Posts Tagged ‘north caucasus’
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- {anthro}dendum features a post by Kimberly J. Lewis about strategies for anthropologists to write, and be human, after trauma.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports on exoplanet LHC 3844b, a world that had its atmosphere burned away by its parent star.
- Centauri Dreams looks at Neptune from the perspective of exoplanets discovered near snow lines.
- D-Brief reports on the new Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, installed at Kitt Peak to help map galaxies and dark energy.
- Gizmodo
- looks at how Airbnb is dealing with party houses after a fatal mass shooting.
- The Island Review shares some drawings by Charlotte Watson, inspired by the subantarctic Auckland Islands.
- JSTOR Daily looks at the late 19th century hit novel Ramona, written by Helen Hunt Jackson to try to change American policy towards indigenous peoples.
- Language Hat looks at how, until recently, the Faroese language had taboos requiring certain words not to be used at sea.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a proposal to partially privatize American national parks.
- The LRB Blog looks at what Nigel Farage will be doing next.
- Marginal Revolution looks at a speculative theory on the origins of American individualism in agrarian diversity.
- The NYR Daily looks at an exhibition of the artwork of John Ruskin.
- Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw remarks on a connection between Arthur Ransome and his region of New England.
- Drew Rowsome shares an interview with folk musician Michelle Shocked.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel emphasizes the importance of the dark energy mystery.
- Towleroad notes a posthumous single release by George Michael.
- Daniel Little at Understanding Society celebrates the 12th anniversary of his blog, and looks back at its history.
- Window on Eurasia looks at Ingushetia after 1991.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at All Saints Day.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with airbnb, all saints' day, anthropology, arthur ransome, astronomy, auckland islands, australia, blogging, blogs, clash of ideologies, crime, european union, exoplanets, faroes, first nations, george michael, glbt issues, holidays, islands, language, lhc 3844b, links, michelle shocked, neptune, new england, north caucasus, physics, politics, popular literature, popular music, public art, russia, separatism, snow line, social sciences, sociology, space science, technology, united kingdom, united states, west norden, writing
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- Bruce Dorminey notes that NASA plans to launch a CubeSat into lunar orbit for navigational purposes.
- Far Outliers looks at an instance of a knight seeking to avoid battle.
- io9 looks at how Boris Johnson ludicrously compared himself to the Hulk.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how climate change helped make civil war in Syria possible.
- Language Hat looks at a bad etymology for “province” published by a reputable source.
- Marginal Revolution notes that the United States has had below-average economic growth since 2005. (The new average, I suppose?)
- Drew Rowsome reviews the new Stephen King novel, The Institute.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains that, with K2-18b, we did not find water on an Earth-like exoplanet.
- Strange Company looks at a peculiar case of alleged reincarnation from mid-20th century Canada.
- Window on Eurasia notes how, although North Caucasians marry at higher rates than the Russian average, these marriages are often not reported to officialdom.
- Arnold Zwicky considers the possible meanings, salacious and otherwise, of a “Boy Party”.
Written by Randy McDonald
September 16, 2019 at 3:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with astronomy, blogs, brexit, canada, comics, cubesat, economics, english language, european union, former soviet union, glbt issues, global warming, history, humour, language, links, marvel comics, middle east, moon, north caucasus, oddities, popular culture, popular literature, russia, separatism, space science, space travel, statistics, stephen king, syruia, united kingdom, united states, war
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares images of galaxy M61.
- Centauri Dreams looks at a proposal for the Solar Cruiser probe, a NASA probe that would use a solar sail.
- D-Brief notes the discovery of bacteria on coasts which manufacture dimethyl sulfide.
- Bruce Dorminey writes about some facts about the NASA X-15 rocket plane.
- The Dragon’s Tales reports on the strange nuclear accident in Nyonoksa, Russia.
- JSTOR Daily reports on the recent uncovering of the ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion, under the Mediterranean.
- Language Hat looks at 19th century standards on ancient Greek language.
- Language Log notes an ironically swapped newspaper article subhead.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the role of Tom Cotton in the recent Greenland scandal.
- Marginal Revolution glances at the relationship between China and Singapore.
