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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 40
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seeking justice from courts By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A Limón woman chained herself to a pole outside the court building in Goicoechea Tuesday because she wanted to draw attention to her case. The Poder Judicial identified the woman by the last names of Morales Serrano. The Poder Judicial also said that a hearing in a case in which she is the victim is scheduled March 5. The woman lives in Cieneguita, a section of Limón that is basically ruled by gangs. However, the situation may be a neighborhood dispute. The Poder Judicial said that last June 16 someone pumped at least 17 shots into the home occupied by Ms. Morales. On another occasion someone tried to burn down an unoccupied home on property owned by the Morales family, said the Poder Judicial. A woman has been detained as the suspect in the shooting incident, and the Poder Judicial said that a preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 5 and that the prosecutor is going to ask that the case go to trial. Goicoechea is where the courts of the II Circuito Judicial de San José are located. Two climate change measures get first legislative OK By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The legislature passed on first reading two measures Tuesday that relate to climate change. The first is a ratification of an agreement between the Global Green Growth Institute and Costa Rica. The second is a law that established a framework for the development of public policies related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The Global Green Growth Institute says on its Web site that it is "dedicated to pioneering and diffusing a new model of economic growth in developing and emerging countries, known as 'green growth,' that simultaneously targets key aspects of economic performance, such as poverty reduction, job creation and social inclusion, and those of environmental sustainability, such as mitigation of climate change and biodiversity loss and security of access to clean energy and water." The organization also reports that it has obtained observer status at the U.N. General Assembly. Both measures require a second affirmative vote, perhaps Thursday.  National Astronomy Week/David
Arditti
Jupiter
is obvious in the night sky.
Jupiter will be
the star
of nighttime sky show By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Astronomers, both professional and amateur, are touting the fantastic opportunities that star gazers have to see Jupiter up close and personal. Well, at least nearer than most of the time. Chris Arridge, an astronomer from University College, London, said that someone with binoculars ought to be able to see some of the big planet's moon. He was quoted in a release for National Astronomy Week in Britain. The best time will be about midnight. The planet was the closest to the earth Jan. 5, but now Jupiter is moving higher in the night sky and will be at 23.3 degrees March 11, according to David Dickinson on the Universe Today Web site. The Central Valley is having clear skies these days with low humidity, so the planet should be easy to spot.  Ministerio de Obras Públicas y
Transportes photo
Traffic officer removes plates
from a racer's car.Three law
enforcement units
are on a drag racing mission By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police and judicial agents were out in force last week to crack down on drag racing in the Central Valley. In most cases they said they were acting on citizen complaints, mainly about the noise. The Policía de Tránsito, the Fuerza Pública and agents from the Judicial Investigating Organization confiscated four automobiles and 11 motorcycles. They also issued a number of traffic tickets and confiscated license plates. Traffic engineers are planning to install warning strips that cause vibration in vehicles at spots where there is a lot of drag racing. These places include Ruta 32, just north of San José, near Parque Okayama in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, at Loma Linda in Pavas, and at Hacienda Vieja on the Autopista Florencio del Castillo. The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes said that it is developing an integrated response to the problem. That means the police probably will be out this weekend, too. Insurance firm planning day of recycling in city By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Nacional de Seguros, the state insurance company, will be accepting material for recycling today at Parque España opposite the company's headquarters. The event is the first of four planned this year, the company said. Accepted will be paper, plastic, glass, cans and even unwanted electronic equipment, an announcement said. The Municipalidad de San José is involved in the effort, and the material collected will be taken to the municipal recycling center in Hatillo, said the announcement.
