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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 13
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and promises to give details By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Grupo Extra, the parent firm of the popular daily newspaper, says it has been the victim of an espionage attack against its reporters. Paola Hernández, one of the top executives of the group, made the allegation in an email sent to other media outlets. Ms. Hernández said that the action constitutes a grave violation of the rights of news people and of Costa Rican citizens. She said the media group plans a press conference today to describe the case in details. In today's edition the newspaper reports that an anonymous judicial source provided editors with documents from a criminal case that said prosecutors sought out the newspaper's information sources. There was a reference to telephone records. Police detain 152 persons at the festival in Palmares By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers say they have detained 152 persons at the Festejos Populares Palmares 2014 with most of the violations related to drugs. The Fuerza Pública said Sunday that officers had confiscated marijuana and cocaine. Although marijuana smokers are seen regularly in the downtown streets, police enforce zero tolerance and shake them down at such festivals. The Cruz Roja reported that in the first few days of the festival rescue workers had assisted 125 persons. At another festival, the Fiestas Tipicas in Santa Cruz, some 67 persons have sought medical help since Tuesday. Some individuals in both locations suffered injuries from the mechanical rides. But many also were injured while participating in the bull baiting that was conducted at both festivals. San Pedro home invaded By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial agents said Sunday that at least five masked men invaded a home in San Pedro Sunday night. They put the owner and an employee in a locked room and sacked the dwelling. The owner estimated the loss at a million colons or about $2,000. Our readers' opinions
Guachipelín writer expressesconcern over white trails in sky Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I first noticed chemtrails in the sky in 1992 while atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Later I moved to Florida and worked outside where the chemtrails were very abundant. These look similar to contrails which are just frozen condensation coming out of jet engines which disappear very quickly. The chemtrails stay and spread out throughout the day until most of the sky is overcast. I've been living in Costa Rica for over 10 years and have noticed the chemtrails here becoming more prevalent as time goes on. Why don't people notice this? Analysis of these plumes show they are full of harmful metals and biologicals. This is finally being admitted to as geoengineering. I believe this to be part of a massive eugenics program and may be responsible for deterioration of human, animal and plant life. Please, look up chemtrails on the net and learn about this diabolical crime against us and the earth. I know many of you will think this is woo woo, but it is not. Carl
Nichols
Guachipelín de Escazu Editor's Note: Mr. Nichols has a right to his opinion, and we publish most letters. However, we would refer readers to this Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory Costa Rican officials prefer tourists over pesky residents Dear A.M. Costa Rica: In light of some recent letters to the editor discussing the expat in Costa Rica experience, I'd like to share a few conversations I've had with Tico officials over the years since I've lived here. Seven plus years ago, I had befriended a high level Costa Rican politician and two bureaucratic communication industry jefes. During a discussion over fine wine, I mentioned to them that local real estate agents were promoting Costa Rican properties to large numbers of U.S. and Canadian baby boomers. These officials were aware of this and expressed displeasure. The politician looked me straight in the face and just above a whisper asked me, "Why would our tiny country of just over 4 million people want to be flooded with immigrants with airs of superiority from huge countries of hundreds of millions of people?" One of the jefes mentioned that Costa Rica was having enough difficulties dealing with the heavy influx of Nicaraguan immigrants after the civil war there and was struggling to deal well with the infrastructure upgrade demands needed to support so many new real estate developments. His government monopoly was taking a lot of heat from the press and customers with increasing expectations. The other jefe said that in fact they, "preferred tourists over expat residents." He had lived for a time in Seattle, Washington, and spoke about how so many Washingtonians then had despised wealthy Californians who were moving up there inflating real estate prices and making properties too expensive for the natives. He said the same thing was happening here. Gene
Warneke
