Posts Tagged ‘social sciences’
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- Anthro{dendum} links to a roundup of anthropology-relevant posts and news items.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how the impending collision of galaxies NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 has created spectacular scenes of starbirth.
- Centauri Dreams notes the upcoming stream of new observatories and satellites that will enable better charting of exoplanets.
- Kieran Healy shares a cool infographic depicting the scope of the British baby boom.
- Hornet Stories shares the amazing video for the fantastic new song by Janelle Monáe, “Pynk.”
- JSTOR Daily notes what happens when you send Frog and Toad to a philosophy class.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the obvious point that abandoning civil rights of minorities is a foolish strategy for American liberals.
- The LRB Blog shares a reflection on Winnie Mandela, and the forces she led and represents.
- The Map Room Blog links to detailed maps of the Rohingya refugee camps.
- Marginal Revolution takes issue with a proposal by Zeynep Tufekci for a thorough regulation of Facebook.
- The NYR Daily notes how Israel is making full use of the law to enable its colonization of the West Bank.
- The Planetary Society Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla reports from inside a NASA clean room where the new InSight Mars rover is being prepared.
- The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer talks about what is really wrong with a Trump Organization letter to the president of Panama regarding a real estate development there.
- Strange Company looks at the life of 19th century fraudster and murdering John Birchall.
Written by Randy McDonald
April 11, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with anthropology, astornomy, bangladesh, blogs, burma, central america, clash of ideologies, crime, Demographics, facebook, galaxies, glbt issues, history, human rights, in memoriam, israel, Janelle Monáe, links, mars, middle east, ngc 4485, ngc 4490, palestine, panama, philosophy, photos, politics, popular literature, popular music, refugees, rohingya, social networking, social sciences, south africa, southeast asia, space science, space travel, united kingdom, united states, winnie mandela
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- ‘Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen links to a giveaway of paranormal LGBT fiction.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares some stunning photos of Jupiter provided by Juno.
- The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly looks at the desperate, multi-state strike of teachers in the United States. American education deserves to have its needs, and its practitioners’ needs, met.
- Centauri Dreams looks at PROCSIMA, a strategy for improving beamed propulsion techniques.
- Crooked Timber looks at the history of the concept of the uncanny valley. How did the concept get translated in the 1970s from Japan to the wider world?
- Dangerous Minds shares a 1980s BBC interview with William Burroughs.
- The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper tracing the origin of the Dravidian language family to a point in time 4500 years ago.
- JSTOR Daily notes Phyllis Wheatley, a freed slave who became the first African-American author in the 18th century but who died in poverty.
- Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
- Language Log looks at the forms used by Chinese to express the concepts of NIMBY and NIMBYism.
- Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
- The NYR Daily notes that, if the United States junks the nuclear deal with Iran, nothing external to Iran could realistically prevent the country’s nuclearization.
- The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest findings from the Jupiter system, from that planet’s planet-sized moons.
- Roads and Kingdoms notes that many Rohingya, driven from their homeland, have been forced to work as mules in the illegal drug trade.
- Starts With A Bang considers how early, based on elemental abundances, life could have arisen after the Big Bang. A date only 1 to 1.5 billion years after the formation of the universe is surprisingly early.
- Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs notes how the centre of population of different tree populations in the United States has been shifting west as the climate has changed.
- Understanding Society’s Daniel Little takes a look at mechanisms and causal explanations.
- Worthwhile Canadian Initiative’s Frances Woolley takes a look at an ECON 1000 test from the 1950s. What biases, what gaps in knowledge, are revealed by it?
Written by Randy McDonald
April 9, 2018 at 5:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with african-americans, astronomy, blogs, callisto, chinese language, diaspora, economics, education, environment, europa, extraterrestrial life, ganymede, glbt issues, history, india, io, iran, jupiter, language, links, middle east, myanmar, nuclear weapons, oddities, photos, phyllis wheatley, popular literature, refugees, rohingya, social sciences, sociology, south asia, southeast asia, space science, space travel, uncanny valley, united states, writing
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
- Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.net notes new research suggesting that all modern Australian Aborigine languages descend from a single ancestor more than ten thousands years ago.
- The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly considers the search for one’s spiritual home.
- Centauri Dreams notes the planned ESA ARIEL mission, intended to study exoplanet formation and atmospheres.
- Crooked Timber considers the prospects for the university in the United Kingdom, post-strike.
- D-Brief notes a study suggesting the worlds of TRAPPIST-1 might be too wet, too water-rich, to sustain life.
- Cody Delistraty shares an interview with Nancy Jo Sales on everything from childhood to Facebook.
