[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Architectuul looks at the history of brutalism in late 20th century Turkey.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the evidence for the Milky Way Galaxy having seen a great period of starburst two billion years ago, and notes how crowded the Milky Way Galaxy is in the direction of Sagittarius.
• Centauri Dreams considers if astrometry might start to become useful as a method for detecting planets, and considers what the New Horizons data, to Pluto and to Ultima Thule, will be known for.
• Belle Waring at Crooked Timber considers if talk of forgiveness is, among other things, sound.
• D-Brief considers the possibility that the differing natures of the faces of the Moon can be explained by an ancient dwarf planet impact, and shares images of dust-ringed galaxy NGC 4485.
• Dead Things notes the discovery of fossil fungi one billion years old in Nunavut.
• Far Outliers looks at how, over 1990, Russia became increasingly independent from the Soviet Union, and looks at the final day in office of Gorbachev.
• Gizmodo notes the discovery of literally frozen oceans of water beneath the north polar region of Mars, and looks at an unusual supernova, J005311 ten thousand light-years away in Cassiopeia, product of a collision between two white dwarfs.
• JSTOR Daily notes how the colour of navy blue is a direct consequence of slavery and militarism, and observes the historical influence, or lack thereof, of Chinese peasant agriculture on organic farming in the US.
• Language Log considers a Chinese-language text from San Francisco combining elements of Mandarin and Cantonese.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the terrible environmental consequences of the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia, and Shakezula at Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at how, and perhaps why, Sam Harris identifies milkshake-throwing at far-right people as a form of “mock assassination”.
• The Map Room Blog shares a personal take on mapmaking on the Moon during the Apollo era.
• Marginal Revolution observes a paper suggesting members of the Chinese communist party are more liberal than the general Chinese population. The blog also notes how Soviet quotas led to a senseless and useless mass slaughter of whales.
• Russell Darnley writes about the complex and tense relationship between Indonesia and Australia, each with their own preoccupations.
• Martin Filler writes at the NYR Daily about I.M. Pei as an architect specializing in an “establishment modernism”. The site also takes a look at Orientalism, as a phenomenon, as it exists in the post-9/11 era.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw reflects on the meaning of Australia’s New England.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes how Hayabusa 2 is having problems recovering a marker from asteroid Ryugu.
• Peter Rukavina reports on an outstanding Jane Siberry concert on the Island.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map of homophobia in Europe.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress makes use of wikidata.
• The Speed River Journal’s Van Waffle reports, with photos, from his latest walks this spring.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers what the Earth looked like when hominids emerged, and explains how amateur astronomers can capture remarkable images.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares a controversial map depicting the shift away from CNN towards Fox News across the United States.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the Boeing 737 MAX disaster as an organizational failure.
• Window on Eurasia looks why Turkey is backing away from supporting the Circassians, and suggests that the use of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Russian state as a tool of its rule might hurt the church badly.
• Arnold Zwicky takes apart, linguistically and otherwise, a comic playing on the trope of Lassie warning about something happening to Timmy. He also
  reports on a far-removed branch of the Zwicky family hailing from Belarus, as the Tsvikis.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the import of the discovery of asteroid 2019 AQ3, a rare near-Venus asteroid.
• Centauri Dreams notes the how the choice of language used by SETI researchers, like the eye-catching “technosignatures”, may reflect the vulnerability of the field to criticism on Earth.
• John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers what is to be done about Virginia, given the compromising of so many of its top leaders by secrets from the past.
• The Crux notes how the imminent recovery of ancient human DNA from Africa is likely to lead to a revolution in our understanding of human histories there.
• D-Brief notes how astronomers were able to use the light echoes in the accretion disk surrounding stellar-mass black hole MAXI J1820+070 to map its environment.
• JSTOR Daily considers the snow day as a sort of modern festival.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to his consideration of the plans of the German Empire to build superdreadnoughts, aborted only by defeat. Had Germany won the First World War, there surely would have been a major naval arms race.
• The NYR Daily looks at two exhibitions of different photographers, Brassaï and Louis Stettner.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog shares an evocative crescent profile of Ultima Thule taken by New Horizons, and crescent profiles of other worlds, too.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the mystery of why there is so little antimatter in the observable universe.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares a map exploring the dates and locations of first contact with aliens in the United States as shown in film.
• Window on Eurasia notes a new push by Circassian activists for the Circassian identity to be represented in the 2020 census.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explains the potential discovery of an ancient rock from Earth among the Moon rocks collected by Apollo.
• Centauri Dreams looks at what will be coming next from the New Horizons probe after its Ultima Thule flyby.
