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A.M. Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Presidencia counters negative
poll results
By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Casa Presidencial quickly responded to a poll that put the president in a bad light. Workers for the Presidencia also put a positive spin on a fairly negative poll produced by Cid Gallup. The main findings were that a large majority of Costa Ricans believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Casa Presidencial said, however, that the poll showed that concerns about the cost of living were voiced by fewer persons in the latest poll and that only 17 percent of the respondents said that their households had experienced a robbery or similar crime in the last four months. That was down from 26 percent in 2008 and 2009, Casa Presidencial said. As to the highly negative opinions expressed by respondents about the work President Luis Guillermo Solís has accomplished, Casa Presidencial said that all presidents receive such poor evaluations at this point in their terms. Casa Presidencial also came out with a summary of 10 signs that the national economy is recovering. Challenge to Cuban flights rejected By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The Sala IV constitutional court has rejected an appeal by a travel agency that wanted to participate in flying Cuban migrants to El Salvador and México. No specific reason was given. The travel firm was identified as Meridianos S.A. by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. José Montoya, the legal representative of the firm asked the court Monday to suspend the air flights of the Cubans that has been in effect since Feb. 4, the ministry said. Some travel agency operators have been unhappy with the plan because they were not given the chance to participate. The ministry said that 3,000 Cubans remain in the country. Bank to use cell phone selfies as ID By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Banco Nacional says it soon will be instituting facial recognition software for cell phone customers. The customer's face will serve as sort of a PIN number. The bank said that it will establish a data base of customers that will be compared with the one seeking access to an account via a cell telephone. The customer's cell telephone will take a selfie, which will be mathematically digitized. That information will be sent to the bank for comparison with the data base. The bank said that makeup, haircuts or a beard will not impede identification. Faked credit cards were of Americans By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Cloned credit cards of U.S. citizens have been used to make purchases here, even though the cards' real owners never have been in the country. The fact launched judicial agents on an investigation in December. The detective work climaxed Tuesday with the arrest of a man in Concepción de Tres Ríos. The initial complaint had been filed by a bank. Agents said they found 400 fake credit cards, two skimming devices used to extract electronic data from cards and various computer equipment. Also found were fake passports and driver licenses, they said. Deadline set for expressing political views By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
Readers are invited to express their preferences for party nominations and the elections for U.S. president, national level lawmakers and other officials. This newspaper will publish these preferences as letters through Friday, Oct. 14. The U.S. general elections are held on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Each letter should be of reasonable length and free standings in that it should not dispute the comments of a previously published letter. The letter should make and support its own arguments. Letters will be published with the name of the writer and the community in which the writer lives. Sometime in the third week of October, A.M. Costa Rica will publish its election endorsement and have the last word. There will be no further campaign letters published. Those supporting a candidate are reminded that U.S. voters in Costa Rica need some lead time to cast their ballots and send them in to be counted.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this
Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Ro
Colorado S.A 2065 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, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 38 | ||
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| Evil
in various forms continues to stalk the Internet
connections |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
There are certain advantages to spam emails. How else would one receive a nice letter from the Easter Bunny? The message probably was not from the real Estate Bunny. It was just another commercial trick marketers and crooks use to get users to read their messages. There is something evil about people who would assume the names of Santa, the Easter Bunny and other characters revered by children. And evil abounds. Trend Micro reports that emails in Costa Rica contain an average of 77 percent spam. Spamhaus.org, a site set up to fight spams, said that the worst spammars are in the United States, followed by China and Russia. Not all anti-spam organizations agree, and some say that China leads the pack. Spamhaus includes photos of the world's top spammers on its Web site. Spanhaus also is where users go to check Internet blocklists to see if their server is blacklisted for spewing spam. Frequently this is without the user's knowledge or consent. The use of worms and other malicious software to take over computers is well known. An infected computer can put out up to a quarter million spam messages an hour, according to industry sources. Some of these so-called botnets are capable of sending 30 billion spam email messages per day. The problem for computer users is how to block the unwanted spam but not trash real messages or even unexpected commercial messages that might be useful. Spamhaus suggests using blocklist technology on servers to filter out about 85 percent of the spam and then use a more intense filtering program at the computer. There also are other commercial solutions. The problem no longer is limited to PCs. Mobil devices are |
![]() A.M.
