Daily Headlines: November 12, 2015

* Chile: Groundbreaking commenced yesterday in the construction of the supersized Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile’s northern Andean region.

* Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro blamed “imperialist ambushes” for the arrest of two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

* Puerto Rico: The homicide rate in Puerto Rico has fallen by 15% compared to last year and 40% in relation to 2012 according to Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

* Mexico: A new exhibition at a Mexico City museum attempts to link the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre with the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students missing for nearly fourteen months.

YouTube Source – Marca Chile

Online Sources – Reuters, Latin American Herlad Tribune, Endgadget, The Guardian

Nuestro Cine: Sweetness and light

Day and night. Light and dark. The past and the future.

What appears like distinct qualities can sometimes have points in common. This juxtaposition is explored in "Nostalgia de la Luz" ("Nostalgia for the Light"), a 2010 documentary by Patricio Guzman. Guzman film is set in Chile's Atacama Desert, an area classified by a 2002 Christian Science Monitor as the "astronomy capital of the world." The desert's climate and environment is optimal for studying the wonders of the firmament but may have also been an ideal burying ground for victims of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

The Hollywood Reporter's review of the documentary summarizes it's main theme:

Guzman goes beyond a basic science/religion dichotomy (mentioned by a young astronomer at the beginning of the film) to probe the universe for secrets into the origins of man, without canceling out our obligations to history and the moral obligation to hold the dead in memory.

"Nostalgia de la Luz" has won several awards on the international film festival circuit and it will be featured tonight at New York City's Museum of Modern Art. (Guzman will be speaking at tonight's screening according to the museum's website).

Below is the trailer for the captivating "Nostalgia de la Luz":

Video Source - UniFrance Film via YouTube
Online Sources - CSMonitor.com, The Hollywood Reporter, imdb.com, moma.org,

Daily Headlines: December 12, 2008

* Peru: “Yale has no right to demand certain things in order to return” objects it doesn’t own, said Peru's foreign minister regarding artifacts taken from Machu Picchu over a century ago.

* Ecuador: Authorities set a $50,000 bail for a visiting Ecuadorian priest accused of sex abuse in New York.

* Guatemala: Police are “missing” over 2000 firearms including AK-47 rifles and Uzis.

* Chile: European astronomers in Chile have discovered that there’s a black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Image- Brisbane Times
Sources- Times Online, Latin American Herald Tribune, newsday.com, AP

Border “light pollution” worries scientists

Sometimes the actors in the immigration debate are not always the usual suspects. Take the case of astronomers working in observatories close to the U.S.-Mexico border who worry that changes along the border would impede their work. Dan Brocious- spokesman for Arizona’s Whipple Observatory- said that possible plans for “stadium lights” and other technological equipment along the border would be harmful for several astronomical facilities located in both the U.S. and Mexico.

Links- Green Valley News, The Latin Americanist, Washington Post

Image- noao.com (Whipple Observatory in Arizona)