Random links

The Orbital Index
"since light travels faster in a vacuum than in glass, satellite links could provide better latency than terrestrial fiber for distances greater than ~3,000 km."
We Are Living in Historic Times. Or Are We?
"Danto suggests that history’s arc is essentially unpredictable. Even the wisest people will have no idea whether a current event is a world-changer. Is that claim correct? A research team, led by Joseph Risi at Microsoft Research, recently tried to test that question. The answer is: Not quite, but pretty close."
Propagation of Error: Approving Citations to Problematic Research
"Using data from over 3,000 retracted articles and over 74,000 citations to these articles, we find that at least 31.2% of the citations to retracted articles happen a year after they have been retracted. And that 91.4% of the postretraction citations are approving—note no concern with the cited article. ... Data suggest that problematic research was approvingly cited more frequently after the problem was publicized.'