[URBAN NOTE] Ten JSTOR Daily links (@jstor_daily)

• JSTOR Daily considers whether koalas are actually going extinct, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the life and accomplishments of Alexander Von Humboldt, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how a move to California doomed the Oneida Community, here.
• JSTOR Daily considers how the genetically diverse wild relatives of current crops could help our agriculture, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the devastating flood of Florence in 1966, here.
• JSTOR Daily points out there is no template for emotional intelligence, here.
• JSTOR Daily explores some remarkable lumpy pearls, here.
• JSTOR Daily notes an 1870 scare over the future of men, here.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the staging of war scenes for the 1945 documentary The Battle of San Pietro, here.
• JSTOR Daily considers the bioethics of growing human brains in a petri dish, here.

[CAT] Five #caturday links: strays, Winnipeg, scent, Instagram, paper

• This letter to the Windsor Star makes the point that city needs to tend to its stray cats. (So do all cities, I bet.)
• A cat café in Winnipeg has reopened. CBC reports.
• Phys.org reports on a paper noting that the scent of male cats is made by microbes inhabiting cat bodies.
• Apparently Instagram accounts of fat cats on diets are a thing. The Guardian reports.
• Why do cats so love cardboard and paper? MNN reports.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.
• Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.
• Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.
• James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.
• Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.
• The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.
• D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.
• Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
• The Dragon’s Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
• Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.
• io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.
• Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.
• Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.
• Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.
• The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.
• Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.
• The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.
• Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.
• The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.
• Starts With a Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti’s constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.
• Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.

[NEWS] Five JSTOR Daily links: hobos, bird green, Ireland linen, Frank Lloyd Wright, photosynthesis

• JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century Americans facing underemployment and persecution under vagrancy laws organized themselves, ultimately creating the Hobo College of Chicago.
• JSTOR Daily explains how the green that we think we see in the feathers of some birds actually is not really there.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the Napoleonic Wars helped transform the linen industry in Ireland, not least by drawing women into the workforce.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Frank Lloyd Wright was decidedly unhappy with the mass produced Taliesin Line of homewares made in the 1950s.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the amazing potential of artificial photosynthesis, particularly as a source of fuel.

[BLOG] Five D-Brief links: microbiome, genetic engineering, elephant ivory, Moon, O’Neill colonies

• D-Brief examines the importance of the microbiome in human beings.
• D-Brief observes that the genetic engineering of two twins in China to make them resistant to HIV might also shorten their lifespans.
• The poaching of elephants, happily, is decreasing as demand for ivory goes down worldwide. D-Brief reports.
• D-Brief takes a look at the history of imagined landings on the Moon.
• D-Brief looks at the long history of O’Neill colonies in popular culture, as imagined settlements in space itself.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy reports on the possibility of a relatively nearby kilonova that seeded the solar nebula with heavy elements, including gold, as does Centauri Dreams.
• The Buzz at the Toronto Public Library takes a look at books which later received video game adaptations.
• D-Brief notes the happy news that, despite having relatively little genetic diversity, narwhals are doing well enough.
• Imageo notes a recent shift in the centuries-long patterns of El Nino that might hint at some climate change disturbance.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the New York Times has retrieved Trump’s tax records for 1985-1994, and notes that he lost more than a billion dollars in that time frame.
• JSTOR considers the question of why holography and holograms have not become accepted as high art.
• Language Log shares, from Hong Kong, an advertisement with phonetic annotation of Cantonese.
• Daniel Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers if, as a Charlie Stross novel from 2008 imagined, we are now in a “post-attribution” era in which motives are effectively unfindable.
• James Butler at the LRB Blog considers the sheer scale of the defeat of not just the Conservatives but Labour in British local government elections.
• Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting that cooperativeness is more closely linked to intelligence than to conscientiousness.
• The NYR Daily looks at the particular plight of women in the American prison system.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes a look at egging as an act of political protest.
• The Planetary Society Blog considers the mysteries surrounding the early atmosphere of Mars. What was it made of that it retained enough heat to keep water liquid during the faint young Sun period?
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the strength of the models of contemporary cosmology, despite occasional challenges.
• Window on Eurasia considers the extent to which pan-Turkic sentiment is relevant to the Turkic nations of Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky considers arches, in his life and in language.