Costa Rica graphic
He's sending spam emails now!getting their share of spam now, and Macintosh computers also are vulnerable. Time was when Macintosh devices were immune because there were so few and spammers did not bother creating software to interface with the Mac operating system. Now there are so many Macs, including mobile devices that viruses for them are on the upswing. There was one report this month of an extortive spam that hit a Mac in the Central Valley. This is one of those viruses that captures the computers and puts up a black screen with instructions to send money to the spammers for a release code. There may have been others. Spammers using this so-called Ransomware are believed to have taken in millions in the last two years. |
| Outbreak
of bat-transmitted cow rabies reported in southern Costa
Rica |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal says it has encountered bovine rabies on a southern Costa Rica finca with 200 cows. Two cows have died of the paralytic disease on the finca in La Palma, Corredores, the agency said. The disease appears periodically in Costa Rica and is spread by vampire bats. The animal health agency has quarantined the |
finca
and is seeking to reduce the number of bats. Animal health workers also will check adjacent properties for other possible sick cows. There are about 500 cows in the area. The virus also affects dogs. A vaccine is available for cows, other animals and humans who work with animals As rabies takes hold, the afflicted animal will exhibit impeded coordination, difficulty walking, increased salivation and paralysis of the lower legs, making it unable to stand upright. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this
Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 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's Fourth News page | ||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 38 | ||
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| Donald
Trump appears to be the winner in Nevada's caucuses |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Billionaire Donald Trump won Tuesday's Republican presidential caucus in the western U.S. state of Nevada. The win is his third straight victory after taking primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina earlier this month. It also gives him momentum going into an important week in the campaign with more than a dozen states voting March 1. Trump gave a victory speech, saying that despite pundits predicting his campaign would not go far, he is now winning the country. He also said that when more Republicans drop out, he will pick up a lot of their supporters. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were locked in another close battle for second place with precincts in Nevada still reporting results. Cruz, who won the first nominating contest in the state of Iowa, told his supporters he is the only candidate who has and can beat Trump. |
Retired
surgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were far
behind, as expected from pre-vote polls. One-time favorite Jeb Bush dropped out of the race following a poor showing in the South Carolina primary, while Kasich and Carson have continued on. The diminished field of candidates potentially benefits Rubio, who has received a number of party endorsements in the days leading up to the caucus, including the backing of former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole. Cruz had a difficult week ahead of the caucus, losing the evangelical vote to Trump in South Carolina and facing accusations that his campaign plays dirty tricks on his opponents. Cruz had to fire the public face of his campaign, communications manager Rick Tyler, for social media posts falsely alleging Rubio mocked the Bible. Cruz doubled down on his approach to illegal immigration Monday when he said he would send federal agents to arrest undocumented immigrants. In his victory speech, Trump claimed he had won the evangelical vote and the hispanic vote. |
Here's reasonable
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents
of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 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's
Fifth news page |
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to discuss human rights By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday he plans to travel to Cuba in the next week or two for talks on human rights. Kerry made the statement before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I may be down there in the next week or two to have a human rights dialogue, specifically," he said. Kerry, who went to Cuba last August to raise the U.S. flag over the American Embassy in Havana, told the committee that concerns about the human rights situation in the Communist-ruled island still remain. The secretary's trip comes ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the nation next month, when he will become the first sitting U.S. leader to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years. "The president hopes to press forward on the agenda of speaking to the people of Cuba about the future, and, obviously, he is anxious to press on the rights of people to be able to demonstrate, to have democracy, to be free, to be able to speak and hang a sign in their window without being put in jail for several years," Kerry said. In December 2014, Obama announced the U.S. would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and begin the process of normalizing relations more than 50 years after they severed ties. Diplomatic ties were formally restored on July 20, 2015. Guantanamo plan appears to be highly controversial By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. President Barack Obama outlined his administration's plan for closing the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the facility "does not advance our national security, it undermines it." "If, as a nation, we don't deal with this now, when will we deal with it?" Obama asked at the White House, after the U.S. Defense Department delivered the plan Tuesday to Congress. He appealed to Congress to be on the right side of history and asked that the nation act on the lessons learned over the past 15 years. Republicans already have criticized the Pentagon's proposal. "Congress has left no room for confusion. It is