[NEWS] Five Window on Eurasia links: Estonia, eugenics, empire, demographics, Old Believers

• Window on Eurasia notes how Russia continues to oppose the recognition of the 1920 Treaty of Tartu as the basis for Russia-Estonia relations, here.
• Window on Eurasia reports on how, and why, Stalin cracked down on eugenics as a permissible theory in the Soviet Union, here.
• Window on Eurasia reports on polling suggesting Russians are more interested in their country acting as a great power than as an empire, here.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, in the space of the former Soviet Union, population growth in the six Muslim-majority republics more than compensates in absolute numbers for declines elsewhere.
• Window on Eurasia notes the resettlement of a couple hundred Old Believers, part of a diaspora of perhaps seven thousand, in the Far East of Russia.

[NEWS] Ten Window on Eurasia links

• What will become of the Azerbaijani language in education in Iran? More here.
• Is a Russia-Belarus state union feasible? More here.
• Is Estonia, as some would have it, a viable model for the Finnic Mordvin peoples of the Russian interior? More here.
• Will Russia be happy with its alliance with China if this makes it a secondary partner, a relatively weaker exporter of resources? More here.
• How many Muslims are there in Moscow, and what import does the controversy over their numbers carry? More here.
• Is the Russian fertility rate set to stagnate, leading to long-term sharp decline? More here.
• If 10% of the Russian working-age population has emigrated, this has serious consequences for the future of Russia. More here.
• Irredentism in Kazakhstan, inspired by the example of Crimea, is just starting to be a thing. More here.
• The decline of Russian populations in the north of Kazakhstan, and the growth of Uzbeks, is noteworthy. More here.
• The different Russian proposals for the future of the Donbas, an analyst notes, are built to keep Ukraine a neutral country. More here.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• 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 Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows four different images of nearby stellar nursery NGC 1333.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the hot Saturn TOI-197, and the way it was detected.
• D-Brief notes how galaxy NGC-1052 DF2 has been confirmed as the second galaxy apparently lacking in dark matter.
• Gizmodo notes new confirmation, from an orbiting probe, that Curiosity detected methane emanating from Mars back in 2013.
• Hornet Stories tries to correct some misconceptions about the Burning Man festival.
• The Island Review links to a New York Times profile of post-Maria Puerto Rico.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Martin Shkreli has been tossed into solitary confinement.
• JSTOR Daily notes the work of psychologists in the 1930s US who profiled individuals who did not fit the gender binary. Would these people have identified themselves as trans or non-binary now?
• The LRB Blog notes the fondness of Jacob Rees-Mogg for extreme-right German politicians from the AfD.
• Language Log shares a written ad in Cantonese from Hong Kong.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money compares China now to the Untied States of the past, and finds interesting correspondences.
• Marginal Revolution notes the deep and significant commitment of China under Mao to providing foreign aid.
• The NYR Daily looks at the complex, once-overlooked, life and career of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• Out There notes that, while dark matter is certainly real, “dark matter” is a poor name for this mysterious substance.
• Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the challenges to be faced by Hayabusa 2 when it fires a sampling probe into asteroid Ryugu.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers how into the universe a spaceship could travel if it accelerated consistently at one gravity.
• Strange Company examines the life and adventures of Jeffrey Hudson, a royal dwarf in 17th century England.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society builds on the work of V.K. Ramachandran in considering the ethics of development ethnography.
• Window on Eurasia notes the new identification of Azerbaijanis as victims of genocide by neighbours, and what this means for the relations of Azerbaijan.
• Arnold Zwicky has fun, in a NSFW fanfic way, with figures from comics contemporary and old.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of carbon dioxide being a biosignature in the atmospheres of exoplanets.
• D-Brief notes the discoveries of Hayabusa2 at asteroid Ryugu, including the possibility it was part of a larger body.
• Gizmodo links to a new analysis suggesting the behaviour of ‘Oumuamua was not so unprecedented after all, that it was a simple exocomet.
• JSTOR Daily looks at Agnes Chase, an early 20th century biologist who did remarkable things, both with science and with getting women into her field.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a new article of his analyzing the new aircraft carriers of Japan, noting not just their power but the effective lack of limits on Japanese military strength.
• Marginal Revolution notes the substantial demographic shifts occurring in Kazakhstan since independence, with Kazakh majorities appearing throughout the country.
• Neuroskeptic considers if independent discussion sections for online papers would make sense.
• The NYR Daily shares a photo essay by Louis Witter reporting on Moroccan boys seeking to migrate to Europe through Ceuta.
• Roads and Kingdoms has an interview with photographer Brett Gundlock about his images of Latin American migrants in Mexico seeking the US.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explores the mass extinction and extended ice age following the development of photosynthesis and appearance of atmospheric oxygen on Earth two billion years ago.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, in Karabakh, Jehovah’s Witnesses now constitute the biggest religious minority.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Dangerous Minds takes note of a robot that grows marijuana.
• The Dragon’s Tales has a nice links roundup looking at what is happening with robots.
• Far Outliers notes the differences between the African and Indian experiences in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing recovers a Paul Goodman essay from 1969 talking about making technology a domain not of science but of philosophy.
• JSTOR Daily notes the mid-19th century origins of the United States National Weather Service in the American military.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which Jared Kushner is not an amazingly good politician.
• The Map Room Blog notes artist Jake Berman’s maps of vintage transit systems in the United States.
• The NYR Daily examines The Price of Everything, a documentary about the international trade in artworks.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw wonders how long the centre will hold in a world that seems to be screaming out of control. (I wish to be hopeful, myself.)
• Drew Rowsome reports on a Toronto production of Hair, 50 years young.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shows maps depicting the very high levels of air pollution prevailing in parts of London.
• Window on Eurasia remembers Black January in Baku, a Soviet occupation of the Azerbaijani capital in 1990 that hastened Soviet dissolution.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about her rules for life.
• The Crux explores the development of robots that can learn from each other.
• JSTOR Daily explores the legal and environmental reasons why commercial supersonic flight never took off.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money imagines what might have been had the F-14 Tomcat never escaped development hell.
• Peter Watts wonders if, with de-extinction becoming possible, future generations might become even less careful with the environment, knowing they can fix things and never bothering to do so.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw argues that, with MOOCs and multiple careers in a working lifespan, autodidacticism is bound to return.
• The Planetary Society Blog’s Marc Rayman looks at the final orbits of the Dawn probe over Ceres and the expected scientific returns.
• Roads and Kingdoms explores the New Jersey sandwich known, alternatively, as the Taylor ham and the pork roll.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers what led to the early universe having an excess of matter over antimatter.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy explores why the California Supreme Court took the trifurcation of California off referendum papers.
• Window on Eurasia notes how some in independent Azerbaijan fears that Iranian ethnic Azeris might try to subvert the independent country’s secularism.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Rex at Anthro{dendum} considers Ursula K Le Guin from as an anthropologist by background and interests, and as a denizen of a “Redwood Zone” of western North America with a particular climate.
• Centauri Dreams notes the exceptional technical progress being made towards the next generation of space telescope technology.
• Dangerous Minds shares photos of collaborations between Grace Jones and Keith Haring in 1984 and 1986, when Haring painted the star’s body.
• Gizmodo at io9 shares stunningly detailed photographs of the giant Pi1 Gruis, some 530 light-years away.
• Hornet Stories shares a letter from the mother of a girl ten years old who describes how this theatre fan was positively affected by the Manhattan production of Kinky Boots.
• Language Hat shares a Quora answer talking about the way Azerbaijani sounds to speakers of the related Turkish. Much discussion ensues.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money shares the disturbing report that moderate conservative Victor Cha has been rejected as a candidate for US ambassador to South Korea because he warns against war with the North.
• The Map Room Blog shares disturbing maps showing the extent to which the water reservoirs of Cape Town have been depleted.
• Non-binary writer Robin Dembroff argues at the NYR Daily that state recognition of non-binary gender identity, while well-meaning, is ultimately less good than the withdrawal of gender identity as a category of state concern.
• The Planetary Science Blog wonders if space travel and space science, of the sort favoured by Society president Bill Nye, could become a bipartisan issue uniting Americans.
• Seriously Science notes that at least some species of birds prefer to date before they pair-bond and have children.
• Towleroad reports that The Gangway, oldest surviving gay bar in San Francisco, has shut down to make way for a new laundromat/movie theatre.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little considers the factors that lead the people in charge of industries facing decline to ignore this. Could the education sector be one of these, too, depending on future change?

