[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer notes the latest news on interstellar comet 2/Borisov.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly emphasizes how every writer does need an editor.
• Centauri Dreams notes how the gas giant GJ 3512 b, half the mass of Jupiter orbiting a red dwarf star closely, is an oddly massive exoplanet.
• Gina Schouten at Crooked Timber looks at inter-generational clashes on parenting styles.
• D-Brief looks at the methods of agriculture that could conceivably sustain a populous human colony on Mars.
• Bruce Dorminey argues that we on Earth need something like Starfleet Academy, to help us advance into space.
• Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how the socio-spatial perspective helps us understand the development of cities.
• Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res listens to the Paul McCartney album Flaming Pie.
• io9 looks at Proxima, a contemporary spaceflight film starring Eva Green.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the intense relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia began in, and reflected, the era of Jim Crow.
• Language Hat notes a report suggesting that multilingualism helps ward off dementia.
• Language Log takes issue with the names of the mascots of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the emergence of a ninth woman complaining about being harassed by Al Franken.
• Marginal Revolution links to a new paper arguing that the Washington Consensus worked.
• The NYR Daily shares an Aubrey Nolan cartoon illustrating the evacuation of war children in the United Kingdom during the Second World War.
• At Out of Ambit, Diane Duane shares a nice collection of links for digital mapmakers.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at how the European Space Agency supports the cause of planetary defense.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Kenyan writer Kevin Mwachiro at length.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on how a mysterious fast radio burst helped illuminate an equally mysterious galactic halo.
• Strange Company reports on the mysterious and unsolved death in 1936 of Canadian student Thomas Moss in an Oxfordshire hayrick.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes how Mount Etna is a surpassingly rare decipoint.
• Understanding Society considers the thought of Kojève, after Hegel, on freedom.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the falling numbers of Russians, and of state support for Russian language and culture, in independent Central Asia.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how individual consumer responses are much less effective than concerted collective action in triggering change.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on some transgender fashion models.

[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: white dwarfs, FRBs, Barnard’s Star b, AT2018cow, termites

• A new study by astronomers suggests that white dwarfs evolve over eons as they cool into immense crystals. D-Brief reports.
• Canadian astronomers have found a second mysterious repeating fast radio burst. D-Brief reports.
• Subsurface environments suitable for life could conceivably exist at Barnard’s Star b. D-Brief reports.
• Astronomers observing the mysterious AT2018cow event in nearby dwarf galaxy CGCG 137-068t may have witnessed the formation of a compact object, a black hole or a neutron star. D-Brief reports.
• The turning of the earth wrought by termite hives in tropical rainforests may help protect these environments from drought. D-Brief reports.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares a stunning photo of two galaxies colliding in the eternal night and considers the implications of the Milky Way’s future encounter with Andromeda.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the latest discoveries regarding FRB 121102 and fast radio bursts generally.
• Hornet Stories suggests that a recent ruling by the Inter American Court of Human Rights sets the stage for marriage equality across Latin America.
• Inkfish notes that the biomass of dead squid mothers plays a major role in the environments and ecologies of seafloors.
• JSTOR Daily suggests retirees can actually learn a lot from the lifestyles of members of the RV–recreational vehicle–community.
• Language Hat reports on wordplay, and its translations, in the works of Homer.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the turn to anti-intellectualism among American conservatives.
• At Lingua Franca, William Germano talks about telling numbers.
• The LRB Blog notes the story of the English village of Imber, intentionally depopulated by the British military during the Second World War and never allowed to be restored.
• The NYR Daily talks about a London exhibition on the art of our era of terrorism and terror.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest Juno discoveries from Jupiter.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell reports on a debate as to whether the origin of life is a more difficult question than the origin of consciousness.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the simple pleasures of an iced coffee enjoyed in the Australian Outback.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel U>considers an interesting question: is ours the only advanced civilization in the universe?
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little tackles the concept of organizational cultures.
• Window on Eurasia suggests that post-1991 immigrants from the former Soviet Union form a tenth of the Russian labour force.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning deep-field pictures of intergalactic space.
• Centauri Dreams shares the second part of Larry Klaes’ analysis of Forbidden Planet.
• D-Brief suggests that controlled kangaroo hunting may be necessary for the ecological health of Australia.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a new radio telescope in British Columbia that may help solve the mystery of fast radio burst.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes that quasars can irradiate a noteworthy fraction of potentially Earth-like planets.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money comes out against the idea of giving Amazon massive tax breaks for HQ2.
• The LRB Blog bids a fond farewell to Saturn probe Cassini.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting new ideas–hence, new sources of economic growth–are harder to come by.
• Maximos62 recounts a quietly chilling trip to East Timor where he discovers a landscape marked by genocide.
• The New APPS Blog is quite unsurprised by news that Russians may have used Facebook to manipulate the US election.
• At Out of Ambit, Diane Duane bids a fond farewell to colleague Len Wein.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw does not think Australia is committed enough to affordable housing to solve homelessness Finland-style.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports from the Suwalki Gap, the thin corridor joining the Baltic States to Poland.
• Peter Rukavina looks at how a storied land rover was recovered from St. Helena.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel lists the top six discoveries of Cassini at Saturn.
• Towleroad notes fundamentally misaimed criticism of new AI that determines sexual orientation from facepics.
• Window on Eurasia looks at contemporary Russian fears about the power of rising China in Russia’s Asian territories.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Apostrophen’s ‘Nathan Smith updates readers on his writing projects and points them to anthologies looking for new submissions.
• blogTO talks about the origins of Bay Street.
• Centauri Dreams notes new discoveries about the origins of mysterious “fast radio bursts”.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes how a genetic study of Panama’s population showed the impact of colonization.
• Joe. My. God. notes Germany’s opening of a centre for LGBT refugees.
• Language Log notes controversy over simplified characters in Hong Kong and poor fluency in kanji in Japan.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the controversies surrounding the commemoration of the death of Scalia at Georgetown University.
• Steve Munro looks at various routes for a relief line in the east of the city.
• North’s Justin Petrone talks about teaching his daughter who ran Estonia during the Soviet era.
• Strange Maps maps Europe divided into city-states.
• Window on Eurasia notes Kazakhstan’s plan to shift to Latin script for Kazakh and looks at ethnic Russian converts to Islam.