[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that Betelgeuse is very likely not on the verge of a supernova, here.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the mapping of asteroid Bennu.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber reposted, after the election, a 2013 essay looking at the changes in British society from the 1970s on.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares a collection of links about the Precambrian Earth, here.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about fear in the context of natural disasters, here.
• Far Outliers reports on the problems of privateers versus regular naval units.
• Gizmodo looks at galaxy MAMBO-9, which formed a billion years after the Big Bang.
• io9 writes about the alternate history space race show For All Mankind.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the posters used in Ghana in the 1980s to help promote Hollywood movies.
• Language Hat links to a new book that examines obscenity and gender in 1920s Britain.
• Language Log looks at the terms used for the national language in Xinjiang.
• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with Jeff Jacoby’s lack of sympathy towards people who suffer from growing inequality.
• Marginal Revolution suggests that urbanists should have an appreciation for Robert Moses.
• Sean Marshall writes, with photos, about his experiences riding a new Bolton bus.
• Caryl Philips at the NYR Daily writes about Rachmanism, a term wrongly applied to the idea of avaricious landlords like Peter Rachman, an immigrant who was a victim of the Profumo scandal.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking at the experience of aging among people without families.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why the empty space in an atom can never be removed.
• Strange Maps shares a festive map of London, a reindeer, biked by a cyclist.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Mongolia twice tried to become a Soviet republic.
• Arnold Zwicky considers different birds with names starting with x.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthropology.net reports on the discovery of footprints of a Neanderthal band in Le Rozel, Normandy, revealing much about that group’s social structure.
• Bad Astronomer’s Phil Plait explains why standing at the foot of a cliff on Mars during local spring can be dangerous.
• Centauri Dreams shares a suggestion that the lakes of Titan might be product of subterranean explosions.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber considers how, and when, anger should be considered and legitimated in discussions of politics.
• The Crux looks at the cement mixed successfully in microgravity on the ISS, as a construction material of the future.
• D-Brief looks at what steps space agencies are considering to avoid causing harm to extraterrestrial life.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes new evidence that the Anthropocene, properly understood, actually began four thousand years ago.
• Jonathan Wynn writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about how many American universities have become as much lifestyle centres as educational communities.
• Far Outliers reports on how, in the 13th century, the cultural differences of Wales from the English–including the Welsh tradition of partible inheritance–caused great instability.
• This io9 interview with the creators of the brilliant series The Wicked and the Divine is a must-read.
• JSTOR Daily looks at a paper considering how teachers of German should engage with the concept of Oktoberfest.
• Language Hat looks at a new study examining the idea of different languages being more efficient than others. (They are not, it turns out.)
• Language Log looks at the history of translating classics of Chinese literature into Manchu and Mongolian.
• Erik Loomis considers the problems the collapse of local journalism now will cause for later historians trying to do research in the foreseeable future.
• Marginal Revolution reports on research suggesting that markets do not corrupt human morality.
• Neuroskeptic looks in more detail at the interesting, and disturbing, organized patterns emitted by organoids built using human brain cells.
• Stephen Baker at The Numerati writes, with photos, about what he saw in China while doing book research. (Shenzhen looks cool.)
• The NYR Daily notes the import of the working trip of Susan Sontag to Sarajevo in 1993, while that city was under siege.
• Robert Picardo at the Planetary Society Blog shares a vintage letter from Roddenberry encouraging Star Trek fans to engage with the Society.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the economy of Argentina in a pre-election panic.
• Strange Company looks at the life of Molly Morgan, a British convict who prospered in her exile to Australia.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, in 1939, many Soviet citizens recognized the import of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; they knew their empire would expand.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the treatment of cavemen, as subjects and providers of education, in pop culture.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly considers the importance of complete rest.
• Citizen Science Salon looks at the contributions of ordinary people to Alzheimer’s research.
• The Crux notes how recent planetary scientists acknowledge Venus to be an interestingly active world.
• D-Brief notes the carnivorous potential of pandas.
• Cody Delistraty considers a British Library exhibit about writing.
• Bruce Dorminey notes the possibility that, in red giant systems, life released from the interiors of thawed outer-system exomoons might produce detectable signatures in these worlds’ atmospheres.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares reports of some of the latest robot developments from around the world.
• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the concepts of gentrification and meritocracy.
• Gizmodo notes a running dinosaur robot that indicates one route by which some dinosaurs took to flight.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox talks about bringing some principles of Wendell Berry to a town hall discussion in Sterling, Kansas.
• io9 notes that a reboot of Hellraiser is coming from David S. Goyer.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how museums engage in the deaccessioning of items in their collections.
• Language Log examines the Mongolian script on the renminbi bills of China.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Volkswagen in the United States is making the situation of labour unions more difficult.
• Marginal Revolution notes the effective lack of property registration in the casbah of Algiers.
• The NYR Daily notes the Afrofuturism of artist Devan Shinoyama.
• Strange Company examines the trial of Jane Butterfield in the 1770s for murdering the man who kept her as a mistress with poison. Did she do it? What happened to her?
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes a controversial map identifying by name the presidents of the hundred companies most closely implicated in climate change.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian Orthodox Church, retaliating against the Ecumenical Patriarchy for its recognition of Ukrainian independence, is moving into Asian territories outside of its purview.
• Arnold Zwicky starts a rumination by looking at the sportswear of the early 20th century world.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.
• D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.
• Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.
• Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.
• JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.
• Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.
• Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.
• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.
• James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.
• Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.
• Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.
• Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.
• Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.

