[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.
• Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.
• Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.
• Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.
• Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.
• Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn’t this have been not mockable but rather creative?
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.
• Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.
• Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.
• Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People’s Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.
• Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• 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.

[URBAN NOTE] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers the possibility that our model for the evolution of galaxies might be partially disproven by Big Data.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly reports how she did her latest article for the New York Times.
• Centauri Dreams notes the beginning of a search for habitable-zone planets around Alpha Centauri A and B.
• The Crux looks at how the skull trophies of the ancient Maya help explain civilizational collapse.
• D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting that our humble, seemingly stable Sun can produce superflares.
• Dead Things reports on the latest informed speculation about the sense of smell of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares the NASA report on its progress towards the Lunar Gateway station.
• Gizmodo looks at the growing number of China’s beautiful, deadly, blooms of bioluminescent algae.
• io9 reports that Stjepan Sejic has a new series with DC, exploring the inner life of Harley Quinn.
• JSTOR Daily looks at an example of a feminist musical, the Chantal Akerman The Eighties.
• Language Hat links to a review of a dystopian novel by Yoko Tawada, The Emissary, imagining a future Japan where the learning of foreign languages is banned.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reiterates that history, and the writing of history, is an actual profession with skills and procedures writers in the field need to know.
• Liam Shaw writes at the LRB Blog about how people in London, late in the Second World War, coped with the terrifying attacks of V2 rockets.
• The Map Room Blog links to a new book, Wayfinding, about the neuroscience of navigation.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution reviews a Robert Zubrin book advocating the colonization of space and finds himself unconvinced.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the ancient comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko explored by the ESA Rosetta probe.
• Roads and Kingdoms provides tips for visitors to the Paraguay capital of Asuncion.
• Peter Rukavina reports that, on the day the new PEI legislature came in, 105% of Island electricity came from windpower.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel argues that, in searching for life, we should not look for exoplanets very like Earth.
• Strange Company shares another weekend collection of diverse links.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little shares the views of Margaret Gilbert on social facts.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Kadyrov might dream of a broad Greater Chechnya, achieved at the expense of neighbouring republics.
• Arnold Zwicky considers some superhero identity crises, of Superman and of others.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the possible discovery of Proxima Centauri c.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of a second circumbinary planet in the Kepler-47 system.
• Far Outliers notes the Union reaction to the civil war battle of Shiloh.
• Mark Graham shares a link to an article abstract examining the impact of call centres on social upgrading in South Africa.
• io9 notes plans for closer integration between the movie and television properties of the MCU.
• JSTOR Daily explains how Florida got its name.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the similarities between the Notre Dame fire and the destruction of the National Museum of Brazil last year.
• The LRB Blog notes the appeal of Gothic architecture.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting that, in the United States, negative effects of the China Shock had concluded a decade ago.
• The NYR Daily looks at Trump’s agitprop.
• Drew Rowsome interviews actor Nathaniel Bacon on the occasion of his appearance in a new Sky Gilbert show.
• Peter Rukavina shares a map of light pollution on PEI.
• Starts With A Bang shares a plan for reducing light pollution in a n urbanizing world.
• Window on Eurasia complains of a creeping annexation of Belarus by Russia.

[NEWS] Five space science links: Psyche, Proxima Centauri b and c, Voyager and Pioneer, humans

• Evan Gough at Universe Today notes the possibility that the asteroid Psyche, in its hot youth, might have had volcanoes ejecting molten iron.
• Matt Williams at Universe Today notes a new paper suggesting that, on suitable exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri b, their stars produce environments not much more hostile than those suffered by the early Earth.
• Nadia Drake at National Geographic notes the news of the possible discovery of a second exoplanet at Proxima Centauri, c, in a five-year orbit.
• Matt Williams at Universe Today shares a study tracing the paths of the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft over millennia of movement in interstellar space.
• Jason Pontin at WIRED shares the result of a study of twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, noting how space affected Scott Kelly in negative ways. Long-distance human spaceflight is possible, but more work is definitely needed for it to be safe, even survivable.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul takes a look at a new exhibition exploring women architects in Bauhaus.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares a photo of Chang’e-4 taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• Centauri Dreams notes the power of perspective, demonstrated by photos taken in space far from the Earth.
• Far Outliers notes the role of the Indian army, during the Raj, in engaging and mobilizing peasants while allowing recruits to maintain village traditions.
• Joe. My. God. notes a new study from the Netherlands suggesting the children of same-sex parents do better in school than children of opposite-sex parents.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the astonishing plagiarism and sloppy writing of former NYT editor Jill Abramson.
• Michael Hofman at the LRB Blog takes a look at the mindset producing the Brexit catastrophe.
• Marginal Revolution takes a look at the decline of the wealth tax in recent decades in high-income countries. Apparently the revenues collected were often not substantial enough.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares missions updates from Chang’e-4 on the Moon.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the Cirque Éloize show Hotel.
• Window on Eurasia notes one call for Tatarstan, and Tatar nationalists, to abandon a territorial model of identity focused on the republic, seeing as how so many Tatars live outside of Tatarstan.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the play in language involved in a recent Bizarro comic.

