[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait shares Johannes Kroeger’s image of the median Earth.
• The Crux considers when human societies began to accumulate large numbers of aged people. Would there have been octogenarians in any Stone Age cultures, for instance?
• The Dragon’s Tales considers Russia’s strategy in Southeast Asia.
• Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes that one way to fight against fake news is for people to broaden their friends networks beyond their ideological sympathizers.
• Language Log, noting a television clip from Algeria in which a person defend their native dialect versus standard Arabic, compares the language situation in the Arab world to that of China.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen explains how the Tervuren Central African museum in Brussels has not been decolonized.
• The Planetary Society Blog explores the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why, in current physics, the multiverse must exist.
• Strange Company explores the strange disappearance, in the Arizona desert in 1952, of a young couple. Their plane was found and in perfect condition, but what happened to them?
• Strange Maps reports on the tragic migration of six Californian raptors, only one of which managed to make it to its destination.
• Towleroad reports on the appearance of actor and singer Ben Platt on The Ellen Show, talking about his career and coming out.
• Window on Eurasia notes the apparently widespread mutual dislike of Chechens and Muscovites.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the French Impressionist artists Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Suzanne Valadon, with images of their art.