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late February 2019
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See the 5 brightest planets in 1 day (Earth & Sky) but you'll have to look both before dawn & after sunset plus Earth makes 6 asteroids, KBOs, & moons rule the news Water stayed liquid on Ceres for millions of years? (Earth & Sky) says salty surface deposits.... did life chemistry begin? A new geologic map for Charon (AGU) reveals its history: 3 distinct eras of volcanic cryoflow? published article (J Geophysical Research: Planets) 3 (non-alien) explanations for Oumuamua (Science News) ice fractal? comet skeleton? ice shard? A new farthest solar-system object (Science) FarFarOut that's it's name is 120 au away A 7th inner moon for Neptune (Nature) is just a chip off another, Proteus What the lack of craters on MU69 (aka Ultime Thule) means (AAS Nova) far fewer small KBO objects exist than thought? confirmed by the best high-resolution image so far (JHU APL) Ryugu gets 'mined' (Science) successfully by shoot & grab.... samples return to Earth in late 2020 12 U.S. science experiments for the Moon (NASA) in 2019? dream on archaeastronomy Brittany: source of European megaliths? (Earth & Sky) published paper (PNAS) Is active volcanism melting Mars's subsurface ice? (Earth & Sky) climate changing A world without clouds? (Quanta) would add another 8 °C (14 °F) of warming but not so fast, it could be a local effect (Science) others say climate solutions is the Green Deal it? no We need better than a Green New Deal (Washington Post) a jobs guarantee & Medicare-for-all are irrelevant to 'green' An ambitious climate plan is needed... (New York) the GND isn't it yes Climate change is an emergency! (Vox) but it's part of a bigger picture maybe Ideology over science? (The Atlantic) Bad policy, good politics (NY Times) and see The Inhabitable Earth book reviews elsewhere on this page El Niño 2019 arrives? (Earth & Sky) climate stupidity Miami is drowning, but condos are still going up (The Guardian) climate law A growing number of climate lawsuits (Vox) farmers, fishermen, kids, cities, & states Should fossil-fuel executives be on trial for crimes against humanity? (Jacobin) |
Did the ns-ns merger produce a jet after all? (Science News) but short GRBs might still be a puzzle Zombie stars (Scientific American) how to survive a Type-Ia-supernova explosion A river of stars flowing through our neighborhood (Astronomy) Gaia gives us a 3-D picture The star that explodes once every year (Astronomy) The importance of Type I SNe color (Astrobites) An astounding flare on a pre-main-seqence star (Earth & Sky) 1010x stronger than the brightest solar flare The inner lives of neutron stars (Scientific American, March 2019 issue) nature's weirdest form of matter paywal |
How to find alien life (National Geographic, March 2019 issue) that 'probably exists' free, but requires email signup a long read with great pictures Tidal stress on close-in rocky exoplanets could drive plate tectonics (Astronomy) ... and life unless they spiral into their star and disappear first (Astrobites) |
Hubble tension Dark forces messing with the cosmos? (NY Times) an attempt by NYT to portray current cosmology research is, as always, muddled by Overbye's fuzzy language that goes for style and mystery over substance additional reading on ideas referred to in the above: a readable intro to the Hubble constant disagreement (arXiv) see Figure 1 at the end does the Hubble tension require new physics? (arXiv) a Bayesian analysis's short answer: more early dark energy could solve the problem the JHU 'early dark energy' idea (arXiv) just read the first page quintessence: dark energy increases with time? (Sky & Telescope) a short summary of a new publication (arXiv) flimsy evidence at the moment (and relies on quasars as 'standard-candles') neutrinos and cosmology (LBL PDG) do 4 neutrinos fit the data better? avoiding the tension with local voids (Astrobites) gravitational waves from neutron-star mergers could resolve the tension (phys.org) but only if we find 50x more of them and how other data coming soon might settle the issue (Scientific American) and, as always, there are the dark-energy deniers (Physics World) ----------------------- The universe really is expanding isotropically (Science News) say supernovae at least to within 1% An intruder dwarf galaxy or a giant globular cluster? (AAS Nova) how to tell The search for intermediate-mass black holes (Astrobites) at least some SMBHs must result from mergers of smaller ones Still missing baryons? (Astronomy) How to measure the curvature of spacetime (Starts with a Bang) |
Why neutrons and protons behave differently when they're in a nucleus (Nature) is it the overall nuclear field, or do just nearest neighbors count? with some evidence for the latter Is dark matter's 'WIMP miracle' dead? (Start with a Bang) The universe as hologram? (Quanta) but no, this is not 'widely believed' The quantum Born rule gets reconstructed from first principles? (Quanta) but you'd better know the Born rule before reading this, because the article doesn't tell you until the last paragraph |
The 6 cons of Trump (Washington Post) sums it up nicely and what we wouldn't know if not for last November's elections (Washington Post) NC election fraud live streaming (WRAL TV) Live updates, day 4 even Harris throws in the towel... NCBE unanimously calls for new election Live updates, day 3 (Raleigh N&O) Harris campaign now admits it didn't do real background check on Dowless -- and that Harris was warned away from him by his own son Live updates, day 2 (Raleigh N&O) Live updates from NC Election Board hearing, day 1 (Raleigh N&O) Britt admits she voted other people's ballots What happened & what's next in NC's 9th district 'election' (Vox) the absentee "problem" in the Nov. '19 election... what's next: either certification of Nov's winner (Harris-R) or a new election? Is this the best chance for gerrymandering reform in NC? (Raleigh N&O) GOP legislators who supported gerrymandering reform in the past (Raleigh N&O) half of them? --------------------- work, money, and the 1% It's still the economy (American Prospect) that's the problem The rich are still getting richer (The Nation) the wall that inequality has built The power of a $15 wage (NY Times) not just saving lives, but also improving them but Is work making us miserable? (Atlantic) How the upper middle class is really doing (NY Times) the 9% behind the top 1% A citizenship question on the census? (Vox) depends on what the government will do with the answers Catholic abuse The gay Catholic priest abuse mess (New York) Why the priesthood needs women (NY TImes) and the absurd: Why celibacy matters (NY Times) but the question is never answered books The Uninhabitable Earth Three things people misunderstand about climate change (The Atlantic) speed, scope, and severity Why it's time to panic about climate change (Vox) the hellscape that awaits us A future you don't want to live in (Grist) is mostly a climate lexicon Time to panic (NY Times) by the author ------------------- Can American capitalism survive? (Vox) Time Reborn (Physics Today) is the future as real as the present? Fool Britannia (NY Books) the idiocy of Brexit Endless pollution (The Nation) 3 books on how we