[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At anthro{dendum}, Amarilys Estrella writes about the aftermath of a car accident she experienced while doing fieldwork.
• Architectuul notes at a tour of Berlin looking at highlights from an innovative year for architecture in West Berlin back in 1987.
• Bad Astronomer notes that interstellar comet 2/Borisov is behaving surprisingly normally.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes briefly about the difficulty, and the importance, of being authentic.
• Centauri Dreams shares some of the recent findings of Voyager 2 from the edge of interstellar space.
• Crooked Timber shares a photo of a courtyard in Montpellier.
• D-Brief notes a study of the genetics of ancient Rome revealing that the city once was quite cosmopolitan, but that this cosmopolitanism passed, too.
• Dangerous Minds notes a 1972 single where Marvin Gaye played the Moog.
• Cody Delistraty looks at Degas and the opera.
• Bruce Dorminey makes a case, scientific and otherwise, against sending animals into space.
• Far Outliers looks at a 1801 clash between the American navy and Tripoli pirates.
• Gizmodo notes a theory that ancient primates learned to walk upright in trees.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Cayman Islands overturned a court ruling calling for marriage equality.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the experience of women under Reconstruction.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional multilingualism of the Qing empire.
• Language Log looks at circumstances where the Roman alphabet is used in contemporary China.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the forced resignation of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and calls for readers to take care with their readings on the crisis and the country.
• Marginal Revolution considers a new sociological theory suggesting that the medieval Christian church enacted policy which made the nuclear family, not the extended family, the main structure in Europe and its offshoots.
• Sean Marshall takes a look at GO Transit fare structures, noting how users of the Kitchener line may pay more than their share.
• Neuroskeptic takes a look at the contradictions between self-reported brain activity and what brain scanners record.
• Alex Hutchinson writes at the NYR Daily about human beings and their relationship with wilderness.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections considers the impact of drought in Australia’s New England, and about the need for balances.
• The Planetary Society Blog offers advice for people interested in seeing today’s transit of Mercury across the Sun.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer suggests Argentines may not have cared about their national elections as much as polls suggested.
• Peter Rukavina shares an image of an ancient Charlottetown traffic light, at Prince and King.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the significant convergence, and remaining differences, between East and West Germany.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at some of the backstory to the Big Bang.
• The Volokh Conspiracy suggests the Paris Accords were never a good way to deal with climate change.
• Window on Eurasia shares someone arguing the policies of Putin are simple unoriginal Bonapartism.
• Worthwhile Canadian Economy makes the case that slow economic recoveries are deep economic recoveries.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how the failure of the media to serve as effective critics of politics has helped lead, in the UK of Brexit, to substantial political change.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the idea, first expressed in comics, of Russian sardines.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul profiles architectural photographer Lorenzo Zandri, here.
• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting red dwarf stars, by far the most common stars in the universe, have plenty of planets.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly shares 11 tips for interviewers, reminding me of what I did for anthropology fieldwork.
• Centauri Dreams notes how water ice ejected from Enceladus makes the inner moons of Saturn brilliant.
• The Crux looks at the increasingly complicated question of when the first humans reached North America.
• D-Brief notes a new discovery suggesting the hearts of humans, unlike the hearts of other closely related primates, evolved to require endurance activities to remain healthy.
• Dangerous Minds shares with its readers the overlooked 1969 satire Putney Swope.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that the WFIRST infrared telescope has passed its first design review.
• Gizmodo notes how drought in Spain has revealed the megalithic Dolmen of Guadalperal for the first time in six decades.
• io9 looks at the amazing Jonathan Hickman run on the X-Men so far, one that has established the mutants as eye-catching and deeply alien.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Pentagon has admitted that 2017 UFO videos do, in fact, depict some unidentified objects in the air.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the origin of the equestrian horseback statue in ancient Rome.
• Language Log shares a bilingual English/German pun from Berlin.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson at Jefferson’s grave.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution looks at a new book arguing, contra Pinker perhaps, that the modern era is one of heightened violence.
• The New APPS Blog seeks to reconcile the philosophy of Hobbes with that of Foucault on biopower.
