[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a study suggesting the Milky Way Galaxy took many of its current satellite galaxies from another, smaller one.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks of the importance of having dreams.
• Centauri Dreams shares a study explaining how the debris polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs reveals much about exoplanet chemistry.
• D-Brief notes that the intense radiation of Jupiter would not destroy potential traces of subsurface life on the surface of Europa.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the strange musical career of Vader Abraham, fan of the Smurfs and of the Weepuls.
• Aneesa Bodiat at JSTOR Daily writes about how the early Muslim woman of Haajar inspires her as a Muslim.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how an influx of American guns destabilizes Mexico.
• The LRB Blog looks at the American abandonment of the Kurds of Syria.
• Marginal Revolution notes how many mass protests are driven by consumer complaints.
• The NYR Daily has an interview with EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, on the future of sovereignty.
• Strange Company looks at the Dead Pig War between the US and the UK on San Juan Island in 1859.
• Towleroad features the defense of Frank Ocean of his PrEP+ club night and the release of his new music.
• Understanding Society looks at the sociology of norms.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Russia and Ukraine each have an interest in the Donbass being a frozen conflict.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the weird masculinity of the pink jock.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul reports on the critical walking tours of Istanbul offered by Nazlı Tümerdem.
• Centauri Dreams features a guest post from Alex Tolley considering the biotic potential of the subsurface ocean of Enceladus.
• The Crux reports on how paleontologist Susie Maidment tries to precisely date dinosaur sediments.
• D-Brief notes the success of a recent project aiming to map the far side of the Milky Way Galaxy.
• Cody Delistraty considers the relationship between the One Percent and magicians.
• Todd Schoepflin writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about different sociological facts in time for the new school year.
• Gizmodo shares a lovely extended cartoon imagining what life on Europa, and other worlds with subsurface worlds, might look like.
• io9 features an interview with Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders on the intersection between science fiction writing and science writing.
• JSTOR Daily briefly considers the pros and cons of seabed mining.
• Marginal Revolution suggests that a stagnant economy could be seen as a sign of success, as the result of the exploitation of all potential for growth.
• The NYR Daily reports on the photographs of John Edmonds, a photographer specializing in images of queer black men.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares a map of murders in Denmark, and an analysis of the facts behind this crime there.
• Window on Eurasia reports on an anti-Putin shaman in Buryatia.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on dreams of going back to school, NSFW and otherwise.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.
• D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.
• Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.
• Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.
• Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)
• JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.
• Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.
• Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.
• Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people’s language.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul notes a bike tour of Bauhaus architecture in Berlin.
• Bad Astronomy Phil Plait notes the discovery of Beta Pictoris c, a second super-Jovian planet in that young system.
• Centauri Dreams notes that the NASA Europa Clipper is moving ahead.
• Crooked Timber shares a gorgeous night photo of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice.
• The Crux notes what we are learning about the Denisovans.
• D-Brief notes that Neanderthals were prone to swimmer’s ear.
• Dangerous Minds looks at some of the pop culture likes of Karl Marx.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage looks at the exoplanets of GJ 1061.
• Earther notes how Icelanders mourned the loss of a glacier in a ceremony.
• Whitney Kimball at Gizmodo looks at what the mass data loss of more than a decade’s worth of music at Myspace means for our Internet era.
• Imageo shares photos of spiraling cloud formations photographed at night from space.
• Ian Humberstone at The Island Review writes about his witnessing of the bonxies, birds of the Shetlands.
• Joe. My. God. notes a report suggesting Trump joked about swapping Greenland for Puerto Rico.
• JSTOR Daily notes how the rhythmic dancing of the Shakers in 18th century America marked that sect as different.
• Language Hat considers the humour of some philosophers.
• Language Log notes the oblique commentaries of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing on his city-state’s protests.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the idiocy of the Trump fetish for Greenland.
• The Map Room Blog notes how astronomers have mapped the Local Void, of deep intergalactic space.
• Marginal Revolution wonders if the future of Venice might be found in its becoming a Chinese portal into Europe.
• Sean Marshall notes how the Ford government is undermining conservation in Ontario.
• The NYR Daily shares some of the New York City photography of Phil Penman.
• Starts With A Bang’s notes the immense storms of Saturn.
• Strange Company shares a weekend collection of links.
• Window on Eurasia looks at how Belarus plans on reorganizing its internal structures to try to minimize rural depopulation.
• Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative talks about monetary policy in metaphors.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguins from around the world.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait considers the question of where, exactly, the dwarf galaxy Segue-1 came from.
• Centauri Dreams considers the import of sodium chloride for the water oceans of Europa, and for what they might hold.
• D-Brief wonders if dark matter punched a hole in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• JSTOR Daily warns that the increasing number of satellites in orbit of Earth might hinder our appreciation of the night sky.
• The LRB Blog looks at the complications of democracy and politics in Mauritania.
• Marginal Revolution wonders about the nature of an apparently very decentralized city of Haifa.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There notes that, while our knowledge of the Big Bang is certainly imperfect, the odds of it being wrong are quite, quite low.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the Hayabusa 2 exploration of asteroid Ryugu.
• Vintage Space examines how Apollo astronauts successfully navigated their way to the Moon.
• Window on Eurasia looks at press discussion in Russia around the decriminalization of soft drugs like marijuana.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at a comic depicting a “mememobile.”

