General updates 2011: Jan/Feb

[Update: In a 2015 blog review I’ve decided that none of the soapbox items in this post are worth keeping, so that just leaves the links.]

• Eight animal invasions that humans have caused.
• One-year-old babies connect size to social dominance.
• The Internet runs out of room.
• Using electric shocks to suppress the brain’s natural conservatism.
• How to account for Mars.
• Stan Carey on non-literal ‘literally’ (& be sure to read this, too.)

[The following links were originally posted on 22 January, but I’ve decided to merge them.]

• Why the sun’s corona is hotter than its surface
• On the origin of the passive progressive (late 1700s)
• The shrinking human brain