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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 16
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Nation mourns 13
dead in boat mishap
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation is in mourning today because a tour boat accident in the Caribbean took 13 Costa Rican lives. The mishap prompted a strong government response. Security ministry aircraft brought the 18 survivors from Managua. And President Luis Guillermo Solís and many top officials met the survivors and the aircraft carrying the nine victims at Juan Santamaría airport Sunday night. Earlier Solís had declared a day of national mourning for today. Flags were to fly at half staff. The mishap happened as the open boat tried to carry 32 persons from Little Corn Island to Corn Island, where there is an airport. Both are part of Nicaragua and about 70 kilometers off the country's east coast. Four persons are missing and presumed dead. The search was to resume today. The boat captain has been detained for investigation. The probe will center on whether the man should have attempted the trip with rough seas and winds. None of the bodies that came ashore in Nicaragua was wearing a life vest. The Corn Islands are popular vacation spots for Costa Ricans, and the tourists were part of a tour arranged by a Costa Rican firm. Two of the dead were Costa Rican women now living in the United States, according to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. Four U.S. citizens were on the boat and survived, said the ministry. Our readers' opinions
Murder rate in prisons is not lowDear A.M. Costa Rica: I read with interest in today’s A.M. Costa Rica that the minister responsible for the Costa Rican prison system thinks that 29 murders in the prisons over the last five years is “low considering the number of inmates” (currently 13,243). Murder rates are quoted as the number per 100,000, and if the data mentioned is used to calculate a murder rate using an average of 6 per year, the rate is 6/13,243x100,000 = 45.3. There are only two countries in the world that report a higher murder rate: Honduras (84.3) and Venezuela (53.7) although prison to prison comparisons aren’t easily found. (Data is from Wikipedia. Costa Rica as a country is around 12 for 2015 and the U.S. around 6). It’s obvious that overcrowding must have some strongly negative effect on violence in prisons but passing off the murder rate as low seems insensitive to that problem. Bob Normand
Quepos Two more highway scams reported Dear A.M. Costa Rica: My last two trips to Costa Rica I have had the same scam pulled on me. Once on the Highway 21 below Nicoya, and once near Brasilito. It goes like this: You're driving down the road, and a slow car pulls out in front of you going muy poco, maybe 20 kph. You look to pass, but it's a double yellow line. So on a straightaway you pass just to have a cop jump out and wave you over. They tell you the fine is 320,000 colons and ask for your passport and rental car contract. I gave him $50 and ask my passport, and rental car contract back. The second time was the same scam except I gave them 30,000 colons. The reason I know it's a scam because both times I looked up and notice the same car or truck coming going muy poco the other way and a cop was pulling over another car going the opposite direction both times. Moral to the story: 1. Don't pass on a double yellow line. 2. If this happens to you go to the municipality immediately and fill out a report. Take pictures of the cops, or go video the entire incident. 3. Write the Costa Rican tourist board and make an issue about it. 4. Or lastly, suck it up and be thankful you're in Costa Rica. Mike Redmond
Los Angeles, California Editor's note: The writer reports that the police involved were traffic officers. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 16 | ||
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| Atenas finally eliminates illegal landfill by removing 350
tons of trash |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Atenas officials report that they have removed 350 tons of garbage from an illegal dump in Fátima de Atenas near the Hogar de Vida facility. This was an effort that began in November. Neighbors had complained that the site was emitting toxic gas and that there were fires. Querima Bermúdez, the mayor of Atenas, said that the municipality needed the help of other agencies. Heavy equipment was borrowed from the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias. The residue from the dump went to a legal landfill operated by Parque Eco Industrial Tecno Ambiente in Monte de Oro, Puntareans. The mayor said that the landfill operators accepted the material without charge. The Ministerio de Salud said that an order has been issued so that the owners of the property on which the illegal |
 Ministerio de Salud
photo
A backhoe was one of the pieces of equipment needed.landfill is located removes the garbage that remains. The ministry said that the owners have signed a contract with a landfill in Orotina. The illegal dump site is one of a number in the country, particularly in rural areas. |
| Local epidemic of hepatitis is blamed on local water supply
in Aserrí |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A local epidemic of hepatitis A in Piedra and Bellavista de Aserrí is being blamed on the failure to chlorinate properly the local water supply. The Ministerio de Salud said that there were 61 cases up until Jan. 15. The World Health Organization said that hepatitis A virus is transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food and water or through direct contact with an infectious person. Almost everyone recovers fully from hepatitis A, but very small proportions die from fulminant hepatitis, the agency said. |
