[NEWS] Five futurish links: Quadriga, Brexit, Facebook and Rohingya, basic income, friendship

• This CBC feature on the apparent loss of a quarter-billion dollars via the Quadriga cryptocurrency makes the whole business look incredibly sketchy to me. Why would anyone rational take such risks?
• At Open Democracy, Christine Berry suggests that after the Grenfell Tower catastrophe the idea of using Brexit to deregulate has become impossible. Is this a wedge issue?
• Vox notes the effort of Facebook to try to hold itself accountable for providing a platform for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
• Inverse has a positive account of the guaranteed minimum income experiment in Finland, emphasizing the improved psychological state of recipients.
• The Atlantic notes that one major impact of Facebook is that, through its medium, friendships can never quite completely die.

[URBAN NOTE] Six city links: Detroit, Oslo, Cox’s Bazar, Ho Chi Minh City, Shenzhen, Tokyo

• CityLab notes a new black-owned food coop in Detroit.
• CityLab notes the cool new designs of a new Oslo subway station.
• Al Jazeera notes the vulnerability of Cox’s Bazar, the Bangladesh city that is the heart of the Rohingya refugee settlements, to climate change.
• Guardian Cities notes how rapid redevelopment is devastating the architectural heritage of Ho Chi Minh City.
• This Culture Trip article looks at how, among other things, copying foreign technology helped make Shenzhen a global tech hub.
• Tokyo is offering subway users free food if they opt to travel on the subway outside of peak times, CityLab notes.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomy shares an image of Hyperion, a proto-supercluster of galaxies literally jawdropping in scope.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly asks an interesting question: Who is your rock, your support? Who is your gravel?
• Centauri Dreams notes a new paper suggesting a way to determine the size of undetected planets from the sorts of dust that they create.
• Crooked Timber notes the obvious, that neither China nor the United States would win in a war in the South China Sea.
• D-Brief ,a href=”http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/10/16/ganymede-moon-jupiter-world-tectonic-faults/”>notes that Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter and in the solar system, has tectonic faults in its icy crust.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that Russia is interested in cooperating with India in space travel.
• David Finger at The Finger Post reports on his search for a Philly cheese steak sandwich in Philadelphia.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing considers the way in which modern social networking creates a totalitarianism, enlisting people through games into supporting its edifice.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Thailand is preparing to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples.
• JSTOR Daily notes the 19th century heyday of “mummy brown”, a paint pigment used by artists made of ground-up Egyptian mummies.
• Language Log notes that the expression “add oil”, originally from Chinese slang, is now in the OED.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the lies of Facebook about the popularity on online video dealt a terrible blow to journalism.
• Lingua Franca examines how the word “smarmy” came about and spread.
• Marginal Revolution notes the exceptional generosity of actor Chow Yun Fat, who is giving away his vast estate.
• Hugh Eakin at the NYR Daily takes a look at the role of the United States in mounting repression in Saudi Arabia, symbolized by the Khashoggi killing.
• Marc Rayman at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the achievements of the Dawn probe, at Ceres and Vesta and the points in between, on this its 11th anniversary.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares a photo essay looking at the difficult treks of the Rohingya as they are forced to scavenge firewood from a local forest.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the homoerotic photography of James Critchley.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at what it was likely, in the early universe, when starlight became visible for the first time.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps debunks a map purporting to show post-Fukushima contamination of the entire Pacific, and has it with false and discouraging apocalyptic maps generally.
• Window on Eurasia takes a look at the deep divide between the Russian and Ukrainian nations.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthro{dendum} links to a roundup of anthropology-relevant posts and news items.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how the impending collision of galaxies NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 has created spectacular scenes of starbirth.
• Centauri Dreams notes the upcoming stream of new observatories and satellites that will enable better charting of exoplanets.
• Kieran Healy shares a cool infographic depicting the scope of the British baby boom.
• Hornet Stories shares the amazing video for the fantastic new song by Janelle Monáe, “Pynk.”
