[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul takes a look at different retrofuture imaginings from the 20th century of what architecture might look like in the 21st century.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the mysteries surrounding a sudden recent eruption of Sagittarius A*.
• Centauri Dreams considers what the James Webb Space Telescope might be able to pick up from TRAPPIST-1.
• Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber considers Ossian’s Ride, a SF novel by Fred Hoyle imagining a progressive Ireland leapfrogging ahead of Britain, and how this scenario is being realized now.
• D-Brief looks at what a glitch in the spin rate of the Vela pulsar reveals about these bodies.
• Dangerous Minds looks at how Rock Hudson came to star in the SF film Seconds.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a new NASA Kepler study suggesting (very) broadly Earth-like worlds might orbit as many as one in six Sun-like stars.
• Gizmodo links</u. to a study suggesting the oddly fuzzy core of Jupiter might be a consequences of an ancient collision with a massive protoplanet.
• Imageo notes that July broke all sorts of climate records.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Trump administration has exempted Bibles from the new China tariffs.
• Language Hat considers, after the space of a decade, why people might say a language is so foreign as to be Greek.
• Robert Farley links at Lawyers, Guns and Money to an analysis of what major battle fleets around the world would have looked like in 1950 absent a Second World War.
• The LRB Blog notes how the UK Conservative government’s turn towards repressive law-and-order measures will please Faragists.
• The Map Room Blog shares maps indicating the scale of the American opioid crisis.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution links to one of his columns noting how two decades of nil economic growth has harmed Italy.
• Peter Watts at his blog has a critical take on the Chinese SF movie The Wandering Earth.
• The NYR Daily looks at how things are becoming quite bad for Kashmiris.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at how the OSIRIS-REx team is looking for sample sites on asteroid Bennu.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the evidence from our solar system’s moons that two planets can indeed stably share the same orbit.
• Towleroad notes how a successful campaign has helped London fetish bar Backstreet survive gentrification.
• Arnold Zwicky shares some gorgeous blue and black flowers in the Gamble Garden of Palo Alto, and meditations on said.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul features a photo essay made by Evan Panagopoulos in the course of a hurried three-hour visit to the Socialist Modernist and modern highlights of 20th century Kiev architecture.
• Bad Astrronomer Phil Plait notes how the latest planet found in the Kepler-47 circumbinary system evokes Tatooine.
• Centauri Dreams looks at tide and radiation, and their impacts on potential habitability, in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
• Citizen Science Salon looks at how the TV show Cyberchase can help get young people interested in science and math.
• Crooked Timber mourns historian David Brion Davis.
• The Crux looks at how the HMS Challenger pioneered the study of the deeps of the oceans, with that ship’s survey of the Mariana Trench.
• D-Brief looks at how a snowball chamber using supercooled water can be used to hunt for dark matter.
• Earther shares photos of the heartbreaking and artificial devastation of the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil.
• Gizmodo shares a beautiful Hubble photograph of the southern Crab Nebula.
• Information is Beautiful shares a reworked version of the Julia Galef illustration of the San Francisco area meme space.
• io9 notes that, fresh from being Thor, Jane Foster is set to become a Valkyrie in a new comic.
• JSTOR Daily explains the Victorian fondness for leeches, in medicine and in popular culture.
• Language Hat links to an interview with linguist Amina Mettouchi, a specialist in Berber languages.
• Language Log shares the report of a one-time Jewish refugee on changing language use in Shanghai, in the 1940s and now.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the horror of self-appointed militias capturing supposed undocumented migrants in the southwestern US.
• Marginal Revolution reports on the circumstances in which volunteer militaries can outperform conscript militaries.
• At the NYR Daily, Christopher Benfey reports on the surprisingly intense connection between bees and mourning.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw, responding to Israel Folau, considers free expression and employment.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares a guest post from Barney Magrath on the surprisingly cheap adaptations needed to make an iPhone suitable for astrophotography.
• Peter Rukavina reports on the hotly-contested PEI provincial election of 1966.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains what the discovery of helium hydride actually means.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little praises the Jill Lepore US history These Truths for its comprehensiveness.
• Window on Eurasia reports on the growing divergences in demographics between different post-Soviet countries.
• Arnold Zwicky starts with another Peeps creation and moves on from there.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about what goes into her creation of comfortable outdoor spaces. (I approve of the inclusion of blue; green is also nice.)
• D-Brief notes that the strong stellar winds of TRAPPIST-1 means that the outermost worlds are best suited to retain their atmospheres and host Earth-like environments.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that Russia has shown video of its latest crop of doomsday weapons.
• Joe. My. God. notes the duet of a German astronaut on board the ISS with Kraftwerk.
• JSTOR Daily considers if fear of race mixing, and of venereal disease, were important factors in the British Empire’s abolition of slavery in 1833.
• Language Log notes differential censorship in China aimed at minority languages, using some books to be shipped from Inner Mongolia as an example.
• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that Russian support for Trump was less a well-thought plan and more a desperate gamble with unpredictable and largely negative consequences for Russia.
• The LRB Blog notes the perception by Proust of time as a dimension.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes how the Apollo missions helped clear up the mystery of the origins of the Moon.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Donbas republics are inching away from Ukraine by seeking associations with adjacent Russian regions.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase’s Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.
• Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.
• Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.
• D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.
• Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo’s Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.
• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.
• Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.
• Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.
• At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)
• Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?
• The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.
• Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)
• The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.
• Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.
• Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can’t wait to see it.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