• Strange Company shares news clippings from 1970s Ohio about a pesky UFO.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why the idea of shooting garbage from Earth into the sun does not work.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps explains the appearance of Brasilia on a 1920s German map: It turns out the capital was nearly realized then.
• Towleroad notes that Pete Buttigieg has taken to avoiding reading LGBTQ media because he dislikes their criticism of his gayness.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at diners and changing menus and slavery.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that the galaxy’s stores of star-forming gas are running low, here.
• Centauri Dreams notes the next generation of gravitational wave detectors could detect exoplanets, massive worlds orbiting binary white dwarfs.
• The Crux reports on what is known about Homo naledi.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the risks of social isolation.
• Far Outliers reports on three enclaves of Arab culture encountered by early Western explorers in 19th century East Africa.
• Gizmodo notes the steady progress made by LightSail 2 in its travel around the world.
• The Island Review shares the Phillip Miller poem “Biennale”, inspired by Venice.
• Marginal Revolution looks at how the Norwegian Arctic island of Svalbard works without border controls.
• The NYR Daily notes that while America is not Rome, it thinks it is.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains some oddities of Higgs bosons.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little looks at how the Kyshtym nuclear disaster occurred.
• Window on Eurasia notes that 5% of Russian Orthodox parishes in Ukraine have defected so far to the Ukrainian church.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell applies information and management theory to Brexit.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Montréal, Camden, Derry, Rome, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Dhaka & Calcutta

• La Presse notes that the Bixi bike-sharing service in Montréal is celebrating its 11th anniversary.
• Marginal Revolution notes how better policing cut into crime in Camden, New Jersey.
• The NYR Daily looks at how Brexit and a hardened border will hit the Northern Ireland city of Derry.
• Guardian Cities reports on the gang that goes around Rome at night making illegal repairs to crumbling infrastructure.
• CityLab reports on how Cape Town is coping, one year after it nearly ran out of water.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares tips for travellers visiting Hong Kong.
• Guardian Cities reports on the families made refugees by Partition who tried to swap homes in Dhaka and Calcutta.

[AH] Five #alternatehistory #maps: Britain, Latin Mediterranean, Australia, Germany, Taiping China

• Reddit’s imaginarymaps shares this map imagining the implementation for a different sort of united British Isles, empowering historic provinces over the component nations.
• Was it ever plausible, as this imaginarymaps map has it, for not just the southern shore of the Mediterranean but the eastern Mediterranean to be thoroughly Latinized?
• This imaginarymaps map raises an interesting possibility: Why couldn’t Australia have ended up being colonized by multiple European powers?
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a great power Germany created out of the 1848 Revolutions. (It is so big, in fact, that I am not sure how it survived watching neighbours.)
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a surviving Taiping China, though I do not think it likely it could have co-existed with the Qing. One or the other was bound to go.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the possible roles and threats posed by artificial intelligence for interstellar missions.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber makes the point that blaming Facebook for the propagation of fake news misses entirely the motives of the people who spread these rumours, online or otherwise.
• The Crux looks at the factors which led to the human species’ diversity of skin colours.
• Dangerous Minds reports on a new collection of early North American electronica.
• Far Outliers reports on the salt extraction industry of Sichuan.
• JSTOR Daily notes how inbreeding can be a threat to endangered populations, like gorillas.
• Language Log examines the connection of the Thai word for soul with Old Sinitic.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at divisions on the American left, including pro-Trump left radicals.
• Caitlin Chandler at the NYR Daily reports on the plight of undocumented immigrants in Rome, forced from their squats under the pressure of the new populist government of Italy.
• Spacing takes a look at the work of Acton Ostry Architects.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the ten largest non-planetary bodies in the solar system.
• Strange Company looks at the very strange 1997 disappearance of Judy Smith from Philadelphia and her latest discovery in the North Carolina wilderness. What happened to her?
• Strange Maps looks at the worrisome polarization globally between supporters and opponents of the current government in Venezuela. Is this a 1914 moment?