• JSTOR Daily notes what happens when you send Frog and Toad to a philosophy class.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the obvious point that abandoning civil rights of minorities is a foolish strategy for American liberals.
• The LRB Blog shares a reflection on Winnie Mandela, and the forces she led and represents.
• The Map Room Blog links to detailed maps of the Rohingya refugee camps.
• Marginal Revolution takes issue with a proposal by Zeynep Tufekci for a thorough regulation of Facebook.
• The NYR Daily notes how Israel is making full use of the law to enable its colonization of the West Bank.
• The Planetary Society Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla reports from inside a NASA clean room where the new InSight Mars rover is being prepared.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer talks about what is really wrong with a Trump Organization letter to the president of Panama regarding a real estate development there.
• Strange Company looks at the life of 19th century fraudster and murdering John Birchall.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers, in the context of ‘Oumuamua, the import of shads and axis ratios. What does it suggest about the processes by which planetary systems form?
• The Dragon’s Tales notes a report suggesting that Russia is not at all likely to legalize bitcoins.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell takes a look at Article 63, the German constitutional article that governs the selection of the Chancellor.
• The Frailest Thing quotes a passage from Jacques Ellul about the adaptation of humans to a mechanized world.
• Hornet Stories notes that out actor Russell Tovey is set to play the (also out) Ray in the Arrowverse, an anti-Nazi superhero from an alternate Earth.
• Language Hat tells the story of Lin Shu, an early 20th century translator of European fiction into Chinese whose works were remarkably influential.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money is amused by the story of a young university student who has used basic knowledge of Foucault to play with his family’s household rules.
• The LRB Blog notes the very awkward, and potentially fatal, position of the Rohingya, caught between Burma and Bangladesh.
• The Map Room Blog links to a talk recently given on fake maps, on maps used to lie and misrepresent and propagandize.
• The NYR Daily meditates on the precocity and the homoeroticism inherent in the Hart Crane poem “The Bridge.”
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that we can see, so far, only a surprisingly small fraction of the observable universe. (So far.)
• The Volokh Conspiracy celebrates the many defeats of Trump as he fights against sanctuary cities as a victory for federalism and against executive power.
• Window on Eurasia notes a poll suggesting that, after 2014, while Crimeans may feel less Ukrainian they do not necessarily feel more Russian.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look, linguistically, at an Ian Frazier phrase: “That is aliens for you.”

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the bizarre extrasolar visitor ‘Oumuamua, as does Centauri Dreams, as does Bruce Dorminey. Yes, this long cylindrical extrasolar visitor swinging around the sun on a hyperbolic orbit does evoke classic SF.
• The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture shares some photos of autumn from around the world.
• D-Brief examines how artificial intelligences are making their own videos, albeit strange and unsettling ones.
• Dangerous Minds shares some Alfred Stieglitz photos of Georgia O’Keefe.
• Daily JSTOR takes a look at the mulberry tree craze in the United States.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining at water delivery to terrestrial planets in other solar systems. Worlds with as little water as Earth are apparently difficult to produce in this model.
• Hornet Stories profiles the gay destination of Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the new vulnerability of Haitian migrants in the United States.
• The LRB Blog notes the end of the Mugabe era in Zimbabwe.
• The NYR Daily features a stellar Elaine Showalter review of a Sylvia Plath exhibition at the Smithsonian National Picture Gallery.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw reports on how the production of New England Cheese reflects the modernization of Australian agriculture.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the awkward position of Rohingya refugees in India, in Jammu, at a time when they are facing existential pressures from all sides.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shares twenty beautiful photos of Mars.
• Towleroad shares a fun video from Pink, “Beautiful Trauma”, featuring Channing Tatum.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that a Trump executive order threatening sanctuary cities has been overturned in court.
• Window on Eurasia notes one study claiming that the children of immigrant workers in Russia tend to do better than children of native-born Russians.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at enormous, explosive Wolf-Rayet stars, and at WR 124 in particular.
• The Big Picture shares heart-rending photos of Rohingya refugees fleeing Burma.