• The Crux looks at the genetic library of threatened animals preserved cryogenically in a San Diego zoo.
• Far Outliers looks at the drastic, even catastrophic, population changes of Sichuan over the past centuries.
• Language Hat looks at translations made in the medieval Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• Language Log tries to translate a possibly Indo-European sentence preserved in an ancient Chinese text.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the complexity of the crisis in Venezuela.
• The LRB Blog looks at the Mexican-American border in this era of crisis.
• Marginal Revolution notes a spike in unsolved shootings in Baltimore following protests against police racism.
• Noah Smith reviews the new Tyler Cowen book, Stubborn Attachments.
• Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily reviews what sounds like a fantastic album of anti-colonial Francophone music inspired by Frantz Fanon and assembled by French rapper Rocé.
• The Planetary Society Blog takes a look what is next for China as it continues its program to explore the Moon.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Monique Jaques about her new photo book looking at the lives of girls growing up in Gaza.
• Rocky Planets takes a look at how rocks can form political boundaries.
• Drew Rowsome interviews choreographer Christopher House about his career and the next shows at the Toronto Dance Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel takes a look at the seeming featurelessness of Uranus.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at a controversial swap of land proposed between Serbia and Kosovo.
• Window on Eurasia notes the controversial possibility of China contracting Russia to divert Siberian rivers as a water supply.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the origins of Uri and Avi, a photo of apparently showing two men, one Palestinian and one Israeli, kissing.

[NEWS] Ten D-Brief links

• Did extraterrestrial sugars seed life on Earth? D-Brief reports.
• A detailed simulation suggests how black holes can function as natural particle accelerators. D-Brief reports.
• This trompe l’oeil photo seemingly combines the two Saturnian moons of Dione and Rhea. D-Brief shares this.
• Evidence of methane in the atmosphere of Mars is strangely lacking. D-Brief reports.
• Astronomers found, with help from a quasar, a patch of gas in deep intergalactic space apparently a pure sampling from the Big Bang. D-Brief reports.
• A species of midge has become an invasive species in Antarctica. D-Brief reports.
• Plants have been made to grow in space. D-Brief reports.
• These remarkable images of Ultima Thule from New Horizons shows a two-lobed world. D-Brief shares them.
• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the effect of climate change could lead to greater electricity consumption in China. D-Brief reports.
• Congratulations are due to China for the successful landing of the Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Centauri Dreams celebrates the arrival, and successful data collection, of New Horizons at Ultima Thule, as does Joe. My. God., as does
  Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog. Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explained, before the New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule, why that Kuiper Belt object was so important for planetary science.
• In advance of the New Year’s, Charlie Stross at Antipope asked his readers to let him know what good came in 2018.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber makes the argument that, in the event of a Brexit bitterly resented by many Labour supporters, the odds that they will support a post-Brexit redistributionist program that would aid predominantly pro-Brexit voters are low.
• Bruce Dorminey notes that many Earth-like worlds might be made uninhabitable over eons by the steady warming of their stars, perhaps dooming any hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations on these planets.
• Far Outliers looks at the patterns of early Meiji Japan relations with Korea, noting an 1873 invasion scare.
• L.M. Sacasas writes at The Frailest Thing, inspired by the skepticism of Jacques Ellul, about a book published in 1968 containing predictions about the technological world of 2018. Motives matter.
• Imageo looks at the evidence from probes and confirms that, yes, it does in fact snow (water) on Mars.
• The Island Review interviews author Adam Nicolson about his family’s ownership of the Hebridean Shiant Isles. What do they mean for him, as an author and as someone experience with the sea?
• JSTOR Daily looks at the long history of the human relationship with leather, as a pliable material for clothing of all kinds.
• Language Hat considers the possibility that the New Year’s greeting “bistraynte”, used in Lebanon and by Christians in neighbouring countries, might come from the Latin “strenae”.
• Language Log notes the pressure being applied against the use of Cantonese as a medium of instruction in Hong Kong.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the many reasons why a considerable number of Latinos support Donald Trump.
• Bernard Porter at the LRB Blog comes up with an explanation as to Corbyn’s refusal to oppose Brexit.
• Marginal Revolution notes the many problems involved with the formation of supply chains in Africa, including sheer distance.
• The NYR Daily has a much-needed reevaluation of the Jonestown horror as not simply a mass suicide.
• Author Peter Watts writes about a recent trip to Tel Aviv.
• At Out There, Corey Powell writes about how planetary scientists over the decades have approached their discipline, expecting to be surprised.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shared some top images collected by Hubble in 2018.