La Garita de Alajuela Caja requirement for expats seen violating free trade pact Dear A.M. Costa Rica: The article that appeared on Tuesday, Jan.13, entitled “Campaigns ignore issues close to the hearts of expats” was very informative. It raises a question that I have about the Caja medical insurance requirement. In order to receive legal residency here, the Costa Rican government requires expats to enroll in the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social medical insurance plan. Within the last few years private insurance companies were allowed to enter the insurance market here as a result of the free trade agreement between Costa Rica and the United States. It seems to me, the CAJA insurance requirement for anyone receiving legal residency in Costa Rica is a violation of the free trade agreement, as it inhibits trade and does not allow expats the right to purchase insurance on the open market. Jim
Sweeney
Tamarindo
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 13 | |
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| Murder of teens brings hundreds into the
streets to protest |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Ricans are murdered in street robberies nearly every day. There were three such cases, at least, over the weekend. Yet the murder of two budding musicians has had an impact that brought hundreds to the streets Sunday to protest violence. Some came from outside the country specifically to participate in the march. The participants included many in the country's music and culture scene. The musicians used their instruments to honor the slain teens. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," Wagner's march from "Tannhauser" and Brahms' "Requiem" were some of the works that accompanied the marchers. The two teens participated in the Sistema Nacional de Educación Musical and were members of a youth orchestra set up by the Sistema. They also were studying at the Universidad de Costa Rica. By all accounts they had a bright future in the music world. They played in the Orquesta Sinfónica Manuel María Gutiérrez. Sebastián Condorí, 16. played the flute, and Valeria Cortés, 15, his girlfriend, was a violinist. Ironically, the national music system was set up to provide youngsters an activity that would keep them away from street crime. The country has to produce more musicians than young criminals, more musical instruments than weapons and more artists than murderers, said Manuel Obregón, minister of Cultura y Juventud, in a summary provided by the ministry. Noé Cortés, father of the dead girl, said that "in this country you still cannot walk through the streets safely. We ask a halt to the violence, the drugs and to all that is happening." Carl St. Clair said he worked his whole professional life with youth orchestras, and for him it was a way to return all the education he received when he was starting out. He is the new director of the Orchestra Sinfónica Nacional. St. Clair said he had heard the youth orchestra last year in Costa Rica. He said he came to the country specifically for the march, according to the ministry. |
 Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud photo
The march began at Parque CentralThe suspect, 21, who is now in custody lives about 100 meters from the presumed scene of the crime in a mountainous area of Valle Verde de Paraíso. He is an agricultural worker, the Judicial Investigating Organization said. The pair were killed and then buried in separate graves. Their friends found them late Tuesday because they were killed in a place where they have been known to frequent. The boy was carrying a camera that appears to be the motive for the robbery, said investigators. Both were shot. There were three murders reported since A.M. Costa Rica was published Friday morning. In Guápiles, a 31-year-old man died from two bullet wounds to the back. Judicial agents said he appeared to have tried to run away from robbers Thursday night. Another man died at Hospital San Juan de Dios early Friday after arriving there with four bullet wounds. He was a construction site guard who shot it out with intruders, agents said. Saturday night a 22-year-old man died in Hospital San Juan de Dios, after he was shot in Calle Fallas in Desamparados. He was attending a party and suffered bullet wounds to the head, judicial agents said. They said they were unsure of the circumstances but they detained a 17 year old. |
| Rey
Curré hosting diablitos again this week for festival By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The confrontation between the natives and the Spanish invaders will be played out once again in Rey Curré in southwestern Costa Rica starting Thursday. This is the Juego de los Diablitos that the Boruca residents consider their most important festival. There are similar festivals, but Rey Curré is right on the Interamerican Sur with good access. The pageant features costumed devils or diablitos representing the natives. The toro or bull represents the Spanish. The pageant is based on native legends and designed to preserve the culture and dignity. But there also is large quantities of chicha de maiz, which is a fermented corn drink, as well as all types of food. The festival lasts through Sunday with the modern residents of Rey Curré well aware of the touristic value of the event. The culture ministry, which is supporting the festival, has set up a map on its Web page. |
 Miniserio de Cultura y
Juventud photo
A diablito confronts the
larger toro in a previous year. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 13 | |||||
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| Mulch technique may displace use of chemical weed killers