chose pollution in our endless quest for energy The Second Kind of Impossible (Science News) the quest for quasicrystals In the Closet of the Vatican (New York) corruption exposed ------------------- reading for Presidents Day Perfecting our union (Atlantic) by Barack Obama, from 2012 How spin became part of the bully pulpit (Wilson quarterly) from 2011 Last Days of LBJ (Atlantic) from 1973 Lincoln's foreign policy helped win the Civil War (Vox) Time changes legacies (NBC) Snowflake in chief (Atlantic) denigrating free speech: Trump today ------------------------- trips art & science Walking in Galileo's footprints (Astronomy) in Italy, on the 455th anniversary of his birth Rembrandt's 350th All the Rembrandts (Rijksmuseum) yep, all 400... or download the free audio-visual tour of 33 Rembrandt, the complete artist (Art Newspaper, 54-minute podcast) and why Rembrandt still matters (NY Times) Revisiting Middle-Earth (NY Times) a Tolkien exhibit in NYC geographic wonder The Grand Canyon (Guardian) 100 years of adventure Bonaire (NY Times) coral and cactus Revisiting Jaspar Johns, soon (NY Times) The Northern Lights (Washington Post) visit while we still have a magnetic field Monumental loss in Syria (NY Books) Palmyra, Aleppo, and more practical How to stay fresh on long trips (NY Times) and generic charges and cables you can trust |
bad tech Facebook labeled "digital gangster" (The Guardian) by "destroying democracy", says GB parliament summary, with link to full report Amazon laid bare NYC did us all a favor (NY Times) standing up for humans Amazon got what it deserved (Atlantic) shame for a multi-billion-$ company seeking billion-$ subsidies Rejecting citizen concerns (NY Times) by NYC's mayor but the Governor begs to differ (NY TImes) and vents about the left Amazon's 2019 profits: $11 billion; its taxes: 0 (Washington Post) is it a wonder taxpayers are mad? and an explanation of its low taxes (Vox) sort of science Pushing the boundaries of the Periodic Table (Science News) where will it end? What really killed the dinosaurs (Scientific American) the 1-2 punch of an asteroid and then volcanoes The squid that glows (Quanta) symbiosis in evolution 4 new letters be added to the DNA alphabet (Nature) broadening the variety of life? with 4 new bases that don't exist in nature or at least in nature found on Earth In thunderstorms, voltage differences can reach more than 1.3 billion volts (Science News) what the muons told us How pollen gets its diverse shapes (Science News) We know why zebras have stripes, finally (Quartz) to ward off biting flies how disappointingly mundane Milk is everywhere (NY Times) in the animal kingdom and with a 3000-year history (Science News) starting with humans in Mongolia? and math, sort of What it's like to be 'the only' black mathematician (NY Times) Möbius strip packing (Quanta) defying a link with infinity The secret history of woman in coding (NY Times) a long read |
early February 2019 limited time? read the best of early February: 1) a banner month of Trump truth-trampling 2) Earth's magnetic field: past and present 3) molecules in space: surpassing 200 4) 30% of Americans are creationists: does all else follow? 5) football: is it worth it? 6) asteroids, moon,.... and Oumaumau continue to make news 7) climate changing: stronger hurricanes, melting ice, & the 4th hottest year |
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New images from the far side of the Moon (Earth & Sky) Opportunity's greatest hits (Earth & Sky) small bodies Ultima Thule: now it's two lumpy pancakes (Science News) in shape Join the search for killer asteroids (Wired) Micrometeorites are everywhere (Verge) how to find them A preliminary map of asteroid Ryugu (Scientific American) and more about where the place- names come from (JAXA) How/why did a sub- surface ocean resurface Pluto's moon Charon? (Astronomy) an eruption or a slow leak? Harvard chair's Oumuamua 'obsession' brings out the crazies (Washington Post) read the article's comments How Curiosity weighed a mountain (Astronomy) Earth's magnetic field Did its near- disappearance drive a mass extinction 565 Myr ago? (Scientific American) published article (Nature Geoscience) free to read but not to save The North Pole is still wandering the Arctic (NY Times) Why penguins don't see the same aurorae that the Inuit do (Astronomy) the magnetic field's asymmetry climate changing 2018: 4th warmest year on record (NY Times) only the last 3 were hotter based on Assessing the 2018 Global Climate (NOAA) and 2018 continues the warming trend (NASA) or the graphs-only version (NASA) An upheaval in the AMOC? (Science News) climate consequences Find your city's climate future (Scientific American) a new app finds the current city your weather will be like in 2080 Durham to become Tallahassee, FL? (Raleigh N&O) if world emissions are not cut published article (Nature Communications) Atlantic hurricanes are intensifying rapidly (Washington Post) say NOAA experts based on published article (Nature Communications) Widespread loss of lake ice within a generation (NY Times) and why winter ice cover is important based on published article (Nature Climate Change) free to read but not to save How melting Antarctic ice could change weather worldwide (Vox) hotter in some places; cooler, in others The connection between the polar vortex and global warming (The Conversation) it's easier for frigid air to plunge south in the U.S. because of Arctic warming but the planet overall is still warmer than normal Attack of the polar bears! (Washington Post) no, it's not a movie communicating climate change The Human Element (Science News) documenting how human activities are changing the planet a just-released documentary Gone in a generation (Washington Post) economic & lifestyle consequences of global warming NC: flooding and hurricanes the decline of Western forest health New England fisheries California wildfires ------------------- climate solutions Is nuclear energy the solution? (NY Times) book review |
Molecules in space (Sky & Telescope) in between (& around) stars, with star birth, & now in exoplanet atmospheres and the full and detailed census (Astrophysical Journal) the count is now 200+, increasing by ~4 per year no paywall the largest are the fullerenes, including C60 and C70 and it's how I got to Duke |
An exoplanet formed from the collision of two larger bodies? (Earth & Sky) A comet-blasted star (Scientific American) reminiscent of the late heavy bombardment The Exoplanet Next Door (Scientific American February '19 issue) visiting Venus will help us find life elsewhere paywall |
The Milky Way's warped disk (Earth & Sky) who did it? Andromeda is still gunning for the Milky-Way (Earth & Sky) but, 0.6 Byr later, & a glancing-blow (not head-on) collision says Gaia update Have we mis-measured the universe? (Scientific American) another attempt at reconciling the H0 tension.... by adjusting the size of the sound horizon in the early universe or, maybe, local voids can explain the tension? (Astrobites) Is dark energy getting stronger with time? (Astronomy) says a quasar-as- standard-candle study when did quasars become standard candles?!? or much ado about nothing (yet) (Sky & Telescope) preprint of published article (arXiv) Tiny galaxy found just beyond the Local Group (Earth & Sky) hiding behind a globular cluster |