• Strange Company looks at the strange 1953 death of young Roman woman Wilma Montesi. How did she die, leaving her body to be found on a beach?
• Window on Eurasia notes how Circassian refugees in Syria are asking for the same expedited status that Ukrainian refugees have received.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell takes an extended look at the politics of 4G and Huawei and the United Kingdom and transatlantic relations over the past decade.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look, in language and cartoons, at “Jesus fuck”.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthrodendum reviews the book Fistula Politics, the latest from the field of medical anthropology.
• Architectuul takes a look at post-war architecture in Germany, a country where the devastation of the war left clean slates for ambitious new designers and architects.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at newly discovered Kuiper Belt object 2008 VG 18.
• Laura Agustín at Border Thinking takes a look at the figure of the migrant sex worker.
• Centauri Dreams features an essay by Al Jackson celebrating the Apollo 8 moon mission.
• D-Brief notes how physicists manufactured a quark soup in a collider to study the early universe.
• Dangerous Minds shares some photos of a young David Bowie.
• Angelique Harris at the Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at what the social sciences have to say about sexuality and dating among millennial Americans.
• Gizmodo notes the odd apparent smoothness of Ultima Thule, target of a very close flyby by New Horizons on New Year’s Day.
• Hornet Stories notes the censorship-challenging art by Slava Mogutin available from the Tom of Finland store.
• Imageo shares orbital imagery of the eruption of Anak Krakatau in Indonesia, trigger of a devastating volcanic tsunami.
• Nick Stewart at The Island Review writes beautifully about his experience crossing the Irish Sea on a ferry, from Liverpool to Belfast.
• Lyman Stone at In A State of Migration shares the story, with photos, of his recent whirlwind trip to Vietnam.
• JSTOR Daily considers whether or not fan fiction might be a useful tool to promote student literacy.
• Language Hat notes a contentious reconstruction of the sound system of obscure but fascinating Tocharian, an extinct Indo-European language from modern XInjiang.
• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the irreversible damage being caused by the Trump Administration to the United States’ foreign policy.
• Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting users of Facebook would need a payment of at least one thousand dollars to abandon Facebook.
• Lisa Nandy at the NYR Daily argues that the citizens of the United Kingdom need desperately to engage with Brexit, to take back control, in order to escape catastrophic consequences from ill-thought policies.
• Marc Rayman at the Planetary Society Blog celebrates the life and achievements of the Dawn probe.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that so many Venezuelans are fleeing their country because food is literally unavailable, what with a collapsing agricultural sector.
• The Russian Demographics Blog breaks down polling of nostalgia for the Soviet Union among Russians.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that simply finding oxygen in the atmosphere of an exoplanet is not by itself proof of life.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy reports on how the United States is making progress towards ending exclusionary zoning.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi shares an interview with the lawyer of Santa Claus.
• Window on Eurasia reports on a fascinating paper, examining how some Russian immigrants in Germany use Udmurt as a family language.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the lives of two notable members of the Swiss diaspora in Paris’ Montmartre.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Yesterday, James Bow celebrated the 16th anniversary of his blog.
• Centauri Dreams shares some of the latest probe imagery from the Kuiper Belt.
• D-Brief notes the amount of energy used in bitcoin mining in Iceland is set to surpass the energy used by Iceland’s human population. This cannot be a viable trajectory.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the steady expansion of China’s nascent space industry, with Wenchang on the southern island of Hainan being a particular focus.
• Drone360 notes that, in certain conditions, drones can make parcel deliveries at a lower environmental cost than traditional courier methods.
• io9 notes Wesley Snipes’ observations as to why Blade is not more generally recognized as the first big superhero film.
• JSTOR Daily notes the various influences, from those of formal portraiture to African-American folk culture, in the recent Amy Sherald painting of Michelle Obama and her dress.
• Language Hat notes the publication of a new collection of the poems of Juan Latino, an African slave in 16th century Spain who went on to become a free man and leading poet.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the appalling treatment that many national parks in the US are going to experience, deprived of professional management and opened to development.
• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, notes how on Valentine’s Day there is such a close and visible link between hearts and ashes.
• The LRB Blog notes outbursts of racism and fascism in Italy following a murder of an Italian by an immigrant.
• Leon Aron at the NYR Daily looks at the past century of millennarianism in the politics of countries on the edge, from Lenin to ISIS.
• Towleroad notes how Burberry has introduced the colours of the LGBTQ rainbow to its plaid in its February 2018 collection, as a fundraiser for charity.
• Window on Eurasia notes a demographer who predicts, on the basis of reliable demographic trends, a sharp uptick in the Muslim proportion of the Russian population in coming decades.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about the long process of planning and work–almost two years!–going into the production of a trade non-fiction book.
