[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

• 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 Monday links

• ‘Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen links to a giveaway of paranormal LGBT fiction.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares some stunning photos of Jupiter provided by Juno.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly looks at the desperate, multi-state strike of teachers in the United States. American education deserves to have its needs, and its practitioners’ needs, met.
• Centauri Dreams looks at PROCSIMA, a strategy for improving beamed propulsion techniques.
• Crooked Timber looks at the history of the concept of the uncanny valley. How did the concept get translated in the 1970s from Japan to the wider world?
• Dangerous Minds shares a 1980s BBC interview with William Burroughs.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper tracing the origin of the Dravidian language family to a point in time 4500 years ago.
• JSTOR Daily notes Phyllis Wheatley, a freed slave who became the first African-American author in the 18th century but who died in poverty.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
• Language Log looks at the forms used by Chinese to express the concepts of NIMBY and NIMBYism.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
• The NYR Daily notes that, if the United States junks the nuclear deal with Iran, nothing external to Iran could realistically prevent the country’s nuclearization.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest findings from the Jupiter system, from that planet’s planet-sized moons.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes that many Rohingya, driven from their homeland, have been forced to work as mules in the illegal drug trade.
• Starts With A Bang considers how early, based on elemental abundances, life could have arisen after the Big Bang. A date only 1 to 1.5 billion years after the formation of the universe is surprisingly early.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs notes how the centre of population of different tree populations in the United States has been shifting west as the climate has changed.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little takes a look at mechanisms and causal explanations.
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative’s Frances Woolley takes a look at an ECON 1000 test from the 1950s. What biases, what gaps in knowledge, are revealed by it?

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Centauri Dreams links to archival video painstakingly collected from the Voyager missions.
• Citizen Science Salon notes ways ordinary people can use satellite imagery for archaeological purposes.
• Good news: Asian carp can’t find a fin-hold in Lake Michigan. Bad news: The lake is so food-deprived nothing lives there. The Crux reports.
• D-Brief notes that, once every second, a fast radio burst occurs somewhere in the universe.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the psychedelic retro-futurism of Swedish artist Kilian Eng.
• Dead Things notes the recovery of ancient human DNA from some African sites, and what this could mean for study.
• Cody Delistraty reconsiders the idea of the “coming of age” narrative. Does this make sense now that we have abandoned the idea of a unitary self?
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining the evolution of icy bodies around different post-main sequence stars.
• The Great Grey Bridge’s Philip Turner notes anti-Putin dissident Alexei Navalny.
• Hornet Stories notes reports of anti-gay persecution in Azerbaijan.
• Language Log takes a look at the dialectal variations of southern Ohio.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money starts a discussion about what effective disaster relief for Puerto Rico would look like.
• The LRB Blog looks at the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Mexico, and the story of the buried girl who was not there.
• Marginal Revolution notes that Toronto real estate companies, in light of rent control, are switching rental units over to condos.
• Naked Anthropologist Laura Agustín takes a look at the origins and stories of migrant sex workers.
• The NYR Daily talks about the supposedly unthinkable idea of nuclear war in the age of Trump.
• Drew Rowsome gives a strongly positive–and deserved review to the Minmar Gaslight show The Seat Next to the King, a Fringe triumph now playing at the Theatre Centre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how so many outer-system icy worlds have liquid water.
• Towleroad features Jim Parsons’ exploration of how important is for him, as a gay man, to be married.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Russian language policy limiting minority languages in education could backfire, and wonders if Islamization one way people in an urbanizing North Caucasus are trying to remain connected to community.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.
• D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans’ habitability.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.
• Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.
• Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, “My Immortal”, has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.
• Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)
• Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.
• At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.
• Livejournal’s pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry’s Auroville Café.
• Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.
• Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• The Big Picture shares photos from the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Indonesia.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of colleagues for solitary writers.
• D-Brief notes the rediscovery of the Blue-Eyed Ground Dove in Brazil, once believed extinct.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes reports of the discovery of massive planets via gaps in the protoplanetary disks of HL Tauri and HD 135344B.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes a paper making specific projections about the shape of the Kuiper Belt if Planet Nine was around.
• A Fistful of Euros speculates as to the severity of the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit recession.
• Language Log considers writing Shanghainese.
• The LRB Blog remembers Madeleine Lebeau, last survivor of the cast of Casablanca.
• Marginal Revolution engages with Peter Thiel’s funding of Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes sterling work reclaiming distorted images from the Voyager probes.
• pollotenchegg reports on the origins of migrants to Kyiv.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer reports on Puerto Rico.
• Seriously Science notes that wild boar apparently wash their food before eating.
• Window on Eurasia looks at Putin’s traditionalism, wonders if there might be a Russian Olympics boycott to spare the country the shame of being excluded, speculates about the North Caucasus’ future within Russia, and reports Ukrainian worries of being isolated versus Russia.