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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 | ||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 40 | |
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| Poás sends up another column of ash to enhance its
attraction to tourists |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Just when the country's tourism could use a little help, the Volcán Poás is clearing its throat. The volcano issued a column of ash 400 meters high Tuesday, and emergency officials noted that the mountain has long been the subject of a low-level alert. The national emergency commission said that the volcano has been showing this type of activity since March 2006. The latest activity began Sunday with ash being ejected from the lagoon in the crater. The volcano has one of the largest craters in the world, so no tourists on the rim were endangered. Volcano scientists from both the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Pedro and Universidad Nacional in Heredia have been keeping an eye on the activity. The material that was ejected upwards consisted of gas, water and mud, said the emergency commission, which is correctly called the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias. There was no lava, it added. The distance that the volcanic column rose is a bit more than 1,300 feet. Signs are being posted at access points, including the one to the visitor overlook. These give suggested evacuation routes in the event the volcano becomes more active, said the commission. Park guards are at the volcano 24 hours a day, and they can advise |
 Comisión Nacional de
Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias photo
Tourists
check out a sign that outlines an evacuation route.
tourists if the need arises. The volcano still is open for visitors. Because of its location close to the Central Valley, Poás is one of the country's most-visited tourism sites. It is a feature on most one-day tours. The volcano also is the only active one where visitors can look into the crater easily. |
 A.M.
Costa Rica/Michael Krumholtz
Marchers line up on Avenida
Segunda for a hike in the blazing sun. |
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| Public employee unions take to the streets to show their
displeasure |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff In the middle of Avenida Segunda and Calle Central, the first wave of marchers stopped. The microphone was passed off between an array of public workers to voice their displeasures with the state. The municipality worker who was sweeping Parque Central took the microphone before the meat packer who was making his morning round of deliveries. Public employees from the Sindicato de Trabajadores de Acueductos y Alcantarillados started off Tuesday’s strikes by calling San Jose’s workers to join them on the street. Together they decried a government mandated .43 percent raise in base salaries while pointing out that simultaneously some of the population is without water, light, and proper food. Around noon public workers marched through Avenida Segunda from Sabana to the front of the Ministerio de Hacienda. A variety of workers groups joined the demonstration, including those from the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, Banco Popular and the Sindicato Trabajadores Petroleros químicos y Afines. The Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados |
coordinated the
strike to show that the nation’s workers believe they should be awarded
more compensation for their jobs. Early on the crowd chanted and clapped while repeating, Doña Laura ya se va. In celebrating the eventual departure of President Chinchilla, they also put on notice the two candidates vying to succeed her that workers and their families demand to share an even playing field with the nation’s elites. Nurses and employees from state-run hospitals also took to the streets. Both Calderón Guardia and Hospital Nacional de Niños each lost 28 members of their staff to join the strikes. Directors from the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social said that these absences did not cause any serious effects on normal operations. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said that 56 percent of its electrical agencies were closed mainly in Alajuela, Turrialba, the central pacific and the south Pacific. The telecommunications section of the state company had about 70 percent of its office staff and technicians absent, it added. Union officials said that there were as many as 5,000 persons in the protest in San José. |
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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's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 40 | |||||
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| Griffin, the grey parrot, appears to understand benefits of
sharing |
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By
the University of Lincoln news staff
