarf star in its own right.
- Centauri Dreams looks at how the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will play a vital role in interplanetary navigation.
- The Crux considers the "drunken monkey" thesis, the idea that drinking alcohol might have been an evolutionary asset for early hominids.
- D-Brief reports on what may be the next step for genetic engineering beyond CRISPR.
- Bruce Dorminey looks at how artificial intelligence may play a key role in searching for threat asteroids.
- The Island Review shares some poetry from Roseanne Watt, inspired by the Shetlands and using its dialect.
- Livia Gershon writes at JSTOR Daily about how YouTube, by promising to make work fun, actually also makes fun work in psychologically problematic ways.
- Marginal Revolution notes how the relatively small Taiwan has become a financial superpower.
- Janine di Giovanni at the NYR Daily looks back at the 2000 intervention in Sierra Leone. Why did it work?
- Jamais Cascio at Open the Future looks back at a 2004 futurological exercise, the rather accurate Participatory Panopticon. What did he anticipate correctly? How? What does it suggest for us now to our world?
- The Planetary Society Blog notes that LightSail 2 will launch before the end of June.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how the discovery of gas between galaxies helps solve a dark matter question.
- Strange Company shares a broad collection of links.
- Window on Eurasia makes the obvious observation that the West prefers a North Caucasus controlled by Russia to one controlled by Islamists.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at American diner culture, including American Chinese food.
[BLOG] Some Monday links
May. 13th, 2019 06:05 pm- Ingrid Robeyns at Crooked Timber takes us from her son's accidental cut to the electronic music of Røbic.
- D-Brief explains what the exceptional unexpected brightness of the first galaxies reveals about the universe.
- Far Outliers looks at how President Grant tried to deal with the Ku Klux Klan.
- JSTOR Daily looks at the surprising influence of the Turkish harem on the fashion, at least, of Western women.
- This Kotaku essay arguing that no one should be sitting on the Iron Throne makes even better sense to me now.
- Language Hat looks at the particular forms of French spoken by the famously Francophile Russian elites of the 19th century.
- Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how teaching people to code did not save the residents of an Appalachia community.
- Marginal Revolution notes how, in the early 19th century, the young United States trading extensively with the Caribbean, even with independent Haiti.
- At the NYR Daily, Colm Tóibín looks at the paintings of Pat Steir.
- Peter Rukavina writes about how he has been inspired by the deaths of the Underhays to become more active in local politics.
- Daniel Little at Understanding Society shares his research goals from 1976.
- Window on Eurasia notes the conflicts between the Russian Orthodox Church and some Russian nationalists over the latter's praise of Stalin.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at dragons in history, queer and otherwise.
- NOW Toronto profiles some eye-catching exhibits part of the Contact Photography Festival.
- Toronto Life profiles some recently recovered photos by Christopher Porter dating from the 1990s.
- The NYR Daily took a look at the war-themed photographs of Don McCullin, here.
- The NYR Daily examines the work of Antanas Sutkus, who began his work in Soviet Lithuania.
- These images of the legacies of the Vietnam War in Laos, decades later, are stunning. VICE has them.
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
May. 2nd, 2019 03:16 pm- Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.
- D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.
- Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.
- Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.
- JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.
- Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.
- Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.
- James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.
- Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.
- Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.
- Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.
- Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.
- Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.
- Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.
- Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.
- Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
May. 1st, 2019 11:59 am- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes how the warp in space-time made by the black hole in V404 Cygni has been detected.
- The Crux reports on the discovery of the remains of a chicha brewery in pre-Columbian Peru.
- D-Brief notes a new model for the creation of the Moon by impact with primordial Earth that would explain oddities with the Earth still being molten, having a magma ocean.
- Bruce Dorminey shares the idea that extraterrestrial civilizations might share messages with posterity through DNA encoded in bacteria set adrift in space.
- The Dragon's Tales reports on progress in drones and UAVs made worldwide.
- Gizmodo notes some of the privacy issues involved with Alexa.
- JSTOR Daily explains how some non-mammals, including birds and fish, nurse their young.
- Language Hat reports on the latest studies in the ancient linguistic history of East Asia, with suggestions that Old Japanese has connections to the languages of the early Korean states of Silla and Paekche but not to that of Koguryo.
- Language Log considers the issues involved with the digitization of specialized dictionaries.
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money remembers the start of the Spanish Civil War.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution points towards his recent interview with Margaret Atwood.
- The NYR Daily reports on a remarkable new play, Heidi Schreck's What The Constitution Means To Me.
- Towleroad reports on what Hunter Kelly, one of the men who operatives tried to recruit to spread slander against Pete Buttigieg, has to say about the affair.
- Window on Eurasia suggests that a Russian annexation of Belarus would not be an easy affair.
- Arnold Zwicky reports on the latest signs of language change, this time in the New Yorker.
- JSTOR Daily notes how early doctors used to party with drugs as a matter of course.
- JSTOR Daily notes the experiences of horses and donkeys in the US Civil War.
- JSTOR Daily notes how the disaster of the Bay of Pigs changed the decision-making of JFK.
- JSTOR Daily notes how early 19th century American Jews made use of raisin wine in Passover, and how this changed.
- JSTOR Daily <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/when-language-started-a-political-revolution/><U>notes</u></a> how the revival of the Irish language, connecting Ireland to the rest of Europe, played a key role in leading to independence for Ireland.</li> </ul>