against the law, and it will stay against the law to transfer terrorist detainees to American soil," Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said. "We will not jeopardize our national security over a campaign promise." “We are at war, yet incredibly the president is more focused on relocating and releasing enemy combatants than on detaining new ones, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul added. However, a senior administration official said closing the prison is a national security priority, adding that the facility has inspired jihadists and served as a recruiting tool for terrorists. The president stressed the importance of closing the facility when he took office in 2009, but with less than a year left in his presidency, some 91 detainees remain. Obama said that when he took office there had been bipartisan support for closing the prison, but that over time lawmakers had become worried about the politics of it. “It’s purely politically driven,” Gary Solis, a law of war professor at Georgetown University, said. “There are individuals who are so opposed to the Obama Administration, and I believe Obama personally, that they are simply unwilling to participate in any activity that might further his goals.” The Pentagon plan to close the facility includes discussion of 13 potential sites within the United States where the military could transfer a group of about 30 to 60 detainees. However, it does not recommend which U.S. site should be chosen. Potential sites include federal prisons in Kansas, Colorado and South Carolina, as well as military facilities. The Obama administration's efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility include: Identifying transfer opportunities for eligible detainees, reviewing by fall 2016 the threat posed by detainees currently not eligible for transfer and those who are not facing military commission charges and continuing military commission prosecutions for those currently charged. Even with these efforts, the administration expects that there will be a limited number of detainees who are deemed too dangerous to release. The administration said it will work with Congress to relocate those detainees who are not eligible for transfer or who are not candidates for prosecution to a secure detention facility in the continental United States while continuing to find other appropriate and lawful non-U.S. dispositions. A senior administration official said moving the prisoners from Cuba to the U.S. will save the Pentagon between $65 million and $85 million per year, and would offset the initial cost needed to move the prisoners within three to five years. “As the detainee population goes down, the per-person/per-man cost goes up dramatically, of course. So, it’s well over a million dollars a year per person at Guantanamo now,” Solis said. Obama added Tuesday that the overall savings from the move would amount to $1.7 billion over the next 20 years. The proposal does not include an exact cost or location for the replacement facility, which Republicans, including Speaker of the House Ryan, used to slam the plan. Senior administration officials, however, pointed to the restrictions made by Congress as to why they were unable to provide more specific costs and locations. Of the 91 detainees, a U.S. official said that 35 have been approved for transfer, and they are expected to be transferred to other countries by this summer. Another 10 are somewhere within the military commissions process, the official said. Current U.S. law bans the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to locations within the United States. Some say those transfers could bring security concerns. The White House has left open the possibility Obama could use an executive order to close Guantanamo. The Guantanamo facility opened in 2002 under the administration of former president George W. Bush following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. Nearly 800 detainees have been held there at some point since then, many for long periods without being charged or put on trial. Most of the detainees have been transferred back to their respective home countries or other nations willing to take them in. Mars issues recall of candy in 55 European countries By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Confectionery maker Mars has issued a recall of its candy bars across Europe over fears that plastic pieces could be found inside. The recall covers 55 countries and comes after a German man reported finding a small piece of red plastic inside a Snickers bar in January. The company traced the plastic to a piece of machinery found in its factory in the town of Veghel, in The Netherlands. A spokesman said the recall only involves candy products that were manufactured at the Dutch plant. They include Mars, Milky Way, Snickers, Celebrations and Miniatures with best before dates ranging from June 19, 2016, to Jan. 8, 2017. Mars says the recall was an isolated incident. It was unable to give the number of products expected to be removed from shelves. The U.S.-based Mars is one of the world's biggest food companies, with 29 chocolate brands including M&M's, Galaxy, Twix, Bounty and Maltesers. The company also owns Wrigley gum, Uncle Ben's Rice, Dolmio pasta sauce and Pedigree pet food. Republicans harden stance against Obama judicial pick By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Numerous Senate Republicans have hardened their stance against any Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Barack Obama for the remainder of his term in office. “No hearings,” said Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma as he emerged from a weekly gathering of the Republican caucus. “I’m not going to meet with the nominee,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. “There will be no hearing, no vote. We’ll let the next president decide.” For more than a week, most Republicans had argued that the next president, not Obama, should pick a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this month. But until Tuesday, few had spelled out whether that meant voting to reject a nominee after confirmation hearings or an absolute refusal to grant any consideration whatsoever to an Obama nominee. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky confirmed the prevailing sentiment after the caucus meeting. “My view, and I can now confidently say the view shared by virtually everybody in my conference, is that . . . this vacancy should not be filled by this lame-duck president,” McConnell said. Democrats met separately behind closed doors and signaled no retreat from their insistence that Obama is both entitled and duty-bound to fill judicial vacancies throughout his term, which ends in January 2017. “I would hope that Republicans will relent from a position that is unconstitutional and unsupported by the vast majority of the American people,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. “My message to Republicans is: Do your job.” “I’ve talked with the president, and I know he will fulfill his constitutional duty. He will nominate an individual to bring the Supreme Court back to full strength. And of course, he should,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The next nominee to the Supreme Court deserves full and fair consideration by the Senate. That includes a timely hearing and then an up-or-down vote,” Leahy added. Obama could name his pick for the high court any day. Some of his Senate allies are urging a moderate jurist who will be difficult for Republicans to stonewall. “Justice Scalia was one of the most conservative justices in American history,” said Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware. “I do not think President Obama should seek to replace him with a comparably outspoken progressive nominee. I don’t think this moment calls for that. I think this moment calls for balance and for challenging Republicans to put principle and our Constitution ahead of partisan advantage.” Asked whether a moderate selection would alter his opposition to confirmation hearings, Republican Inhofe gave a succinct response: “No.” A few Republican senators have said an Obama nominee deserves Senate consideration and an up-or-down vote. But they are too few to help Democrats overcome a filibuster of the nomination, if it ever reached the Senate floor. For now, both sides appear to be banking on public support for their stances, with Republicans seemingly eager to cast this year’s elections as a referendum on the future of the Supreme Court. “Who will Americans trust to nominate the next Supreme Court justice?” McConnell said. “Will we allow the people to continue deciding who will nominate the next justice, or will we empower a lame-duck president to make that decision on his way out the door instead?” Gates breaks with Apple on FBI hacking demand By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Giants of the technology industry have begun adding their voices to the dispute between Apple and the U.S. government, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates seemingly differing from the pack. While many tech executives have voiced their full support for Apple CEO Tim Cook, Gates took a decidedly different view of the issue Tuesday. During an interview with The Financial Times, Gates disputed concerns voiced by Cook that creating software to break into the phone of one of the killers in the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting would become a master key for access to any iPhone. "They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case," he said. His comments put him at odds with other top names in Silicon Valley including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who have stepped forward in support of Apple. Later in the day, Gates told Bloomberg news that the courts will ultimately make the decision in the Apple case. "In the meantime, that gives us this opportunity to get the discussion, and these issues will be decided in Congress." Meanwhile, supporters of Apple planned to protest in more than 40 cities. A digital rights group called Fight for the Future is organizing the events at Apple stores in places such as New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Hong Kong and London. It says it is critically important to support efforts to keep personal information safe, and that devices will become more vulnerable if the government wins its legal battle with Apple. U.S. authorities want Apple's help to unlock a phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who, along with his wife Tafsheen Malik, killed 14 people last year in San Bernardino, California. Apple has refused, saying the FBI is asking for what amounts to a backdoor around the company's security measures, and that, in the wrong hands, in the future that software would make countless Apple users vulnerable to searches of their phones. A federal magistrate ordered Apple to help the FBI last week, and the government filed a motion asking the court to force Apple to comply. The order says Apple must help authorities bypass an auto-erase feature that wipes out data when 10 incorrect passwords are entered. The FBI does not know Farook's password, and needs the auto-erase feature disabled so it can repeatedly try password combinations to find the right one. Apple has until Friday to file its opposition to the government's motion, and a hearing in the case is scheduled for March 22. The Pew Research Center released a survey Monday of more than 1,000 people with 51 percent of them saying Apple should unlock the iPhone and 38 percent siding with the company. Eleven percent had no opinion. A lawyer representing some relatives of the 14 people killed in San Bernardino said he would soon file a statement supporting the judge's order requiring Apple to help authorities. The case is the latest to showcase the frustrations of law enforcement officials who complain that newer encryption methods used by companies like Apple make it harder to carry out investigations involving the use of technology by criminal suspects. Apple strengthened encryption of its phones in 2014 amid increased public concern about digital privacy. Young, radicalizes Muslims spawn strategic concerns By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Even as U.S. officials highlight military gains against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria, there is a growing sense of unease among former officials and analysts that the current strategies are not enough. Their fear is that while the U.S. and its coalition partners are degrading Islamic State's abilities on the battlefield, planners have yet to hit upon any