[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: NASA climate, Starlink, CO2 on the seabed, moving Earth, neutrino beams

• Evan Gough at Universe Today notes that the long-term climate predictions of NASA have so far proven accurate to within tenths of a degree Celsius.
• Matt Williams at Universe Today notes how the launching of satellites for the Starlink constellation, providing Internet access worldwide, could be a game-changer.
• Eric Niiler at WIRED suggests that Texas–and other world regions–could easily sequester carbon dioxide in the seabed, in the case of Texas using the Gulf of Mexico.

Matteo Ceriotti explains at The Conversation how, as in The Wandering Earth, the Earth might be physically moved. https://theconversation.com/wandering-earth-rocket-scientist-explains-how-we-could-move-our-planet-116365ti

• Matt Williams at Universe Today shares a remarkable proposal, suggesting Type II civilizations might use dense bodies like black holes to create neutrino beam beacons.

[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.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber suggests that the planet Earth, judging by the progress of space travel to date, is going to be the only planet our species will ever inhabit.
• D-Brief notes surprising new evidence that maize was domesticated not in Mesoamerica, but rather in the southwest of the Amazon basin.
• Dangerous Minds notes the penalties proposed by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia for buggery, sodomy, and bestiality.
• Earther considers the extent to which Thanos’ homeworld of Titan, whether the Saturnian moon or lookalike world, could ever have been habitable, even with extensive terraforming.
• Hornet Stories notes the interesting light that a study of ideal penis sizes among heterosexual women sheds on studies of sexuality generally.
• JSTOR Daily takes an extended look at how the sharing economy, promoted by people like Lawrence Lessig and businesses like Airbnb, turned out to be dystopian not utopian, and why this was the case.
• Victor Mair at Language Log reports on controversy over bread made by a Taiwanese baker, and at the language used.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the latest proof of the decline of Harper’s as a meaningful magazine. (Myself, I lost respect for them when they published an extended AIDS denialist article in 2006.)
• Allan Metcalfe at Lingua Franca celebrates, using the example of lexicographer Kory Stamper’s new book, how the blog helped him connect with the stars of linguistics.
• Katherine Franke at the NYR Daily notes pressure from Israel directed against academic critics in the United States.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes how the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has picked up InSight hardware on the surface of Mars below.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how NASA is running short of Plutonium-238, the radioactive isotope that it needs to power spacecraft like the Voyagers sent on long-duration missions and/or missions far from the sun.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, based on an excess of deaths over births, the population of Crimea will decline for the foreseeable future.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at some examples of the anaphora, a particular kind of rhetorical structure.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Architectuul interviews Vladimir Kulić, curator of the MoMA exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980, about the history of innovative architecture in Yugoslavia.
• The Crux takes a look at the long search for hidden planets in the solar system, starting with Neptune and continuing to Tyche.
• D-Brief notes that ISRO, the space agency of India, is planning on launching a mission to Venus, and is soliciting outside contributions.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage writes about his efforts to photograph, from space, clouds over California’s Mount Whitney.
• Earther notes that geoengineering is being considered as one strategy to help save the coral reefs.
• Gizmodo takes a look at the limits, legal and otherwise, facing the Internet Archive in its preservation of humanity’s online history.
• JSTOR Daily explains why the Loch Ness monster has the scientific binominal Nessiteras rhombopteryx.