like Roundup |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A deep green field of rye swayed in a gentle breeze at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville, Maryland, research station last May, blissfully ignorant of its impending doom. Two-meter-tall stalks sported budding seed heads that would never ripen into amber waves of grain. With a rattle and a screech, a tractor rolled through the field, knocking the grass flat with a giant red rolling pin. Metal bars curving around the rolling pin crushed the rye and killed it. Left behind was a solid carpet of flattened rye. It’s the latest in chemical-free weed control, explained ecologist Steve Mirsky. “It covers the ground,” he said. “It reduces the amount of light that gets down to the soil surface. And by keeping the ground cooler, it also inhibits the germination of weeds.” And that’s important, he added, because “weeds are becoming much more of an issue in agriculture again.” It’s the end of an era that began in 1996 with the introduction of genetically modified crops immune to the effects of an herbicide called Roundup. Spraying a field with Roundup kills the weeds but has no effect on the crop. “That system works, and it works well,” Mirsky said. “But the repeated application has the potential to cause resistance, and we’re certainly seeing resistance on the rise across the country.” More than half of farmers across the country report problems with weeds Roundup no longer kills. So Mirsky and others are studying an alternative: controlling weeds with plants, not pesticides. |
In the fall, they
carpet the ground with a so-called cover crop like rye. It gets a head
start on the weeds. They let it grow through the spring, then roll it down before planting. Special equipment cuts or drills through the protective blanket of dead grass to plant the crop. Months later, at harvest time, a walk through the fields showed what rye rolling can do. In a field that didn’t get the treatment, Mirsky points out a cluster of troublesome plants called pigweeds growing as tall as the corn. “They’ll compete with the corn," he said. "And more importantly, they'll set all this seed, and then you’ll have that many more weed problems.” One pigweed plant can produce half a million seeds, and an infestation can quickly get out of control. Meanwhile, walking past the rye-rolled field, he adds, “When you look in there, you can see almost no pigweed because the rye does a wonderful job suppressing it.” And Mirsky says rolling cover crops does more than just fight weeds. The plants rolled down in the spring decay into rich soil, making for better harvests in the fall. Cotton growers in the pigweed-plagued southeast have adopted rye cover crops to fight resistant weeds. And Mirsky says one of the big winners could be organic growers, who don’t use herbicides to control weeds. “For an organic producer in a region where this is going to work, this could have huge implications,” he said. It will not work everywhere, he adds. But where it does, it offers farmers a new tool to crush an age-old foe. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 13 | |||||
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| Putin promises all-out effort to provide Olympics security By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country will do whatever it takes to ensure security at the upcoming Olympics in Sochi. Putin’s comments come less than three weeks before the start of the Winter Games, and amid a continuing terrorist threat in his nation. The Russian leader spoke resolutely about massive security preparations in and around Sochi. “The job of the Olympics host is to ensure security of the participants and visitors. We will do whatever it takes,” he said. Putin spoke in an interview that aired on ABC’s This Week program. The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning for Americans planning to attend the games, saying the event presents an attractive target for terrorists. Last month, suicide bombers carried out deadly attacks in Volgograd, some 650 kilometers north of Sochi. The Russian leader said security operations extend well beyond the Olympic Games. “We have adequate means available to us through the Federal Security Service, the interior ministry, and armed forces units that will provide security. If necessary, all those tools will be activated,” he said. Putin said care is being taken to ensure that rigorous security operations do not impede the Olympic Games. Asked about Russian laws targeting homosexuals, Putin asserted that everyone has equal rights in his country. He described Russia’s treatment of gay people as softer than that of other countries where homosexuality is a capital offense. He said Russia does not criticize other nations’ laws, and that Russia’s laws deserve the same respect from the international community. Comet-chasing satellite due to be turned on again today By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The European Space Agency’s comet chasing Rosetta spacecraft is about to wake up from a 31-month nap, which was induced to conserve power after the vehicle ventured too far from the sun. While agency officials are confident Rosetta will respond when they try to rouse it today, they also realize anything could happen since the spacecraft is now in deep space some 807 million kilometers from Earth. For the last 10 years, Rosetta has been traveling through the solar system for a rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko or 67P/CG. The Rosetta spacecraft and mission were designed to perform a detailed investigation of a comet. Rosetta was put into hibernation mode in 2011 when its trajectory to the comet took it so far from the sun that it was unable to use solar arrays to gather the energy needed to power