• Centauri Dreams considers the potential of near-future robotic asteroid mining.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of vast cave systems on the Moon, potential homes for settlers.
• Hornet Stories exposes young children to Madonna’s hit songs and videos of the 1980s. She still has it.
• Inkfish notes that a beluga raised in captivity among dolphins has picked up elements of their speech.
• Language Hat notes a dubious claim that a stelae containing Luwian hieroglyphic script, from ancient Anatolia, has been translated.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the question of preserving brutalist buildings.
• The LRB Blog considers how Brexit, intended to enhance British sovereignty and power, will weaken both.
• The Map Room Blog notes that the moons and planets of the solar system have been added to Google Maps.
• The NYR Daily considers how the Burmese government is carefully creating a case for Rohingya genocide.
• The Power and Money’s Noel Maurer concludes, regretfully, that the market for suborbital travel is just not there.
• Visiting a shrimp festival in Louisiana, Roads and Kingdoms considers how the fisheries work with the oil industry (or not).
• Towleroad reports on the apparent abduction in Chechnya of singer Zelimkhan Bakayev, part of the anti-gay pogrom there.
• Window on Eurasia notes that rebuilding Kaliningrad as a Russian military outpost will be expensive.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• At The Big Picture, the Boston Globe shares some of its best photos from September.
• Drone 360 notes that drones are being used to track polar bear populations.
• The Frailest Thing’s Michael Sacasas notes how people too often abandon moral responsibility to the machines which administer algorithms with real-world consequences.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the remarkable story of hockey star Jaromir Jagr.
• The Map Room Blog shares an official guide to map-making from Austria-Hungary.
• The NYR Daily notes how official Myanmar has invented Rohingya violent extremism out of practically nothing.
• Roads and Kingdoms shows readers where you can eat kosher in Mexico City.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi shares a tweetstorm of his talking about the problems with daily word totals for writers.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At Antipope, Charlie Stross considers the ways in which Big Data could enable an updated version of 1984.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at all the ways in which this photo of galaxy NGC 5559 is cool, with a supernova and more.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly shares a week of her life as a professional writer.
• Crooked Timber looks at the potentially dominant role of racism as a political marker in the US.
• Far Outliers notes that the Confederacy’s military options circa 1864 were grim and limited.
• Language Log shares an example of a Starbucks coffee cup with biscriptal writing from Shenyang.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that the Rohingya are being subjected to genocide. What next?
• Marginal Revolution notes the introduction of a new chocolate, ruby chocolate“.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw has it with ideological divisions of left and right.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the remarkably intemperate Spanish court decision that kicked off modern separatism in Catalonia.
• Charley Ross looks at the sad story of missing teenager Brittanee Drexel.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that now is an excellent time to start highlighting the politics of climate change.
• Towleroad mourns New York City theatre star Michael Friedman.
• Window on Eurasia notes the ways in which Russia is, and is not, likely to use the military.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a map of the regional languages of France.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Anthrodendum features a guest author talking about the need for artificial intelligence’s introduction into our civilization to be managed.
• Dangerous Minds tells the story of how John Lennon and Yoko Ono met Marshall McLuhan.
• Cody Delistraty suggests Freud still matters, as a founder and as a pioneer of a new kind of thinking.
• The Dragon’s Gaze reports on cloud circulation patterns of exoplanet HD 80606b.
• Far Outliers examines just how Chinese immigration to Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, became so big.
• Hornet Stories interviews Moises Serrano, one of the many undocumented queer people victims of the repeal of DACA.
• Marginal Revolution notes a study suggesting some Indian students have math skills which do not translate into the classroom.
• The NYR Daily looks at the crackdown on free media in Cambodia.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at a new set of recommendations for Canada’s space future by the Space Advisory Board.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports from Burma, noting the prominence of social media in anti-Rohingya hate.
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands shares beautiful photos from the Sicilian community of Taormina.
• Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang talks about the mystery of some stars which appear to be older than the universe.
• Window on Eurasia is critical of a Russian proposal for UN peacekeepers in the Donbas making no mention of Russia.