[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait shares Johannes Kroeger’s image of the median Earth.
• The Crux considers when human societies began to accumulate large numbers of aged people. Would there have been octogenarians in any Stone Age cultures, for instance?
• The Dragon’s Tales considers Russia’s strategy in Southeast Asia.
• Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes that one way to fight against fake news is for people to broaden their friends networks beyond their ideological sympathizers.
• Language Log, noting a television clip from Algeria in which a person defend their native dialect versus standard Arabic, compares the language situation in the Arab world to that of China.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen explains how the Tervuren Central African museum in Brussels has not been decolonized.
• The Planetary Society Blog explores the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why, in current physics, the multiverse must exist.
• Strange Company explores the strange disappearance, in the Arizona desert in 1952, of a young couple. Their plane was found and in perfect condition, but what happened to them?
• Strange Maps reports on the tragic migration of six Californian raptors, only one of which managed to make it to its destination.
• Towleroad reports on the appearance of actor and singer Ben Platt on The Ellen Show, talking about his career and coming out.
• Window on Eurasia notes the apparently widespread mutual dislike of Chechens and Muscovites.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the French Impressionist artists Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Suzanne Valadon, with images of their art.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how the dinosaurs seem to have been killed off 65 million years ago by a combination of geological and astronomical catastrophes.
• Centauri Dreams examines Kepler 1658b, a hot Jupiter in a close orbit around an old star.
• The Crux reports on the continuing search for Planet Nine in the orbits of distant solar system objects.
• D-Brief notes how researchers have begun to study the archaeological records of otters.
• Cody Delistraty profiles author and journalist John Lanchester.
• Far Outliers reports on the terrible violence between Hindus and Muslims preceding partition in Calcutta.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests the carnival of the online world, full of hidden work, is actually an unsatisfying false carnival.
• Hornet Stories reports that São Paulo LGBTQ cultural centre and homeless shelter Casa 1 is facing closure thanks to cuts by the homophobic new government.
• io9 reports on one fan’s attempt to use machine learning to produce a HD version of Deep Space Nine.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the increasing trend, at least in the United States and the United Kingdom, to deport long-term residents lacking sufficiently secure residency rights.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the literally medieval epidemics raging among the homeless of California.
• Marginal Revolution considers how the Book of Genesis can be read as a story of increasing technology driving improved living standards and economic growth.
• The NYR Daily interviews Lénaïg Bredoux about #MeToo in France.
• The Planetary Society Blog considers the subtle differences in colour between ice giants Uranus and Neptune, one greenish and the other a blue, and the causes of this difference.
• The Speed River Journal’s Van Waffle shares beautiful photos of ice on a stream as he talks about his creative process.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers what the universe was like back when the Earth was forming.
• Window on Eurasia reports on a statement made by the government of Belarus that the survival of the Belarusian language is a guarantor of national security.
• Arnold Zwicky was kind enough to share his handout for the semiotics gathering SemFest20.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: Precambrian fossils, CO2 and trees, mountains, Uranus and Neptune, Mars

• Have fossils of the movements of ancient animals 2.1 billion years ago been found? CBC reports.
• Increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, it turns out, will not accelerate tree growth. CBC reports.
• Motherboard reports that vast “mountains” may exist, hidden deep inside the molten interior of the Earth.
• Universe Today reports on Hubble observations of the atmospheres of outer-system ice giants Uranus and Neptune.
• Universe Today reports on the startling assertion of Elon Musk that, in the foreseeable future, a round-trip ticket to Mars might cost only $US 100 thousand.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explains the potential discovery of an ancient rock from Earth among the Moon rocks collected by Apollo.
• Centauri Dreams looks at what will be coming next from the New Horizons probe after its Ultima Thule flyby.
• The Crux looks at the genetic library of threatened animals preserved cryogenically in a San Diego zoo.
• Far Outliers looks at the drastic, even catastrophic, population changes of Sichuan over the past centuries.
• Language Hat looks at translations made in the medieval Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• Language Log tries to translate a possibly Indo-European sentence preserved in an ancient Chinese text.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the complexity of the crisis in Venezuela.
• The LRB Blog looks at the Mexican-American border in this era of crisis.