it. After Rosetta was powered down, only its computer and several heaters were left running. Also, to stabilize the spacecraft for its long trip to the comet, the ESA put it into a once-a-minute spin. Now, 31 months after being put into hibernation, Rosetta’s trajectory has brought it back to where it’s closer to the sun and can gather enough solar energy to reach full power again. After putting the spacecraft through a number of wake-up maneuvers, mission controllers at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, will transmit a signal to Rosetta to take it out of its stabilizing spin and orient it so that its solar arrays face the sun, allowing it to draw enough energy to power-up and continue its mission as planned. The agency says the Rosetta mission will give scientists the opportunity to gain some insight into the creation of the solar system and its planets. “Comets are very interesting objects, said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific advisor for space science missions. “They are effectively time capsules. They’ve locked up material which is left over from the birth of our own solar system. So by going to a comet, examining it in detail, studying its materials, what it’s made of, we hope to learn a lot more about the origin of the solar system we live in today.” By studying the water that is locked up in comet 67P/CG, Rosetta mission officials hope to learn more about where the Earth’s water came from. McCaughrean says that since the Earth was too warm to hold much water after it was born, ocean water had to have been delivered later. Scientists suspect this was accomplished following collisions with millions of comets. Another reason to go to and study 67P/CG in great detail, according to McCaughrean, is that comets also contain lots of organic molecules, things which are the building blocks of more complex molecules like DNA. He and other scientists believe that it’s quite possible that comets not only delivered earth's water, but also the ingredients for life on Earth. McCaughrean thinks 67P/CG will be a great target for study because, unlike many comets, its surface hasn’t been heated by the sun many times. When a comet gets heated by the sun, “it gets processed. It gets kind of different on the surface to the way it is underneath,” he said. He and his colleagues think Rosetta’s target comet will contain plenty of the primitive materials that it collected as the solar system was being formed. On its way to rendezvous with the comet, Rosetta has made three fly-bys of Earth and one of Mars, while also encountering asteroids Steins and Lutetia along the way. Once Rosetta reaches its destination, which should be in August, it will spend time orbiting the comet to gather crucial data. Then, in November, it will deploy the Philae lander, a small spacecraft on board, that will land on the comet itself. The Philae will use its 10 specialized instruments to sample and analyze material from the comet’s surface and subsurface. The Rosetta mission, which was green-lighted in 1993, is named after the famous Rosetta stone. Engraved on this important historic object is a decree issued by a group of ancient Egyptian priests around the year 196 BC. The stone was inscribed with essentially the same text in three languages – ancient Egyptian Demotic, Greek and Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Scientists, with the knowledge of Demotic and Greek, were able to decipher the meaning of modern Hieroglyphs. Some consider the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone as the pioneering effort in translating unknown languages. scientists are hoping their Rosetta spacecraft, like the object it was named after, will help unlock the mysteries of how the solar system evolved. Legislative reaction favorable to Obama's speech on spying By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Congress is idle this week, but lawmakers are reacting to President Barack Obama’s speech on Friday announcing changes in U.S. intelligence operations. Legislators’ perceptions matter because congressional action will be required to enact some of the reforms sought by Obama. The president announced changes in the storage of bulk data, called metadata, collected by the National Security Agency and proposed procedures the U.S. government must follow to access that data. He also attempted to reassure the international community that the United States is judicious when it comes to spying abroad. “The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who do not threaten our national security, and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures. This applies to foreign leaders, as well.” The speech was ground-breaking, according to Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican who appeared on ABC’s This Week. “What he did was, for the first time, explain these programs and defend them. I think metadata, most significantly, will not be dismantled, but rather will be put in the hands of an outside, third party. I think what gave most Americans heartburn was that this data was being stored under the NSA and warehoused under the government and this administration, who, you know, quite frankly, has some trust issues," said McCaul. Another Republican congressman, Mike Rogers, applauded Obama for defending intelligence gathering as necessary and proper. He spoke on CNN’s State of the Union. “We have to come to the conclusion as Americans, can you put the proper oversight on these programs? I think we have. I think we did. Both