• Window on Eurasia suggests that Russia and Venezuela share a common oil-fueled authoritarian fragility.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the camelids of Peru, stuffed toys and llamas and more.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• D-Brief notes evidence that human growth hormone harvested from dead people can transfer Alzheimer’s disease to recipients.
• Far Outliers reports on how Choshu fought off the bakufu in 1866.
• Gizmodo reports the discovery of a distant Kuiper belt object, orbiting at 120 AU, provisionally named “Farout.”
• JSTOR Daily notes the links between successful start-ups and social privilege.
• The LRB Blog notes the restrictions placed on travel to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and on contact with the threatened indigenous peoples there.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution explains how he tries to understand cultural codes, with their major influence on economic dynamics.
• The NYR Daily looks at the contemporary nature art of Walton Ford.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the Jonathan Janz novella Witching House Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shares astronomical photos of exoplanets which show how planets form.
• Yesterday, Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy noted at blog’s celebration of the Roman holiday of Saturnalia.
• At Whatever, John Scalzi celebrates the excellent new animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as does Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the decision of the Russian government to move the capital of the Far Eastern federal district from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok will harm that first city but not do that much for the second.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the art of appearances, queer and otherwise.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Iqaluit, Boston and Halifax, Orange County, Rome

• Some tour guides in Montréal think they should receive more training about their city’s indigenous history. CBC reports.
• After an arson that destroyed their warehouse, the Northmart grocery store in Iqaluit has reopened. CBC reports.
• Nova Scotia is preparing to send a Christmas tree to Boston, a seasonal tradition that started as a thank-you to New England for help to Halifax after the Halifax Explosion. Global News reports.
• Orange County, the Los Angeles Times has noted, has ended its history as a Republican stronghold. Demographic change has resulted in irreversible political change.
• Guardian Cities reports on the catastrophic state of public transit in Rome. Perhaps privatization might be a solution for this system.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams takes a look at the first generation of stars, starting with newly-discovered ancient 2MASS J18082002–5104378 B.
• Crooked Timber takes a look at the political opinions of different generations in the United States. Is there a shift about to happen?
• The Crux takes a look at the excavation of the floating pleasure palaces of Caligula in Italy’s Lake Nemi, something showing the scope of Roman construction.
• D-Brief notes how scientists managed to trigger limb regrowth in frogs, with obvious potential for humans.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the many quiet ways in which the slaves of Arkansas resisted their domination by whites.
• Lingua Franca takes a look at the strange linguistic crime of blasphemy in 21st century Europe.
• At the NYR Daily, Nicole Rudick examines the early work of underground Montréal cartoonist Julie Doucet.
• Window on Eurasia shares a warning that growing pressures on land could lead to ethnic conflict in the North Caucasus.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait goes into more detail about the Milky Way Galaxy’s ancient collision with and absorption of dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus.
• Centauri Dreams considers SETI in the infrared, looking at the proposal to use a laser to signal our existence to observers of our sun.
• D-Brief notes a study of Neanderthal children’s teeth that documents their hazardous environment, faced with cold winters and lead contamination.
• The Island Review shares three lovely islands-related poems by writer Naila Moreira.
• JSTOR Daily asks an important question: Can the United States and China avoid the Thucydides trap, a war of the rising power with the falling one? Things seems uncertain at this point.
• Mark Liberman at Language Log looks at the continuing lack of progress of machine translation.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a recent discussion on the Roman Republic, noting how imperialism and inequality led to that polity’s transformation into an empire. Lessons for us now?
• The Map Room Blog shares a Canadian Geographic map describing the different, declining, populations of caribou in the north of Canada.
• Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting that global pandemics will not necessarily kill us all off, that high-virulence infections might be outcompeted and, even, controllable.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at historical reasons for the prominence of Rembrandt in the British artistic imagination.
• Towleroad notes that Massachusetts voted to keep transgender rights protected.
• Window on Eurasia suggests that the quality of Russian taught in schools in Uzbekistan is declining. I wonder: Is this a matter of a Central Asian variety emerging, perhaps?
• Livio di Matteo at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes a look at the long-run economic growth of Australia, contrasting it with the past and with other countries. In some ways, Canada (among others) is a stronger performer.