• Language Hat links to “The Poor Man of Nippur”, a short film by Cambridge academic Martin Worthington that may be the first film in the Babylonian language.
• The LRB Blog notes the conflict between West Bank settlers and Airbnb. Am I churlish to wish that neither side wins?
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper noting how quickly, after Poland regained its independence, human capital differences between the different parts of the once-divided country faded.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel takes a look at what it takes, in terms of element abundance and galactic structure, for life-bearing planets to form in the early universe, and when they can form.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams reports on the work of the MASCOT rover on asteroid Ryugu.
• The Crux considers the critical role of the dolphin in the thinking of early SETI enthusiasts.
• D-Brief goes into more detail about the import of the Soyuz malfunction for the International Space Station.
• Dangerous Minds notes an artist who has made classic pop song lyrics, like Blue Monday, into pulp paperback covers.
• Earther is entirely correct about how humans will need to engage in geoengineering to keep the Earth habitable.
• David Finger at The Finger Post describes his visit to Accra, capital of Ghana.
• Gizmodo notes a new paper suggesting that, in some cases where massive moons orbit far from their parent planet, these moons can have their own moons.
• Hornet Stories shares the first look at Ruby Rose at Batwoman.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the image of southern California and Los Angeles changed from a Mediterranean paradise with orange trees to a dystopic urban sprawl.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money imagines what might have happened to the navy of China had it not bought the Ukrainian aircraft carrier Varyag.
• Lingua Franca at the Chronicle reports on how the actual length of “minute”, as euphemism for a short period of time, can vary between cultures.
• The LRB Blog reports on the disaster in Sulawesi, noting particularly the vulnerability of colonial-era port settlements in Indonesia to earthquakes and tsunamis.
• The Map Room Blog shares Itchy Feet’s funny map of every European city.
• The New APPS Blog wonders if the tensions of capitalism are responsible for the high rate of neurological health issues.
• The NYR Daily considers what, exactly, it would take to abolish ICE.
• At the Planetary Society Weblog, Ian Regan talks about how he assembled a photoanimated flyover of Titan using probe data.
• Roads and Kingdoms explores some excellent pancakes in the Malaysian state of Sabah with unusual ingredients.
• Drew Rowsome raves over a new documentary looking at the life of opera star Maria Callas.
• Window on Eurasia notes the continued high rate of natural increase in Tajikistan.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams notes a paper suggesting that a world without plate tectonics could support Earth-like conditions for up to five billion years.
• D-Brief notes a paper suggesting that, although geoengineering via sulfate could indeed lower global temperatures, reduced light would also hurt agriculture.
• Dead Things notes a suggestion that the Americas might have been populated through two prehistoric migration routes, through the continental interior via Beringia and along the “Kelp Route” down the Pacific North American coast.
• Peter Kaufman, writing at the Everyday Sociology Blog, shares some of the impressive murals and street art of Philadelphia and grounds them in their sociological context.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests that social media, far from being a way to satisfy the need for human connection and attention in a mass society, creates a less functional solution.
• Hornet Stories reports that Turkish Radio and Television vows to remain outside of Eurovision so long as this contest includes queer performers like Conchita Wurst (and other queer themes, too, I don’t doubt).
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on a study suggesting that the oratory of Hitler actually did not swing many votes in the direction of the Nazis in the elections of Germany in 1932.
• Patricia Escarcega at Roads and Kingdoms praises the Mexican breakfast buffet restaurants of Tucson.
• Arnold Zwicky meditates on the Boules roses of the Village gay of Montréal, Swiss Chalet, and poutine.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