The quantum pigeon- hole paradox (Science News) photons don't have to share roosts The sole magnetic- monopole detection (Starts with a Bang) its upcoming 37th anniversary sensationalistic as always, but has some good physics Black holes: astrophysical ones & mathematical ones (Quanta) don't confuse them |
The only national emergency: Trump's incompetence (Vox) Alden Global: how to suppress actual news and local newspapers (Washington Post) buy newspapers, slash jobs, and sell the buildings Kleptocracy comes to America (Atlantic) The Green New Deal, unveiled (NY Times) well, the resolution introduced in the U.S. House but why it won't solve climate change (New York) there's no 'how' there (yet) Trump in the spotlight when did presidential interviews pre-SuperBowl become a thing? Fact-checking the State-of-the-Union (Politifact) sigh State of the Union: political malpractice (Atlantic) "We will never be a socialist county": a preview of the 2020 campaign emphasis? (White House) "The Opportunity Costs of Socialism" report by Trump's CEA never mind our socialist military, police and fire, TSA, FDA, EPA, DoA safety inspectors, USPS, public education, public libraries, Medicare, Social Security, interstate highways, & more Excerpts from Trump's pre-SOTU NYT interview (NY Times) the long version Fact-checking Trump's NYT interview (Boston Globe) false, misleading, exaggerated, false, false, misleading and this is new? Trump's pre-SOTU 60-mintues interview (CBS) paywall Trump has called for at least 18 investigations of his enemies (Washington Post) yet Trump thinks that investigating him is 'presidential harassment' and particularly rich after years of Trump wanting Obama investigated for not being born in America 22 things Trump knows more about "than anyone" (Axios) including ISIS, the economy, infrastructure, technology, national security & works harder than any President ever taxing the rich A better way to tax the rich? (NY Times) capital gains & stock dividends whatever way it's done, it's popular (Vox) ditto says 538 but The 'reformist left' versus isn't necessarily ascendant over the 'cultural left' (Vox) a warning from the man who predicted the rise of Trump ------------------- trips Viewing the northern lights (NY Times) while touring Sweden China's Daocheng County (Atlantic) 36 hours in San Juan (NY Times) after hurricane Maria? How to get to Congress (NY Times) or at least how every current member did Razor wire tops the wall on Nogales (Washington Post) 12 Leonardo exhibits to open simultaneously in the UK in 2019 (Royal Collection) each with a part of the Queen's voluminous collection of his drawings Earth's magnetic- pole journey across the Arctic (NY Times) |
30% of Americans are creationists (Scientific American) and believe that humans have not evolved isn't this more of a crisis than the one at the border? Treasures in the complex plane (Quanta) Collapse of the insects? (The Guardian) part of the 6th extinction? The emotional toll of grad school (Scientific American) Time for a teachers' movement? (Jacobin) 3 ways to make college more affordable (NY Times) Senator Lamar Alexander - TN Illuminating a long-suspected connection between addition & multiplication (Quanta) Shaking up the U.S. House Science panel (Science) but why do the new subcommittee chairs have no science background? Beware of 'Inference' (UnDark) a journal that publishes both real science and junk science? and funded by Peter Thiel or a storm over nothing? (Inference) more on the Periodic Table anniversary (Science) A brief visual history Ordering the table Mendeleev's first attempts Periodic Table special issue but most all articles are under a paywall (it's Science, remember) ------------------- bad tech Fbook turns 15 A friendship no one asked for (NY Times) Has it been good for the world? (Vox) 15 views, mostly cautious 15 years of Facebook: what we have lost (The Guardian) What is fact-checking worth to Fbook? (Atlantic) more than nothing... but not much more The 'news' hypocrisy of Google and Fbook (NY Times) presenting the gravest threat to quality journalism Fbook says it took down 2.8 billion fake accounts last year (NY Times) it has only 2.3 billion real ones why does anyone take it seriously? ------------------- Tech: splitting the world into two (NY Times) a small group of well- educated workers with rising wages, but most in low-wage jobs with no chance to advance football is it worth it? What football does to your brain (Vox) concussions and brain damage White flight from football (The Atlantic) but still the best option for black kids? Rural communities struggle to adapt to life without football (The Atlantic) the players aren't the only ones feeling the loss ------------------- |
| late January 2019 limited time? read the best of late January: 1) news about Earth 2) news about Saturn & Titan 3) the many bad health consequences of global warming 4) celebrating the anniversary of the Periodic Table 5) do we need a new particle collider? 6) melting Greenland and melting glaciers join melting Antarctica 7) news about ancient life 8) the lying, bullying, self-puffery, & ignorance get worse: Trump at 2 years |
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Saturn & Titan How Titan made its atmosphere? (Earth & Sky) by cooking organics in its interior and not by chemical conversion of comet-brought NH3 based on published article (Astrophysical J.) no paywall Methane rain is falling on Titan's north pole (Earth & Sky) from cloudless skies, no less New measurement of the mass of Saturn's rings (= 0.0002 MMoon) (Science) and a new age: 107 - 108 yrs ago a short summary (Astronomy) and a new rotation period for Saturn (Astronomy) 10h 33m Titan's veil (Sky & Telescope, February 2019 issue) Saturn's largest moon has an amazingly complex atmosphere with all the ingredients for life paywall ----------------------- Earth Did Earth's inner core begin to solidify only 0.56 Byrs ago? (Nature) (much more recently than thought previously) but just in time to save its magnetic field? based on published article (Nature Geoscience) no paywall Oldest known Earth rock found -- on the Moon (USRA) 4 billion years old, and brought back here by Apollo 14 based on published article (Science Direct) paywall Planet crash that created the Moon brought elements to Earth crucial to the emergence of life (The Guardian) C, N, S, and H based on published paper (Science Advances) 5 explosive things we've learned about Kilauea (Science News) when Earth got pummeled The rate of asteroid impacts on Earth increased by 2.6x 290 million yrs ago (Quanta) and on the Moon... plus evidence of a global erosion event 700 million yrs ago additional commentary (Science News) including: lunar impacts, set to music but note the skepticism at the article's end published paper in Science paywall, of course ------------------- ultima thule Ultima Thule science update (arXiv) 2-page abstract of forthcoming review by the New Horizons lead scientist and an even shorter summary (Sky & Telescope) and a new high- resolution image (Sky & Telescope) showing several impact craters but not enough of them?: A remarkably smooth face for Ultima Thule (Science News) where are the impact craters? does this mean few small KBOs in