- The NYR Daily looks at how the car ride played a role in the writing of Jacques Lacan.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares an index on state fragility around the world.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why Jupiter suffers so many impacts from incoming bodies.
- John Scalzi at Whatever reports on what seems to have been an enjoyable concert experience with Iron Maiden.
- Window on Eurasia reports a claim that, with regards to a border dispute, Chechnya is much more unified than Dagestan.
Written by Randy McDonald
August 26, 2019 at 4:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with archeology, astronomy, blogs, borders, chechnya, china, dagestan, disasters, egypt, environment, galaxies, greece, greenland, heracleion, iron maiden, journalism, jupiter, language, links, m61, military, national identity, north caucasus, nuclear energy, oceans, politics, popular music, russia, singapore, solar cruiser, solar system, southeast asia, space science, space travel, technology, united states, writing, x-15
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait looks at Westerlund-1, a massive star cluster with many bright stars in our galaxy.
- Centauri Dreams notes a finding that giant planets like Jupiter are less likely to be found around Sun-like stars.
- D-Brief notes how, in a time of climate change, birds migrated between Canada and the equator.
- Bruce Dorminey lists five overlooked facts about the Apollo 11 mission.
- The Dragon’s Tales notes that the US House of Representatives has approved the creation of a US Space Corps analogous to the Marines.
- JSTOR Daily considers tactics to cure groupthink.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, looking at the experience of Hong Kong, observes how closely economic freedoms depend on political freedom and legitimacy.
- Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog explains his rationale for calculating that the Apollo project, in 2019 dollars, cost more than $US 700 billion.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the star R136a1, a star in the 30 Doradus cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is the most massive star known to exist.
- Window on Eurasia notes how Circassians in Syria find it very difficult to seek refuge in their ancestral lands in the North Caucasus.
- Arnold Zwicky looks, in occasionally NSFW detail, at the importance of June the 16th for him as a date.
Written by Randy McDonald
June 17, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with 30 doradus, apollo 11, astronomy, birds, blogs, china, circassians, diaspora, earth, economics, environment, exoplanets, history, hong kong, large magellanic cloud, links, manned apollo missions, middle east, military, milky way galaxy, non blog, north caucasus, r136a1, refugees, russia, Science, social sciences, sociology, space science, space travel, syria, united states, westerlund-1
[URBAN NOTE] Some Saturday links
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers the possibility that our model for the evolution of galaxies might be partially disproven by Big Data.
- The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly reports how she did her latest article for the New York Times.
- Centauri Dreams notes the beginning of a search for habitable-zone planets around Alpha Centauri A and B.
- The Crux looks at how the skull trophies of the ancient Maya help explain civilizational collapse.
- D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting that our humble, seemingly stable Sun can produce superflares.
- Dead Things reports on the latest informed speculation about the sense of smell of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
- The Dragon’s Tales shares the NASA report on its progress towards the Lunar Gateway station.
- Gizmodo looks at the growing number of China’s beautiful, deadly, blooms of bioluminescent algae.
- io9 reports that Stjepan Sejic has a new series with DC, exploring the inner life of Harley Quinn.
- JSTOR Daily looks at an example of a feminist musical, the Chantal Akerman The Eighties.
- Language Hat links to a review of a dystopian novel by Yoko Tawada, The Emissary, imagining a future Japan where the learning of foreign languages is banned.
- Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reiterates that history, and the writing of history, is an actual profession with skills and procedures writers in the field need to know.
- Liam Shaw writes at the LRB Blog about how people in London, late in the Second World War, coped with the terrifying attacks of V2 rockets.
- The Map Room Blog links to a new book, Wayfinding, about the neuroscience of navigation.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution reviews a Robert Zubrin book advocating the colonization of space and finds himself unconvinced.
- The Planetary Society Blog looks at the ancient comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko explored by the ESA Rosetta probe.
- Roads and Kingdoms provides tips for visitors to the Paraguay capital of Asuncion.
- Peter Rukavina reports that, on the day the new PEI legislature came in, 105% of Island electricity came from windpower.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel argues that, in searching for life, we should not look for exoplanets very like Earth.