- Dead Things notes the discovery of human footprints on the seafloor off of British Columbia, predating the Ice Age.
- Bruce Dorminey notes the possibility that ocean worlds in the “ice cap zone” could manage to support life
- Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the observations to date of near-Jovian analogue world Epsilon Indi Ab.
- The Dragon’s Tales notes ambitious plans by one private space development company to set up a functioning cislunar economy.
- Hornet Stories notes the upcoming re-release of Garbage’s second album, Version 2.0.
- In A State of Migration’s Lyman Stone takes a look at the regional origins of German immigrants to the US in the mid-19th century.
- Joe. My. God. notes that Grindr shares private user data with third parties that, among other things, would allow them to determine the HIV status of different individuals.
- JSTOR Daily notes the struggle for equal civil rights in Alaska, as indigenous people fought for equality.
- The NYR Daily reports on an interesting exhibit of post-Second World War modern art from Germany.
Written by Randy McDonald
April 3, 2018 at 1:45 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with aborigines, alaska, anthropology, archeology, astronomy, australia, blogs, british columbia, canada, education, epsilon indi, extraterrestrial life, first nations, garbage, germany, grindr, history, hiv/aids, human rights, language, links, migration, moon, museums, oceans, popular miusic, public art, religion, sexuality, social networking, social sciences, space colonies, space science, TRAPPIST-1, united kingdom, united states
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.net notes that the more Neanderthal DNA gets sequenced, the more we know of this population’s history.
- Anthro{dendum} takes a look at anthropologists who use their knowledge and their access to other cultures for purposes of espionage.
- Crooked Timber tackles the question of immigration from another angle: do states have the authority to control it, for starters?
- Dangerous Minds shares a fun video imagining Netflix as it might have existed in 1995.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog considers how the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is an instance of American state failure.
- The Frailest Thing’s L.M. Sacasas considers is vows to abandon Facebook are akin to a modern-day vow of poverty.
- JSTOR Daily looks at Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and why it still matters.
- Language Log considers the naming practices of new elements like Nihonium.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that, based on the stagnation of average incomes in the US as GDP has growth, capitalism can be said to have failed.
- Lingua Franca considers the origin of the phrase “bad actor.”
- Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting that the American opioid epidemic is not simply driven by economic factors.
- The NYR Daily considers how Poland’s new history laws do poor service to a very complicated past.
- Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw has an interesting post examining the settlement of Australisa’s inland “Channel Country” by cattle stations, chains to allow herds to migrate following the weather.
- The Planetary Science Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla takes a look at the latest science on famously volcanic Io.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines how the Milky Way Galaxy is slowly consuming its neighbours, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 28, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with agriculture, anthropology, astronomy, australia, blogs, central europe, disasters, economics, english language, espionage, facebook, galaxies, genetics, glbt issues, history, human beings, immigration, io, jupiter, language, large magellanic cloud, links, milky way galaxy, neanderthals, poland, popular culture, puerto rico, science, small magellanic cloud, social networking, social sciences, space science, united states, videos
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
- Anthropology.net shares in the debunking of the Toba catastrophe theory.
- Architectuul features Mirena Dunu’s exploration of the architecture of the Black Sea coastal resorts of Romania, built under Communism.
- The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of sleep hygiene and of being well-rested.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the filaments of Orion, indicators of starbirth.
- Centauri Dreams notes how solar sails and the Falcon Heavy can be used to expedite the exploration of the solar system.
- D-Brief notes the discovery of debris marking the massive flood that most recently refilled the Mediterranean on the seafloor near Malta.
- Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca uses a recent sickbed experience in Paris to explore the genesis of Bemelmans’ Madeline.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money noted recently the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, trigger of a world-historical catastrophe.
- The LRB Blog hosts Sara Roy’s defense of UNRWA and of the definition of the Palestinians under its case as refugees.
- The NYR Daily notes how the regnant conservative government in Israel has been limiting funding to cultural creators who dissent from the nationalist line.
- Roads and Kingdoms uses seven food dishes to explore the history of Malta.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why, even though dark matter is likely present in our solar system, we have not detected signs of it.
- Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the field of machine learning, and notes the ways in which its basic epistemology might be flawed.
- Window on Eurasia notes how the dropping of the ethnonym “Mongol” from the title of the former Buryat-Mongol autonomous republic sixty years ago still makes some Buryats unhappy.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 25, 2018 at 6:45 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with anthropology, archeology, architecture, artificial intelligence, astronomy, black sea, blogs, books, buryatia, computers, dark matter, disasters, food, former soviet union, health, human beings, iraq, israel, links, malta, mediterranean, middle east, mongolia, palestinians, physics, popular culture, popular literature, romania, russia, siberia, sleep, social sciences, space science, space travel, stars, united nations, war
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
- Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that environmental change in Kenya may have driven creativity in early human populations there.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how astronomers use stellar occultations to investigate the thin atmosphere of Neptune’s moon Triton.