the outer solar system? (arXiv) no, says: have we finally found the rest of the tiny KBOs? (Earth & Sky) based on published article (Nature Astronomy) A new Ultima Thule movie (Johns Hopkins) showing approach by New Horizons seeing U.T . for the first time (Scientific American) as it happened ------------------ Planet 9 Aligned orbits of (some) KBOs don't require a Planet 9 (Earth & Sky) a disk of lots of KBOs could do the aligning KBOs = Kuiper-belt-objects = TNOs = trans-Neptunian-objects published article (Astronomical Journal) Mars The last of Opportunity on Mars? (NY Times) only silence since last summer's global dust storm the lunar eclipse lunar eclipse pictures (Earth & Sky) or watch a 53-second video (Raleigh N&O) Total lunar eclipse visible in all of N/S America, Jan 20-21, 2019 (Sky & Telescope) a guide to 62 minutes of totality... and a primer on why we have eclipses (Vox) and why did the meteorite that hit the Moon during the eclipse make a flash? (Earth & Sky) ----------------------- climate changing 2018: 4th warmest year on record (Berkeley Earth) after the previous 3 climate consequences As the planet warms, plants will take up less CO2 (NY Times) The dire consequences of having fewer days below freezing (Vox) winters are warming faster than summers public health A public health emergency (Scientific American) 8 reasons why climate change endangers our health Climate Change - a health emergency (New England Journal of Medicine) 4 climate-related disasters cost the U.S. $53 billion and 176 lives (Scientific American) in 2018 based on Weather, Climate, and Catastrophic Insight 84-page annual report melting glaciers Melting glaciers: bad news for wildlife & humans (Scientific American) details: North American glaciers are melting 4x faster than in previous decade (The Guardian) based on published article (Geophysical Research Letters) and ditto in Patagonia, South America (Nature Climate Change) melting Greenland Greenland ice melting 4x faster than in 2003 (phys.org) Greenland ice melting nears 'tipping point' (NY Times) and why that's scary (Vox) based on the research article (PNAS) joining stories from the Antarctic and Asia earlier this month Is Antarctica collapsing? (Scientific American February '19 issue) paywall How much ice is Antarctica losing? (Scientific American) a lot the economic downsides Global warming's giant impact on the economy (NY Times) 4 key issues Helping to wipe out coffee (NY Times) climate solutions How to win public support for a carbon tax? (Nature) give the revenues back to the citizens |
The life cycle of a solar flare (Astronomy) animated, but scarily real Collecting our galaxy's stars (Astronomy) the MaNGA stellar spectra library At the heart of a stellar explosion (Nature) a supernova accompanying a γ-ray burst A γ-ray burst is followed by a hypernova (Astsrophysical Institute, Andalusia) order matters |
It's time to look for ET technology (Science News) and fund it, seriously and NASA's new technosignature report (arXiv) Advanced ETs: an approximation to God? (Scientific American) The plants that didn't flower (for very long) on the Moon (Atlantic) but might on Mars planetary formation Do hot Jupiters form close to their stars? (Astronomy) and not migrate there? Does the sub- Saturn desert call into question the core-accretion theory? (Sky & Telescope) no, but it makes for good press but, yes Formation of planetary systems is messy (Astronomy) especially ours for example: A bizarrely-oriented proto-planetary disk in a binary (Earth & Sky) ----------------- |
The fate of the universe is determined (partly) by Hubble's constant (Scientific American) and different methods (Cepheids vs. CMB) are still giving different results and a new method (from LIGO/VIRGO) gives a larger value (arXiv) but with large uncertainties An SMBH with 15% of its galaxy's mass (Astrobites) did it lose almost all of its stars? Is the Milky Way SMBH radio jet pointing directly at Earth? (Sky & Telescope) teasing out the structure around a black hole, but still waiting on the Event-Horizon- telescope's image of a black hole (Science News) Hidden history of Milky Way revealed (Nature) by GAIA's star extensive maps What came before the Big Bang? (Sky & Telescope, February '19 issue) with some interesting ideas paywall |
A second galaxy free of dark matter found (arXiv) and in the very same galaxy cluster provides hints of a dark matter breakthrough? (Scientific American) Starts with a Bang has more details Astrobites has even more Disputing the origin of LIGO's gravitational waves? (Scientific American) are they from lower-mass black holes in the distant past, and not nearby more massive black holes? (and two of the events are different lensed images of a single event) based on arXiv submission but LIGO people say not Another gravitational wave detector about to join the hunt (Science News) Japan's KAGRA will improve triangulation a new collider? Why we need a new particle collider (Science 2.0) or Why we don't (BackReaction) did the CERN group's video lie? The uncertain future of particle physics (NY Times) the LHC has failed to deliver on its promises or is this just sour grapes? (Science 2.0) by the 'left behind' Should the Europeans give up? (Not Even Wrong) and speaking of false claims in particle physics (Science 2.0) and 4 more colliders on the wish list (Science News) but why physicists aren't excited about a new collider (Vox) a well-balanced summary ---------------------- Travel the universe by black hole: closer to reality? (Astronomy) uh, no we'll have a wall on the Canadian border first |
American exceptionalism (NY Books) going strong, in national decline, or just another retooling? language & assimilation Duke Med School apologizes over complaint over speaking Chinese (Raleigh N&O) What does it take to be American enough? (Washington Post) is anything enough? ----------------------- The dilemma for the subscribers of bad local newspapers (Washington Post) cancel in protest? or stay? as the N&O gets closer and closer to 'bad' Should America abolish billionaires? (New York) or is that calling the American dream immoral? remembering MLK Jr. How white supremacy was enshrined into law (New Yorker) Plessy-Ferguson a long read NC's huge role in civil rights (Raleigh N&O) from sit-ins to lawsuits The whitewashing of the MLK holiday (Atlantic) how to kill a revolution Remember the MLK that wasn't so liked (Raleigh N&O) justice over peace MLK warned us of the 'well-intentioned liberal' (The Nation) no compromise on racial justice co-authored by NC's William J. Barber MLK's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Atlantic) without commentary a long read ---------------------- book reviews, excerpts, et al. Quantum Space (Backreaction) an intro to loop quantum gravity, a string theory competitor by Jim Baggott, and not be confused with a fiction book with the same title The secrets in Lyndon Johnson's archives (New Yorker) Robert Caro tells all a long read Kelly Anne Conway: "a cartoon villain brought to life" (Vanity Fair) excerpt from Team of Vipers, by former Trump aide One Person, No Vote (Vox) how the GOP turned voter suppression into an art The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (NY Times) a new history of Native Americans ---------------------- how to