[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen argues compellingly that stories featuring queer protagonists should also have other queer characters (among other things).
• James Bow talks about the origins and the progress of his new novel, The Sun Runners.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the recent hopeful analysis of Ross 128b, still a strong candidate for a relatively Earth-like world.
• Crooked Timber starts a discussion on having elections in the European Parliament being based on transnational lists.
• D-Brief notes a hauntingly musical study of the plasma of Saturn’s ring system.
• Hornet Stories reports on N.K. Jemisin’s article that bigots are not good writers of fiction. I’m inclined to agree: People who cannot imagine the lives of others as legitimate have issues with plausible characterization.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Nicola Sturgeon opened Pride in Glasgow on the same day as Trump’s visit, saying there was where she wanted to be regardless.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the winding history of New York State’s Adirondacks, as a protected area.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the evidence for the unwitting involvement of Glenn Greenwald and Wikileaks as agents of Russia in support of Trump.
• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, considers the genesis of the phrase “Sherpas of the Beltway.” How problematic is it?
• Marginal Revolution suggests that Canadian public opinion in support of open immigration rests on borders being controlled.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that the strange behaviour of Boyajian’s Star can be explained by dust alone.
• Window on Eurasia speculates that Russia might be on the verge of another wave of regional reorganizations, amalgamating some provinces and other territories into others.
• Arnold Zwicky points out the achievements of Samantha Allen, a journalist writing for The Daily Beast.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the discovery of Ross 128 b, a nearby exoplanet that looks like it actually might be plausibly very Earth-like.
• blogTO notes that, after a decade, the east entrance of the Royal Ontario Museum is finally going to be an entrance again.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about the importance of self-care, of making time to experience pleasure.
• Crooked Timber shares some of the 1871 etchings of Gustave Doré, fresh from the Paris Commune.
• Daily JSTOR notes how one man’s collection of old tin cans tells a remarkable story about the settlement of the United States.
• Dangerous Minds shares a vintage 1980 television report on the Los Angeles punk scene.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes a recent study of chemical abundances around Kronos and Krios, two very similar stars near each other, these abundances suggesting they are just forming planetary systems.
• Gizmodo shares a revealing new table of exoplanets, one that brings out all sorts of interesting patterns and types.
• Hornet Stories notes Courtney Love’s efforts to fundraise for LGBTQ homeless youth.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Margaret Court, an Australian tennis star now more famous for her homophobia, called for Australia to ignore the postal vote for marriage equality.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the point that Trump’s Russian links are important to explore, not least because they reveal the spreading influence of kleptocracy.
• Lingua Franca shares a perhaps over-stereotypical take on languages being caught between drives for purity and for diversity.
• The LRB Blog notes the murder of Honduran environmental activist Berta Cácares.
• The Map Room Blog links to an interesting collection of links to future and alternate-history mass transit maps of Melbourne.
• The NYR Daily links to an interesting exhibit about disposable fashion like the simple T-shirt.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes a remarkable performance of a Beatles song in the hill country of West Bengal.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams takes a look at the exciting early news on potentially habitable nearby exoplanet Ross 128 b.
• The Crux notes that evidence has been found of Alzheimer-like illness in dolphins. Is this, as the scientists argue, a symptom of a syndrome shared between us, big-brained social species with long post-fertility lifespans?
• D-Brief takes a look at the idea of contemporary life on Mars hiding away in the icy regolith near the surface.
• Far Outliers notes one argument that Germany lost the Second World War because of the poor quality of its leaders.
• Gizmodo notes the incredibly bright event PS1-10adi, two and a half billion light-years away. What is it? No one knows …
• Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrates the end of the Mugabe dictatorship in Zimbabwe.
• The Map Room Blog links to some fascinating detailed maps of the outcome of the Australian mail-in vote on marriage equality.
• Roads and Kingdoms visits rural Mexico after the recent quake.
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands shares some beautiful photos of fantastical Barcelona.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the insights provided by Pluto’s mysterious cool atmosphere, with its cooling haze, has implications for Earth at a time of global warming.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia is not going to allow even Tatarstan to include the Tatar language as a mandatory school subject.

[NEWS] Four science links: Florida Keys, life on Mars, Triton vs Neptune, Ross 128 b

• Vulnerable ecologies and organisms in the Florida Keys are still recovering from Hurricane Irma (among other disasters). National Geographic reports.
• Simulations suggest life could exist in the Martian soil not too far removed from the surface. Universe Today reports.
• New simulations suggest that the Neptunian satellite system disrupted by the arrival of Triton was most like Uranus’. Universe Today reports.
• News of the existence of Ross 128 b, a potentially Earth-like world orbiting a stable red dwarf star a mere 11 light years away, is exciting. The Guardian reports.