A Bit More Detail

Assorted Personal Notations, Essays, and Other Jottings

Posts Tagged ‘saturn

[NEWS] Five Centauri Dreams links: ARIEL Ryugu, Titan, electric sail, exoplanets (@centauri_dreams)

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the emergent ARIEL telescope, here.
  • Centauri Dreams reports on the return of Hayabusa2 from Ryugu, here.
  • Centauri Dreams shares a new map showing all of the landforms of Titan.
  • Centauri Dreams looks at the propulsion technology of the electric sail.
  • Centauri Dreams looks at the once-surprising number of planets found in multiple star systems.

Written by Randy McDonald

November 23, 2019 at 8:30 pm

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

  • Bad Astronomy notes the new X-ray telescope eROSITA.
  • Centauri Dreams notes evidence of a recent collision between planets in the system of BD +20 307.
  • D-Brief notes the appearance of a strange new sort of storm on Saturn.
  • Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery by astronomers of a set of orbits that can direct comets into the inner solar system.
  • Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage shares some vintage Skylab photos of his native Massachusetts.
  • Far Outliers notes how, in 1786, the United states was uninclined to pay tribute to the Barbary States.
  • Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky reports on a new fossil discovery showing how quickly mammals took over after the Cretaceous.
  • The Island Review shares an essay by photographer Alex Boyd about his new book Isles of Rust, drawing from Lewis & Harris.
  • JSTOR Daily looks at sustainable butchery.
  • Language Hat notes that Sumerian cuneiform is now in Unicode.
  • Victor Mair at Language Log notes how the Indo-Iranian “don” so commonly forms part of the hydronyms for major European rivers.
  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money calls for an in-depth investigation of Donald Trump, not necessarily an impeachment.
  • The LRB Blog examines the background of the mass protests in Santiago and wider Chile.
  • The Map Room Blog shares an illuminating cartogram depicting the #elxn43 results in Canada.
  • Marginal Revolution looks at how the government of China has been using the NBA to buy social peace.
  • The NYR Daily interviews Naomi Oreskes about her campaign to have the science behind global warming, and the actions of the scientists involved, understood.
  • The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper concluding that traditional gender specializations in British families no longer provide a reproductive advantage.
  • Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why the speed of gravity must equal the speed of light, if general relativity is to work.
  • Window on Eurasia examines the rapid and uncontrolled growth of urban populations in Kazakhstan.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait tells readers how the orbit of a newly-discovered object, like one of the newly found moons of Saturn, is calculated.
  • D-Brief looks at the import of observations of the young HD 163296 system, where gas has been detected flowing onto young planets. Is this where atmospheres come from?
  • Gizmodo notes the recent claim by Google to have achieved a quantum computing milestone.
  • JSTOR Daily looks at how, in the early 20th century, old unpaved country roads gave way to modern ones.
  • The LRB Blog looks at the latest on Brexit and British politics.
  • Marginal Revolution notes an article arguing Airbnb has helped undermine trust even in Himalayan villages.
  • The NYR Daily looks at a landmark exhibition of the works of William Blake at the Tate Britain.
  • Rocky Planet shows how the hyper-precise records of ice cores can be used to identify not just the existence but the locations of volcanic eruptions.
  • Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at a newly-founded mysterious dark ancient massive galaxy that may have insights on the processes of the wider universe.
  • Window on Eurasia looks at a UN report examining how Russia, occupying Crimea, has promoted demographic transformations.
  • Arnold Zwicky tells of his experiences with OUTiL, an organization he helped form in 1991 that brought together out linguists.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.
  • Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.
  • The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.
  • D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.
  • Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.
  • Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.
  • The Dragon’s Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.
  • Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.
  • Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.
  • Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.
  • io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.
  • JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.
  • Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of “their” as a singular.
  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.
  • The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.
  • Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.
  • Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.
  • Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.
  • The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.
  • The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.
  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.
  • Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.
  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.
  • Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.
  • Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.
  • Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, “depose”.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

  • Citizen Science Salon highlights Australian Michelle Neil, here.
  • Ingrid Robeyns argues at Crooked Timber that the idea of punitive taxation of the superrich is hardly blasphemous.
  • The Crux looks at the ongoing debate over the age of the rings of Saturn.
  • io9 notes the sad death of Aron Eisenberg, the actor who brought the character of Nog to life on DS9.
  • JSTOR Daily shares a debate on the ego and the id, eighty years later.
  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Mitch McConnell may have started the movement of Elizabeth Warren towards the US presidency.
  • The Map Room Blog takes a look at the credible and consistent mapping of Star Wars’ galaxy.
  • The NYR Daily looks at Springsteen at 70 as a performer.
  • Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a New England forest in fall.
  • The Volokh Conspiracy notes a sticker that straddles the line between anti-Muslim sentiment and misogyny, trying to force people to choose.
  • Window on Eurasia notes the strong anti-Russian sentiment prevailing in once-independent Tuva.

