A Bit More Detail

• Adam Fish at anthro{dendum} compares different sorts of public bathing around the world, from Native America to Norden to Japan.


• Charlie Stross at Antipope is unimpressed by the person writing the script for our timeline.


• Architectuul reports on an architectural conference in Lisbon.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the eruption of the Raikoke volcano in Kamchatka.


• Centauri Dreams looks at what the Voyager spacecraft have returned about the edge of the solar system.


• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea of bipartisanship if it means compromising on reality, allegorically.


• The Crux counts the number of people who have died in outer space.


• D-Brief notes that the Andromeda Galaxy has swallowed up multiple dwarf galaxies over the eons.


• Dead Things notes the identification of the first raptor species from Southeast Asia, Siamraptor suwati.


• The Dragon's Tales notes a paper tracing the origins of interstellar comet 2/Borisov from the general area of Kruger 60.


• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the privilege allowing people access to affordable dental care.


• Gizmodo tells how Alexei Leonov survived the first spacewalk.


• io9 looks at the remarkable new status quo for the X-Men created by Jonathan Hickman.


• Selma Franssen at the Island Review writes about the threats facing the seabirds of the Shetlands.


• JSTOR Daily looks at what led Richard Nixon to make so many breaks from the American consensus on China in the Cold War.


• Language Log notes an undergraduate course at Yale using the Voynich Manuscript as an aid in the study of language.


• Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains her recent experience of the socialized health care system of Israel for Americans.


• The LRB Blog looks at how badly the Fukuyama prediction of an end to history has aged.


• The Map Room Blog shares a few maps of the new Ottawa LRT route.


• Marginal Revolution notes a paper establishing a link between Chinese industries undermining their counterparts in Mexico and Mexican social ills including crime.


• Sean Marshall reports from Ottawa about what the Confederation Line looks like.


• Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily looks at the power of improvisation in music.


• Roads and Kingdoms looks at South Williamsburg Jewish deli Gottlieb's.


• Drew Rowsome reviews the new Patti Smith book, Year of the Monkey.


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking as the factors leading into transnational movements.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the question of the direction(s) in which order in the universe was generated.


• Window on Eurasia shares a report noting the very minor flows of migration from China to Russia.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the politics in the British riding of Keighley.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguin socks.

• Centauri Dreams considers the possible roles and threats posed by artificial intelligence for interstellar missions.


• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber makes the point that blaming Facebook for the propagation of fake news misses entirely the motives of the people who spread these rumours, online or otherwise.


• The Crux looks at the factors which led to the human species' diversity of skin colours.


• Dangerous Minds reports on a new collection of early North American electronica.


• Far Outliers reports on the salt extraction industry of Sichuan.


• JSTOR Daily notes how inbreeding can be a threat to endangered populations, like gorillas.


• Language Log examines the connection of the Thai word for soul with Old Sinitic.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at divisions on the American left, including pro-Trump left radicals.


• Caitlin Chandler at the NYR Daily reports on the plight of undocumented immigrants in Rome, forced from their squats under the pressure of the new populist government of Italy.


• Spacing takes a look at the work of Acton Ostry Architects.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the ten largest non-planetary bodies in the solar system.


• Strange Company looks at the very strange 1997 disappearance of Judy Smith from Philadelphia and her latest discovery in the North Carolina wilderness. What happened to her?


• Strange Maps looks at the worrisome polarization globally between supporters and opponents of the current government in Venezuela. Is this a 1914 moment?


• Window on Eurasia suggests that Russia and Venezuela share a common oil-fueled authoritarian fragility.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at the camelids of Peru, stuffed toys and llamas and more.

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how the recently-charted orbit of S2 around Sagittarius A* in the heart of our galaxy proves Einstein's theory of relativity right.


• D-Brief notes a recent NASA study of Mars concluding that, because of the planet's shortfalls in conceivably extractable carbon dioxide, terraforming Mars is impossible with current technology.


• Dead Things suggests that one key to the rise of Homo sapiens may be the fact that we are such good generalists, capable of adapting to different environments and challenges with speed even if we are not optimized for them. (Poor Neanderthals.)


• At the Everyday Sociology Blog, Karen Sternheimer examines how individuals' identities shift as they engage, encountering new problems.


• Hornet Stories notes that Thailand may well beat Taiwan in creating civil unions for same-sex couples.


• JSTOR Daily examines the famed, nay iconic, baobab tree of Africa.


• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders about how, as the centennial of the introduction of women's suffrage approaches, the white racism of many suffragettes will be dealt with.


• The Map Room Blog reports on Michael Plichta's very impressed hand-crafted globe of the Moon.


• Russell Darnley at Maximos' Blog reports on the massive forest fires in Indonesia's Jambi Province.

• Centauri Dreams celebrates the science behind Cassini.


• Crooked Timber's Henry Farrell is breaking from Harvard's Kennedy Centre over its revocation of an invitation to Chelsea Manning.


• The Crux points to the ways in which the legacy of Cassini will still be active.


• D-Brief notes that some tool-using macaques of Thailand are overfishing their environment.


• Hornet Stories notes the eulogy given by Hillary Clinton at the funeral of Edie Windsor.


• Inkfish notes one way to define separate bird species: ask the birds what they think. (Literally.)


• The LRB Blog notes the recent passing of Margot Hielscher, veteran German star and one-time crush of Goebbels.


• The NYR Daily notes the chilling effects on discourse in India of a string of murders of Indian journalists and writers.