under Bush and under Mr. Obama, to make sure we have a program that fills the gap that we know we missed on the 9-11 September attacks,” said Rogers. Congress takes the issue seriously and will act, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who spoke on Fox News Sunday. “The concern everybody has is allowing our government to have such a reach into your private life - my private life and everybody else's, that we have a government controlling us instead of us controlling the government. And that's what both the Republicans and Democrats are joined together on the Hill to try to change,” said Leahy. Lawmakers will weigh in more fully next week, when Congress returns from a break. Obama likely will renew his call for intelligence reforms in his annual State of the Union address Jan. 28. Google testing contact lens that will monitor blood sugar By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Internet giant Google says it's testing a smart contact lens that could visually alert patients when their blood sugar level drops. Diabetics struggle daily to monitor and control their blood sugar level which, if left uncontrolled, can lead to long-term damage to their eyes, kidneys and heart. Most test their glucose level by drawing a tiny drop of blood, but scientists are trying to find easier ways to do that by experimenting with other body fluids, such as tears. On its blog, Google says that tiny chips and sensors, and antennas thinner than a human hair, could be embedded into the soft contact lens material. Placed on the eye, it could monitor sugar levels as often as once every second. Google says it has completed multiple clinical studies and is now testing prototypes with tiny LED lights that flash when the glucose level drops. Researchers also envision new apps that would make that information available online to both patients and their doctors. Google says the technology is still being tested but hopes it will one day lead to better and easier management of diabetes.  Library of Congress photo
Martin Luther King, Jr., at a
press conferenceMartin Luther
King enjoyed
secure location in Birmingham By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Martin Luther King, Jr., came to Birmingham in 1963, to the place he called the most racially segregated city in the United States. "To dramatize this blatant injustice," he said. "And to demand that the federal government not put a cent in this city unless it decides to face the realities of desegregation." King and other civil rights leaders launched a campaign pressing the city to abolish laws that kept blacks and whites separated in schools, restaurants and other public places. Some of the protests turned violent, and hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. To escape the chaos and have a place to work, King sought refuge inside a Birmingham safe house. Jeff Drew, a civil rights activist whose parents were friends of King, now owns the home. "He could do what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted, without fear of any reprisal inside these walls. It gave him the sanctuary to pray, to think and write," he said. But this neighborhood was anything but quiet 50 years ago, as there were numerous racially motivated bombings at homes, giving this community the nickname Dynamite Hill. Bomb's exploded nearby and the house came under fire from white segregationists. "This room was protected by that big wall out there to stop the bullets from coming in here," said Drew. He said King stayed at the house 20 times during the Birmingham campaign. He slept in this bedroom and during the day met with civil rights leaders to map out strategy and negotiate a settlement with white business owners. "Right here was where the end of the Birmingham business boycott was negotiated. Business leaders agreed to hire blacks as sales people and to remove the colored and white signs at the bathrooms and water fountains," he said. Drew also remembers listening to a tense telephone conversation between King and President John Kennedy when King demand that the federal government stop the violence. "His side of the conversation went like this, 'We want the entire country to know that your administration supports racial inequality here in Birmingham, and brutality as well. And so we are going to continue the demonstration,' and he hung the phone up, slammed the phone down." The next morning Drew said federal troops dispatched by the president set up a command post outside the home, and tensions eased. Lawrence Pijeaux, president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said King's success in the city had an impact nationwide. "In legislation that provided an opportunity for our people to have access to important things: education, housing, healthcare, voting rights. Those things came about primarily because of what happened in Birmingham, Alabama," he said Drew wants to preserve the house to remind people of the sacrifices made by King and thousands of African Americans. In 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act outlawing racial segregation in public places. The following year, the Voting Rights Act banned practices that were used to keep blacks from participating in elections. King’s final campaign came in 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. While supporting striking sanitation workers, he was assassinated at a local hotel. King was 39 years old when he died. Today, Martin Luther King Day, is a U.S. national holiday commemorating his Jan.15 birthday. The