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait looks at Abell 30, a star that has been reborn in the long process of dying.
• Centauri Dreams uses the impending launch of LightSail 2 to discuss solar sails in science fiction.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber, as part of a series of the fragility of globalization, considers if migration flows can be reversed. (He concludes it unlikely.)
• The Crux considers if the record rain in the Midwest (Ontario, too, I would add) is a consequence of climate change.
• D-Brief notes that the failure of people around the world to eat enough fruits and vegetables may be responsible for millions of premature dead.
• Dangerous Minds introduces readers to gender-bending Italian music superstar Renato Zero.
• Dead Things notes how genetic examinations have revealed the antiquity of many grapevines still used for wine.
• Gizmodo notes that the ocean beneath the icy crust of Europa may contain simple salt.
• io9 tries to determine the nature of the many twisted timelines of the X-Men movie universe of Fox.
• JSTOR Daily observes that the Stonewall Riots were hardly the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US.
• Language Log looks at the mixed scripts on a bookstore sign in Beijing.
• Dave Brockington at Lawyers, Guns, and Money argues that Jeremy Corbyn has a very strong hold on his loyal followers, perhaps even to the point of irrationality.
• Marginal Revolution observes that people who create public genetic profiles for themselves also undo privacy for their entire biological family.
• Sean Marshall at Marshall’s Musings shares a photo of a very high-numbered street address, 986039 Oxford-Perth Road in Punkeydoodle’s Corners.
• The NYR Daily examines the origins of the wealth of Lehman Brothers in the exploitation of slavery.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares a panorama-style photo of the Apollo 11 Little West Crater on the Moon.
• Drew Rowsome notes that classic documentary Paris Is Burning has gotten a makeover and is now playing at TIFF.
• Peter Rukavina, writing from a trip to Halifax, notes the convenience of the Eduroam procedures allowing users of one Maritime university computer network to log onto another member university’s network.
• Dylan Reid at Spacing considers how municipal self-government might be best embedded in the constitution of Canada.
• The Speed River Journal’s Van Waffle pays tribute to the wildflower Speedwell, a name he remembers from Watership Down.
• Strange Maps shares a crowdsourced map depicting which areas of Europe are best (and worst) for hitchhikers.
• Window on Eurasia notes the distribution of native speakers of Russian, with Israel emerging as more Russophone than some post-Soviet states.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul writes about the exciting possibility of using living organisms, like fungi, as custom-designed construction materials.
• Bad Astronomy looks at first-generation stars, the first stars in the universe which exploded and scattered heavy elements into the wider universe.
• Caitlin Kelly writes at the Broadside Blog, as an outsider and an observer, about the American fascination with guns.
• The Toronto Public Library’s Buzz lists some top memoirs.
• Centauri Dreams considers the vexed issue of oxygen in the oceans of Europa. There may well not be enough oxygen to sustain complex life, though perhaps life imported from Earth might be able to thrive with suitable preparation.
• The Crux looks at the well-established practice, not only among humans but other animals, of using natural substances as medicines.
• D-Brief looks at the NASA Dart mission, which will try to deflect the tiny moon of asteroid Didymos in an effort to test asteroid-diversion techniques.
• io9 reports George R.R. Martin’s belief that Gandalf could beat Dumbledore. I can buy that, actually.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the local reactions to Woodstock.
• Language Hat looks at the language in a 19th century short story by Nikolai Leskov, concerned with the difficulties of religious conversion for a people whose language does not encompass the concepts of Christianity.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a book review of his examining the Marshall mission to Nationalist China after the Second World War.
• Marginal Revolution links to survey results suggesting that, contrary to the Brexit narratives, Britons have actually been getting happier over the past two decades.
• The NYR Daily reports on an exhibition of the universe of transgressive writer Kathy Acker in London.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the innovative new staging of the queer Canadian classic Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times.
• Towleroad reports on the progress of Pete Buttigieg.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia and Ukraine are becoming increasingly separated by their very different approaches to their shared Soviet past.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the latest evolutions of English.