• Marginal Revolution notes a spike in unsolved shootings in Baltimore following protests against police racism.
• Noah Smith reviews the new Tyler Cowen book, Stubborn Attachments.
• Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily reviews what sounds like a fantastic album of anti-colonial Francophone music inspired by Frantz Fanon and assembled by French rapper Rocé.
• The Planetary Society Blog takes a look what is next for China as it continues its program to explore the Moon.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Monique Jaques about her new photo book looking at the lives of girls growing up in Gaza.
• Rocky Planets takes a look at how rocks can form political boundaries.
• Drew Rowsome interviews choreographer Christopher House about his career and the next shows at the Toronto Dance Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel takes a look at the seeming featurelessness of Uranus.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at a controversial swap of land proposed between Serbia and Kosovo.
• Window on Eurasia notes the controversial possibility of China contracting Russia to divert Siberian rivers as a water supply.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the origins of Uri and Avi, a photo of apparently showing two men, one Palestinian and one Israeli, kissing.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• In a long and frighteningly compelling article, Charlie Stross at Autopope warns that a Britain that heads for a hard Brexit might be lucky only to go through the worst of the 1970s.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explores the fact that an asteroid the size of a car burned up in the atmosphere above Greenland on the 25th of July, 2018.
• Centauri Dreams shares an essay by Ramses Ramirez looking at efforts to redefine the classical “habitable zone” in more useful ways, keeping different planetary and stellar environments in mind.
• Crooked Timber’s John Quiggin takes a look at the failures of a journalism relying on anonymous interview given the prospects of a hard Brexit.
• The Crux considers how the decision of flight-controllers to direct Voyager 1 towards a close flyby of Titan closed off the possibility of that spacecraft visiting Pluto in 1986.
• D-Brief looks at the exchange of microbes among subway passengers.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at just how codified societies of the pirates of the early modern North Atlantic could be, of necessity.
• Language Log takes a look at why Matti, a character from the Finnish Nightmares webcomic, has become so massively popular in China.
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Dan Nexon continues his analysis of American hegemony, looking at instances of past hegemonies undermined not by foreign opposition but by non-state actors and by domestic opponents.
• Neuroskeptic notes a study suggesting the data sets collected by psychologists are actually not broadly accessible at all.
• Francis Wade a href=”https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/08/06/ngugi-wa-thiongo-and-the-tyranny-of-language/”>writes for the NYR Daily about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer whose work–first writing in English, then shifting to Gikuyu–reflects a deep awareness of the intimate links between language and colonization, even in a post-colonial world.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There asks an important question: What is a habitable planet? Can we even speculate given how little we know?
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the prospect of sending orbiters like Galileo and Cassini, to Uranus and Neptune. The technology is there, the ODINUS mission has been sketched out, and there is a tempting launch window in 2034.
• Towleroad shares an excerpt from Omarosa Manigault’s new book on Donald Trump and his administration, talking about the cognitive decline she witnessed.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia is strengthening its Interior Ministry forces opposing the Donbas republics in eastern Ukraine, ostensibly to prevent smuggling.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at some homoerotic art from Brazil with an accompanying Marilyn Frye text confusingly translated to Portuguese and back again.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes evidence that white dwarf Gaia J1738–0826 is eating its planets.
• Crux takes a look at the stars closely orbiting Sagittarius A* at the heart of the galaxy like relativity-proving S2.
• D-Brief notes a recent proposal for an unmanned probe to Uranus and Neptune.
• Dangerous Minds shows the eerily decomposing sculptures of Yuichi Ikehata.
• Bruce Dorminey explores the provocative idea of era in the early Moon where it was briefly habitable.
• Far Outliers explores the reasons why George Orwell has become so popular lately.
• Hornet Stories notes that Tom Daley has recently posed nude for a painting by the celebrated David Hockney.
• JSTOR Daily explores the reality behind the imminent arrival of the laser gun into militaries worldwide.
• Language Hat notes that the Austrian state of Vorarlberg sponsors an interesting contest, of performances of songs–including pop songs–in local dialect.