A study into whether grey parrots understand the notion of sharing suggests that they can learn the benefits of reciprocity. The research involved a grey parrot called Griffin, who consistently favored the option of sharing with two different human partners. Griffin was presented with a choice of four different colored cups. A green cup (the sharing option) meant he and his partner each got treats. A pink cup represented the selfish choice as only Griffin got a treat, an orange cup was the giving option as only his partner got a treat, and a violet cup denoted the spiteful selection as no one got treats. With few exceptions he consistently favored green for each human partner, indicating he understood the benefits of choosing the sharing option. The results of this study, carried out by Franck Péron, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom with colleagues at Harvard University and Brandeis University, have now been published in the journal Animal Cognition. The question under investigation was whether Griffin would learn the human partner’s actions, understand that the human was replicating his own behavior by acting in a reciprocal manner, and that by choosing the green sharing cup, he could maximize the overall payoff, because then each would receive a reward on each turn. It followed a previous study conducted by the same team, which focused on grey parrots and used a similar token-based system, demonstrating a limited understanding of reciprocity in grey parrots. When the pairs involved several different human-parrot pairings with each human playing a specific role, such as being selfish, giving, or copying the bird’s behavior, the birds’ responses only tended towards consistency with human behavior. It was theorized that the birds’ inability to understand the copycat condition fully - that they could potentially maximize reward by choosing to share - was a consequence of their viewing the copycat’s behavior as erratic, compared with the consistently selfish or giving humans and therefore not realizing that they were being mirrored. Péron said: “This follow-up experiment has shown that at least one grey parrot, the dominant in this case, responded in a manner suggesting that he deduced the appropriate eventualities. “With few exceptions, Griffin chose the green sharing cup. He seemed to understand the parameters of the study; that is, that each person was mirroring Griffin’s own behavior and not acting erratically. Although choosing pink (selfish) would have presented the same immediate reward as choosing green (sharing), Griffin did not act in that manner. He seemed to figure out fairly quickly that |
 University of Lincoln photo
Griffin, the parrot who believes
in sharing.his choice of pink meant that he would miss a reward when the human subsequently made the choice.” A possible explanation for Griffin’s behavior may be derived from two papers on primates, which argue that various forms of reciprocal behavior in non-human primates can be explained as either a balancing act between fairness and empathy, or fairness and welfare. The basic idea in both papers is that the choice of group members to reciprocate in kind derives from the interplay among selfishness, some level of concern for the well-being of others, and some sense of fairness. The new data suggests that some level of reciprocity can be demonstrated in at least one avian species, whatever the underlying mechanisms. The basis for such behavior may be a consequence of the same evolutionary pressures that were exerted to develop advanced cognitive and communicative abilities in both avian and primate lineages. The team suggested that copycat trials should be performed as a separate experiment, without being contrasted with trials in which humans acted consistently, in order to determine if results might have differed. |
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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 | ||||||
| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 40 | |||||
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| Future of drones in U.S. hinges on new regulations By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Commercial drones, unmanned planes doing regular tasks, are being used more and more around the world. Some assignments for these unmanned aircraft are surprising and others are amazing. A drone can be a flying camera, capturing pictures impossible for human pilots in large aircraft. But they do more than just take pretty pictures, and are cruising the skies in many countries with few restrictions. In England, a drone delivers sushi to restaurant tables. It is, in effect, a flying waiter. In South Africa, drones are conducting wildlife research on elephants, impalas, giraffes and other wild animals. Over the Pacific Ocean, drones take graceful video of whales at play. In Indonesia and China, drones will soon transport gold from mines. Producer Chris Kippenberger, who creates TV commercials in Germany for high-end cars, says drones open up all kinds of possibilities. "You can now keep the principal, keep the natural action that they are doing and start the shot from the top of a building and have the drone fly down to the person." Drones have also attracted unwanted attention. Two Canadians were jailed for more than two months in Egypt for filming with a drone. And Turkish police shot down a drone taking pictures of anti-government protesters last year. The use of drones has raised privacy issues. At a recent U.S. Senate hearing about regulating commercial or private drone use, Henio Arcangeli of Yamaha USA testified about his company's experience with a drone model called the RMax. "During its more than two decades of flight, the RMax logged 1.8 million hours of flight, and to our knowledge had not a single complaint of privacy." Mary Cummings, who heads the human and