The health
ministry said that there were no serious cases in Aserrí. An
intensive scientific investigation ruled out any other source except
the local water, said the ministry. The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social sent workers to call on residents in the area to instruct them on how to avoid contamination. There were no cases reported in areas of Aserrí that are nearby, said the ministry. The canton is south of San José Centro. In addition to hand washing and general attention to personal hygiene, the health ministry said that a preventative method is to put several drops of a chlorine-based household liquid for every liter of drinking water. But the water must stand for a half hour before being consumed, the ministry said. |
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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. 25, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 16 | ||
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| Big snow storm is not something new for Northeast of the
United States |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports The U.S. national news shows are covering the weekend snowfall as if it were a national disaster. The Northeast is used to such snowfalls, although news presenters in Atlanta and California may not be. The U.S. has seen many big storms. The Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas typically see 10 to 12 feet in a single season. Little Oswego, New York, located on Lake Ontario, can get up to 11 or 12 feet in a single storm. What is new now are the accurate predictions, the media frenzy and social networks. Only the print media existed in 1888 when the blizzard ripped though the Northeast and left 300 dead. The Blizzard of 1947 also took the Northeast by surprise. There were no satellites then, and the storm snuck in from the Atlantic, the reverse of the usual weather patterns. The records connect the storm with Christmas Day. The snow actually began falling the day before and halted mass transit. CNN refers to this storm as broadcasters attempt to rank the record snowfalls. In 1947, Central park in New York City got 26.4 inches (67.1 centimeters). But the winds created drifts up to 12 feet in the New York-New Jersey metro area. There also were major snowfalls in 1950, 1977, 1978, 1993 and 1996 just in the East. Elsewhere residents have their own lists of dangerous storms, particularly if they have cattle on the range. In fact, there was another blizzard in 1888 that caused major damage and deaths in Texas and states to the north. Snow is not unusual during the eastern winter and neither are ice storms. When the flakes fall, school children used to await the announcement of school closings on the local radio station. Now the news comes via the Internet and Facebook. The latest blizzard hit Washington, and closed the federal government for all but emergency employees. The city's subway system will be running today on a very limited schedule, making it impossible for thousands of federal |
employees to
get to their offices. Schools in Washington and the surrounding suburbs are closed and scheduled flights are just starting to trickle in and out of the city's three airports. The U.S. Congress postponed several votes scheduled for Monday. Mayors and governors from New York to the Gulf states were urging drivers to stay off the roads and give snowplows a chance to clear highways and small neighborhood side streets, and give emergency vehicles and power crews the right of way. The storm sent floodwaters with huge chunks of ice pouring down the main streets of coastal towns of New Jersey and into homes and businesses. At least 24 storm-related deaths have been reported, including from heart attacks suffered by people while shoveling snow. One man in Pennsylvania suffocated in his parked car with the motor running when a plow completely buried the vehicle with snow, blocking the exhaust pipe and filling the car with carbon monoxide. The huge storm moved up the Atlantic coast Friday and Saturday, bringing hurricane-force winds and tons of moisture from the warm Gulf of Mexico. It struck hardest in the Baltimore and Washington area, two cities that are not accustomed to violent winter storms. As much as 76 centimeters (29.9 inches) of snow was dumped on some of the Washington suburbs. Baltimore was hit with 74 centimeters (29.1 inches), breaking the city's all-time record. New York's 68 centimeters (26.8 inches) was its second-largest snowfall since 1869 and 101 centimeters (39.8 inches) was recorded near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The storm's impact on Costa Rica was modest. Some passenger flights, including some of United out of Newark, New Jersey, were canceled, and the temperature dipped a few degrees thanks to the cold air rolling in from the north. |
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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. 25, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 16 | |||||||
