A Bit More Detail

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the potential threat to the rings of Saturn by the dissipation of its ice over millions of years.


• Centauri Dreams notes the potential radical improvements in the imaging of exoplanets provided by the new generations of telescopes.


• D-Brief notes that the disk of massive star MM 1a is so dense with material that it is forming not companion planets--not visibly--but rather a companion star.


• JSTOR Daily reports on the achievements of Voyager 2, forty-one years after its launch.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money shares the argument of New Mexican Congresswoman Deb Haaland that the United States is neglecting the problems of Native people.


• Marginal Revolution notes the death of art critic Sister Wendy.


• The NYR Daily notes the terrible record of the Weekly Standard.


• Danielle Adams at the Planetary Society Blog writes about the stars and constellations identified by Arab astronomers.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that Colombia lacks birthright citizenship, posing a serious long-term threat of social exclusion given the influx of Venezuelans as likely as not to be permanent.


• Roads and Kingdoms features an interview with photographer Laurence Geai on the protests of the Gilets Jaunes in Paris.

• Centauri Dreams shares a cool design for a mid-21st century Triton landing mission.


• Crooked Timber argues American conservative intellectuals have descended to hackwork.


• D-Brief notes the surprisingly important role that eyebrows may have played in human evolution.


• Dead Things notes how a hominid fossil discovery in the Arabian desert suggests human migration to Africa occurred almost 90 thousand years ago, longer than previously believed.


• Hornet Stories notes that biphobia in the LGBTQ community is one factor discouraging bisexuals from coming out.


• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox gives a favourable review to Wendell Berry's latest, The Art of Loading Brush.


• JSTOR Daily explores the connections between Roman civilization and poisoning as a means for murder.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the early 20th century American practice of redlining, denying minorities access to good housing, still marks the maps of American cities.


• The LRB Blog notes how the 1948 assassination of reformer Gaitan in Bogota changed Colombia and Latin America, touching the lives of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fidel Castro.


• The Map Room Blog notes that Spacing has launched a new contest, encouraging creators of inventive maps of Canadian cities to do their work.


• The NYR Daily notes a new exhibit of Victorian art that explores its various mirrored influences, backwards and forwards.


• At the Planetary Society Blog, Jason Davis explores TESS, the next generation of planet-hunting astronomy satellite from NASA.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares photos of planetary formation around sun-like star TW Hydrae.


• Window on Eurasia notes that a combination of urbanization, Russian government policy, and the influence of pop culture is killing off minority languages in Russia.

• Can a new film help preserve the English Creole spoken on the Colombian Caribbean islands of San Andres and Old Providence? The Guardian reports.


• Using film to help preserve an indigenous language is also a strategy being used by the Haida of Haida Gwaii, in British Columbia. CBC reports.


• Fredreka Schouten's account of visiting her native Virgin Islands to see the continued devastation is heart-rending, featured in USA Today.


• The recovery of agriculture in Puerto Rico is a hopeful sign, but will it be enough? National Geographic reports.


• Things do not look very good in Sicily. Spiegel reports.

• Citizen Science Salon links to some ongoing crowdsourced experiments that non-scientists can take part in.


• The LRB Blog reports on the return of Newt Gingrich to the American political scene.


• The NYR Daily compares Donald Trump to a 19th century counterpart, Andrew Jackson.


• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the now rather different cocaine problem of Medellín, Colombia.


• Starts with a Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on a paper suggesting potential problems with gravitational observatory LIGO.


• Towleroad notes a recent sharp drop in new HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom, thanks to treatment and PrEP.


• Window on Eurasia reports on projected long-run economic decline in Russia, argues about the potential for instability in Tatarstan, and reports on Belarusianization.


• Arnold Zwicky describes Silver Age Rainbow Batman and his later pride appearances.

• Antipope's Charlie Stross worries about the literal survival of Britons in the post-Brexit United Kingdom.


• D-Brief notes the discovery of an ancient corpse in China shrouded in cannabis.


• Dangerous Minds reports on a 1971 BBC documentary about New York City starring a pre-stardom Patti Smith.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a study mapping the changing clouds of the twin brown dwarfs of Luhman 16.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on drops in atmospheric oxygen over the past hundred thousand years.


• Language Hat reports on Italy's many dialects and their uses.


• Language Log engages with Trump's non-apology.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at Ted Cruz's despair.


• The LRB Blog looks at the classic architecture of Eritrea's capital, Asmara.


• The Map Room Blog looks at Karen Margolis' art maps.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer continues to look at the Colombian referendum and notes on the difficulties of enabling the rule of law in Mexico.


• Peter Rukavina remembers Prince Edward Island's Teachernet.


• Window on Eurasia reports on a provocative argument about Russia's demographic past and its lop-sided urbanization.

• Bloomberg notes concerns over Northern Ireland's frontiers, looks at how Japanese retailers are hoping to take advantage of Vietnam's young consumers, examines the desperation of Venezuelans shopping in Colombia, looks at Sri Lankan interest in Chinese investment, suggests oil prices need to stay below 40 dollars US a barrel for Russia to reform, observes that Chinese companies are increasingly reluctant to invest, and suggests Frankfurt will gain after Brexit.