• Centauri Dreams touches upon the new European Southern Observatory ExTrA telescope that will study Earth-like planets of red dwarfs, and shares a new model indicating the likely watery nature of the outer planets of TRAPPIST-1.
• D-Brief takes a look inside the unsettlingly thorough data-collection machineries of home assistants like Google Home and Alexa.
• JSTOR Daily looks at a paper examining the long and complicated process by which, through trade and empire, the United Kingdom ended up embracing tea.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money pays tribute to Ursula K Le Guin and Mark E. Smith of the Fall.
• Marginal Revolution links to a source arguing that regulatory costs have played the biggest role in the sharp increase of housing prices in California (and elsewhere?).
• The NYR Daily considers if Pope Francis’ shocking willingness to make excuses for the abetters of child abuse in Chile has anything to do with his relationship, as an Argentine, to his home country’s complicated past of church collaboration with the military regime of the dirty war.
• Out There considers what, exactly, would happen to a person if they stood completely still in relation to the universe. Where would they go (or, more accurately, where would the universe go without them)?
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the preparations of the New Horizons probe for its encounter, at the very start of 2019, with Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69.
• Peter Rukavina shares beautiful posters he made out of last year’s map calendar.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although the multiverse is almost certainly real, its existence hardly solves the pressing problems of physics.
• Towleroad describes Reverend Raymond Broshears, a gay preacher in San Francisco who, after one beating in 1973, organized the vigilante Lavender Panthers to defend the community and to fight back. Complicated man, he, with a complicated legacy.
• Arnold Zwicky looks into the latest sociological and psychological research on the especially warm friendships that can exist between gay men and straight women. What factors are at work?

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares beautiful images of nebula Sharpless 2-29, brilliant and beautiful from the heart of our galaxy.
• Centauri Dreams notes how New Horizons is maneuvering for its rendezvous with KBO MU69 on 1 January 2019.
• Daily JSTOR notes how Indian schools were at once vehicles for the assimilation of American indigenous peoples and also sites for potential resistance.
• Dangerous Minds shares the vintage Vampirella art of Enrique Torres-Prat.
• From Tumblr, Explain It Like I’m Not From Lawrence looks at a very unusual tower in the downtown of that Kansas community.
• Hornet Stories notes that PrEP is becoming available in Brazil, but only for a small subset of potential users.
• Imageo notes a recent American study observing that the degree of Arctic heating is in at least two millennia.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Bermuda has repealed marriage equality. I can’t help but think this will not help the island’s tourism.
• Language Hat links to a new encyclopedia article examining the origins of the Japanese language. I’m surprised the article suggests there are no verifiable links to Korean, Paekche aside.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money has an after-action report on the Alabama senate election. I agree with most of the conclusions–certainly it shows a need to contest every election!
• Allan Metcalf at Lingua Franca quite likes the term “fake news” for its specific power, claiming it as his word of 2017.
• The NYR Daily reflects on an exhibition of the powerful works of Modigliani.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on some infrared images taken by Juno of Jupiter and volcanic Io.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares 21 pieces of advice for people interested in visiting Iran as tourists.
• Towleroad’s list of the Top 10 albums of 2017 is worth paying attention to.
• If this Window on Eurasia report is correct and HIV seroprevalence in Russia is twice the proportion officially claimed, 1.5% of the population …

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that our first confirmed extrasolar visitor has been named, I/U2017 U1.
• Centauri Dreams examines the dynamics allowing Enceladus to keep its subsurface water ocean.
• Crooked Timber reacts to the alarming rift opening up between Saudi Arabia and its Shi’ite neighbours, including Lebanon and Iran.
• D-Brief notes that the New Horizons team planners are seeking a new name for their next target, (486958) 2014 MU69.
• Dangerous Minds takes a look at some of the greeting cards designed for American Greetings by Robert Crumb.
• Hornet Stories notes the rise of explicitly homophobic and transphobic ideologues in Paraguay, and its implications for wider South America.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes growing Democratic strength in Washington State.
• The Map Room Blog shares a New York Times map of the Virginia election for governor.
• The NYR Daily looks how the brutally quick shutdown of DNAInfo and the Gothamist network reflects the generally parlous state of journalism (among other things).
• Roads and Kingdoms takes a look at the humble momo, a breakfast food in (among other places) Bhutan.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why quark fusion can never be a potent energy source.
• Understanding Society celebrates its tenth anniversary.
• Window on Eurasia notes the disinterest of most Russians in personally costly revolutionary actions.