Many things accumulated after a pause of a couple of months. Here are some of the best links to come about in this time.

• Anthrodendum considers the issue of the security, or not, of cloud data storage used by anthropologists.
• Architectuul takes a look at the very complex history of urban planning and architecture in the city of Skopje, linked to issues of disaster and identity.
• Centauri Dreams features an essay by Ioannis Kokkidinis, examining the nature of the lunar settlement of Artemis in Andy Weir’s novel of the same. What is it?
• Crux notes the possibility that human organs for transplant might one day soon be grown to order.
• D-Brief notes evidence that extrasolar visitor ‘Oumuamua is actually more like a comet than an asteroid.
• Bruce Dorminey makes the sensible argument that plans for colonizing Mars have to wait until we save Earth. (I myself have always thought the sort of environmental engineering necessary for Mars would be developed from techniques used on Earth.)
• The Everyday Sociology Blog took an interesting look at the relationship between hobbies and work.
• Far Outliers looks at how, in the belle époque, different European empires took different attitudes towards the emigration of their subjects depending on their ethnicity. (Russia was happy to be rid of Jews, while Hungary encouraged non-Magyars to leave.)
• The Finger Post shares some photos taken by the author on a trip to the city of Granada, in Nicaragua.
• The Frailest Thing’s L.M. Sacasas makes an interesting argument as to the extent to which modern technology creates a new sense of self-consciousness in individuals.
• Inkfish suggests that the bowhead whale has a more impressive repertoire of music–of song, at least–than the fabled humpback.
• Information is Beautiful has a wonderful illustration of the Drake Equation.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the American women who tried to prevent the Trail of Tears.
• Language Hat takes a look at the diversity of Slovene dialects, this diversity perhaps reflecting the stability of the Slovene-inhabited territories over centuries.
• Language Log considers the future of the Cantonese language in Hong Kong, faced with pressure from China.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how negatively disruptive a withdrawal of American forces from Germany would be for the United States and its position in the world.
• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, notes the usefulness of the term “Latinx”.
• The LRB Blog reports on the restoration of a late 19th century Japanese-style garden in Britain.
• The New APPS Blog considers the ways in which Facebook, through the power of big data, can help commodify personal likes.
• Neuroskeptic reports on the use of ayahusasca as an anti-depressant. Can it work?
• Justin Petrone, attending a Nordic scientific conference in Iceland to which Estonia was invited, talks about the frontiers of Nordic identity.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw writes about what it is to be a literary historian.
• Drew Rowsome praises Dylan Jones’ new biographical collection of interviews with the intimates of David Bowie.
• Peter Rukavina shares an old Guardian article from 1993, describing and showing the first webserver on Prince Edward Island.
• Seriously Science notes the potential contagiousness of parrot laughter.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little t.com/2018/06/shakespeare-on-tyranny.htmltakes a look at the new Stephen Greenblatt book, Shakespeare on Power, about Shakespeare’s perspectives on tyranny.
• Window on Eurasia shares speculation as to what might happen if relations between Russia and Kazakhstan broke down.
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative noticed, before the election, the serious fiscal challenges facing Ontario.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell points out that creating a national ID database in the UK without issuing actual cards would be a nightmare.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on a strand of his Swiss family’s history found in a Paris building.

[NEWS] Five technology links: geoengineering, Nile, Long March 9, space internet, hacking

• Wired reports on how climate change skeptics are starting to get interested in geoengineering.
• BBC reports on the growing stresses being placed on the Nile, but countries upstream and downstream.
• The Long March 9 rocket proposed for a 2030 date by China would be a Saturn V equivalent, capable of propelling people directly to the Moon. Universe Today reports.
• Is it necessarily worthwhile to develop an Internet suited for space? Wired reports. Wired considers.
• Are nuclear plants in Ontario at risk of hacking? NOW Toronto makes a case.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: Freenet, smartphones, exoplanet mountains, kilonova, geoengineering

• Motherboard takes a look at the Cleveland Free-Net, an early bulletin board system that was one of the first vehicles for people to get online in the 1980s, here.
• Wired hosts an article making the case that blaming smartphones for causing human problems fits in an ancient tradition of human skepticism of new technologies, here.
• Universe Today’s Matt Williams notes that upcoming generations of telescopes may be able to map mountains on exoplanets. (Well, really bumpy planets orbiting small stars, but still.)
• The kilonova GW170817/GRB in NGC 4993, nearest detected source of gravitational waves, is continuing to brighten mysteriously. Matt Williams at Universe Today reports.
• Brian Kahn at Earther notes that, although one popular theorized geoengineering method involving injecting sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere would greatly slow down global cooling and be good for almost all ecosystems, if it stopped rapid calamitous change would be the result.

[NEWS] Three links about exoplanetary systems and extraterrestrial life

• As we understand the Anthropocene on Earth, we may understand inhabited exoplanets all the better. VICE reports.
• Unsurprisingly, study of stellar X-rays suggests that older and less excitable stars may be most suitable for life. Universe Today reports.
• A new study suggests that TRAPPIST-1 could support unsuspected gas giants, too, orbiting far away. Universe Today reports.