be clueless & insensitive especially when you're rich Commerce Secretary Ross doesn't understand why non-paid federal employees need food banks (Washington Post) instead, "they should take out loans" and pay interest on pay they have yet to receive Trump's chief economic advisor: unpaid workers are 'volunteering ... out of allegiance to Trump' (Splinter) no, Mr. Kudlow, it's not volunteering if you lose your job if you don't show up Trump's CEA chair calls shutdown 'a free vacation' for furloughed workers (Politico) Lara Trump to federal workers: missed paychecks are sacrifices for the future (Washington Post) It's "a little bit of pain" so, they don't even get to eat cake? just bread? (French for bread: le pain ... nice pun, Lara) Coast Guard tips to unpaid families: have a garage sale (Washington Post) or maybe declare bankruptcy ---------------------- Trump at 2 years How Trump has changed America in two years (The Guardian) in 5 policy areas The historic results of Donal J. Trump's presidency (The White House) Trump's campaign promises, 2 years later (NPR) a progress report How Trump's policies have affected immigration (Vox) The dealmaker who can't make a deal (Washington Post) The top 7 media attacks on Trump (Fox News) 2 years after Trump asked black voters: 'What do you have to lose?" (ThinkProgress) answer: Plenty The continuing Trump climate hoax (Atlantic) if there's snow on TV, there can't be global warming the planet is pretty warm this week, except in the U.S. -------------------- The fight over men (NY Times) is political, and it's shaping our future A bad week for Confederate monuments (Vox) in AL and NC art & trips 100th anniversary of Goya's black paintings (The Guardian) at the Prado Sri Lanka (NY Times) to be savored slowly Lucio Fontana in NYC (NY Times) slashing his way to the sublime? maybe slashing his way to innovation, which isn't necessarily art Welcome to El Paso (NY Books) at the border 36 hours in Scottsdale (NY Times) and nothing included about native Americans? |
real science Why ice is slippery (Vox) in case you forgot, but in time for the polar votex the Periodic Table anniversary, continued (Nature) The prehistory of the periodic table the 2000 years before atomic theory... a book review The women behind the periodic table Brigitte Van Tiggelen & Annette Lykknes, among others Can quantum ideas explain the periodic table's puzzles? (Nature) chemistry's greatest icon is still incomplete The first synthetic element element 43: technetium Extreme chemistry: experiments at the edge of the periodic table chasing new elements, and understanding the known super-heavy ones Remembering Primo Levi's 'The Periodic Table' are more people familiar with this than the chemistry one? ------------------ Does the 15-puzzle explain how magnets work? (Quanta) Recovering Earth's lost tectonic history (Nature) from the deep mantle ancient life When the Neanderthals & the Denisovans crossed paths (Science News) 200,000 yrs ago, in a cave Did humans tame themselves? (Atlantic) by killing off aggressive males Researching ancient DNA: revealing new truths .... (NY Times) ... or falling into old traps? a long read and 5 takeaways (NY Times) if you can't sit still long enough to read the whole thing Why are there (recent?) animal remains in Antarctic ice cores? (Nature) waiting on age analysis -------------------- bad science CRISPR-baby scientist fired by his university (Nature) for violating national regulations? Can gene-editing of human embryos be stopped? (NY Times) An $18,000 gender pay gap for U.S. PhD scientists (Nature) men get paid more, in case you weren't sure ---------------------- computer science Seeing around corners? (Scientific American) coming soon to your phone? published article (Nature) and its summary how reflected light is used to re-construct an unseen object Can AI be made ethical? (Washington Post) or is ethical AI an oxymoron? The hard part of Computer Science (NY Times) getting into class ---------------------- disrupting science & hopefully not returning For young astronomers, financial woes & uncertain work (Sky & Telescope) postdocs are on unpaid leave Britain's Brexit (Nature) America's shutdown (Science) The shutdown: a secret Trumpian plot to keep NASA from measuring ice loss due to global warming (Science) just kidding, sort of ---------------------- teachers and teaching NC lawmakers need to stop trashing public schools (Raleigh N&O) says NC Public School Form... instead, make NC Schools our #1 priority Why America's teachers are furious (The Atlantic) from WV to LA Why they had to strike (LA Times) and the just- approved settlement smaller classes, new community schools, a 6% raise, & more It's about survival, not elitism (NY Times) California schools were once the nation's envy (The Guardian) what happened? (answer: Prop 13) Who wants to be a college president? (The Atlantic) how politics is reshaping education Liberal arts may not survive the 21st century (Atlantic) an idiotic scare article ---------------------- bad math How Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross got the math/statistics behind the citizenship census question wrong (Science) but let's not confuse the issue by calling it 'science ---------------------- bad tech FBook's privacy scandals: who cares... $7 billion in profits (CNN) in 2018's last quarter Snowed by a Fox con(n) job (Washington Post) WI still waiting on those 13,000 jobs Is it possible to make e-scooters safe? (Washington Post) maybe, with these changes Social media: rotting democracy from within (Vox) enabling the far-right authoritarians The digital destruction of democracy (American Prospect) but the solution is far from obvious 74% of FB users have no idea that FB is keeping track of their personal data (Vox) hurrah for American ignorance! based on the research study Facebook algorithms and personal data (Pew Research) and How to fight back, even in small measures (NY Times) 'We are no longer consumers': when our data is for sale (WBUR OnPoint, 1-hour podcast) w/ the author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" Google, how much did I make for you today? (NY Times) book review of the above |
early January 2019 limited time? read the best of early January: 1) asteroid encounters: both New Horizons @ Ultima Thule & OSIRIS-Rex @ Bennu will return samples (someday) 2) bad climate news keeps on coming ocean warming 40% faster than thought rate of Antarctic ice loss has sextupled in 4 decades U.S. carbon emissions up in 2018 after 3 flat years 3) government shutdown punishes the innocent 4) a slew of discoveries at the American Astronomical Society meeting holy Cow! a new way for stars to die? a 2nd repeating FRB light echoes bounce off a black hole's accretion disk 5) truth and lies at the border 6) AOC's 70% tax on the ultrarich 7) 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table 8) millennials (sigh) |
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the solar system |
