[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy notes a new detailed study suggesting that asteroid Hygeia is round. Does this mean it is a dwarf planet?
• The Buzz notes that the Toronto Public Library has a free booklet on the birds of Toronto available at its branches.
• Crooked Timber looks forward to a future, thanks to Trump, without the World Trade Organization.
• D-Brief notes how the kelp forests off California were hurt by unseasonal heat and disease.
• Bruce Dorminey notes an impending collision of supergalactic clusters.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how judgement can complicate collective action.
• Language Hat looks at the different definitions of the word “mobile”.

Language Log looks at the deep influence of the Persian language upon Marathi.

Marathi and Persian

• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how, if anything, climate scientists make conservative claims about their predictions.
• Marginal Revolution wonders if planned power outages are a good way to deal with the threat of wildfires in California.
• The NYR Daily looks at the ethnic cleansing being enabled by Turkey in Kurdish Syria.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews archeologist Arthur Lin about his use of space-based technologies to discovery traces of the past.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the staggering inequality in Chile, driver of the recent protests.
• At Roads and Kingdoms, Anthony Elghossain reports from the scene of the mass protests in Lebanon.
• Drew Rowsome tells how his balcony garden fared this year.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at stellar generations in the universe. (Our sun is a third-generation star.)
• Strange Company looks at the murder of a girl five years old in Indiana in 1898. Was the neighbor boy twelve years old accused of the crime the culprit?
• Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine takes a look at social mobility in France.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little considers economic historians and their study of capitalism.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the pro-Russian policies of the Moldova enclave of Gagauzia, and draws recommendations for Ukraine re: the Donbas.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul looks at the divided cities of the divided island of Cyprus.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares an image of a galaxy that actually has a tail.
• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber talks about her pain as an immigrant in the United Kingdom in the era of Brexit, her pain being but one of many different types created by this move.
• The Crux talks about the rejected American proposal to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, and the several times the United States did arrange for lesser noteworthy events there (collisions, for the record).
• D-Brief notes how the innovative use of Curiosity instruments has explained more about the watery past of Gale Crater.
• Bruce Dorminey notes one astronomer’s theory that Venus tipped early into a greenhouse effect because of a surfeit of carbon relative to Earth.
• Far Outliers looks at missionaries in China, and their Yangtze explorations, in the late 19th century.
• Gizmodo notes evidence that Neanderthals and Denisovans cohabited in a cave for millennia.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox writes about his exploration of the solo music of Paul McCartney.
• io9 looks at what is happening with Namor in the Marvel universe, with interesting echoes of recent Aquaman storylines.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the Beothuk of Newfoundland and their sad fate.
• Language Hat explores Patagonian Afrikaans.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on how mindboggling it is to want to be a billionaire. What would you do with that wealth?
• The Map Room Blog shares a visualization of the polar vortex.
• Marginal Revolution reports on the career of a writer who writes stories intended to help people fall asleep.
• The New APPS Blog reports on the power of biometric data and the threat of its misuse.
• Neuroskeptic takes a look at neurogenesis in human beings.
• Out There notes the import, in understanding our solar system, of the New Horizons photos of Ultima Thule.
• Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog notes that OSIRIS-REx is in orbit of Bennu and preparing to take samples.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares a list of 21 things that visitors to Kolkata should know.
• Mark Simpson takes a critical look at the idea of toxic masculinity. Who benefits?
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why global warming is responsible for the descent of the polar vortex.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the pro-Russian Gagauz of Moldova are moving towards a break if the country at large becomes pro-Western.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the art of Finnish painter Hugo Simberg.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about eight of her favourite places, most but not all still around for others to enjoy.
• Centauri Dreams responds to the vast ancient proto-supercluster Hyperion, dating to a point in time just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang.
• The Crux considers the advent of light in the very early universe, with the emergence of the first supermassive stars just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of the youngest pulsar yet found in our galaxy, Kes 75 just 19 thousand light-years away and five hundred years old.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the history of explorer James Cook’s ship, the HMS Endeavour.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution links to his latest Bloomberg View column about Saudi Arabia, about how the very weakness of the Saudi state makes Saudi Arabia appeal to the United States as a partner in a way that a solider Iran cannot.
• Matthew Phelan at the NYR Daily writes about the menace of ecofascism, of a sort of localist environmentalism that crosses over into nationalism and even militant xenophobia.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog shares images of the newly-launched BepiColombo probe to Mercury, including some selfies.
• Drew Rowsome reports on A Night at the Bronze, a live version of the fame Buffy episode “Once More With Feeling” that will be staged Hallowe’en night at Buddies in Bad Times.
• Strange Company reports on the mysterious 1910 murder of actor Weldon Atherstone.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Moldova’s Orthodox Christians are torn between rival national churches based in Romania and Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] Five cities links: Hamilton, Detroit, Luxembourg, Lisbon, Comrat