U.S. Embassy here is closed. Rodman checks in himself in at alcohol treatment center By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Retired American basketball star Dennis Rodman has checked himself into an alcohol treatment program after returning to the United States from his latest trip to North Korea, where he played an exhibition game for the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Rodman spokesman Darren Prince said Saturday that Rodman checked into the facility voluntarily. He did not disclose the location of the center and did not say how long Rodman would be there. While on his self-described basketball diplomacy trip, Rodman gave an incoherent, profanity-filled rant during a live interview with CNN, in which he seemed to imply that a U.S. citizen deserved to be imprisoned in the North. In a statement through a publicist, Rodman later said it had been a stressful day and he had been drinking before the interview. Rodman told reporters at the Beijing airport last Monday that he was sorry he could not do anything to help free American missionary Kenneth Bae, who was imprisoned for 15 years of hard labor on a conviction of trying to overthrow the government. He said he is not a diplomat and asked the world to put away politics for one day. Foreign directors basking in glow of Oscar nominations By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad reflected on his second Oscar nomination for best foreign language film while hiking in the hills near Los Angeles Thursday, he evoked the special sweetness the distinction carries for filmmakers from small, developing corners of the world. “It means a lot to me, personally,” Abu-Assad said in a telephone interview, “because it will give you more opportunities to finance your projects and attract actors.” Abu-Assad's film "Omar" about friendship and betrayal after three Palestinians murder an Israeli soldier, along with Cambodia's Rithy Panh's "The Missing Picture" represented the outsider countries nominated for best foreign language film, vying for the honor against dramas from established film industries in Italy, Denmark and Belgium. “It's actually the same challenge as everywhere, financing film,” Abu-Assad said. “We don't have a real infrastructure for cinema because we're still under occupation. It's not easy to move.” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will hand out the Academy Awards March 2, winnowed down 76 competing foreign films to nine in the first phase of the nomination process before announcing the final five. “The toughest recognition to get is from the people who know the business well,” Abu-Assad said. “When you make a movie, you want recognition that you made a good movie and such a nomination gives you that recognition.” Each country can nominate one film each year. Last year's winner, Austrian director Michael Haneke's austere French-language drama "Amour," went beyond the foreign-language category by scoring nominations for best picture, directing, original screenplay and best actress. This year's nominees include a film that features a Danish actor best known for his work on U.S. television, another that substitutes clay figurines for actors, and the winner of the Golden Globe award for best foreign language film. Denmark's "The Hunt," about a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of molesting a student, is directed by Thomas Vinterberg and stars Mads Mikkelsen, the lead actor of NBC television series "Hannibal," who also starred in the last year's Oscar-nominated Danish film, "A Royal Affair." “I don't know the American situation well enough to know how much this will help, but for us back here it means the world,” Vinterberg told Reuters from Copenhagen. “It's an amazing pat on the shoulder and we're very, very proud.” Vinterberg said he hoped that Mikkelsen will attract viewers and Oscar voters to the film. “What I can tell you is that he's done one of his best performances ever,” the director said of Mikkelsen, whose steely looks often land him the roles of villains in Hollywood. “I really wrote the character for him,” Vinterberg added. “The whole character was invented for Mads in particular... He was so manly already, he's such a stallion, that I decided to humble him and make him a schoolteacher, and make him more Scandinavian and soft.” Belgium Flemish-language drama "The Broken Circle Breakdown" by Felix Van Groeningen, about a bluegrass performer and his girlfriend whose carefree life is upended when their young daughter is stricken with cancer, is the country's seventh Oscar nomination. "The Missing Picture," which landed Cambodia's first Oscar nomination, eschews actors altogether for clay figurines as stand-ins for the director Panh's family, whose lives were destroyed in bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge government. Drama "The Great Beauty" from Italy, which as a country has won a record 13 best foreign picture Oscars, earned a nomination after capturing the Golden Globe award for best foreign film. The film, directed by Paolo Sorrentino and about an aging journalist reflecting on his life in Rome, is considered a nod to Federico Fellini's landmark 1960 film "La Dolce Vita." Email obsessions can damage mental health, psychologist says By
the Kingston University news service