autonomy lab at Duke University, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the United States is not "leading the drone industry - it is lagging." Currently, drones can only fly in the U.S. on a limited basis, and typically for research. David Kirstein, who works on airline regulatory law, says there are good reasons for these limitations. "These technologies are new. They are not proven. Particularly, there are lots of issues mixing them in with other air traffic.” Privacy advocates such as Leslie Harris, former head of the Center for Democracy & Technology, say laws are needed to protect civil liberties in the face of technological advances. “Technology outstrips law over and over again and it takes years to catch up," Harris said. "We are expanding it off the Internet to devices, to drones, to cars, to refrigerators, and we are going to have to finally make a decision as a country whether we value privacy or not, and if we do, then we have to get some basic laws in place." The Federal Aviation Administration estimates 7,500 drones will fill American skies within five years, but only after it publishes regulations about their use. Those rules are due next year, but experts doubt the deadline will be met. German energy costs soar as nation adopts wind, solar By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Germany is one of the top producers of renewable energy in the world. Since the year 2000 the country’s production of clean electricity jumped from a modest 6 percent to 25 percent last year in an effort to shift the German economy from nuclear power and fossil fuels towards wind and solar energy. Despite the progress, German consumers pay among the highest electricity prices in the European Union. Lissy Ishang started turning off appliances to save energy when she moved away from home a decade ago. Back then, her family was paying half the price Germans pay today for electricity and this year German consumers are expected to pay even more. Today an average family of four in Germany spends about $107 a month for electricity. This year, their monthly bill will be $129, almost three times more than a family in the United States. “I always make sure that things are turned off when I leave home. I pull plugs and shut down appliances. I am trying to be careful how much we use because electricity is really, really expensive,” Ms. Ishang said. The price hike is due to an increase in the renewable energy surcharge. The surcharge is one of many government fees, taxes and subsidies that are passed on to average consumers and fund Germany’s renewable energy sector. Niels Schnoor is a policy officer with the Federation of German Consumer Organizations in Berlin. He said Germany’s aggressive expansion into green energy, expensive off shore wind farms and generous subsidies will continue to drive up energy prices. “Partly, the high energy prices are due to mistakes made by the government. If we had focused from the very beginning on the cheap technologies maybe the energy prices would not be as high as they are at the moment,” said Schnoor. A recent government study found that 8 percent of Germany’s electricity comes from wind farms, mostly in northern Germany and the North Sea where winds are strong. Over 4 percent comes from solar energy, especially from southern Germany and Bavaria where many homes and public buildings are covered with solar panels. The rest of the renewable energy is generated by hydropower, biofuels and biomass plants. Paul Hockenos is an energy expert and journalist based in Berlin. He said building a green energy infrastructure like wind and solar parks, is expensive but once in place, Germans can expect not just lower prices but also greater energy independence. "Don’t forget, what Germany is doing right now. It’s changing its power supply. The last time when an energy supply was changed was the industrial revolution; this is something that has never been done before. And Germany is not any country when it comes to heavy industry and exports power. Yes, there are price increases but Germany is still competitive on the international market," he explained. "Last year it exported more goods than it did in its history. It also exports electricity.” In the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami and Fukushima disaster in 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel renewed Germany’s pledge to abandon nuclear power and shut down eight of its 17 nuclear reactors. Germany plans to completely phase out its nuclear energy production in the next decade. The government’s goal is that by 2050, 80 percent of electricity will come from renewable sources. Schnoor said that will be possible only if Germany abandons its costly approach for a more cost effective green energy industry. “We need a new start, we have to focus on the very cost effective technologies which in my opinion are wind power and solar power. We don’t need other technologies, other renewable in order to achieve the goals of the energy transition in Germany,” Schnoor stated. Some would say Germany’s transformation from a fossil fuel to a green economy is a success. But consumers and industries have found the transition to an alternative source of energy has come at a hefty price. Peter Altmaier, the German minister of the environment, says the total cost of the energy transition in Germany will eventually amount to $1.3 trillion. U.S. home prices increase but