[NEWS] Five space links: China in Argentina, Moon impacts, Alpha Centauri trip, supernova, R Aquarii

• A Chinese space tracking base in Argentina is proving controversial, among its neighbours and in the wider region. VICE reports.
• Universe Today notes a new project aimed at monitoring the Moon to catch the flash of asteroid impacts, to better gauge (among other things) the risk to Earth.
• Universe Today notes one proposal to send an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri.
• Universe Today looks at the possibility that a supernova near Earth some 2.6 million years ago might have triggered mass extinctions of ocean life.
• Universe Today looks at R Aquarii, a close binary of a Mira-type red giant feeding a white dwarf a mere 650 light years away.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase’s Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.
• Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.
• Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.
• D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.
• Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo’s Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.
• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.
• Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.
• Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.
• At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)
• Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?
• The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.
• Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)
• The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.
• Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.
• Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can’t wait to see it.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that a recent massive flare at Proxima Centauri, one that made the star become a thousand times brighter, not only makes Proxima b unlikely to be habitable but makes it unlikely Proxima has (as some suggested) a big planetary system.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that South Korea, contrary to earlier reports, is not going to ban cryptocurrency.
• Hornet Stories notes that six American states–Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma–have seen the introduction of legislation replacing marriage with a marriage contract, on account of marriage equality.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the deep similarities and differences between serfdom in Russia and slavery in the United States, both formally abolished in the 1860s.
• Language Hat links to a Telegraph article reporting on the efforts of different people to translate different ancient languages.
• The New APPS Blog notes that, after Delta dropped its discount for NRA members, the pro-NRA governor of Georgia dropped tax breaks for the airline.
• This call for the world to respond to the horrors in Syria, shared at the NYR Daily, is likely to fall on deaf ears.
• At Strange Maps, Frank Jacobs shares some maps showing areas where the United States is truly exceptional.
• Supernova Condensate notes how nested planetary orbits can be used to trace beautiful spirograph patterns.
• Window on Eurasia notes how no one in the Soviet Union in 1991 was prepared to do anything to save the Soviet Union.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait tells us what tantalizing little is known about Proxima Centauri and its worlds.
• Centauri Dreams imagines that, for advanced civilizations based on energy-intensive computing, their most comfortable homes may be in the cool dark of space, intergalactic space even.
• D-Brief notes an effort to predict the evolution of stick insects that went in interesting, if substantially wrong, directions.
• Mark Graham notes that, in the developing world, the supply of people willing to perform digital work far outweighs the actual availability of jobs.
• Mathew Ingram announces that he is now chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review.
• JSTOR Daily explores how consumerism was used, by the United States, to sell democracy to post-war West Germany.
• Language Hat explores the script of the Naxi, a group in the Chinese Himalayas.
• Paul Campos considers at Lawyers, Guns and Money the importance of JK Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. If we are richer than ever before and yet our living standards are disappointing, is this not the sort of political failure imagined?
• Russell Darnley takes a look at how the death of a community’s language can lead to the death of that community’s ecosystem.
• Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the possibility of the ISS being replaced by privately-owned space stations.
• Dmitry Ermakov at Roads and Kingdoms shares some photos from his ventures among the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia.
• Peter Rukavina shares a black-and-white photo of Charlottetown harbour covered in ice.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel makes the point that cancelling NASA’s WFIRST telescope would kneecap NASA science.