• Bloomberg View gives advice for the post-Brexit British economy, looks at how Chinese patterns in migration are harming young Chinese, suggests Hillary should follow Russian-Americans in not making much of Putin's interference, and looks at the Israeli culture wars.


• CBC considers the decolonization of placenames in the Northwest Territories, notes Canada's deployment to Latvia was prompted by French domestic security concerns, and looks at an ad promoting the Albertan oil sands that went badly wrong in trying to be anti-homophobic.


• The Inter Press Service considers the future of Turkey and looks at domestic slavery in Oman.


• MacLean's looks at China's nail house owners, resisting development.


• The National Post reports from the Colombia-Venezuela border.


• Open Democracy considers the nature of work culture in the austerity-era United Kingdom, looks at traditions of migration and slavery in northern Ghana, examines European bigotry against eastern Europeans, and examines the plight of sub-Saharan migrants stuck in Morocco.


• Universe Today notes two nearby potentially habitable rocky worlds, reports that the Moon's Mare Imbrium may have been result of a hit by a dwarf planet, and reports on Ceres' lack of large craters.

• Bloomberg looks at the European cities hoping to poach talent from London post-Brexit, notes central Europe's support for the European Union, looks at how Venezuelans are dealing with broken cars with the car industry gone, and looks at the United Kingdom's already substantial hit.


• Bloomberg View considers peace in Columbia, notes American infant mortality, looks at China's fears over Brexit and examines China's anti-corruption crackdown.


• CBC notes the substantial refugee population of Ukraine.


• The Inter Press Service wonders about the consequences of Brexit for the United Nations.


• MacLean's notes the beginning of the North American leaders' summit.


• National Geographic observes the impending end of the ivory trade of Hong Kong.


• The National Post looks at the Leave voters' regrets.


• Open Democracy looks at Scotland and also at the post-Brexit environment more generally.

• Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea of navies to keep sea lanes open.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper speculating how Planet Nine formed.


• Geocurrents shares slides examining the Brazilian crisis.


• Joe. My. God. reports on the Colombian constitutional court's approval of same-sex marriage.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders what will happen to the North Korean army's soldiers in the case of state failure.


• maximos62 notes the historical influences of Chinese and Indonesians in Australia, particularly in the north of the country.


• pollotenchegg maps the shifting distribution of the Ukrainian population from 1939.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer talks about, among other things, the New York City accent.


• Understanding Society looks at the ideologies and institutions which will help improve life in rural India.


• Window on Eurasia notes Russia's problems with dealing with its past and observes that the West did not want the Soviet Union to disintegrate.

Colombia’s government is frustrated at having its top soldiers lured to the Middle East as mercenaries for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates when they are still needed to fight insurgents and drug traffickers, Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said.

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has deployed Colombian contractors, according to a former army officer who has been involved in recruiting contractors and a senior government official, who asked not to be named because he isn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Soldiers are persuaded to quit the army when their terms of enlistment end by the prospect of earning about seven times as much in the Middle East, the former officer said.

Colombia’s efforts to negotiate with Middle East governments over the hiring of mercenaries have so far failed, Villegas said in a Dec. 22 interview in Bogota. While Colombia has reached a tentative peace accord with the country’s biggest rebel group, its special forces are targeting new mafia groups seeking to fill a void left by a planned demobilization.

“My complaint is why, for instance, the U.A.E. or Saudi Arabia have not been able to negotiate a treaty with Colombia to regulate that relationship,” Villegas said. “Every time we approach those governments, the answer is no, we’re not interested in a treaty.”

Some time ago, a Colombian citizen pointed out something to me: “Puebla is like Bogotá thirty years ago”. How is that? I asked him. “Just like Puebla today, thirty years ago Bogotá was full of investments and investors, housing developments and luxury cars, and only later did we realize that it was drug trafficking”. This conversation took place seven years ago.

My conversation partner knew what he was talking about. He knew what it was like to live with the multiple facets and time frames of violence: first come opulence, growth, development, and a rich, full, cosmopolitan life; then, decadence and hell. A family member of his had been blackmailed; another had suffered a kidnapping attempt. In the end, he and his relatives abandoned all hope, and left the country. This is how they came to Puebla.

“They need a place to live. It’s not so hard to understand”. This is not my Colombian friend any more, but a sturdy man who speaks naturally about the subject. He is an expert, a life-long security professional. He measures his words: “If the border is where the business is, in Tamaulipas, in Mexico City, and now in Veracruz, they’re not going to live there. They need a different, quiet place, such as Puebla”, he says with a wicked smile on his face.

But not everyone thinks the same. Whatever my Colombian friend would have said and the security professional would admit, is now being refuted by an automobile dealer: “That’s not the reason. What is happening is that they’re coming here from the southeast to buy cars, because there’s nothing over there. I’m talking about Veracruz, Campeche, Yucatán, Chiapas, Oaxaca”. It sounds logical.

But is it really so unbearable to wait for a couple of extra hours to bring a Ferrari from Avenida Masarik in Polanco (an affluent district in Mexico City) that it is worth opening up a dealership in Puebla? Those who come from a wealthy lineage do know their peers. And knowing one of them, it is relatively easy to access information on the others. They are not many, not all of them are buying ultra luxury cars, and when they do so, they are not buying many units. So, if they are not the buyers, who is?