- Strange Company shares another weekend collection of diverse links.
- Understanding Society’s Daniel Little shares the views of Margaret Gilbert on social facts.
- Window on Eurasia suggests Kadyrov might dream of a broad Greater Chechnya, achieved at the expense of neighbouring republics.
- Arnold Zwicky considers some superhero identity crises, of Superman and of others.
Written by Randy McDonald
June 15, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences, Writing
Tagged with alpha centauri, archeology, astronomy, asuncion, atlantic canada, big data, blogs, borders, canada, chechnya, china, comet 67p, comets, comics, dc comics, dinosaurs, disasters, dystopia, energy, environment, exoplanets, feminism, galaxies, gender, harley quinn, historiography, history, human beings, humour, japan, journalism, language, links, london, lunar gateway, mass media, maya, military, moon, musicals, north caucasus, paraguay, popular literature, prince edward island, psychology, russia, Science, second world war, social facts, social sciences, sociology, space colonies, space science, space travel, sun, tourism, travel, united kingdom, war, writing
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
- Architectuul looks at some architecturally innovative pools.
- Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait looks at Wolf 359, a star made famous in Star Trek for the Starfleet battle there against the Borg but also a noteworthy red dwarf star in its own right.
- Centauri Dreams looks at how the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will play a vital role in interplanetary navigation.
- The Crux considers the “drunken monkey” thesis, the idea that drinking alcohol might have been an evolutionary asset for early hominids.
- D-Brief reports on what may be the next step for genetic engineering beyond CRISPR.
- Bruce Dorminey looks at how artificial intelligence may play a key role in searching for threat asteroids.
- The Island Review shares some poetry from Roseanne Watt, inspired by the Shetlands and using its dialect.
- Livia Gershon writes at JSTOR Daily about how YouTube, by promising to make work fun, actually also makes fun work in psychologically problematic ways.
- Marginal Revolution notes how the relatively small Taiwan has become a financial superpower.
- Janine di Giovanni at the NYR Daily looks back at the 2000 intervention in Sierra Leone. Why did it work?
- Jamais Cascio at Open the Future looks back at a 2004 futurological exercise, the rather accurate Participatory Panopticon. What did he anticipate correctly? How? What does it suggest for us now to our world?
- The Planetary Society Blog notes that LightSail 2 will launch before the end of June.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at how the discovery of gas between galaxies helps solve a dark matter question.
- Strange Company shares a broad collection of links.
- Window on Eurasia makes the obvious observation that the West prefers a North Caucasus controlled by Russia to one controlled by Islamists.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at American diner culture, including American Chinese food.
Written by Randy McDonald
June 8, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with alcohol, architecture, artificial intelligence, asteroids, astronomy, blogs, dark matter, economics, evolution, futurology, genetic engineering, genetics, geopolitics, globalization, human beings, lightsail 2, links, north caucasus, physics, politics, popular culture, popular literature, psychology, red dwarfs, restaurants, russia, scotland, shetlands, sierra leone, social networking, solar sails, space science, space travel, star trek, taiwan, technology, united kingdom, war, west africa, wolf 359, youtube
[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.
Written by Randy McDonald
May 28, 2019 at 5:15 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences, Toronto, Urban Note
Tagged with agriculture, architecture, asteroids, astronomy, australia, belarus, blogs, blue, british empire, canada, cantonese, cetaceans, china, chinese language, circassians, clash of ideologies, communism, diaspora, earth, evolution, exoplanets, former soviet union, fossils, galaxies, glbt issues, hayabusa 2, history, human beings, human biengs, humour, i.m. pei, in memoriam, indonesia, j005311, jane siberry, japan, kuiper belt, language, libraries, links, maps, mars, mass media, milky way galaxy, modernism, moon, new england, new horizons, ngc 4485, north caucasus, nunavut, ontario, orientalism, philosophy, photos, pluto, regionalism, religion, russia, ryugu, sam harris, san francisco, Science, separatism, social sciences, sociology, solar system, southeast asia, space science, space travel, supernova, technology, turkey, ultima thule, united states, vietnam, vietnam war, violence, war, white dwarfs