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Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-Rex: bringing asteroid dust back to Earth (Science News) from Ryugu and Bennu Did nearby supernovae kill off large animals? (Quanta) such as the Megalodon shark? Are the solar system's ocean worlds dead inside? (Space) the bedrock may be rock solid Venus has giant streaky patterns in its clouds (JAXA) @AAS New images of Io's volcanoes (Earth & Sky) from Juno are amazing The glaciers of Mercury (Astronomy) the hottest planet click on the first link within to see the process Ultima Thule: New Horizons latest updates (Johns Hopkins) What, where, & how to watch (Space) Discoveries so far (JPL) best image collection (Sky & Telescope) so far watch events live on NASA TV (despite the partial government shutdown) now in a data-transmitting hiatus until 1/10... press briefings to return after prior press briefings: Thursday (1/3): press briefing on the first science results... updates on color, composition, and cratering.... & have your red/blue 3-D glasses handy Wednesday (1/2) press briefing announces: it's a snowman! (ok, a contact binary) not a bowling pin, maybe detached, maybe not... plus: the rotation period (~15 hours); possible formation simulation (likely accretion); the first color images of oldest primordial object seen close-up; and apparently no moons Tuesday (1/1) press conference (YouTube) post-encounter, first images NH phones home (Washington Post) at 10:31 am ET the JPL scene, @ encounter (Washington Post) early on 1/1 Pluto and beyond (PBS NOVA, 1-hr video) on New Horizons, released 1/2/19 free until 1/30/19 ------------------- Chang'e 4 on the Moon Latest images (NY Times) including a 360° panorama China's Chang'e 4 touches down on far side of Moon (Science News) first images more details (Earth & Sky) including touchdown video and the science we hope to learn (The Guardian) Why the far side of the Moon matters (Atlantic) ------------------- OSIRIS-Rex at Bennu OSIRIS-Rex now in orbit around Bennu (Earth & Sky) smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft ------------------- Earth Did an ancient cataclysm jump- start life here? (Science) wow! a meaty free article from Science Why is Earth's magnetic field acting up? (Nature) it's left Canada & is heading toward Siberia but the current model can't be updated to the world (Vice) because of the government shutdown A good chunk of Earth's rock record is missing (LA Times) Snowball Earth? Earth was closest to the Sun on 1/3, 12:20 am EST (Earth & Sky) feeling warm yet? How nature could wipe out humanity (Vox) asteroids, supernovae, & supervolcanoes No, Washington Post, space exploration is not Space X, ISS, or Virgin Galactic (Washington Post) space exploration is New Horizons, Juno, Cassini, Dawn, TESS, Hubble, & Chandra stop confusing them Mars Where did all that methane go? (Earth & Sky) climate changing A primer on global warming (Starts with a Bang) Are trees climate saviors? (Nature) or is the situation much more complex? Why surging air traffic is a huge problem for climate (Vox) U.S. airlines have an abysmal climate footprint U.S. carbon emissions uptick in 2018 (Washington Post) 3.4% above 2017, unexpectedly, after 3 years of decline although still down 11% from 2005 based on the Rhodium report which has the best graphs and that's even with many coal plants closing (NY Times) consequences of greenhouse gas warming Are we on track to live through the worst-case climate scenario? (Atlantic) we're far closer to it than we should be Antarctic ice loss rate has sextupled since the 1970s (Washington Post) an alarming study based on 4 Decades of Antarctic Ice Mass Balance (National Academy of Sciences) Melting glaciers = loss of drinking water (NY Times) a story centered on Asia accelerating ocean warming Oceans warming is accelerating than thought (NY Times) says new research, with some Argo details or Oceans are warming faster than thought (Scientific American) 40% faster than previous estimates and What we've learned since the IPCC- AR5 report in 2013 (Science) and why ocean temperatures are a more reliable indicator of planet warming than land temperatures Ocean heating due to global warming: 1 atom bomb/sec for last 150 yrs (The Guardian) based on A new historical analysis of the heat storage and uptake in the oceans (NY Academy of Sciences) ----------------------- More eastern Antarctic glaciers are losing ice (Earth & Sky) Methane is being released by Greenland glacial melt (Nature) is it making it into the atmosphere? climate solutions 11 climate change policies to fight for in 2019 (Washington Post) some personal, some require government action Scrubbing carbon from the sky (Scientific American January 2019 issue) can we remove enough CO2 from the atmosphere to reverse climate change? paywall or a non-paywall (better?) article: Sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere (Vox) explained from 2 months ago The case for 'conditional optimism' (Vox) but limiting damage requires rapid & radical change The Road to 'Hothouse Earth' is Paved with Good Intentions (Intereconomics) 39-page policy paper a case for pessimism? 2019: reasons for climate optimism? (The Guardian) or more wishful thinking? How the GOP smokescreens on climate policy (Vox) "innovation, not regulation" is a joke climate law Supreme Court lets Exxon-Mobil lawsuit proceed (Vox) Mass. AG can investigate E-M's knowledge of climate effects environment How Trump's wall would destroy an extraordinary web of biodiversity (Scientific American) forever Trump's wall would be an ecological disaster (Vox) what plants and animals are affected 'stupidest article even written'? (Washington Post) "environmentalists want to make your real life worse" dirty air & water, unsafe food forever! |
A new technique for dating the ages of white dwarfs (Embry Riddle U) @AAS 'The puzzling 'Cow' gets a lot of press, but not much known (Sky & Telescope) did a black hole or neutron star form? @AAS more details here (Earth & Sky) or is it a new way for stars to die? (Science News) tidal disruption of a dense white dwarf by an off-center SMBH or a black-hole forming SN still feeding on outer remnants? 'Thousands' of white dwarfs are 'turning into crystals' (U of Warwick) first direct evidence of metallic carbon and oxygen in their cores @AAS fulfilling a 50-year-old prediction (Astrophysical Journal) Trigger of a type IA supernova identified by its old ejecta (U Washington) a red giant (that dumped matter on its companion white dwarf) @AAS Probing the region around a black hole (U of Maryland) with 'light echo' reverberation mapping (a first for a small black hole) with a nice animation and it makes the Nature front cover @AAS and showing the contraction of the corona around a black hole during an accretion transient (Nature) A new library of stellar spectroscopy (SDSS) @AAS Did Earth's sand & glass originate in type I SNe? (Monthly Notices of the RAS) |
A rare exoplanet, discovered by a citizen scientist (Earth & Sky) a small temperate planet, in the Fulton gap, in a low-mass binary system @AAS Life on Barnard's star planet? (Villanova U.) just because there's geothermal activity? @AAS Are intermediate- mass planets (aka 'hot Neptunes'?) abundant after all? (Keck Observatory) @AAS are 'sub-Saturns' the same as 'hot Neptunes'? Bad news for life on planets orbiting (M) red dwarf stars? (Hubble) the disk dissipates too soon @AAS A new interactive tool to track SETI searches (SETI) @AAS TESS TESS exoplanet update (Sky & Telescope) but still no catalog despite hundreds of candidates 'found' @AAS and more TESS publicity fluff (NY Times) the bizarre worlds of TESS (Science News) @AAS ------------------- Planets with O2 don't necessarily have life (John Hopkins) a cautionary tale |