less steeply recently By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. home prices rose at the fastest rate in eight years in 2013, but the gains have slowed recently. Tuesday's Case-Shiller report showed housing prices rose more than 11 percent during the year. The report also showed prices falling slightly in recent months, however, as rising interest rates and foul winter weather slowed home sales. Many economists expect home prices to rise more slowly this year than last. Investors and economists watch housing closely because severe problems in this sector played a key role in the financial crisis. The crisis also hit the job market hard, driving up the unemployment rate. Recent college graduates still complain it is hard for some of them to find work. Tuesday's study from Gallup shows that prospective employers say knowledge in a relevant field and applied skills are more important than a candidate's college or major. Bitcoin takes a beating as one exchange closes By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The value of bitcoin virtual currency was down sharply Tuesday, after a major online exchange for the currency abruptly closed its Web site. At the same time, rumors circulating through the Internet suggested that hackers had stolen as much as 6 percent of all bitcoins from the Mt. Gox exchange. The Japan-based digital currency operator closed its Web site Tuesday and its offices did not respond to requests for comment. Later, Mt. Gox posted a brief notice saying it closed all transactions to protect the site and its users. Earlier this month, Mt.Gox halted withdrawals of bitcoins, citing unusual activity, prompting angry protests from investors. Internet reports say that hackers have been secretly stealing bitcoins for years and that Mt. Gox lost 744,000 bitcoins out of 12.4 million currently in circulation. One of the Web sites that follow the price of bitcoin, Bitwat.ch, places its current value at less than $500, down from above $1,200 in November. Bitcoin is one of several so-called cryptocurrencies circulating around the world allowing individuals and companies to make digitally coded payments without fees usually charged by financial companies. Since its introduction in 2009, bitcoin has seen several sharp rises and drops in its value. Three Venezuelan diplomats sent home from posts in U.S. By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The United States has expelled three Venezuelan diplomats, a week after Venezuela expelled three U.S. diplomats it accused of conspiring with student protesters. The State Department said Tuesday the envoys have 48 hours to leave the U.S. Venezuela and the United States have not had ambassadors in each other's countries since 2010, although they have maintained embassies. Despite the latest tensions, Venezuela is expected to name a new ambassador to the U.S. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Monday he is selecting an ambassador to improve dialogue with the United States and because Americans think Venezuelans are killing each other. Three weeks of anti-government protests in Venezuela have left at least 14 people dead and about 150 injured. The demonstrations are the biggest challenge to Maduro since he took power last April. Venezuela has accused the United States of meddling in its internal affairs, while the U.S. has expressed its own concerns about the leftist government of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, including its ties to countries such as Iran, Russia and Cuba. The anti-Maduro protesters say the president's socialist-inspired policies have led to shortages of basic goods and inflation above 50 percent, despite the country's vast oil reserves. Maduro, meanwhile, accuses opponents of trying to stage a U.S.-backed coup. Everyone in Venezuela wants to blame someone By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Continuing anti-government protests in Venezuela are posing the greatest threat to the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro since the handpicked successor to the late Hugo Chávez narrowly won election to office last year. In this oil-rich country nearly everyone is angry about food shortages, soaring inflation, and the high crime rate, but there are sharp divisions over who is to blame and how to fix the problems. The student-led protests in Venezuela, that began weeks ago, have led to some violent and deadly confrontations with police, and have sharpened the political divisions in the country. All Venezuelans are frustrated with near hyper inflation rates, chronic shortages of basic goods, and violent crime. But Eric Olsen, a Latin America analyst with the Woodrow Wilson Center, says they are divided over who to blame. “People who are protesting are trying to hold the government accountable for this, pointing the finger at mismanagement or policy problems on the part of the government," he said. "The government itself is blaming agitators, it's blaming the United States.” Olsen says President Maduro’s recent expulsion of three U.S. diplomats for allegedly helping the student protests bolsters his popularity among his supporters. Meanwhile, Maduro says he wants to directly engage the U.S. on these charges and will send an ambassador to Washington to fill the long-vacant post. “I call for the dialogue now, I accept this challenge," he said. "Let's initiate a high-level dialogue and let's put the truth out on