[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the astounding precision of the new Habitable Planet Finder telescope.
• D-Brief notes that the lack of small craters on Pluto and Charon suggests there are not many small bodies in the Kuiper Belt.
• Far Outliers notes the many and widely varying transliterations of Bengali to English.
• JSTOR Daily notes the extent to which border walls represent, ultimately, a failure of politics.
• Language Log examines the emergence of the Germanic languages in the depths of prehistory.
• Anna Aslanyan at the LRB Blog considers the eternal search for a universal language.
• Noah Smith shareshis Alternative Green New Deal Plan at his blog, one that depends more on technology and market forces than the original.
• Mitchell Abidor at the NYR Daily writes about the incisive leftism of journalist Victor Sorge.
• Out There notes the reality that the worlds of our solar system, and almost certainly other systems, are united by a constant stream of incoming rocks.
• At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla examines the data transmitted back by OSIRIS-REx from that probe’s Earth flyby.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines cosmic conditions at the time the solar system formed 4.56 billion or so years ago.
• Towleroad notes the censorship of many explicitly gay scenes from Bohemian Rhapsody in its Chinese release.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the many ways in which the social norms of North Caucasian men are converging with those of the average Russian.
• On St. David’s Day, Arnold Zwicky pays tribute to the daffodil and to the Welsh.

[NEWS] Five D-Brief space links: 65803 Didymos, Mars, Charon, V883 Ori, LHA 120-N 180B

• D-Brief looks at the exciting Hera mission planned by the European Space Agency to binary asteroid 65803 Didymos in 2026, some years after a NASA experiment there.
• D-Brief notes that the CubeSats brought to Mars with the InSight mission have gone silent.
• Can features of the surface of Charon be explained by a subsurface ocean escaping and flooding? D-Brief considers.
• D-Brief reports that the ALMA radiotelescope has found clouds of organics around young star V883 Ori.
• D-Brief looks at the massive jet, dozens of light years long, issuing from a young star in the nebula LHA 120-N 180B in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Adam Fish at Anthro{dendum} takes a look at the roles of drones in capitalism, here.
• Bad Astronomy talks about the discovery of a nascent planet in orbit of young star PDS 70.
• Centauri Dreams notes what the discovery of a Charon eclipsing its partner Pluto meant, for those worlds and for astronomy generally.
• D-Brief notes a demographic study of Italian centenarians suggesting that, after reaching the age of 105, human mortality rates seem to plateau. Does this indicate the potential for further life expectancy increases?
• Dead Things shares the result of a genetics study of silkworms. Where did these anchors of the Silk Road come from?
• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the role of the side hustle in creative professions.
• Far Outliers reports on the time, in the 1930s, when some people in Second Republic Poland thought that the country should acquire overseas colonies.
• Hornet Stories reports on how, in earlier centuries, the English word “pinke” meant a shade of yellow.
• JSTOR Daily reports on how, nearly two decades later, Sex and the City is still an influential and important piece of pop culture.
• Language Hat links to Keith Gessen’s account, in The New Yorker, about how he came to teach his young son Russian.
• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, reports on the decent and strongly Cuban Spanish spoken by Ernest Hemingway.
• The NYR Daily looks at the mystique surrounding testosterone, the powerful masculinizing hormone.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer shares his thoughts on the election, in Mexico, of left-leaning populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Worst-case scenarios aren’t likely to materialize in the short and medium terms, at least.
• Vintage Space notes how, at the height of the Cold War, some hoped to demonstrate American strength by nuking the Moon. (Really.)
• Window on Eurasia links to an essayist who suggests that Russia should look to America as much as to Europe for models of society.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase’s Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.
• Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.
• Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.
• D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.
• Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo’s Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.
• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.
• Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.
• Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.
• At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)
• Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?
• The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.
• Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)
• The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.
• Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.
• Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can’t wait to see it.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• James Bow considers the idea of Christian privilege.
• Centauri Dreams reports on the oddities of Ross 128.
• D-Brief shares Matthew Buckley’s proposal that it is possible to make planets out of dark matter.
• Dead Things reports on the discoveries at Madjedbebe, in northern Australia, suggesting humans arrived 65 thousand years ago.
• Bruce Dorminey reports on the idea that advanced civilizations may use sunshades to protect their worlds from overheating. (For terraforming purposes, too.)
• Language Hat notes the struggles of some Scots in coming up with a rationalized spelling for Scots. What of “hert”?
• The LRB Blog considers the way in which the unlimited power of Henry VIII will be recapitulated post-Brexit by the UK government.
• Drew Rowsome quite likes the High Park production of King Lear.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers the idea that Pluto’s moons, including Charon, might be legacies of a giant impact.
• Unicorn Booty notes the terrible anti-trans “Civil Rights Uniformity Act.” Americans, please act.
• The Volokh Conspiracy considers/u> the perhaps-unique way a sitting American president might be charged with obstruction of justice.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting some hypervelocity stars were ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud.
• Crooked Timber’s John Holbo wonders how else Trump can transgress the norms of the presidency.
• The Crux notes the exceptional hardiness of the tardigrade. These forms of life might well outlive the sun.
• Gizmodo notes the evidence for a recently frozen subsurface ocean on Pluto’s Charon.
• Joe. My. God. notes the Israeli government’s effective, if confused, opposition to same-sex adoption.
• Unicorn Booty looks at the significant impact RuPaul’s Drag Race has on music sales.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Putin’s political allies have been having trouble coming up with a positive future.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Charlie Stross at Antipope creates a taxonomy of cliches of space opera.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes that HD 100453 has a red dwarf hiding in its protoplanetary disk.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the history of Charon.
• Imageo notes that the moisture streaming into California ultimately comes from the Philippines.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers Silver Age Magneto, a character that at best has potential.
• Transit Toronto notes the plans to rebuild Dupont Station.
• The Volokh Conspiracy is skeptical of Trump’s renunciation of torture.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the different permutations of perceptions of non-heterosexuality.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy shares a stunning photo of the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
• The Boston Globe‘s Big Picture shares photos from the world of Chinese opera, in Thailand.
• blogTO has a humourous list of signs you’ve survived, and suffered, on the 29 Dufferin bus.
• Centauri Dreams reflects on the possible ancient ocean of Charon.
• Dangerous Minds shares beautiful hand-painted portraits of tattooed yakuza.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that data from Cassini sets strict limits on hypothetical Planet Nine.
• The Map Room links to a map of the Japanese Empire’s rail network circa 1936.
• Steve Munro reports on demand projections for various subway relief lines.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer has lost any appreciation for Marco Rubio.
• Strange Maps shares various sound maps of London.
• Window on Eurasia notes the dynamics behind the alliance of Putin and Russia with Europe’s far right.