Workers obsessed with checking their emails could be damaging their own mental health and that of their colleagues, according to research at London's Kingston University. Occupational psychologist Emma Russell said she believes she has identified the seven deadly email sins that can lead to negative repercussions if not handled correctly. Some of the worst habits include ping pong messages back and forth and read receipts, which accompany every missive sent, the study, looking into which email practices stress employees out, found. “Back in the dial-up era, when going online had a cost implication, most people checked email maybe once a day and often responded to mails as soon as they read them. Now with broadband and 3G, unlimited numbers of messages can be streamed to you via your smartphone at any time of the day or night. However many of us haven’t adapted our behavior to what can seem like a constant stream of mails,” Ms. Russell, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at Kingston Business School, explained. Responding to out of hours emails, for instance, may make an employee look keen but it can also mean workers find it difficult to switch off, according to the study. “This puts pressure on staff to be permanently on call and makes those they are dealing with feel the need to respond,” Ms. Russell explained. “Some workers became so obsessed by email that they even reported experiencing so-called phantom alerts where they think their phone has vibrated or bleeped with an incoming email when in fact it has not. Others said they felt they needed to physically hold their smartphone when they were not at their desk so that they were in constant email contact.” Email ping pong, where messages are responded to immediately by both sides until a very long chain builds up, are particularly hated by many of those involved. Ms. Russell analyzed 28 email users across different companies to see which habits had positive and negative influences on their working lives. "This research reminds us that even though we think we are using strategies for dealing with our email at work, many of them can be detrimental to other goals and the people that we work with," Ms. Russell said. Some create a problem for the sender rather than the receiver, she said, as they can lead to them giving out the wrong impression or not remaining in control of what they are doing. For example having email alerts switched on and responding to email immediately can have positive benefits if one wants to show concern to the person who has emailed them. However, it may have negative repercussions in terms of the sender feeling that responding to emails is taking them away from other tasks and impacting on their sense of well-being. The report was presented at the British Psychological Society's annual conference.  University
of Oregon graphic
Graphic
shows release of stored elastic energy.
Secrets of how
humans walk
probed by Oregon researchers By the University of Oregon news service
Humans and some of the hominid ancestors such as Homo erectus have been walking for more than a million years, and researchers are close to figuring out how humans do it. It’s never been completely clear how human beings accomplish the routine, taken-for-granted miracle called walking, let alone running. But findings published last month in the Journal of Experimental Biology outline a specific interaction between the ankle, knee, muscles and tendons that improve the understanding of a leg moving forward in a way that maximizes motion while using minimal amounts of energy. The research could find some of its earliest applications in improved prosthetic limbs, said researchers in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. Later on, a more complete grasp of these principles could lead to walking or running robots that are far more agile and energy-efficient than anything that exists today. “Human walking is extraordinarily complex, and we still don’t understand completely how it works,” said Jonathan Hurst, a professor of mechanical engineering and expert in legged locomotion in robots. There’s a real efficiency to it – walking is almost like passive falling. The robots existing today don’t walk at all like humans, they lack that efficiency of motion and agility. “When we fully learn what the human leg is doing,” Hurst added, “we’ll be able to build robots that work much better.” Researchers have long observed some type of high-power push off when the leg leaves the ground, but didn’t really understand how it worked. Now they believe they do. The study concluded there are two phases to this motion. The first is an alleviation phase in which the trailing leg is relieved of the burden of supporting the body mass. Then in a launching phase the knee buckles, allowing the rapid release of stored elastic energy in the ankle tendons, like the triggering of a catapult. “We calculated what muscles could do and found it insufficient, by far, for generating this powerful push off,” said Daniel Renjewski, a postdoctoral research associate in the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State. “So we had to look for a power-amplifying mechanism. “The coordination of knee and ankle is critical,” he said. “And contrary to what some other research has suggested, the catapult energy from the ankle is just being used to swing the leg, not add large amounts of energy to the forward motion.” Walking robots don’t do this. Many of them use force to swing the leg forward from something resembling a hip point. It can be functional, but it’s neither energy-efficient nor agile. And for more widespread use of mobile robots, energy use is crucially important, the researchers said. “We still have a long way to go before walking robots can move with as little energy as animals use,” Hurst said. “But this type of research will bring us closer to that.” The research has helped create some of the leading technology in the world for robots that can walk and run. One model can run a nine-minute mile and step off a ledge, and others are even more advanced. Robots with the ability to walk and maneuver over uneven terrain could ultimately find applications in prosthetic limbs, an exo-skeleton to assist people with muscular weakness, or use in the military, disaster response or any dangerous situation. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 13 | |||||||||