19 true facts about cosmology (Preposterous Universe) or misconceptions skewered galaxy clusters One-third of all clusters of galaxies have gone unnoticed.... (CATA, Chile) ..... until now? The Milky Way's satellites: once too few, now too many? (Quanta) but Where are M94's satellite companions? (U Michigan) a puzzle for galaxy formation ------------------- Canada's CHIME finds another repeating FRB (McGill U.) only the 2nd among ~70 @AAS based on accelerated-release paper1 and paper2 (Nature) more details (Earth & Sky) might magnetars be the FRB sources? (Caltech) @AAS a reminder: magnetars vs. neutron stars An annihilated star helps clock black-hole spin (Astronomy) "50% of the speed of light" how can that be? -- if a black hole is a point....? @AAS The brightest quasar in the early universe (Keck Observatory) 6 x 1014 brighter than the sun, at z = 6.51, and gravitationally lensed @AAS A new method for finding merging galaxies (SDSS) the stars' position- velocity diagram @AAS coming attractions 5 ways the universe might end (Starts with a Bang) and you probably thought there we're only 2 A collision with the LMC could eject the solar system from the Milky Way (Earth &s Sky) |
5 things we still don't know about black holes (after LIGO) (Starts With a Bang) and 2 that we do How quantum fields create particles (Starts With a Bang) Another claim for rotating black holes as a portal to else-where & -when (Earth & Sky) I'll believe it after they've solved quantum gravity Einstein's Quantum Riddle (PBS NOVA, 1-hour video) has the last loophole in proving quantum entanglement (aka, spooky action-at-a- distance) been ruled out? free until 2/9/19 Two very different perspectives on the nature of reality (Science News) or making sense of quantum weirdness but 'Through Two Doors at Once" is better than both dark matter It's apparently not mini black holes (Science) Voyager I sees no Hawking radiation from those with mass < 1016 grams Best place to find dark matter: in a rock? (Quanta) Dark matter on the move? (Earth & Sky) new evidence finds it can heat up and move around Do merging black holes lose information? (Starts with a Bang) nice, up to a point, but ignores the firewall dilemma Are space and time a quantum error correcting code? (Quanta) yeah, of course Loopy particle math (Scientific American, January 2019 issue) using math to identify new particles paywall |
@AAS AAS Day 3 20 years of Chandra x-rays (star formation, supernova remnants, & SMBH formation, galaxy clusters), FRBs, exoplanet formation and climatology, limits to understanding cosmology AAS Day 2 more on exoplanets; SDSS; γ-ray bursts & gravitational waves; future NASA missions; astro grad school; astro undergrad education AAS Day 1 (Astrobites) 'Oumuamua, TESS, gravitational-wave astrophysics, dusty, star-forming galaxies ---------------------- miscellaneous science 150 years of the Periodic Table From sketch to masterpiece (Science News) Happy Birthday, Periodic Table (Scientific American) with an interactive periodic table More stories than elements? (Science News) The International Year of the Period Table has begun (IYPT) events, games, activities, & more The Internet Database of Periodic Tables (Meta Synthesis) check out hundreds of versions who knew? such as The underground map of the elements (U of Hull) but why is it sideways? --------------------- We still can't explain the rise of the dinosaurs (Scientific American) says new research An ocean engineer and a nuclear physicist walk into the room.... (NY Times) 11 new scientists in Congress A smartphone app to detect opioid abuse (Science News) the perfect storm for our age? 'Magic angle' graphene shakes up physics (Nature) superconductivity and more Predicting the motion of marathon-runner crowds (Science News) can be done with the laws of fluid mechanics Exercise won't help you lose (much) weight (Vox) the science is clear Physics of rubber-band-shooting (Science News) revealed by high- speed video -------------------- teaching & education Community-college students succeed at elite schools (Atlantic) when they're admitted they graduate at higher rates than incoming freshmen Did you think MOOCs were going to disrupt education? dream on.... (Science) plagued by low completion rates, MOOCs primarily support the already educated (paywall) 5 things the NC legislature could do for public education (Raleigh N&O) pay teachers well(!), restore TAs, + 3 others NC teachers are speaking up (Raleigh N&O) can they keep their momentum going? NC's teacher bonus scheme isn't working (Raleigh N&O) now 3 years in Is it a still a university without a history major? (NY Times) financial and enrollment woes at rural colleges --------------------- publishing It's time for plan S: open access to all science papers (Science) "will the world embrace it"? 'world' = science publishers, not the actual real world plus: China takes the lead in science papers produced How to 'write' your nonfiction book (NY Times) bad tech 'We are no longer consumers': when our data is for sale (WBUR OnPoint, 1-hour podcast) the age of surveillance capitalism The age of tech is over? (Atlantic) they mean profiting from tech stocks Taking Facebook to court (NY Times) for violations of privacy Fbook says users don't have the right to sue How much of the internet is fake? (New York) fake people, fake businesses, fake content, fake metrics the tech that will invade your life in 2019 (NY Times) Advice for MZ at Fbook (The Guardian) and what he'll likely do instead How teachers are being priced out of tech hubs (NY Times) but who needs teachers in the age of tech disruption? 5G is coming (NY Times) maybe 2019 tech predictions (Washington Post) getting worse before it gets better |
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2018: The Year in Review and the year to come |
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the 2019 sky Astronomical calendar (Universal Workshop) well, ok, a day- by-day summary Celestial highlights (Sky & Telescope) Solar and lunar eclipses (Sky & Telescope) a lunar eclipse for N America, 1/20/19 - 1/21/19 Space missions to watch (Sky & Telescope) Sync your calendar with the solar system (NY Times) seems a bit dangerous planets Dynamical evolution of the early solar system (Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2018) 37-page review (paywall) The Pluto system after New Horizons (Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2018) 35-page review (paywall) 2018 in climate The Year in climate change (NY Times) Half a degree steals the spotlight (Science) The story of 2018: climate change (NY Times) so why are we distracted by trivial things? the case for optimism? Year after year, going nowhere fast on climate (NY Times) 3 decades of inaction the case for pessimism? 13 climate and environment stories from 2018 (Intercept) The human cost of climate change (The Guardian) in 2018 The Year of the climate-change lawsuit (Grist) The Year in Precipitation (Climate Central) check your city The Year in volcanoes (Atlantic) 32 amazing pictures Scientific support for harmfulness of greenhouse gases grows stronger (Science) a danger to the public health and welfare 22-page review (no paywall, at the moment) |
