[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how TESS detected a star being torn apart by a distant black hole.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster looks at the past and future of the blog.
• Crooked Timber takes on the sensitive issue of private schools in the United Kingdom.
• The Crux considers the question of why women suffer from Alzheimer’s at a higher frequency than men.
• D-Brief notes a study suggesting that saving the oceans of the Earth could reduce the effects of global warming by 20%.
• Bruce Dorminey considers a paper suggesting that, if not for its volcanic resurfacing, Venus could have remained an Earth-like world to this day.
• The Dragon’s Tale notes that NASA will deploy a cubesat in the proposed orbit of the Lunar Gateway station to make sure it is a workable orbit.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at Soyuz T-10a, the first crewed mission to abort on the launch pad.
• Gizmodo reports on a paper arguing that we should intentionally contaminate Mars (and other bodies?) with our world’s microbes.
• io9 looks at how Warner Brothers is trying to control, belatedly, the discourse around the new Joker movie.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how, in industrializing London, women kidnapped children off the streets.
• Language Hat links to a page examining the Arabic and Islamic elements in Dune.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a new documentary examining the life of Trump mentor Roy Cohn.
• The LRB Blog looks at how BBC protocols are preventing full discussion of public racism.
• The Map Room Blog looks at different efforts to reimagining the subway map of New York City.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper claiming that increased pressure on immigrants to assimilate in Italy had positive results.
• The NYR Daily looks at the background to George Washington’s statements about the rightful place of Jews in the United States.
• Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the political explanation of the massive increase in the planetary defense budget of NASA.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the Rocky Horror Show, with its celebration of sexuality (among other things).
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers why there are so many unexpected black holes in the universe.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps examines why Google Street View is not present in Germany (and Austria).
• The Volokh Conspiracy reports on a ruling in a UK court that lying about a vasectomy negates a partner’s consent to sex.
• Window on Eurasia notes the controversy about some Buryat intellectuals about giving the different dialects of their language too much importance.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly considers the importance of complete rest.
• Citizen Science Salon looks at the contributions of ordinary people to Alzheimer’s research.
• The Crux notes how recent planetary scientists acknowledge Venus to be an interestingly active world.
• D-Brief notes the carnivorous potential of pandas.
• Cody Delistraty considers a British Library exhibit about writing.
• Bruce Dorminey notes the possibility that, in red giant systems, life released from the interiors of thawed outer-system exomoons might produce detectable signatures in these worlds’ atmospheres.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares reports of some of the latest robot developments from around the world.
• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the concepts of gentrification and meritocracy.
• Gizmodo notes a running dinosaur robot that indicates one route by which some dinosaurs took to flight.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox talks about bringing some principles of Wendell Berry to a town hall discussion in Sterling, Kansas.
• io9 notes that a reboot of Hellraiser is coming from David S. Goyer.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how museums engage in the deaccessioning of items in their collections.
• Language Log examines the Mongolian script on the renminbi bills of China.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Volkswagen in the United States is making the situation of labour unions more difficult.
• Marginal Revolution notes the effective lack of property registration in the casbah of Algiers.
• The NYR Daily notes the Afrofuturism of artist Devan Shinoyama.
• Strange Company examines the trial of Jane Butterfield in the 1770s for murdering the man who kept her as a mistress with poison. Did she do it? What happened to her?
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes a controversial map identifying by name the presidents of the hundred companies most closely implicated in climate change.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian Orthodox Church, retaliating against the Ecumenical Patriarchy for its recognition of Ukrainian independence, is moving into Asian territories outside of its purview.
• Arnold Zwicky starts a rumination by looking at the sportswear of the early 20th century world.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• D-Brief notes evidence that human growth hormone harvested from dead people can transfer Alzheimer’s disease to recipients.
• Far Outliers reports on how Choshu fought off the bakufu in 1866.
• Gizmodo reports the discovery of a distant Kuiper belt object, orbiting at 120 AU, provisionally named “Farout.”
• JSTOR Daily notes the links between successful start-ups and social privilege.
• The LRB Blog notes the restrictions placed on travel to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and on contact with the threatened indigenous peoples there.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution explains how he tries to understand cultural codes, with their major influence on economic dynamics.
• The NYR Daily looks at the contemporary nature art of Walton Ford.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the Jonathan Janz novella Witching House Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shares astronomical photos of exoplanets which show how planets form.
• Yesterday, Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy noted at blog’s celebration of the Roman holiday of Saturnalia.
• At Whatever, John Scalzi celebrates the excellent new animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as does Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the decision of the Russian government to move the capital of the Far Eastern federal district from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok will harm that first city but not do that much for the second.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the art of appearances, queer and otherwise.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams takes a look at the exciting early news on potentially habitable nearby exoplanet Ross 128 b.
• The Crux notes that evidence has been found of Alzheimer-like illness in dolphins. Is this, as the scientists argue, a symptom of a syndrome shared between us, big-brained social species with long post-fertility lifespans?
• D-Brief takes a look at the idea of contemporary life on Mars hiding away in the icy regolith near the surface.
• Far Outliers notes one argument that Germany lost the Second World War because of the poor quality of its leaders.
• Gizmodo notes the incredibly bright event PS1-10adi, two and a half billion light-years away. What is it? No one knows …
• Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrates the end of the Mugabe dictatorship in Zimbabwe.
• The Map Room Blog links to some fascinating detailed maps of the outcome of the Australian mail-in vote on marriage equality.
• Roads and Kingdoms visits rural Mexico after the recent quake.
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands shares some beautiful photos of fantastical Barcelona.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the insights provided by Pluto’s mysterious cool atmosphere, with its cooling haze, has implications for Earth at a time of global warming.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia is not going to allow even Tatarstan to include the Tatar language as a mandatory school subject.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Language Hat reports on the Wenzhounese of Italy.
• Language Log writes about the tones of Cantonese.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money writes about the costs of law school. (They are significant, and escalating hugely.)
• Marginal Revolution reports on the problems facing the Brazilian pension system, perhaps overgenerous for a relatively poor country facing rapid aging.
• Neuroskeptic reports on the latest re: the crisis of scientists not being able to replicate evidence, now even their own work being problematic.
• Personal Reflections considers the questions of how to preserve the dignity of people facing Alzheimer’s.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes a Financial Times article looking at the impact of aging on global real estate.
• Spacing Toronto talks about the campaign to name a school after Jean Earle Geeson, a teacher and activist who helped save Fort York.
• At Wave Without A Shore, C.J. Cherryh shares photos of her goldfish.
• Window on Eurasia notes growing instability in Daghestan, looks at the latest in Georgian historical memory, and shares an article arguing that Putin’s actions have worsened Russia’s reputation catastrophically.