[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 Sunday links

• Architectuul looks at a new architecture project intent on the interface between land and sea.
• Bad Astronomy reports on the impact of a meteorite with a house in Uruguay.
• Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog writes about the importance of lightening the loads of others when one can.
• Centauri Dreams writes about how OSIRIS-REx is responding to unexpected conditions at Bennu like its relative rockiness. https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/03/21/working-with-the-unexpected-at-asteroid-bennu/
• The Crux considers the remarkable versatility of ketamine, as anesthetic and anti-depressant among other things.
• D-Brief notes a report that reveals universal patterns of app usage on cell phones by different people.
• Dangerous Minds shares some vintage R.E.M. performances from 1981.
• Earther notes that temperatures in parts of Alaska have just briefly peaked at 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Gizmodo notes the new accurate guide for walkers provided by a new Google Maps system making use of landmarks.
• Kieran Healy breaks down some data from the 2018 General Social Survey.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Sylvester classic “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” has been selected for preservation by the National Registry of the Library of Congress.
• JSTOR Daily makes a case for treating the art of children not as mere scribblings but rather as art worthy of serious consideration.
• Language Hat notes the sensitive translation by one man of the Bible into the 20th century vernacular Arabic of Egypt.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the Mueller report, what is and is not likely to be in it, and how one should react to it.
• Marginal Revolution notes the extent to which the employment rates of women has been a driving factor in recent American economic history.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw celebrates his 13th anniversary of blogging.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Shannon Mustipher on Caribbean rum culture.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the new interactive theatre piece Amorous Playlist.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why quantum tunneling does not violate the speed of light.
• Towleroad notes that the André Aciman sequel to Call Me By Your Name, Find Me, is scheduled for an October release.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes how the denaturalization by Italy of a man who committed terrible criminal acts sets a bad precedent for citizenship generally.
• Window on Eurasia lists five tactics that non-Russian republics in Russia could adopt to resist their abolition.
• Arnold Zwicky begins a meditation that starts with the sight of a vegetarian reuben sandwich.

[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: brains and marrow, dinosaurs, PSR J0002+6216, Teacup Galaxy, Anatolia

• D-Brief notes a theory that human brains grew so large fueled by a diet of bone marrow.
• Alligators provide scientists with invaluable models of how dinosaurs heard sound. D-Brief reports.
• D-Brief examines pulsar PSR J0002+6216, a body ejected from its prior orbit so violently by its formative supernova that it is now escaping the Milky Way Galaxy.
• D-Brief notes the remarkable glow emanating from the quasar in the Teacup Galaxy 1.1 billion light-years away.
• D-Brief notes genetic evidence suggesting that Anatolian hunter-gatherers, far from being replaced by migrants, adopted agriculture on their own.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of life not based on DNA as we know it.
• D-Brief considers the possibility that the formation of stratocumulus clouds might be halted by climate change.
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the negative health effects of the stresses imposed by racists.
• Far Outliers notes the mix of migrants in the population of Calcutta.
• Hornet Stories notes that the Brazilian government is preparing to revoke marriage equality.
• Erin Blakemore writes at JSTOR Daily about the gloriously messy complexity of Jane Eyre.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the growing anti-government protests in Algeria.
• The NYR Daily notes the response of Auden to an anthology’s no-platforming of the poems of Ezra Pound.
• pollotenchegg reports on Soviet census data from 1990, mapping the great disparities between different parts of the Soviet Union.
• Starts With A Bang notes the mysterious quiet of the black hole at the heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51.
• Window on Eurasia suggests that Russia is growing increasingly dependent on a more competent China.
• Arnold Zwicky writes about some of his encounters, past and present, on Emerson Street in Palo Alto.