[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the very odd structure of galaxy NGC 2775.
• Dangerous Minds reports on the 1987 riot by punks that wrecked a Seattle ferry.
• Bruce Dorminey reports on a new suggestion from NASA that the massive dust towers of Mars have helped dry out that world over eons.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how changing technologies have led to younger people spending more social capital on maintaining relationships with friends over family.
• This forum hosted at Gizmodo considers the likely future causes of death of people in coming decades.
• In Media Res’ Russell Arben Fox reports on the debate in Wichita on what to do with the Century II performance space.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the decision of Hungary to drop out of Eurovision, apparently because of its leaders’ homophobia.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the debunking of the odd theory that the animals and people of the Americas were degenerate dwarfs.
• Language Hat reports on how the classics can be served by different sorts of translation.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how Trump’s liberation of war criminals relates to folk theories about just wars.
• The LRB Blog reports from the ground in the Scotland riding of East Dunbartonshire.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting that, contrary to much opinion, social media might actually hinder the spread of right-wing populism.
• The NYR Daily looks at the nature of the proxy fighters in Syria of Turkey. Who are they?
• Drew Rowsome interviews Sensational Sugarbum, star of–among other things–the latest Ross Petty holiday farce.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why we still need to be able to conduct astronomy from the Earth.
• Strange Maps explains the odd division of Europe between east and west, as defined by different subspecies of mice.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Chinese apparently group Uighurs in together with other Central Asians of similar language and religion.
• Arnold Zwicky explores the concept of onomatomania.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait observes that a team may have discovered the elusive neutron star produced by Supernova 1987A, hidden behind a cloud of dust.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber shares a photo he made via the time-consuming 19th century wet-plate collodion method.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage looks at the Apollo 12 visit to the Surveyor 3 site to, among other things, see what it might suggest about future space archeology.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the story of rural poverty facing a family in Waverly, Ohio, observing how it is a systemic issue.
• George Dvorsky at Gizmodo looks at how Mars’ Jezero crater seems to have had a past relatively friendly to life, good for the next NASA rover.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the latest ignorance displayed by Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, this time regarding HIV.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Climategate was used to undermine popular opinion on climate change.
• Language Hat links to an article explaining why so many works of classical literature were lost, among other things not making it onto school curricula.
• Language Log shares a photo of a Muji eraser with an odd English label.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests Pete Buttigieg faces a campaign-limiting ceiling to his support among Democrats.
• The LRB Blog argues that Macron’s blocking of EU membership possibilities for the western Balkans is a terrible mistake.
• The Map Room Blog shares a map depicting regional variations in Canada towards anthropogenic climate change. Despite data issues, the overall trend of oil-producing regions being skeptical is clear.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the slowing pace of labour mobility in the US, suggesting that home attachment is a key factor.
• Frederic Wehrey at the NYR Daily tells the story of Knud Holmboe, a Danish journalist who came to learn about the Arab world working against Italy in Libya.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why thermodynamics does not explain our perception of time.
• Understanding Society’s Dan Little looks at Electronic Health Records and how they can lead to medical mistakes.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi shares a remarkable photo of the night sky he took using the astrophotography mode on his Pixel 4 phone.
• Window on Eurasia shares an opinion that the Intermarium countries, between Germany and Russia, can no longer count on the US and need to organize in their self-defense.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a photo of his handsome late partner Jacques Transue, taken as a college student.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

(A day late, I know; I crashed after work yesterday.)

• Antipope’s Charlie Stross has a thought experiment: If you were superwealthy and guaranteed to live a long health life, how would you try to deal with the consequence of economic inequality?
• Vikas Charma at Architectuul takes a look at the different factors that go into height in buildings.
• Bad Astronomy notes S5-HVS1, a star flung out of the Milky Way Galaxy by Sagittarius A* at 1755 kilometres per second.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly shares photos from two Manhattan walks of hers, taken in non-famous areas.
• Centauri Dreams looks at habitability for red dwarf exoplanets. Stellar activity matters.
• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber shares words from a manifesto about data protection in the EU.
• Dangerous Minds shares photos from Los Angeles punks and mods and others in the 1980s.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a ESA report suggesting crew hibernation could make trips to Mars easier.
• Gizmodo notes that the Hayabusa2 probe of Japan is returning from asteroid Ryugu with a sample.
• Imageo shares photos of the disastrous fires in Australia from space.
• Information is Beautiful reports on winners of the Information is Beautiful Awards for 2019, for good infographics.
• JSTOR Daily explains how local television stations made the ironic viewing of bad movies a thing.
• Kotaku reports on the last days of Kawasaki Warehouse, an arcade in Japan patterned on the demolished Walled City of Kowloon.
• Language Hat notes how translation mistakes led to the star Beta Cygni gaining the Arabic name Albireo.
• Language Log reports on a unique Cantonese name of a restaurant in Hong Kong.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an analysis of his suggesting the military of India is increasingly hard-pressed to counterbalance China.
• The LRB Blog notes the catastrophe of Venice.
• Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting states would do well not to place their capitals too far away from major population centres.
• Justin Petrone at North! remarks on a set of old apple preserves.
• The NYR Daily looks at how the west and the east of the European Union are divided by different conceptions of national identity.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reports from his town of Armidale as the smoke from the Australian wildfires surrounds all. The photos are shocking.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog lists some books about space suitable for children.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the Canadian film music Stand!, inspired by the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting that, in Switzerland, parenthood does not make people happy.
• The Signal notes that 1.7 million phone book pages have been scanned into the records of the Library of Congress.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains the concept of multi-messenger astronomy and why it points the way forward for studies of astrophysics.
• Strange Maps looks at how a majority of students in the United States attend diverse schools, and where.
• Strange Company explores the mysterious death of Marc-Antoine Calas, whose death triggered the persecution of Huguenots and resulted in the mobilization of Enlightenment figures like Voltaire against the state. What happened?
• Towleroad hosts a critical, perhaps disappointed, review of the major gay play The Inheritance.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little looks at the power of individual people in political hierarchies.
• Window on Eurasia shares an opinion piece noting how many threats to the Russian language have come from its association with unpopular actions by Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky explores queens as various as Elizabeth I and Adore Delano.