coherent strategy to stem the tide of young people who are willing to fight and die in the name of Islamist extremism. "The threat of violent extremism is growing, casting its shadow over ever larger parts of the globe," former British prime minister Tony Blair warned an audience Tuesday in Washington. "How do we defeat something that is plainly much bigger and more pervasive than the small number of those attracted to groups like Daesh?" he said. "There is a justified anxiety." Blair is joining a growing list of former officials trying to find answers and, along with Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and U.S. defense secretary, is co-chairing the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies' newly launched Commission on Countering Violent Extremism. The commission's goal is to provide Western policymakers with a strong, clear and realistic plan by July to combat the growing threat. Blair said Tuesday that while a military component is critical, he believes what has been lacking is a way to undercut the ideology that allows violent extremists to thrive. "It has, unfortunately, a reach way beyond the activities of a few fanatics measured in the tens of thousands. The ideology, or at least significant parts of it, are accepted by those measured in the tens of millions," he said. "Some of those people actually oppose violence, but that worldview is, in my view, the soil in which the violence breeds," the former British prime minister added. Complicating matters further is the success Islamist extremist groups, and especially Islamic State, have had in tapping into Muslim youths who feel isolated and disenfranchised, whether living in Muslim-majority countries or in the West. "Muslim millennials are facing a crisis of identity," said Farah Pandith, a former special representative to Muslim communities who is now with the Council on Foreign Relations. "They are seeking answers about navigating their identity and they're getting those answers from Shaikh Google," she said. For its part, U.S. officials say they have long cautioned that the effort to defeat Islamist extremist groups like the Islamic State would be long and complicated. "This administration recognizes that the threat posed by violent extremism extends far beyond any one region and it's not going to be addressed solely or even primarily by military means," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers Tuesday. "The approach that we've adopted is comprehensive and it's long term." |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents
of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2016 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 sixth news page |
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Fake orchids trick
pollinating flies
By the University of Oregon news
staff
A team of scientists has unlocked the mystery of the mimicry used by dracula orchids to attract flies and ensure their survival. The scientists used a 3-D printer to spoof the insects. The research, done in Ecuador, is a win in the field of evolutionary biology, and the approach used in the project is readily applicable to studies of other plant-pollinator systems, said Barbara Roy, a professor of biology at the University of Oregon. Information gleaned from such research, she added, should help improve conservation efforts in endangered habitats. The findings are in a paper for the journal New Phytologist. "Mimicry is one of the best examples of natural selection that we have," Professor Roy said. "How mimicry evolves is a big question in evolutionary biology. In this case, there are about 150 species of these orchids. How are they pollinated? What sorts of connections are there? It's a case where these orchids plug into an entire endangered system. This work was done in the last unlogged watershed in western Ecuador, where cloud forests are disappearing at an alarming rate." Dracula orchids grow in Central America and the northwest reaches of the Andes Mountains in South America. The dracula label literally means little dragon because of a face-like feature in the flowers. Many observers say they see Count Dracula as a bat the way he appears in vampire depictions in literature and the movies. "Dracula orchids look and smell like mushrooms," said the study's lead author, Tobias Policha, an adjunct instructor and plant scientist. "We wanted to understand what it is about the flowers that is attractive to these mushroom-visiting flies." The researchers closely studied 22 orchids, looking piece-by-piece, to determine where specific scents are produced in the flowers and which ones possibly lure pollinators, in this case 11 species of fruit flies that thrive among wild mushrooms that grow near the orchids. To test their work in the forest, the researchers turned to odor-free, silicone copies of orchids made with a 3-D printer. The 3-D copies, the same shape and size of real ones, allowed team members to apply various color patterns and extracts of the various scents. Among the mix of experiments they also used chimeras, 3D-based copies with real and artificial parts, enabling them to disentangle which parts were attractive. Flies were drawn to the fabricated plants as if they were real. The study determined that the key part of the orchids' mimicry is the mushroom-like labellum, which is attached to the plant's narrow reproductive column. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| From Page 7: Rules posted for generating home power By the A.M. Costa Rica
staff
The nation's energy authority published technical information and methodology in the la Gaceta official newspaper Tuesday, and the tariffs will be subjected to a public hearing March 17. The published material includes the methods and rates of homeowners who want to connect their energy generating system to the national network. The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos set up the material in conjunction with the Intendencia de Energía. The rules establish the conditions and access and interconnections by producers-consumers of electricity. The idea is that when a solar system is generating unwanted electricity, the excess can be put in the national network. When a home system is not generating sufficiently to fill demands, power will be taken from the network operated by the local utility. |