• Mark McNeil at the Hamilton Spectator notes that real estate prices in Hamilton, often thought of as Toronto’s less expensive bedroom community, are also rising very quickly.
• The VICE article takes a look at the man who created Detroit’s African Bead Museum.
• The former red-light district of Luxembourg City is also maneuvering to take advantage of the post-Brexit resettlement of Europeans financiers. Bloomberg reports.
• Architectuul looks at how architects in Lisbon are trying to take advantage of their changing city, to help make it more accessible to all.
• The Guardian has a photo essay focusing on Comrat, a decidedly Soviet-influenced city that is the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, in Moldova.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Crooked Timber seeks advice for academics trying to publish general-interest books.
• The Frailest Thing’s Michael Sacasas considers the extent, and the way, in which technological change can outstrip the ability of cultures and institutions to manage this change.
• Hornet Stories notes the many ways in which the Trump Presidency is proving to be terrible for HIV-positive people around the world.
• Sara Jaffe at JSTOR Daily explores the concept of queer time. What is time like for queer people if the traditional markers of adulthood–marriage, children, and so on–are unavailable? How do they think of life stages?
• Language Log looks at the complexities of language in Hong Kong under Chinese rule.
• Drew Rowsome reports on the latest theatre piece of Jordan Tannahill, Declarations.
• Window on Eurasia reports on declining flows of migrants from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union to Russia.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: London play, Cameroon refugee, leather, Transnistria, Indonesia

• The school boards of London, it turns out, will now fund a play that features a gay student’s struggle to bring his date to a prom. CBC reports.
• A woman from Cameroon claims–credibly, I think–that she will face persecution on the grounds of her sexual orientation if she is deported back to her homeland from British Columbia. Global News reports.
• VICE reports on how one man is now finding acceptance and even welcome for people of colour in the leather scene, looking at his experiences in the recent Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend.
• Katya Myachina reports on one documentary photographer’s efforts to document LGBTQ life in the Russian-dominated exclave of Transnistria, and the effect these photos and their display have had, over at Open Democracy.
• The Jakarta Post notes that, while Indonesians are willing to accept their LGBTQ fellow citizens as citizens, they are strongly opposed to their exercise of civil and human rights.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At Apostrophen, author ‘Nathan Smith shares some of his favourite LGBTQ reads from the past year.
• At the Broadside Blog, Caitlin Kelly asks her readers where their deepest roots lie.
• Missing persons blog Charley Ross celebrates its 11th anniversary.
• At Crooked Timber, Corey Robin takes issue with some attitudes of Democrats post-Alabama, especially regarding African-American voters.
• D-Brief notes that the icy rings of Saturn apparently influence that planet’s ionosphere.
• Imageo shares satellite photos of the Thomas wildfire in California, apparently worsened by climate change.
• JSTOR Daily links to ten beautiful poems of winter.
• Language Hat links to an interesting-looking thesis examining non-Indo-European words in proto-Indo-European.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at the underlying cycles leading to the speedy extinction of the passenger pigeon.
• Lingua Franca takes a look at the modern use of the word “even” as a sort of intensifier. Tina Fey’s Mean Girls seems to be the source.
• In the aftermath of the “Oumuamua scan, Marginal Revolution takes a look at the Fermi paradox. Where is everyone?
• Neuroskeptic examines the universe of papers lacking citations, apparently only 10% of the total published.
• Drew Rowsome shares some ideas for last-minute Christmas gifts, some naughty and some nice.
• The blog Savage Minds is dead, long live its successor anthro(dendum)!
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shows readers ways they can pick up traces of the quantum universe safely at home.
• Towleroad has a queer take on the new Star Wars. (No spoilers, please–I think there are spoilers in the link.)
• Window on Eurasia suggests language issues in Gaugazia, a Turkic enclave in Moldova, might trigger another bout of separatism there.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell has a new take on the cloud of bizarre videos that is #elsagate, introducing readers to the idea of algorithmic kitsch.

[NEWS] Three links from eastern Europe: Bulgaria and Macedonia, Moldova, Georgia and Abkhazia

• Bulgaria and Macedonia have at last signed a treaty trying to put their contentious past behind them. Greece next?
• The legacies of Stalinist deportations in Moldova continue to trouble this poor country.
• The plight of the ethnic Georgians apparently permanently displaced from Georgia has been only muted by time.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• blogTO notes that yesterday was a temperature record here in Toronto, reaching 12 degrees Celsius in the middle of February.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the pleasure of using old things.
• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Roe v Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey.
• Language Hat notes that, apparently, dictionaries are hot again because their definitions are truthful.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers if the Trump Administration is but a mechanism for delivering Pence into power following an impeachment.
• Steve Munro notes that Exhibition Loop has reopened for streetcars.
• The NYRB Daily considers painter Elliott Green.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that North Carolina’s slippage towards one-party state status is at least accompanied by less violence than the similar slippage following Reconstruction.
• Window on Eurasia warns that Belarus is a prime candidate for Russian invasion if Lukashenko fails to keep control and notes the potential of the GUAM alliance to counter Russia.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• blogTO notes that a Toronto family known for its Christmas lights display may be forced to ratchet back by city inspectors.
• Centauri Dreams notes the apparent discovery of Kuiper Belt objects around white dwarf WD 1425+540.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to one paper examining the possible orbital inclination of Proxima Centauri b, and points to another one speculating about upper limits to the masses of other exoplanets orbiting P_roxima Centauri.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money links to interviews with different historians noting how close the United States is to a scenario from 1930s Germany.
• The LRB Blog notes that the actions of the American deep state to undermine elements of the Trump Administration seen as potentially threatening will certainly also undermine American democracy.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw looks at reasons for the continuing gap in life outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer links to a paper looking at the effect of Huey Long’s populism on Louisiana’s economy, noting that he had little effect on the markets. This suggests that counting on the markets to reign in populists before the crash may be a mistake.
• Strange Maps links to a map and history of the Gagauz of Moldova.
• Torontoist looks at the continuing decline of live music venues in Toronto.
• Towleroad notes the origins of Der Spiegel‘s cover art showing Trump with the severed head of lady liberty in a Cuban exile’s work.
• Window on Eurasia notes differences between how Russians and Americans think about ethnicity and citizenship in their diverse societies.