- Centauri Dreams notes how melting ice creates landscape change on Ceres.
- D-Brief suggests that supervolcanoes do not pose such a huge risk to the survival of humanity, in the past or the future, as we thoughts.
- Dangerous Minds shares Paul Bowles’ recipe for a Moroccan love charm.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog investigates the transformation of shopping malls and in the era of Amazon Prime.
- At In Medias Res, Russell Arben Fox engages with Left Behind and that book’s portrayal of rural populations in the United States which feel left behind.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how Roman Catholic nuns on the 19th century American frontier challenged gender norms.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money is critical of Tex-Mex cuisine, calling it an uncreative re-presentation of Mexican cuisine for white people in high-calorie quantities.
- The NYR Daily shared this thought-provoking article noting how Irish America, because of falling immigration from Ireland and growing liberalism on that island, is diverging from its ancestral homeland.
- Drew Rowsome reviews The Monument, a powerful play currently on in Toronto that engages with the missing and murdered native women.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes, in a photo-heavy post, how galaxies die (or at least, how they stop forming stars).
- Towleroad shares a delightful interview with Adam Rippon conducted over a plate of hot wings.
- Window on Eurasia shares an alternate history article imagining what would have become of Russia had Muscovy not conquered Novgorod.
- Worthwhile Canadian Initiative notes the very sharp rise in public debt held by the province of Ontario, something that accelerated in recent years.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests, in the era of Cambridge Analytica and fake news, that many journalists seem not to take their profession seriously enough.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 20, 2018 at 1:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with adam rippon, africa, alternate history, astronomy, blogs, ceres, clash of ideologies, Demographics, diaspora, disasters, economics, feminism, food, galaxies, gender, glbt issues, holidays, homo sapiens, human beings, ireland, journalism, kenya, links, mass media, mexico, morocco, neptune, ontario, politics, roman catholic church, russia, shopping, social sciences, sociology, space science, tex-mex, theatre, toronto, triton, united states, volcanoes
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- At Anthrodendum, Elizabeth Marino takes issue with what she identifies as the naively and fiercely neoliberal elements of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now.
- Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani takes a look at an innovative study of the Surinamese creole of Sranan Tongo that uncovers that language’s linguistic origins in remarkably fine detail.
- Architectuul examines the architecture of Communist-era Hungarian architect István Szábo
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the nearly naked black hole at the heart of galaxy ZwCl 8193, 2.2 billion light-years away.
- The Big Picture shares photos from the 2018 Paralympics in South Korea.
- Gerry Canavan has an interesting critical take on Star Trek: Discovery. Is it really doing new things, or is its newness just superficial?
- Centauri Dreams considers the impact the spectra of red dwarfs would have on biosignatures from their worlds.
- Russell Darnley takes a look at Australia’s Darling River, a critical watercourse threatened by extensive water withdrawals.
- Inkfish notes that patterns of wear on the tusks of elephants indicate most are right-handed.
- Joe. My. God. links to a study suggesting a relationship between Trump rallies and violent assaults.
- JSTOR Daily links to a paper examining why people drink Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day.
- Language Hat takes a look at the use of Xhosa as the language of Wakanda.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money mourns Alfred Crosby, the historian whose work examined the epidemiological and ecological changes wrought by contact with the Americas.
- The Map Room Blog links to a map showing indigenous placenames in Canada.
- In the aftermath of the death of Stephen Hawking, Out There had a lovely idea: what nearby major stars emitted life than arrive at the moment of his birth? Hawking’s star is Regulus, and mine was (nearly) Arcturus.
- Marginal Revolution suggests AI will never be able to centrally plan an economy because the complexity of the economy will always escape it.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines Stephen Hawking’s contribution to the study of black holes.
- Supernova Condensate shares a list of moons, fictional and otherwise, from Endor on down.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 19, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with africa, anthropology, architecture, artificial intelligence, astronomy, australia, black holes, blogs, canada, clash of ideologies, crime, darling river, discovery, donald trump, economics, elephants, environment, first nations, food, futurology, historiography, history, hungary, ireland, korea, language, links, maps, photos, physics, popular culture, science fiction, social sciences, sociology, south africa, south america, south korea, space science, sports, star trek, star wars, steven pinker, suriname, television, united states, violence, wakanda, xhosa, zwcl 8193