[LINK] “Pluto’s ‘Hulk-like’ Moon Charon: A Possible Ancient Ocean?”

The Dragon’s Tales linked to this intriguing NASA report.

Images from NASA’s New Horizons mission suggest that Pluto’s moon Charon once had a subsurface ocean that has long since frozen and expanded, pushing outward and causing the moon’s surface to stretch and fracture on a massive scale.

The side of Pluto’s largest moon viewed by NASA’s passing New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 is characterized by a system of “pull apart” tectonic faults, which are expressed as ridges, scarps and valleys—the latter sometimes reaching more than 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) deep. Charon’s tectonic landscape shows that, somehow, the moon expanded in its past, and – like Bruce Banner tearing his shirt as he becomes the Incredible Hulk – Charon’s surface fractured as it stretched.

The outer layer of Charon is primarily water ice. This layer was kept warm when Charon was young by heat provided by the decay of radioactive elements, as well as Charon’s own internal heat of formation. Scientists say Charon could have been warm enough to cause the water ice to melt deep down, creating a subsurface ocean. But as Charon cooled over time, this ocean would have frozen and expanded (as happens when water freezes), lifting the outermost layers of the moon and producing the massive chasms we see today.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO notes the opening of a new Taiwanese fried chicken restaurant location in Toronto.
• Centauri Dreams notes an odd crater on Charon.
• D-Brief reports on a study suggesting that geography–specifically, topography–can influence the number of consonants in a language.
• The Dragon’s Gaze reports on the craziness of the KOI-89 planetary system and suggests Kepler-91b might have a Trojan companion.
• The Dragon’s Tales reports on American fears of a shortage of aircraft carriers.
• The New APPS Blog considers if neurons have preferences.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw talks of the British Museum.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on new rover science on Mars.
• Peter Rukavina celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Prince Edward Island government website, among other things.
• Savage Minds notes that these days, we don’t have much time for slowness.
• Window on Eurasia suggests student surveys in Moscow and St. Petersburg indicate high levels of ethnic and religious tension.