[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.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• anthro{dendum} shares an essay by digital ethnographer Gabriele de Seta on the pitfalls of digital ethnography, on the things not said.
• The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture shares photos taken in the course of a mission by dentists to provide care to rural Jamaica.
• Centauri Dreams examines the TRAPPIST-1 worlds in depth, finding that TRAPPIST-1e seems to be the relatively most Earth-like world there.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that British banks are cracking down on the use of cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.
• Gizmodo suggests the Chixculub impactor that killed most of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous may also have played havoc with fragile tectonics of Earth. Responsibility for the Deccan Traps?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders if the Democratic Party risks getting steamrollered over DACA.
• At Lingua Franca, Geoffrey Pullum dissects the claims that an orca capable of mimicking human words can use language. The two are not the same.
• The NYR Daily looks at the origins of the American system of higher education in the wealth generated by slavery.
• Towleroad notes that Bermuda has ended marriage equality. Boycott time?
• David Post at the Volokh Conspiracy is decidedly unimpressed by the behaviour of Devin Nunes.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Kambiz at Anthropology.net notes evidence that Neanderthals in Italy used fire to shape digging sticks 170 thousand years ago.
• Missing persons blog Charley Ross reminds online commentators to be careful and reasonable in their speculations online, if only because these last forever.
• D-Brief notes a new study of the TRAPPIST-1 system suggesting that its outermost planets, in the circumstellar habitable zone, are so low density that they must have abundant volatiles. Water is the most likely candidate.
• Hornet Stories introduces readers to the impressive photography of New York City’s Peter Hujar.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox meditates on the issues of friendship in the contemporary world.
• Joe. My. God. shares representative Tammy Duckworth’s mockery of the authoritarian Donald Trump, aka “Cadet Bone Spurs”.
• JSTOR Daily notes the continuing importance of the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
• The Map Room Blog notes that someone has made cute maps of seven solar system worlds for children.
• Marginal Revolution links to an article looking at how some of the schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria by Boko Haram are doing.
• The NYR Daily engages with “Soul of a Nation”, a touring exhibit of African-American art in the era of Black Power.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports from the scene of the impending Falcon Heavy launch, sharing photos.
• Towleroad notes a South African church that not only beats its queer parishoners but fines them, too.
• Window on Eurasia suggests</u. Western sanctions could hinder the Russian development of its Arctic presence.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about the long process of planning and work–almost two years!–going into the production of a trade non-fiction book.
• Centauri Dreams touches upon the new European Southern Observatory ExTrA telescope that will study Earth-like planets of red dwarfs, and shares a new model indicating the likely watery nature of the outer planets of TRAPPIST-1.
• D-Brief takes a look inside the unsettlingly thorough data-collection machineries of home assistants like Google Home and Alexa.
• JSTOR Daily looks at a paper examining the long and complicated process by which, through trade and empire, the United Kingdom ended up embracing tea.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money pays tribute to Ursula K Le Guin and Mark E. Smith of the Fall.
• Marginal Revolution links to a source arguing that regulatory costs have played the biggest role in the sharp increase of housing prices in California (and elsewhere?).
• The NYR Daily considers if Pope Francis’ shocking willingness to make excuses for the abetters of child abuse in Chile has anything to do with his relationship, as an Argentine, to his home country’s complicated past of church collaboration with the military regime of the dirty war.
• Out There considers what, exactly, would happen to a person if they stood completely still in relation to the universe. Where would they go (or, more accurately, where would the universe go without them)?
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the preparations of the New Horizons probe for its encounter, at the very start of 2019, with Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69.
• Peter Rukavina shares beautiful posters he made out of last year’s map calendar.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although the multiverse is almost certainly real, its existence hardly solves the pressing problems of physics.
• Towleroad describes Reverend Raymond Broshears, a gay preacher in San Francisco who, after one beating in 1973, organized the vigilante Lavender Panthers to defend the community and to fight back. Complicated man, he, with a complicated legacy.
• Arnold Zwicky looks into the latest sociological and psychological research on the especially warm friendships that can exist between gay men and straight women. What factors are at work?

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that asteroid 2006 VW139 is not just also a comet but a binary object, too, while Centauri Dreams also reports on 288P. (Multiple names, here.)
• D-Brief reports on a study intended to answer the question of whether or not our galaxy is normal.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to one paper suggesting TRAPPIST-1 might provide a threatening environment for its planets, links to another simulatingthe environments of TRAPPIST-1 planets to find d most likely to be Earth-like, and links to another finding that panspermia between the different planets of TRAPPIST-1 would be quite easy.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Douglas Merrill notes one study of AfD voters finding former non-voters contributed most to its vote surge.
• Hornet Stories notes an anti-gay “Straight Lives Matter” gathering in Australia that got only 30 protesters.
• The Map Room Blog links to a crowdsourced map showing earthquake damage in Mexico.
• The New APPS Blog considers Foucault and Marx and their thinking about spare time, and its reduction to capital.
• The NYR Daily looks at the recent German election and the rise of the AfD.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at a proposal for a solar sail deployment on the new Deep Space Gateway station.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel has a fairly critical, but I think ultimately hopeful, review of the first episodes of Star Trek: Discovery.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that the latest Trump travel ban has many of the same fatal flaws as the others.
• Arnold Zwicky notes the Instagram account “Boys With Plants.”

[NEWS] Three links about exoplanetary systems and extraterrestrial life

• As we understand the Anthropocene on Earth, we may understand inhabited exoplanets all the better. VICE reports.
• Unsurprisingly, study of stellar X-rays suggests that older and less excitable stars may be most suitable for life. Universe Today reports.
• A new study suggests that TRAPPIST-1 could support unsuspected gas giants, too, orbiting far away. Universe Today reports.