[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 Saturday links

  • Architectuul reports on the critical walking tours of Istanbul offered by Nazlı Tümerdem.
  • Centauri Dreams features a guest post from Alex Tolley considering the biotic potential of the subsurface ocean of Enceladus.
  • The Crux reports on how paleontologist Susie Maidment tries to precisely date dinosaur sediments.
  • D-Brief notes the success of a recent project aiming to map the far side of the Milky Way Galaxy.
  • Cody Delistraty considers the relationship between the One Percent and magicians.
  • Todd Schoepflin writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about different sociological facts in time for the new school year.
  • Gizmodo shares a lovely extended cartoon imagining what life on Europa, and other worlds with subsurface worlds, might look like.
  • io9 features an interview with Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders on the intersection between science fiction writing and science writing.
  • JSTOR Daily briefly considers the pros and cons of seabed mining.
  • Marginal Revolution suggests that a stagnant economy could be seen as a sign of success, as the result of the exploitation of all potential for growth.
  • The NYR Daily reports on the photographs of John Edmonds, a photographer specializing in images of queer black men.
  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares a map of murders in Denmark, and an analysis of the facts behind this crime there.
  • Window on Eurasia reports on an anti-Putin shaman in Buryatia.
  • Arnold Zwicky reports on dreams of going back to school, NSFW and otherwise.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

  • The Buzz shares a TIFF reading list, here.
  • Centauri Dreams notes the growing sensitivity of radial velocity techniques in finding weird exoplanet HR 5183 b, here.
  • The Crux reports on circumgalactic gas and the death of galaxies.
  • Dead Things notes the import of the discovery of the oldest known Australopithecine skull.
  • Dangerous Minds reports on pioneering 1930s queer artist Hannah Gluckstein, also known as Gluck.
  • Gizmodo notes that, for an unnamed reason, DARPA needs a large secure underground testing facility for tomorrow.
  • JSTOR Daily looks at how Jim Crow laws affected Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century US.
  • Language Hat looks at a new project to study Irish texts and language over centuries.
  • Language Log shares some Chinglish signs from a top university in China.
  • Lawyers, Guns and Money shares an interview with Jeffrey Melnick suggesting Charles Manson was substantially a convenient boogeyman.
  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting marijuana legalization is linked to declining crime rates.
  • Susan Neiman at the NYR Daily tells how she began her life as a white woman in Atlanta and is ending it as a Jewish woman in Berlin.
  • The Planetary Society Blog looks at Hayabusa2 at Ryugu.
  • Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel celebrated the 230th anniversary of Enceladus, the Saturn moon that might harbour life.
  • Window on Eurasia notes how global warming is harming the rivers of Siberia, causing many to run short.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

  • Architectuul notes a bike tour of Bauhaus architecture in Berlin.
  • Bad Astronomy Phil Plait notes the discovery of Beta Pictoris c, a second super-Jovian planet in that young system.
  • Centauri Dreams notes that the NASA Europa Clipper is moving ahead.
  • Crooked Timber shares a gorgeous night photo of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice.
  • The Crux notes what we are learning about the Denisovans.
  • D-Brief notes that Neanderthals were prone to swimmer’s ear.
  • Dangerous Minds looks at some of the pop culture likes of Karl Marx.
  • Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage looks at the exoplanets of GJ 1061.
  • Earther notes how Icelanders mourned the loss of a glacier in a ceremony.
  • Whitney Kimball at Gizmodo looks at what the mass data loss of more than a decade’s worth of music at Myspace means for our Internet era.
  • Imageo shares photos of spiraling cloud formations photographed at night from space.
  • Ian Humberstone at The Island Review writes about his witnessing of the bonxies, birds of the Shetlands.
  • Joe. My. God. notes a report suggesting Trump joked about swapping Greenland for Puerto Rico.
  • JSTOR Daily notes how the rhythmic dancing of the Shakers in 18th century America marked that sect as different.
  • Language Hat considers the humour of some philosophers.
  • Language Log notes the oblique commentaries of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing on his city-state’s protests.
  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the idiocy of the Trump fetish for Greenland.
  • The Map Room Blog notes how astronomers have mapped the Local Void, of deep intergalactic space.
  • Marginal Revolution wonders if the future of Venice might be found in its becoming a Chinese portal into Europe.
  • Sean Marshall notes how the Ford government is undermining conservation in Ontario.
  • The NYR Daily shares some of the New York City photography of Phil Penman.
  • Starts With A Bang’s notes the immense storms of Saturn.
  • Strange Company shares a weekend collection of links.
  • Window on Eurasia looks at how Belarus plans on reorganizing its internal structures to try to minimize rural depopulation.
  • Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative talks about monetary policy in metaphors.
  • Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguins from around the 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.