[MUSIC] Five music links: Peter Hook, Aimee Mann, Mongolian hip-hop, Bruno Capinan, John Lennon

• Dangerous Minds notes that Peter Hook has put his vast personal collection of music-related memorabilia up on the market.
• Dangerous Minds notes that the Aimee Mann song “No More Crying” was inspired by her relationship with Al Jourgensen of Ministry.
• Ozy reports on the thriving Mongolian hip-hop scene.
• NOW Toronto notes the importance of the music of Bruno Capinan at this fraught time for Brazil.
• Folio reports on the possibility that the lyrics for the famous John Lennon song “Imagine” were inspired by a conversation with the Cree activist Lillian Piché Shirt about her grandmother.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Anthropology.net shares in the debunking of the Toba catastrophe theory.
• Architectuul features Mirena Dunu’s exploration of the architecture of the Black Sea coastal resorts of Romania, built under Communism.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of sleep hygiene and of being well-rested.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the filaments of Orion, indicators of starbirth.
• Centauri Dreams notes how solar sails and the Falcon Heavy can be used to expedite the exploration of the solar system.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of debris marking the massive flood that most recently refilled the Mediterranean on the seafloor near Malta.
• Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca uses a recent sickbed experience in Paris to explore the genesis of Bemelmans’ Madeline.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money noted recently the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, trigger of a world-historical catastrophe.
• The LRB Blog hosts Sara Roy’s defense of UNRWA and of the definition of the Palestinians under its case as refugees.
• The NYR Daily notes how the regnant conservative government in Israel has been limiting funding to cultural creators who dissent from the nationalist line.
• Roads and Kingdoms uses seven food dishes to explore the history of Malta.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why, even though dark matter is likely present in our solar system, we have not detected signs of it.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the field of machine learning, and notes the ways in which its basic epistemology might be flawed.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the dropping of the ethnonym “Mongol” from the title of the former Buryat-Mongol autonomous republic sixty years ago still makes some Buryats unhappy.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• James Bow makes the case for inexpensive regional bus transit in southern Ontario, beyond and between the major cities.
• D-Brief explains why Pluto’s Gate, a poisonous cave of classical Anatolia believed to be a portal to the netherworld, is the way it is.
• The Dragon’s Tales takes a look at the plethora of initiatives for self-driving cars and the consequences of these for the world.
• Far Outliers takes a look at how Persia, despite enormous devastation, managed to eventual thrive under the Mongols, even assimilating them.
• JSTOR Daily notes the connections between North American nuclear tests and the rise of modern environmentalism.
• Language Hat looks at Linda Watson, a woman on the Isle of Man who has became the hub of a global network of researchers devoted to deciphering unreadable handwriting.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the argument that the Russian hacks were only as effective as they were because of terrible journalism in the United States.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at an often-overlooked collaboration in the 1960s between New York poet Frank O’Hara and Italian artist Mario Schifano.
• Towleroad takes a look at out gay pop music star Troye Sivan.
• Window on Eurasia makes the believable contention that Putin believes in his propaganda, or at least acts as if he does, in Ukraine for instance.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the remarkably complex system of Proxima Centauri, with multiple belts and more possible planets, as does D-Brief.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of a new sort of fusion reactions, involving not atoms but quarks.
• Hornet Stories notes a new acoustic cover of the Kinky Boots song “Not My Father’s Son.”
• Language Hat takes a brief look at Cyrillic, since the Soviet era written in Cyrillic script.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the Trump Administration is unconcerned by the latest report regarding catastrophic climate change.
• The LRB Blog notes how Armenia and Armenians remember past genocides and current refugee flows.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes the further extension of the Dawn mission at Ceres.
• Drew Rowsome shares some of Stephen King’s tips for aspiring writers.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how some long-exposure Hubble photographs of galaxies picked up nearby asteroids.
• John Scalzi shares his cover of “Rocket Man”.
• Window on Eurasia wonders if ISIS is spreading into Russia via migrant workers from Central Asia.

[NEWS] Four science links: new coffee, factories in Ethiopia, Mongolian nomads, Mars water

• There are, happily, new breeds of coffee plants being bred to cope with climate change. The Toronto Star reports.
• High labour and infrastructure costs means that Ethiopia is the only African power likely to challenge China in manufactures. Quartz reports.
• Wired’s Kevin Kelly is perhaps on a limb in suggesting the lifestyle of Mongolian nomads is a viable world model.
• The flowing waters of icy Mars were icy, as Universe Today reports.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomy shares photos of the ripple made by moon Daphnis in the rings of Saturn, as does the Planetary Society Blog.
• The Broadside Blog questions whether readers actually like their work.
• Centauri Dreams notes evidence for the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet in the protoplanetary disk of TW Hydrae.
• Dangerous Minds links to the 1980s work of Lydia Lunch.
• Far Outliers reports on how the Afghanistan war against the Soviets acted as a university for jihadists from around the world.
• Kieran Healy looks at some failures of Google Scholar.
• Language Hat reports on a fascinating crowdsourced program involving the transcription of manuscripts from Shakespeare’s era, and what elements of pop history and language have been discovered.
• The LRB Blog compares Trump’s inauguration to those of Ronald Reagan.
• The Map Room Blog links to an exhibition of the maps of Utah.
• Understanding Society reports on a grand sociological research project in Europe that has found out interesting things about the factors contributing to young people’s support for the far right.
• Window on Eurasia reports on instability in the binational North Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, describes the spectre of pan-Mongolism, and looks at the politicization of biker gangs in Russia.