[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the remarkable imaging of the atmosphere of HR 8799 e.
• Crooked Timber starts a discussion about books that, once picked up, turned out to be as good as promised.
• The Crux considers obsidian, known in the Game of Thrones world as dragonglass.
• Bruce Dorminey notes that NASA is considering a proposal for a floating Venus probe that would be recharged by microwaves from orbit.</li.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares a report that Russia has developed a new satellite to work with a new anti-satellite weapons system.
• Far Outliers notes what U.S. Grant learned from the Mexican-American War, as a strategist and as a politician.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests, drawing from the image of M87*, that we have had a world disenchanted by the digital technology used to produce the image.
• JSTOR Daily shares what critical theory has to say about the binge-watching of television.
• Language Hat notes the Cherokee-language inscriptions on the wall of Manitou Cave.
• Language Log considers when the first conversing automaton was built.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at a corner of 1970s feminism forgotten despite its innovative ideas.
• Marginal Revolution considers the idea of restricting some new migrants to particular regions of the United States.
• The NYR Daily explores the important new work by Igiaba Scego, Beyond Babylon.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel answers a surprisingly complex question: What is an electron?
• Window on Eurasia explains why the cost of a professional military means Russia will not abandon the draft.
• Arnold Zwicky explores “johnson” as a euphemism for penis.