[LINK] “ESA, Airbus Formalize Jupiter Icy Moons Contract”

The Dragon’s Tales linked to Space News’ report showing that the ESA is set to join NASA in the ranks of deep-space explorers.

The European Space Agency on Dec. 9 signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the construction of ESA’s Juice – Jupiter Icy Moons – orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2022 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket.

The contract had been expected since ESA’s July decision to approve a contract valued at 350.8 million euros ($374 million) with Airbus after a competition with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy and OHB SE of Germany, which had submitted a joint bid.

Francois Auque, head of Airbus Space Systems, said Juice hardware will be produced as early as mid-2016, with the full contracting team from 60 companies lined up by 2017. Some 150 people will be working on the prime contractor’s project team at the program’s peak in 2017-2018, he said.

Juice will spend 7.5 years after launch making its way to the Jupiter system, where it will investigate the Europa, Ganymede and Callisto moons. Its mission is expected to last 3.5 years.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO explains why there is no Terminal 2 at Pearson.
• Crooked Timber notes the very strong case against coal and new coal mines.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper speculating that the solar system had five large planets.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the Russian war in Syria, updates readers on the Ukrainian war, and suggests Russia is starting to run out of money.
• Joe. My. God. notes Wil Wheaton’s refusal to let the Huffington Post use his material for free.
• Language Log notes the complexities of Chinese language stop signs in Hong Kong.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how elements of climate change like water shortages can make things worse.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw, among other things, notes that Australia’s approach to asylum cannot work in Europe.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes new proposals for exploring the Jovian system.
• Spacing Toronto looks at an old murder on the Toronto Islands in the Second World War.
• Supernova Condensate shares a Tumblr image set noting the need to not discourage women from being interested in science.
• Window on Eurasia notes the awkward position of Crimean Tatar institutions and notes some Belarusians want a Russian military base because they want the income.

[LINK] On why the Galilean moons, unlike Titan, lack atmospheres

The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper, “The formation of the Galilean moons and Titan in the Grand Tack scenario”, that provides an explanation for why Galilean moons like Ganymede and Callisto lack atmospheres despite being as massive as densely-shrouded Titan. Migration in the early solar system explains this.

In the “Grand Tack” (GT) scenario for the young solar system, Jupiter formed beyond 3.5 AU from the Sun and migrated as close as 1.5 AU until it encountered an orbital resonance with Saturn. Both planets then supposedly migrated outward for several 105 yr, with Jupiter ending up at ~5 AU. The initial conditions of the GT and the timing between Jupiter’s migration and the formation of the Galilean satellites remain unexplored. We study the formation of Ganymede and Callisto, both of which consist of ~50% water and rock, respectively, in the GT scenario. We examine why they lack dense atmospheres, while Titan is surrounded by a thick nitrogen envelope. We model an axially symmetric circumplanetary disk (CPD) in hydrostatic equilibrium around Jupiter. The CPD is warmed by viscous heating, Jupiter’s luminosity, accretional heating, and the Sun. The position of the water ice line in the CPD, which is crucial for the formation of massive moons, is computed at various solar distances. We assess the loss of Galilean atmospheres due to high-energy radiation from the young Sun. Ganymede and Callisto cannot have accreted their water during Jupiter’s supposed GT, because its CPD (if still active) was too warm to host ices and much smaller than Ganymede’s contemporary orbit. From a thermal perspective, the Galilean moons might have had significant atmospheres, but these would probably have been eroded during the GT in < 105 yr by solar XUV radiation. Jupiter and the Galilean moons formed beyond 4.5 (+/-0.5) AU and prior to the proposed GT. Thereafter, Jupiter's CPD would have been dry, and delayed accretion of planetesimals should have created water-rich Io and Europa. While Galilean atmospheres would have been lost during the GT, Titan would have formed after Saturn's own tack, because Saturn still accreted substantially for ~106 yr after its closest solar approach, ending up at about 7 AU.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO shows the scope of the construction at College and Spadina, as streetcar track work continues.
• Centauri Dreams examines the evidence for a subsurface ocean on Ganymede.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining a very early Sun-like star and its debris belt, noting evidence that massive collisions are quite common.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper examining the thickness of the ice covering Europa’s ocean, suggesting it might be 28 kilometres.
• Mathew Ingram notes how he and other GigaOM writers are now writing for Fortune.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money places the Germanwings mass murder in the context of the precarious nature of airplane pilots’ careers.
• The Planetary Society Blog examines the very thin atmospheres of Io and Callisto.
• The Russian Demographics Blog celebrates 100 thousand page views.
• Towleroad notes how pro-gay ads help normalize depictions of queer lives.
• The Volokh Conspiracy is concerned about the impact of ignorant voters.
• Window on Eurasia notes Russian interest in making participation in censuses mandatory, observes fragile leadership in post-Soviet countries, and notes virtual republics declared by pro-Russians in southern Ukraine.