• At the Planetary Science Blog, Emily Lakdawalla bids farewell to the noble Cassini probe.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes a breakfast in Bangladesh complicated by child marriage.


• Towleroad notes an Australian church cancelled an opposite-sex couple's wedding because the bride supports equality.


• Arnold Zwicky notes the marmots of, among other places, cosmopolitan and multilingual Swiss canton of Graubünden.

• At Antipope, Charlie Stross imagines what might become possible with cheap heavy spacelift.


• blogTO notes the vandalization of the iconic Toronto sign during Nuit Blanche.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering the detectability of interstellar comets.


• Language Log looks at Chinese language transcriptions for Obama, Hillary, and Trump.


• Marginal Revolution looks at impending hard Brexit and notes how the economy of Thailand is dominated by Bangkok.


• The NYRB Daily writes at length about its apparent discovery of the identity of Elena Ferrante.


• Savage Minds shares a Bolivian perspective on Donald Trump.


• Strange Maps shares a list of ten potential Jewish homelands outside of Palestine.


• Window on Eurasia looks at quiet Chechen dissidence and warns about the consequences of Putin's repressions.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell worries about the people soon to be in charge of the United Kingdom's Brexit negotiations.

• Bloomberg notes Japan's neglected geothermal potential, looks at one Nobel laureate's concern over Brexit's fallout, examines Thailand's economic success, and looks at how labuor shortages are hindering Swedish economic growth.


• Bloomberg View looks at the role of Brazil's supreme court in fighting top-level corruption, and suggests the only thing worse than Britain remaining would be Britain staying.


• CBC looks at homophobia in rural Manitoba.


• The Inter Press Service notes the barriers rising around the world.


• MacLean's looks at the state of world refugees.


• National Geographic notes the repopulation of rural England with giant spiders.


• The National Post notes the search for a murdered Mohawk woman's killer.


• The New York Times reports on the spectre of Venezuelan influence in Spain.


• Open Democracy notes Georgia's stalled progress and looks at British security policy in the context of Brexit.

• Bloomberg reports on Dutch losses from Brexit, looks at the scene in Fallujah, observes the fragmentation of Venezuela's opposition, and notes the positive impact of a solar energy boom on Japan's fuel consumption.


• Bloomberg View notes the lack of regional pressure on Venezuela, reports that Brexit would hit Britain's poor and British-based banks hard, and suggests Russian support for the European far right is secondary.


• CBC looks at Canada's restrictive Internet packages.


• The Inter Press Service notes Thailand's progress in controlling HIV/AIDS, looks at Peru's elections, and notes Uruguay's hopes to be an offshore oil producer.


• National Geographic notes the sperm whales in the Caribbean seem to have a distinctive culture.


• The National Post notes there is no such thing as wilderness, that the entire Earth is touched by human activities.


• Open Democracy looks at Egypt's fear of the urban poor and considers what can be learned about the failure of the Swiss basic income initiative.


• The Toronto Star notes a stem cell-based treatment for MS that offers radical improvements, even cures.


• Wired notes that AirBnB is unhappy with new San Francisco legislation requiring the registration of its hosts.

• Bloomberg notes a recent improvement in the fragile health of the Thai king, and looks at the iron ore bust precipitated by slowing growth in China.


• The CBC notes how Uber's expansion is hindered by regulation, and observed that a storm in Mexico halved the monarch butterfly population.


• MacLean's considers/u> the prospects for electoral reform in Canada.


• National Geographic reports on the archeological findings off of the coast of Florida.


• The National Post notes how a cat hit from the Fort McMurray fire inside a stove.


• Open Democracy looks at the recent Scottish election, concluding that the country is on a path to independence.

• The Atlantic notes Thailand's "fake children", life-sized dolls that are charms.


• Bloomberg View considers the costs to the United Kingdom of Brexit and the costs and benefits of said to the European Union.


• Discover looks at the increasingly appreciated place of South Africa in hominid origins.


• The Inter Press Service examines the closure of Bedouin settlements in Israel.


• MacLean's celebrates the Yukon Gold potato's 50th anniversary.


• National Geographic looks at the growing number of problems faced by the baboons of Cape Town.


• The New Yorker considers what might be in the suppressed 28 pages of the 9/11 report.


• Phys.org maps Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry worldwide.


• Reuters notes the discovery of the first monkey fossils in North America.


• Slate hosts an article complaining about the normalization of Berlin since reunification.


• The Washington Post mourns the bleaching of nearly all of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Impoverished migrant workers in Thailand are sold or lured by false promises and forced to catch and process fish that ends up in global food giant Nestle SA's supply chains.

The unusual disclosure comes from Geneva-based Nestle SA itself, which in an act of self-policing announced the conclusions of its year-long internal investigation on Monday. The study found virtually all U.S. and European companies buying seafood from Thailand are exposed to the same risks of abuse in their supply chains.

Nestle SA, among the biggest food companies in the world, launched the investigation in December 2014, after reports from news outlets and nongovernmental organizations tied brutal and largely unregulated working conditions to their shrimp, prawns and Purina brand pet foods. Its findings echo those of The Associated Press in reports this year on slavery in the seafood industry that have resulted in the rescue of more than 2,000 fishermen.

The laborers come from Thailand's much poorer neighbors Myanmar and Cambodia. Brokers illegally charge them fees to get jobs, trapping them into working on fishing vessels and at ports, mills and seafood farms in Thailand to pay back more money than they can ever earn.