the table.” For its part, the United States has denied any involvement in the Venezuelan protests and has reciprocated by expelling three Venezuelan diplomats. “When President Maduro calls for a dialogue with the U.S. president and an exchange of ambassadors, he should focus instead on a dialogue with the Venezuelan people, because that is what is at issue here," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "This is not about the United States.” Despite having the world's largest oil reserves, spending for the socialist programs providing free housing, health care and other services to the poor have burdened the economy. Olsen says Venezuela has to find a way to live within its means while preserving these popular programs. "So the question is can you continue those kinds of programs but have a better and more reformed economic policy that doesn’t create such a crisis and I think that’s the challenge for both the government and for the opposition to some extent,” he said. But so far the country remains divided over what to do and who to blame. Korean airline assessed fine for weak crash response By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. government is ordering South Korea's Asiana Airlines to pay a $500,000 fine for failing to adequately assist the families of passengers on a plane that crash landed last year at San Francisco International Airport. This is the first time the U.S. Department of Transportation has issued such a fine. Three people died and about 180 were injured when Asiana Flight 214 hit a seawall while landing on July 6 of last year. Announcing the fine Tuesday, transportation officials said in a statement that Asiana's response to the crash indicates the carrier failed to commit sufficient resources to carry out its family assistance plan. The statement said Asiana took two days to successfully contact the families of 75 percent of the plane's 291 passengers. It said several passengers' families were not contacted until five days after the crash. Transportation officials found that, for days, Asiana lacked the interpreters and personnel needed to carry out its responsibilities under the 1997 Foreign Air Carrier Family Support Act. The department said the airline also failed to establish a crisis phone line until a day after the crash. Asiana is South Korea's second largest airline after Korean Air. Sinaloa boss will remain in México for his trial By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Mexican federal judge has ruled that drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán must remain in Mexico to face drug trafficking charges. Mexican officials have made increasing clear that they want Guzmán to face all local charges as well as interrogation by Mexican investigators looking to dismantle his cartel before they consider extraditing him to the United States. Guzmán has been indicted in at least seven U.S. jurisdictions for crimes committed while head of the Sinaloa cartel, which stretches across North America and as far away as Europe and Australia. Guzmán was captured Saturday in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan after 13 years on the run. About 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since the early 2000's, including murders and beheadings. Former president Felipe Calderón sent in the army to try and quell the violence. Forbes magazine lists Guzmán among the world's most powerful people, saying he is worth more than $1 billion. Fired newspaper editor stabbed in Hong Kong By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A former newspaper editor in Hong Kong, whose recent removal prompted anti-Beijing protests, is fighting for his life after being stabbed by unknown attackers. Hong Kong police said Kevin Lau was walking to his car early today in the Sai Wan Ho neighborhood when he was attacked by assailants who escaped on a motorcycle. He is in critical condition. Lau was fired last month as the editor of the Ming Pao newspaper, which is known for its investigative journalism and hard-hitting coverage of Chinese politics. He was replaced by a pro-Beijing editor. The removal, along with several similar cases, has raised fresh concerns over deteriorating press freedom and mainland China's rising influence in the semi-autonomous territory. The Hong Kong Journalists Association condemned the attack on Lau "in the strongest terms" and urged authorities to bring the attackers to justice "as quickly as possible to allay public fears." In a statement, Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung said he was outraged and indignant over the attack. He said the territory will not tolerate this kind of violence and will bring the assailants to justice. In recent weeks, thousands have turned out at various protests outside the office of the mainland-friendly Leung, urging him to keep his promises to uphold freedom of the press. Journalists have said they are increasingly pressured, often directly by Hong Kong officials, to write only positive articles about the Chinese Communist Party. They claim that those who comply are rewarded, and those who do not are often fired. The former British colony, which was returned to China in 1997, has enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and its citizens are still able to exercise political rights not allowed on the mainland. New data may shine light on when volcanos erupt By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