[NEWS] Eleven politics links

• The amount of money that has gone into the Doug Ford Ontario News Now propaganda videos–more than one hundred!–is shocking. Global News reports.
• That Maxime Bernier is finding himself challenged, in his home region of the Beauce, by another Maxine Bernier is charming. Le Devoir has it.
• The Times of London interview with David Cameron, three years after the Brexit referendum and with his new biography, is enlightening. (And shocking.)
• There may well be, finally, a popular groundswell among Europeans to make the European Union more of a classical superpower. Bloomberg has it.
• Shannon Gormley at MacLean’s looks at how, come 2047, Hong Kong is bound to see radical change.
• At Bloomberg, David Fickling notes how populism plays a huge role in the economic divergence of Argentina from Australia, here.
• India would lose out, it is argued, if it does not sign onto the China-led RCEP economic grouping. Bloomberg has it.
• Did economic nationalism in central Europe make the region more resistant to the slowdown in Germany? Bloomberg considers.
• VICE reports on how Trump supporters in the US Midwest are unhappy with continued globalization, here.
• Global News reports on new interest in Ontario in diffusing immigration beyond the Greater Toronto Area, here.
• Philippe J. Fournier reports at MacLean’s about the latest polling, suggesting the Liberals are on the edge of a majority.

[AH] Seven #alternatehistory r/imaginarymaps maps: Vinland, Mali, Korea, Poland, Balkans …

• This r/imaginarymaps map traces a slow diffusion of Christianity westwards from a Vinland colony.
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a transatlantic empire based in Africa, with the late 15th century Mali Empire extending its rule to Brazil and elsewhere.
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a Joseon Korea that becomes the seat of a transpacific empire.
• What if, this r/imaginarymaps map imagines, instead of turning east to Lithuania Poland turned west towards Czechia?
• What if, this r/imaginarymaps map imagines, the Balkans retained a substantially larger Muslim population?
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a Greater Denmark, expanding east and south.
• Could Scotland ever have become, as this r/imaginarymaps map imagines, a maritime mercantile power?

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Architectuul celebrates the life and achievements of furniture designer Florence Basset Knoll.
• Bad Astronomy notes the remarkably detailed 3d simulation of a solar flare.
• At Crooked Timber, John Holbo engages with Corey Robin’s article in The New Yorker on the question of why people moving politically from right to left are less prominent than counterparts moving from left to right.
• Far Outliers takes a look at the rise and the fall of the international silk trade of China, from Roman times to the 20th century.
• At The Frailest Thing, L.M. Sacasas writes about the importance of listening to observers at the “hinges”, at the moments when things are changing.
• Internet geographer Mark Graham links to a new chapters making the argument that cyberspace is not a novel new territory.
• Language Log takes a look at a possible change in the representation of vocal fry as demonstrated in Doonesbury.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the background to the possible 2020 presidential bid of ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
• Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok looks at a history of Aleppo that emphasizes the ancient city’s history of catastrophes.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes issue with an online map highlighting factory farmers created by pressure group Aussie Farms. How meaningful is it, for starters?
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the timetable of the introduction of syphillis to Poland-Lithuania in the 1490s.
• Window on Eurasia looks at Russian population prospects, noting the low fertility among the small cohort of women born in the 1990s.
• Arnold Zwicky starts by sharing beautiful paintings and photos of tulips, and ends with a meditation on Crimean Gothic.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• D-Brief suggests that, in an era of climate change, waves of simultaneous wildfires may be the new normal in California.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares some news items looking at the history of the Precambrian Earth and of ancient life.
• The Island Review shares some Greenland-themed poems by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the introduced Callery pear tree has become invasive in North America.
• Language Log considers language as a self-regulating system.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw notes his new magpie friend. What name should he have?
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that the democracy of Mexico is in such poor shape that, even now, the democracies of Poland and Hungary despite far-right subversion are better off.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the 1993 novel The Night of the Moonbow by Thomas Tryon.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the falling fertility rates in Syria, and takes issue with one statistical claim.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that gravitational waves are affected by gravity, and looks at what this implies for physics.
• Towleroad reports that Sarah Silverman has rethought her use of the word “gay” in her comedy routines.
• Vintage Space notes the evidence confirming that many–most, even–Apollo astronauts had tattoos.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the boundaries of the “Russian world” continue to contract, with the status of the Russian language receding in the education and the media and the public life of neighbouring countries.
• Arnold Zwicky considers which part of Europe Switzerland lies in. Is it central European, or western European?