• The LRB Blog notes the severity of the forest fires in Greece, aggravated by climate change, systematic corruption, and recent austerity.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares photos of asteroid Ryugu taken by the Hayabusa2 probe.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on a T-bone steak heavy breakfast lasting twenty hours in Bilbao.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes a joke political party in Hungary that wants to make the country smaller.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow is caught between its Ukrainian goals and its Russian links.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the wonders being witnessed by the Dawn probe in orbit of Ceres.
• Centauri Dreams notes the potential of effectively immortal interstellar probes.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of some genetic origins of loneliness.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog notes the connections and potential conflicts between concepts of race and the British royal family.
• Far Outliers shares the first part of the summary of an article examining contact between African and Japanese mercenaries in early modern Asia.
• Gizmodo wonders if Uranus’ large axial tilt can be explained by some sort of massive collision.
• Hornet Stories likes the way that Pose, a show set in queer communities in New York City in the 1980s, deals with HIV.
• In the aftermath of the tumult regarding the New York Times’ coverage of Batman and Catwoman, io9 offers the paper some tips on covering pop culture.
• JSTOR Daily shares a paper noting how and why, in belle époque Chicago, immigrant communities often sponsored Fourth of July celebrations.
• Language Hat deals with the convention of many writers in English to italicize foreign words. Why do this, again?
• Jonathan Freedland at the NYR Daily considers the import of the Fourth of July for the United States in 2018.
• Science and Food looks at liquid nitrogen gastronomy.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers if the universe might be headed for a big rip.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Charlie Stross at Antipope writes about why he reads so little science fiction these days. (Too little plausible world-building and exploration of our world, he argues.)
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait enthuses about the Falcon Heavy launch yesterday, while Lawyers, Guns and Money is much less impressed with the Falcon Heavy launch, calling it representative of the new global plutocracy.
• The Buzz shares some of the favourite books of 2017 of staff members at the Toronto Public Library.
• Centauri Dreams examines the recent study providing tantalizing data hinting at the potential environments of the TRAPPIST-1 planets.
• Cody Delistraty links to an essay of his analyzing the grand strategy of Macron for France, and for Europe.
• Dangerous Minds reports on how one man’s nostalgia for the 1990s led him to create a video rental store.
• Gizmodo reports on how scientists made, under conditions of exceptional heat and pressure, a new kind of ice that may exist in the cores of Uranus and Neptune.
• Hornet Stories takes pointed issue with an astonishingly tone-deaf essay that demonstrates the existence of racism in the leather community.
• JSTOR Daily links to papers suggesting that referenda are not necessarily good for democracy.
• Language Hat looks at the surprisingly profound roots of singing in nonsense, in different cultures and over the age of the individual.
• The LRB Blog reports from a visit paid by one of its writers to the US embassy in London so disdained by Trump.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting that there has been a consistent slowing of gains to life expectancy in rich countries since 1950, hinting perhaps at a maximum lifespan (for now?).
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that the ozone hole has stopped repairing itself, quite possibly because of global warming.
• Towleroad reports on a sort of brunch-based passing of the torch from the old five castmembers of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to the new five.
• Window on Eurasia shares what seems to be a fair take on the history of Jews in Siberia.

[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.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams shares, from JPL, the schedule for Cassini in its last days of existence. Goodbye, dear probe.
• Dangerous Minds shares some classic illustrations from a Persian book called Lights of Canopus.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper suggesting that gas giants can stabilize debris disks.
• Far Outliers shares excerpts from the diary of a Japanese soldier fighting in New Guinea in the Second World War.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the real suffering that high rents impose on the poor in American cities.
• The Map Room Blog shares some nice X-ray maps of New York City subway stations.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares more vintage Voyager photos of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune …
• Roads and Kingdoms tells of the marvelous cookies made on the dying Venetian island of Burano.
• Drew Rowsome considers, at length and with personal references, the differences between “art” and “porn”. NSFW.
• Understanding Society considers the latest thinking on causal mechanisms in modern sociology.
• Window on Eurasia wonders if non-Russian languages in Russia are attacked out of anxiety over Russian’s own decline, and speculates that if integration of mostly Muslim immigrants goes poorly in Moscow, the city could get locked in sectarian conflict.