[NEWS] Five science links: geoengineering, Europa probe, ocean worlds, oxygen, black hole portals

• The National Observer takes a look at the challenges, both technological and psychological, facing geoengineers as they and us approach our their hour of trial.
• Evan Gough at Universe Today shares a proposal for a nuclear-fueled robot probe that could tunnel into the possibly life-supporting subsurface oceans of Europa.
• Meghan Bartels at Scientific American notes a new study suggesting that most worlds with subsurface oceans, like Europa, are probably too geologically inactive to support life.
• Matt Williams at Universe Today notes a new study demonstrating mechanisms by which exoplanets could develop oxygen-bearing atmospheres without life.
• Gaurav Khanna writes at The Conversation about how, drawing on research done for the film Interstellar, it does indeed seem as if supermassive black holes like Sagittarius A* might be used as hyperspace portals if they are also slowly rotating.

[URBAN NOTE] Some Sunday links

• Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly looks at a new movie and book celebrating the life of brave journalist Marie Colvin.
• Centauri Dreams looks at how the Spitzer telescope was able to constrain the size of ‘Oumuamua.
• Crooked Timber asks a question about referenda. What are they good for? How can they be made to work effectively? The Brexit precedent is uncheering.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the delivery, by Europe, of the first service module for the Orion spacecraft.
• The Island Review shares Sylvia Warren’s account of her visit to the Frioul archipelago, off the coast of Provence.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the perhaps surprisingly thriving culture of fandom that prevailed in the 19th century, with fans around the world devoting their energies to stars.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that the Democratic Party is grooming Beto O’Rourke to be a presidential candidate in 2020. Why not?
• Marginal Revolution links to a report suggesting that the pace of scientific advancement is slowing down, with greater investments in scientific research producing increasingly fewer fundamental breakthroughs.
• Carole Cadwalladr argues at the NYR Daily that the United Kingdom needs its own Mueller to get to the bottom of the scandals and mysteries surrounding Brexit.
• Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog notes how the support of Texan Republican Congressman John Culberson for the exploration of Europa was used by his opponents as part of a successful attack.
• Drew Rowsome loves the movie Who Will Save The Roses?, with its story about the love of two older gay men for each other in hard times.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy argues that the Spiderman Rule–“With great power comes great responsibility”–should be remembered by practitioners of constitutional law.
• Window on Eurasia considers what a proposed Russian sale of some of the Kuril Islands to Japan might imply about official attitudes towards territorial claims.
• Starting from Calvin and Hobbes, Arnold Zwicky considers rattles, death rattles and otherwise.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the unusual object BST1047+1156, possibly a gas cloud or a faint galaxy.
• Keith Kintigh at The Crux takes a look at the poor preservation of critical archeological data, the sort of basic information that would allow much to be reconstructed by future generations.
• D-Brief notes that, with global warming, tropical cyclones are moving poleward.
• Dead Things notes how the diversity of some styles of ancient tools found in Texas hint at possible pre-Clovis migrations to the Americas.
• JSTOR Daily makes the case for lowering the voting age in the United States to 16, on the grounds of the reality of the many 16- and 17-year-olds who prove they can engage with the political process.
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis takes a look at the importance of fire as an element of the environment in the western United States, something at once feared and appreciated.
• The Map Room Blog highlights Navigating New York, an exhibition of ephemera (maps, tools, and others) relating to the New York City transit system running at the excellent New York Transit Museum.
• Scientist Conor Nixon writes at the Planetary Society Blog about a recent expedition to the glaciers of Iceland, looking for environments analogous to Europa’s.
• Drew Rowsome reviews, and praises, the new LGBTQ anthology, Dark Rainbow: Queer Erotic Horror.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers the early universe, where supermassive stars led to the formation of supermassive black holes.
• Window on Eurasia shares an argument that, after about 2000, the lived experience of millions of Russians with life elsewhere in Europe made it impossible to continue to imagine “Europe” as separate from Russia, even contrasting with Russia.
• Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative considers the extent to which a job seeming to be useful would have greater appeal than a less useful but higher-paying job.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the origins of the Turkish taffy of his youth.