• Centauri Dreams reports on asteroid P/2016 G1, a world that, after splitting, is now showing signs of a cometary tail.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers outrage as a sociological phenomenon. What, exactly, does it do? What does it change?
• Joe. My. God. reports on a new push for same-sex marriage in Germany, coming from the SPD.
• Lawyers, Guns and ( Read more... )

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly describes a week in her life as a freelance writer.
• The Dragon's Tales notes how the Indus Valley Civilization did, and did not, adapt to climate change.
• Language Log reshares Benjamin Franklin's writings against German immigration.
• The NYRB Daily follows one family's quest for justice after the shooting by police of ( Read more... )

Click to view

This live version of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft's "Der Mussolini" has been playing in my head all week.

Geh' in die Knie
Und klatsch' in die Hände
Beweg' deine Hüften
Und tanz' den Mussolini
Tanz' den Mussolini
Tanz' den Mussolini

• blogTO notes that Uniqlo will be giving away free thermal clothing tomorrow.
• James Bow shares his column about the importance of truth.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares with us her mid-winter walk.
• Centauri Dreams reports about cometary water.
• Dangerous Minds shares German cinema lobby cards from the 1960s.

BBC's Damien McGuinness reports from Berlin about how two Brexiteers' address to a conference of German business leaders, intended to secure decidedly United Kingdom-friendly terms, managed instead to fail. The profound misunderstanding of German intentions and German interests is almost painful to read about.

The distinguished audience members ( Read more... )

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly calls on journalists to stand up to Trump.
• Centauri Dreams looks at exocomets.
• Language Log shares an ad from the 1920s using the most vintage language imaginable.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money talks about globalization as a mechanism for concentrating wealth at the top of the elite.
• The LRB Blog talks about the ghosts of ( Read more... )

Bloomberg View's Leonid Bershidsky argues that, owing to the greater resilience of German politics and a more honest media environment among other things, any Russian involvement in Germany's elections would have more limited results. Here's hoping.

Merkel's Achilles heel in this election is the refugee crisis of 2015. I doubt, however, that much ( Read more... )

Torontoist's Emily Macrae looks at the globalization of the Christmas Market.

In a city known for snow, skiing, and hearty cuisine, wooden stalls fill a downtown park to create an annual Christmas market. The scene is Sapporo, Japan, which has hosted a German Christmas Market since 2002 ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams looks at signs of advanced technologies detectable by SETI searches.
• D-Brief notes evidence of the domestication of turkeys in eth and 5th century Mexico.
• Dangerous Minds discusses a legendary 1985 concert by Einstürzende Neubauten.
• Joe. My. God. notes the banning of Tila Tequila from Twitter.
• Language Log looks about a Hebrew ( Read more... )

Via the National Post I found Ishaan Tharoor's Washington Post article documenting how Donald Trump's grandfather sought to escape deportation from his Rhineland homeland.

According to a bulletin by the Associated Press, the letter was penned in 1905 and was addressed to Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, a monarch who presided over a realm within the ( Read more... )