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Saint John, Sydney, New York City, Katowice

• La Presse notes that reconstruction work planned for Montréal’s Saint-Sulpice library has been delayed by a shortage of workers, given the wider city’s construction boom.
• CBC notes how the Halifax Explosion led to the Oland family building the Moosehead Brewery in Saint John.
• The closure of Sydney-based call centre Servicom has left six hundred people unemployed just before Christmas. CBC reports.
• Gothamist warns people in New York City which bars to avoid during this weekend’s Santacon.
• Politico Europe notes how, in the Polish city of Katowice at the heart of Upper Silesia, even there coal is falling out of the mix as a major employer.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports on Supernova 2018oh in nearby galaxy UGC 4780, a star that demonstrated a most unusual bump in its light curve. Did the explosion engulf a neighbouring star?
• Centauri Dreams reports on New Horizons as it approaches its next target, the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule.
• D-Brief notes new observations of a black hole suggesting that gas around them forms not a rigid donut shape but rather a looser fountain.
• Dead Things notes a new discovery that the icythosaur had blubber like modern cetaceans, demonstrating convergent evolution.
• Cody Delistraty writes about changing perceptions of painter Egon Schiele.
• Far Outliers notes how Japanese prisoners of war were often so surprised by good treatment that they reciprocated, by freely sharing information with interrogators.
• Hornet Stories notes that, at least on Reddit, RuPaul’s Drag Race is the most discussed show currently playing on television.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Indian police was seeking two American evangelical Christian missionaries for aiding another to breach North Sentinel Island, both having fled the country.
• JSTOR Daily looks back to a 1963 paper on the effects of automation on society by Leon Megginson, finding that many of his predictions were correct.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that it is a sad day for Hungary that its government was able to drive the Central European University out of Budapest into exile.
• At Lingua Franca, Roger Shuy takes a look at the dreaded PhD oral exam. (I know that seeing other students taking it was one thing putting me off from academia.)
• The LRB Blog takes a look at the disastrous state of politics in Honduras, with a corrupt leader deeply compromised by (among other things) a dependency upon the United States.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at the beautiful Tibetan Buddhist religious art on display in the Ladakh settlement of Alchi.
• Window on Eurasia notes a conference in Moscow taking a look at a Eurasianism based on a Slavic-Turkic synthesis.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at Santa Barbara in some of her many dimensions.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares photos of a dust storm over Greenland.
• The Crux looks at the hypervelocity stars of the Milky Way Galaxy, stars flung out towards intergalactic space by close encounters with the galactic core.
• D-Brief notes a study suggesting that the gut bacteria of immigrants to the United States tends to Americanize over time, becoming less diverse.
• Joe. My. God. notes yet another homophobe–this time, an ex-gay “therapist”–who has been outed as actively seeking gay sex.
• JSTOR Daily notes that bears preparing to build up their fat stores for hibernation really have to work hard at this task.
• Language Hat notes, after Elias Canetti, a benefit of being multilingual: You can find out if people near you are planning to kill you.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money recounts an anecdote from the 1980s revealing the great racism on the part of Donald Trump.
• Sadakat Kadri at the LRB Blog notes a gloomy celebration in Prague of the centenary of the 1918 foundation of Czechoslovakia, gloomy not just because of the weather but because of the rhetoric of Czechia’s president.
• The Map Room Blog notes a new book examining the political and military import of mapmaking in Scotland.
• Cheryl Thompson at Spacing writes about the long history of blackface in Canadian popular culture, looking at the representations it made and the tensions that it hid.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at how new technologies are allowing astronomers to overcome the distorting effects of the atmosphere.
• Frances Woolley at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, looking at female employment in Canada, finds the greatest potential for further growth in older women. (Issues, including the question of how to include these women and how to fight discrimination, need to be dealt with first.)