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| Actor Matt Damon joins call for Michigan governor's ouster By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Oscar-nominated actor and environmentalist Matt Damon has called on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign, following revelations that his administration sought for months to minimize the water contamination crisis in the city of Flint. Damon, a co-founder of a global non-profit water rights organization, told the Daily Beast that "at the very least he should resign." He went on to say that "everyone is entitled to a fair trial in the United States . . . that man should get one, and soon." Damon's criticisms, echoing those of Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, came just days after newly released emails from the governor's office showed state officials belittling contaminated drinking water claims from Flint residents. Snyder has issued a public apology to the city, and last week said he had replaced some state officials. He also rejected earlier calls to resign, insisting that he will instead work to restore Flint's critically damaged water system and boost public confidence in state government. Flint's crisis began in 2014, when the cash strapped city sought to save money by drawing water from a local river rather than nearby Detroit's water system. It was later found that officials did not properly treat the corrosive Flint River water to prevent lead leaching from old pipes. Additionally, Flint residents were not informed about their tainted drinking water supply for a year and a half. Estimates to replace the city's water pipes run as high as $1.5 billion. In a separate development Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush defended Gov. Snyder against growing criticism of his handling of the crisis. Bush, in comments to ABC television's "This Week," blamed the crisis on water quality regulations that he said are too complex. He said those regulations have led to "regional, local and county governments...all pointing fingers at one another" as the crisis grew. Bush then praised the embattled governor for having taken responsibility for the crisis and "for rolling up his sleeves and trying to deal with it." Last week, U.S. civil rights activists descended on Flint, a largely African-American city where 40 percent of the community's 100,000 residents live in poverty. Longtime civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson described the city as a crime scene, while firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore called the situation in the city "a racial crisis. “It's a poverty crisis . . . that's what created this," he said. Community leaders are expected to turn out in force Tuesday for a crisis meeting led by Cornell Brooks, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Democratic hopefuls unfazed by possible run by Bloomberg By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The two leading Democratic presidential candidates say they wouldn't be intimidated by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg launching a third-party independent campaign. Bloomberg said last week he is considering getting into the race. The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned- independent has liberal views on such issues as gun control, abortion rights, and immigration. He would most likely take votes away from the Democratic nominee in the November election. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton appeared unconcerned about a Bloomberg run, telling NBC television's "Meet the Press" Sunday "The way I read what he said is if I didn't get the nomination, he might consider. Well, I'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to." Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders says he is not happy over the possibility of another wealthy presidential contender. Bloomberg, like Republican candidate Donald Trump, is a billionaire, having earned his fortune in the media. "This is not what, to my view, American democracy is supposed to be about, a contest between billionaires. If that takes place, I am confident that we will win it," Sanders said on ABC's "This Week" program. This is the last week candidates have to campaign before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, the first events in which voters actually make their choices. The latest polls show Democrats Mrs. Clinton and Sanders just about tied, with former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley far behind. Most polls give Republican Trump a large lead over his rivals. But one survey by CBS News/YouGov shows him with just a 5 percent lead over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Senate to consider major bill charting U.S. energy future By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As Washington digs out from a blizzard, congressional debate on the climate will heat up this week when the Senate takes up a far-reaching bill to reform and modernize America’s energy sector. “An energy revolution has occurred in our country,” said the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Republican Lisa Murkowski of energy rich Alaska. Having lifted a ban on U.S. oil exports, lawmakers will consider provisions facilitating America’s export of natural gas and domestic production of strategic raw minerals. The bill also seeks to upgrade America’s electric grid and promote energy efficiency in government and commercial buildings. Sen. Murkowski says, if implemented, the legislation will help make the United States a global energy superpower. “It will help America produce more energy. It will help Americans pay less for energy. We agreed to boost liquefied natural gas exports to boost our economy and the security of our allies. We agreed to promote hydropower, not to mention geothermal and other clean, renewable resources,” she said. The bill aims for a delicate balance between competing partisan interests. On the one hand, it seeks to satisfy defenders of the fossil fuel industry, like Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, a Republican. “We are locked in a global battle to determine who will produce oil and gas in the world in the future. Will it be OPEC, Russia, Venezuela? Or will it be us?” Hoeven asked. At the same time, it aims to win the support of lawmakers worried about climate change. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, comes to the Senate floor every week the chamber is in session to deliver a speech on the perils of a warming planet. “2015 was the warmest year ever recorded on earth. That’s a fact. And it’s not an anomaly,” Whitehouse said last week. Far more important than the support of any one senator is that of President Barack Obama, who can sign or veto legislation. Late last year, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed an energy overhaul that envisions a prominent role for fossil fuels well into the future. The bill got just nine Democratic votes, and the White House says Obama will veto it if the legislation reaches his desk. In its current form, the Senate version appears to have enough bipartisan support to advance and pass the chamber. But individual senators can propose amendments that, if adopted, could alter vote totals and decide whether the bill earns the president’s backing. Having committed the United States to a landmark global climate pact, Obama wants to steer America to a clean energy future. He spoke at length about climate change and energy at his State of the Union address earlier this month. “We’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60 percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth. Gas under two bucks a gallon ain’t bad, either,” the president said. “The jobs we’ll create, the money we’ll save, the planet we’ll preserve. That is the kind of future our kids and our grandkids deserve. And it's within our grasp.” The Obama administration has imposed carbon emissions restrictions on U.S. power plants, and restricted drilling and mining for fossil fuels on federal lands. Both actions irk Sen. Murkowski. “President Obama has ignored the good work going on in Congress as he attempts to unilaterally recast our nation’s energy policy. His gauntlet of burdensome regulations, many just beginning to take effect, threatens the affordability and reliability of our energy,” she said. Credit card firms are at work helping developing economies By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Major credit card companies are expanding their efforts in emerging economies to help move from traditional cash exchange to electronic processing of transactions. From merchants in local markets to full service commercial bankers, credit card companies are encouraging new technologies to facilitate the growth of electronic accounts. According to Michael Fiore, MasterCard’s executive vice president of global product, there is a good reason the emerging countries want money distributed differently. “Governments are very interested in cutting costs. “Cash,” he said, “is actually very expensive for a government. In fact, one-point-five percent of a country’s gross domestic product is spent on handling cash . . . printing it, distributing it, securing it, collecting it, cleaning it. It’s very expensive.” "In addition,” according to Fiore, “there’s a crime factor. Cash cannot be tracked,” he said in an interview conducted at MasterCard’s Purchase, New York, world headquarters. “It’s very difficult to do that. In fact, tax evasion, the black market and money laundering are all typically using cash to avoid being tracked. Whereas,” Fiore continued, “electronic is a way to keep a transparent view of what cash is, how it is moving.” According to MasterCard, even with all the new technology applications, fully 85 percent of all transactions in the world today are in cash and only 15 percent electronic. One of the major growth areas for electronic card companies is the developing world. Africa, India and Brazil are wider battlegrounds for card companies with vast numbers of people without bank accounts and a growing middle class. Scott Shay, chairman of Signature Bank of New York, said “in the developing world new technology can be extremely helpful in helping those societies leapfrog some of the development that we went through." For example,” he added, “the fact that in the developing world countries can go directly to cell phones, it means they don’t have to install the expensive infrastructure that we’ve installed in the United States and in other developed countries for our phone systems and for other telecommunication systems. They can leapfrog that.” Innovation is the key. MasterCard’s John Sheldon is in charge of innovation management. His offices in Manhattan have that cutting edge look. He showed the new hand-held facial recognition transactional software in action. The user validates a purchase with a picture of his or her face. In Nigeria, Sheldon has helped that country issue new ID cards. He said, “so many of the people, particularly in Africa, don’t have a reliable means to verify their ‘Know Your Customer’ data and therefore aren’t able to participate in the banking system. So one of the big things we’ve done as a business at MasterCard is work with the country of Nigeria and we’ve helped them issue their EID, which is their Electronic ID, which has information similar to a driver’s license issued by the government,” he said. According to Sheldon, “it is a reliable data source so they can go ahead and participate in the banking