Neutron stars and the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements (Annual Review of Nuclear & Particle Science 2018) 21-page review (paywall) |
The origin of hot Jupiters (Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2018) 46-page review (paywall) |
The connection between galaxies and their dark- matter halos (Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2018) 52-page review (paywall) Weak-lensing and precision cosmology (Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2018) 40-page review (paywall) |
The neutrinos that launched a new kind of astronomy (Science News) found by IceCube |
2018, in review What history books will say about 2018? (Politico) 18 historians predict the future 18 striking findings from 2018 (Pew Research) with charts & graphs 10 most important political stories (NPR/WBUR) as chosen by readers Kavanaugh hearings top the list 2018: living in a new gilded age? (Washington Post) the rich get richer; the others, quite the opposite while Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common (Washington Post) The 2018 economy (American Prospect) in 11 graphs The Year in charts (NY Times) that are mostly economic and depressing What workers won and lost this year (Jacobin) How U.S. demographics changed in 2018 (The Conversation) 5 articles to read Why the suburbs abandoned the GOP in 2018 (Vox) what do the suburbs want? and will they come back to the GOP in 2020? The Year in immigration (The Intercept) closing liberty's shores California: last bastion of resistance? (NY Books) 4 things that got better in 2018 (Vox) probably and 18 good things (Washington Post) in 2018 This nightmare before Xmas (Washington Post) who imagined it would be this bad? The Trump turnover (NY Times) a review A year of unprecedented deception (Washington Post) 15+ false claims per day What not to investigate? (Guardian) tough choices for Democrats A year of on-line hate (Washington Post) and the people it changed the local Year 2018 in Durham: new faces and controversies (Raleigh N&O) 2018: A Year of superlatives (Indy Week) the good, the bad, and the ugly an awesome list The Triangle's year in art & culture (Indy Week) and for 2019? What's in, what's out (Washington Post) What will be on your plate in 2019 (NY Times) food trends 7 biggest 2019 stories to watch (Vox) 2019 in preview (Washington Post) 10 forecasts best books 100 notable books (NY Times) and its 10 best Best books (Washington Post) 19 best books (Atlantic) science books Best Science books (Starts with a Bang) emphasizing physics & astro Best books of 2018 (Washington Post) Books for budding scientists (Science) Books that stood out (Physics Today) 13 science books (Science News) A year of great books (Science) sorry, paywall... that says it all about Science best art best visual art top 10 art shows (The Guardian) in mostly London by Jonathan Jones top 10 art exhibitions (The Guardian) in mostly London by Adrian Searle Top 10 art exhibits of 2018 (Oil and Marble) best art of 2018 (NY Times) NYC, LA, and assorted others Coral, the Pantone color of 2019 (The Guardian) and out with 2018's Ultraviolet top 10 architecture (The Guardian) British, of course photography What the best photos tell us about 2018 (Washington Post) The Year in pictures (NY Times) most striking science photos? (Science) are less than impressive and an embarrassment compared to National Geographic Nature Photos of the year (Atlantic) or Wildlife Photographer of the Year (The Guardian) 45 best/weirdest charts (538) once you ignore the sports stuff at the top music Best classical music (NY Times) 20 best albums (Indy Week) 50 best albums (The Guardian) 10 best albums (New Yorker) 10 best music videos (Rolling Stone) tv, movies, & radio 10 best movies (New York) 21 best movies (Vox) Best movies of the year (New Yorker) 11 best documentaries (Vox) The best TV shows of 2018 (NY Times) 21 best movies (Vox) Best movies of the year (New Yorker) most anticipated movies of 2019 (The Guardian) are uninspiring 11 best documentaries (Vox) The best TV shows of 2018 (NY Times) 7 best TV shows (Vox) 50 best podcasts (Atlantic) maybe 5 of best, but if #42 doesn't make the top 10, the list is totally bogus best people Time magazine's 'Person' of the year: The Guardians (Time) the reporters who told us the truth, to their great peril 'Tarheel of the Year': Rev, William Barber (Raleigh N&O) the other 4 finalists are at article's end Politicians that excelled? (Washington Post) best in show 'best' at being good or bad The lives we lost (NY Times) The Millennial 100 (Rolling Stone) this sad list speaks to the mind-numbing of America |
The 229 new species of 2018 (Earth & Sky) neon fish, sharks, venomous snakes, & more best science Favorite science stories (Nature) The Year in Science (Scientific American) and what Americans thought of it 2018 Science in audio and video (Nature) The Year in Physics (Quanta) experiencing a period of confusion and openness to new ideas The Year in Biology (Quanta) Metcalfe's law comes to bio The hottest geology in 2018 (Scientific American) The Year in Math and Computer Science (Quanta) youth ruled and why is there no 'Year of Chemistry'? duh.... The 2018 Science & Math crossword puzzle (Quanta) cryptic, of course Top 10 stories (Sky & Telescope) 2018 Science in audio and video (Nature) 10 'whoa that's awesome' 2018 science stories (Vox) Astrobiology highlights of 2018 (Scientific American) Top 10 science stories (Science News) Top 5 stories (Earth & Sky) in astro & space The science events that shaped the year (Nature) The science we learned in 2018 (NY Times) A busy year in Space (Science News) 8 notable satellite events The year in Space and Astronomy (NY Times) Top 10 Hubble images (Starts with a Bang) Six 2018 stories that could be big news (Science News) if they turn out to be true 100 most attention-grabbing science stories (Altmetric) and the top 10 are an apocalyptic nightmare 10 scientists who mattered (Nature) and 5 to watch in 2019 Science Breakthrough of the Year (Science) tracking embryo development, cell by cell and for 2019? The hot science tickets (Nature) events & exhibits Big (predicted) stories for 2019 (Science News) Top 10 sure-fire 2019 science-highlights-to-be (Starts with a Bang) What to expect in 2019 (Nature) 10 science leaps in the new year? The science likely to make news in 2019 (Science) Dragonfly to Titan, trying out solar dimming (to curb global warming), new muon physics, & more bad science 7 science stories that should die with 2018 (Vox) Science Breakdowns of the Year (Science) Biggest junk science stories of the Year (Real Clear Science) bad tech? maybe Is AI safe for humanity? (arXiv) a literature review definitely How you're being manipulated on social media (The Conversation) 4 articles to read A year of staggering revelations at Facebook (The Ringer) how Facebook corrupted life online Should we be surprised at the continuing Fbook data scandals? (Wired) Tech that wasn't fixed in 2018 (NY Times) and the tiny bit that was How Google helps the government spy on us (The Guardian) Facebook's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year (Law) and ditto (BuzzFeed) good tech? Awards (NY Times) |