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Scientists expect
more woes from strong El Niño events By
the University of New South Wales news service
Extreme weather events fueled by unusually strong El Niños, such as the 1983 heat wave that led to the Ash Wednesday bushfires in Australia, are likely to double in number as the planet warms. An international team of scientists from organizations including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, published this finding in the journal Nature Climate Change. "We currently experience an unusually strong El Niño event every 20 years. Our research shows this will double to one event every 10 years," said co-author, Dr. Agus Santoso of the Centre of Excellence. "El Niño events are a multi-dimensional problem, and only now are we starting to understand better how they respond to global warming," said Santoso. Extreme El Niño events develop differently from standard El Niños, which first appear in the western Pacific. Extreme El Niño's occur when sea surface temperatures exceeding 28°C develop in the normally cold and dry eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. This different location for the origin of the temperature increase causes massive changes in global rainfall patterns, he said. "The question of how global warming will change the frequency of extreme El Niño events has challenged scientists for more than 20 years," said co-author Mike McPhaden of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "This research is the first comprehensive examination of the issue to produce robust and convincing results," said McPhaden. The impacts of extreme El Niño events extend to every continent across the globe. The 1997-98 event alone caused $35 U.S. billion in damage and claimed an estimated 23,000 human lives worldwide. "During an extreme El Niño event countries in the western Pacific, such as Australia and Indonesia, experienced devastating droughts and wild fires, while catastrophic floods occurred in the eastern equatorial region of Ecuador and northern Peru," said lead author, Wenju Cai of the Commonwealth Scientific organization. In Australia, the drought and dry conditions induced by the 1982-83 extreme El Niño preconditioned the Ash Wednesday Bushfire in southeast Australia, leading to 75 fatalities. To achieve their results, the team examined 20 climate models that consistently simulate major rainfall reorganization during extreme El Niño events. They found a substantial increase in events from the present-day through the next 100 years as the eastern Pacific Ocean warmed in response to global warming. "This latest research based on rainfall patterns, suggests that extreme El Niño events are likely to double in frequency as the world warms leading to direct impacts on extreme weather events worldwide." "For Australia, this could mean summer heat waves, like that recently experienced in the south-east of the country, could get an additional boost if they coincide with extreme El Ninos," said co-author, Professor Matthew England from the Center of Excellence for Climate System Science Nine in Haiti indicted in killing of critical radio broadcaster By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A judge in Haiti has indicted nine people, including some close associates of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in the killing of radio journalist Jean Dominique more than a decade ago. The former president was not indicted, but a former senator in Aristide's political party is among the nine. An unknown gunman shot and killed the prominent, outspoken journalist and a security guard during the April 2000 incident in Port-au-Prince. At least seven judges have worked on the case over a span of 14 years, resulting in Friday's indictments. Dominique revolutionized Haitian broadcasting by criticizing abuses by those in power and addressing his audience in native Creole, rather than French. |
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| From Page 7: April deal predicted for Pacific trade pact By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An ambitious trade pact being negotiated among Pacific Rim nations could be concluded as soon as April, the Mexican economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, said. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would cover almost 40 percent of the global economy and create a free trade zone reaching from North America to Japan and New Zealand. The United States is keen to wrap up talks in the coming months. “My estimate from the start of the year is that we could be closing a deal ... in the first four months of the year,” Guajardo told reporters in Mexico City. It could even be sooner than April, but would depend on how negotiations developed, the minister said. The countries in the talks include the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Mexico and Peru. |