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes that the Curiosity rover is detectable from Mars orbit.
• blogTO shares some of the vintage 1980s photos of gritty Toronto in a new book by Avard Woolaver.
• The Big Picture shares photos of tea from its homeland in China.
• Imageo shares stunning photos of Jupiter originally taken by the Juno probe.
• Language Hat links to the new online version of the Australian National Dictionary.
• The LRB Blog shares an appalling story of a British university that wants to hire an academic to develop a course for 10 pounds an hour.
• The NYR Daily looks at the films of Romanian director Cristian Mungiu.
• Starts with a Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines the Pillars of Creation of the Eagle Nebula. How long will they last?
• Torontoist shares photos from the Toronto Pride parade.
• John Scalzi at Whatever talks about being a late convert to the joys of Harry Potter.
• Window on Eurasia reports on Stalin’s desire to drain the Caspian Sea, the better to exploit offshore oil and irrigate Kazakhstan.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• blogTO notes that yesterday was a temperature record here in Toronto, reaching 12 degrees Celsius in the middle of February.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the pleasure of using old things.
• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Roe v Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey.
• Language Hat notes that, apparently, dictionaries are hot again because their definitions are truthful.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers if the Trump Administration is but a mechanism for delivering Pence into power following an impeachment.
• Steve Munro notes that Exhibition Loop has reopened for streetcars.
• The NYRB Daily considers painter Elliott Green.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that North Carolina’s slippage towards one-party state status is at least accompanied by less violence than the similar slippage following Reconstruction.
• Window on Eurasia warns that Belarus is a prime candidate for Russian invasion if Lukashenko fails to keep control and notes the potential of the GUAM alliance to counter Russia.