system.” But the world is not standing still. Change is happening. Fiore of MasterCard gave an example of how his company is working with other emerging nations. “In South Africa,” Fiore said, “the government wanted to have a better experience in distributing Social Security. We worked out a system with South Africa to have Social Security distributed on a MasterCard. They now have a safe place to keep their money,” he said, “as opposed to having it in cash.” Now, according to Fiore, one in every three South Africans has an electronic account to use to receive their benefits. In Egypt, the government has also made a commitment to move to cashless. With the help of MasterCard they’ve created mandates to allow mobile network operators and banks to allow consumers access to electronic accounts. There’s still a long way to go for a fully cashless society. Basically, it is up to governments to decide how and when they join the cashless world. E.T. is probably dead, research team suggests By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
While the universe is likely filled with habitable planets, new research suggests any life on these bodies would likely become extinct rapidly. Writing in the journal Astrobiology, researchers from The Australian National University say life on a fledgling planet would likely die out due to runaway heating or cooling. "The universe is probably filled with habitable planets, so many scientists think it should be teeming with aliens," said Aditya Chopra from the university's Research School of Earth Sciences and lead author on the paper. "Early life is fragile, so we believe it rarely evolves quickly enough to survive." The main reason, says Chopra, is the lack of stability. "Most early planetary environments are unstable,” he said. “To produce a habitable planet, life forms need to regulate greenhouse gases such as water and carbon dioxide to keep surface temperatures stable." Examples of this are right next door. Venus and Mars could have been habitable at one point, but Venus became a hothouse, while Mars is a relative icebox. The paper’s co-author, Charley Lineweaver from the university's Planetary Science Institute, says that any basic life on Mars or Venus could have failed to help stabilize the environment. "Life on Earth probably played a leading role in stabilizing the planet's climate," he said. Chopra echoed his sentiments. "The mystery of why we haven't yet found signs of aliens may have less to do with the likelihood of the origin of life or intelligence and have more to do with the rarity of the rapid emergence of biological regulation of feedback cycles on planetary surfaces," he said. The research also helps explain Fermi’s Paradox, which states that despite the high odds of habitable planets, we have yet to find any sign of extraterrestrial life. Researchers are calling the early extinction of life the Gaian Bottleneck. "One intriguing prediction of the Gaian Bottleneck model is that the vast majority of fossils in the universe will be from extinct microbial life, not from multicellular species such as dinosaurs or humanoids that take billions of years to evolve," said Lineweaver. Brazil promises daily efforts to prevent virus infections By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Brazilian officials have announced measures to prevent the spread of the zika virus during the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games later this year. Organizers said Sunday that venues used at the Olympics in August will be inspected daily during game times in a bid to prevent the spread of the mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to a rare birth defect and also a condition that can cause paralysis. The Rio 2016 local organizing committee said inspectors will try to eliminate stagnant waters where mosquitoes breed. Inspections of Olympic facilities will begin four months before the games to get rid of mosquito breeding grounds. Daily sweeps will also take place during the games. But fumigation would only be an option on a case-by-case basis because of concerns for the health of the athletes and visitors. Brazil is suffering from an outbreak of zika virus, which health officials say may be behind a spike in cases of microcephaly, when infants are born with unusually small heads, as well as the paralysis-causing Guillain-Barre syndrome. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised pregnant women to reconsider travel to Brazil and 21 other countries with zika outbreaks. Broncos and Panthers to meet in 50th edition of Superbowl By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
This year's Super Bowl will be a matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. Each won Sunday to earn their spot in the U.S. National Football League's championship game. Carolina quarterback Cam Newton threw two touchdowns and ran for two more as he led the Panthers to a dominating 49-15 win over the Arizona Cardinals. The result was nothing new for Carolina, which lost just one game all year while Newton turned in what most presume will be a league Most Valuable Player performance. In the 50th Super Bowl, to be held Feb. 7 in Santa Clara, California, Newton will face a former MVP, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. The Broncos this season have relied on one of the league's strongest defenses, including in Sunday's 20-18 win over the New England Patriots. The 39-year-old Manning has had a roller coaster year that included missing games due to a foot injury and being benched for poor play. But he has been solid enough in the playoffs to get Denver back to the Super Bowl, something he won in 2006 with the Indianapolis Colts. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 16 | |||||||||
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Blaster destroys
weeds with grit spray
By the University of Illinois news service
Weeds are a major scourge for organic growers, who often must invest in multiple control methods to protect crop yields. A relatively new weed control method known as abrasive weeding, or weed blasting, could give organic growers another tool. The method, recently field-tested at the University of Illinois, is surprisingly effective. In conjunction with plastic mulch, abrasive weeding reduced final weed biomass by 69 to 97 percent compared to non-weeded control plots, said agroecologist Samuel Wortman at the university. Abrasive weeding involves blasting weed seedlings with tiny fragments of organic grit, using an air compressor. For the current study, grit was applied through a hand-held siphon-fed sand-blasting unit connected to a gas-powered air compressor, which was hauled down crop rows with a walk-behind tractor. The study looked at a number of grit sources: walnut shells, granulated maize cob, greensand, and soybean meal. If applied at the right plant growth stage, the force of the abrasive grit severely damages stems and leaves of weed seedlings. Wortman found no significant differences between the grit types in terms of efficacy. “When it leaves the nozzle, it’s at least Mach 1,” Wortman noted. “The stuff comes out so fast, it doesn’t really matter what the shape of the particle is.” Because ricocheting particles can pose a risk to the applicator, Wortman advises using protective eyewear. Mach 1 is about 767 mph. Blasted grit does not discriminate between weed and crop seedlings, which makes it important to use this method in transplanted crops that are substantially larger than weed seedlings at the time of grit application. Although some visible damage occurred on stems and leaves of both tomato and pepper crops, the damage did not affect marketable fruit yield. Studies are ongoing to determine whether abrasions on crop tissues could result in increased susceptibility to disease, but early results show little effect. Importantly, plots with plastic mulch and one or more blasting treatment achieved the same fruit yields seen in hand-weeded plots, and 33 to 44 percent greater yields than in non-weeded control plots. An additional benefit of weed blasting is the potential for growers to use organic fertilizers, such as soybean meal, as blasting material. “We expect that abrasive weeding could contribute between 35 and 105 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare to soil fertility.” The idea that a grower could both fertilize and kill weeds in a single pass is appealing, but it is still unknown whether the fertilizer would be available for plant uptake within critical windows. The method is now being tested in different horticultural crops, including broccoli and kale, and without additional weed control methods. Early results suggest that the presence of polyethylene mulch or biodegradable plastic mulch strongly enhances the success of weed blasting, as compared with straw mulch and bare soil. Wortman and his collaborators have also developed a mechanized grit applicator, which they are currently testing. The paper, "Air-propelled abrasive grits reduce weed abundance and increase yields in organic vegetable production," was published in Crop Protection. The article can be found online HERE! |
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| From Page 7: Google paid Apple $1 billion for search spot By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Search giant Google reportedly paid archnemesis Apple $1 billion to remain the default search engine for Apple’s mobile devices, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Bloomberg made the claim based on court documents in a copyright lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp. against Google. Google, which is now under the umbrella company Alphabet, pays Apple a percentage of the revenue it earns via search, but the exact percentage has never been disclosed. Bloomberg reported the revenue sharing reached as high as 34 percent. The court paper cited by the news agency is no longer available online, and neither Apple nor Google have commented. Bloomberg reported that the transcript vanished without a trace from electronic court records earlier this week Oracle's lawsuit claimed Google used its Java software to develop Android, Google’s mobile operating system, but never paid for it. According to the BBC, the $1 billion amount has been reported before by firms such as Morgan Stanley. "It's a very lucrative business to be the browser of choice on a device or the search engine on a device," Chris Green, a technology analyst at Lewis, told the BBC. Alphabet launched in August of 2015 and is run by Google’s current leaders, including CEO Larry Page and his team of co-founder Sergey Brin and CFO Ruth Porat. Alphabet consists of two parts. One is the Google core business, which includes Search, Ads, YouTube, Android and Chrome, and falls under Google's new CEO, Sundar Pichai. The other part of Alphabet is the potentially big new business industries far from Google’s search engine roots. That includes Google X (self-driving cars, delivery drones, Internet balloons), Nest (smart thermostats), Google Fiber (a broadband service), Calico (longevity research), Life Sciences (contact lenses) and Google Ventures, which provides funding to new startup investments. |