New research by scientists from the University of California-Davis and Oregon State University may make it easier to predict when a volcano is ready to erupt. A new study published recently in the journal Nature says that before an eruption, the volcanic magma or the molten/semi molten rock under the volcano must first be in a state where it is fluid enough to erupt. “People think about there being this big reservoir of liquid magma under a volcano, but we don’t think it’s in that state all the time,” said Kari Cooper, lead author of the study and an associate professor at the University of California-Davis. They’ve also found that the time it takes for magma to liquefy takes less time than previously thought, making a dormant volcano an active one in as little as a couple of months. The researchers made their findings after studying Mount Hood, a dormant volcano near the Oregon/Washington border. The magma that would supply an eruption of Mt. Hood lies between four to five kilometers beneath the volcano. “The question is, ‘what percentage of time is the magma in an eruptible state?”’ Cooper asked. The California/Oregon research team found that the magma tucked beneath Mt. Hood has been stored for at least 20,000 to 100,000 years. It has been in a cold or immobile state for between 88 percent and 99 percent of those years. For the magma to liquefy to eruption levels, the researchers said that its temperature will need to be more than 750 degrees centigrade. “If the temperature of the rock is too cold, the magma is like peanut butter in a refrigerator,” said the co-author of the study, Adam Kent, from Oregon State University. “It just isn’t very mobile. For Mount Hood, the threshold seems to be about 750 degrees centigrade. If it warms up just 50 to 75 degrees above that, it greatly increases the viscosity of the magma and makes it easier to mobilize.” This boost in temperature is caused when hot magma located much deeper beneath the Earth’s crust pushes its way to the surface and mixes with the cooler more solid volcanic rock. Kent said that the mixing of the hot and colder types of magma is what set off Mount Hood’s last two eruptions about 220 and 1,500 years ago. Fortunately, according to the researchers, when Mt. Hood did erupt, they weren’t very violent in nature. The magma oozed out of the top of the volcano, instead of exploding like other volcanic eruptions. “What happens when they mix is what happens when you squeeze a tube of toothpaste in the middle,” Kent said. ”A big glob kind of plops out the top, but in the case of Mount Hood it doesn’t blow the mountain to pieces.” Kent and his colleague Alison Koleszar found in a previously conducted study, that mixing magma from two different sources, that may also have different compositions, not only could trigger an eruption, but also adds a constraining factor that determines just how violent the eruption could be. The researchers said that crystals form within the magma as it cools. The ability for the magma to be mobile depends on the amount of crystallization. When the volcanic rock is more than 50 percent crystalline it’s pretty much immobile and not really in a state for eruption. As the magma grows colder, the scientists added, the crystallization process itself also slows down. Studying volcanic rock from previous Mount Hood eruptions the researchers were able to determine the age of the crystals by observing the rate of decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements. According to the study, calculating a combination of the magma crystal’s age along with its rate of growth can provide scientists with a geologic fingerprint to help them determine just when the magma becomes heated enough to cause an eruption. “What is encouraging from another standpoint is that modern technology should be able to detect when magma is beginning to liquefy, or mobilize,” Kent said, “and that may give us warning of a potential eruption. Monitoring gases, utilizing seismic waves and studying ground deformation through GPS are a few of the techniques that could tell us that things are warming.” Japanese seek suspects in Anne Frank book attacks By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Japanese authorities are looking for suspects responsible for defacing almost 300 copies of books by and about Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl whose famous diary is considered one of the best-known testimonies about the Holocaust. News of pages being torn from the books in 31 public libraries in Tokyo has left Jewish scholars shocked. “We know that there are scores of libraries and at least hundreds and maybe more copies of the diary of Anne Frank and other books that deal with Anne Frank, that have been vandalized, ripped apart, desecrated,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Miss Frank’s "Diary of a Young Girl" was written in World War II by the Jewish teenager as she lived in hiding with her family in Amsterdam, then occupied by Nazi Germany. The family was discovered and sent to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Her father Otto was the only member of the immediate family to survive the war. He published Anne’s diary in 1947 and it has sold millions of copies, becoming a symbol of the Holocaust. The Wiesenthal Center issued a statement expressing its concern about the book’s destruction in libraries in the Tokyo area. “Obviously, you’re not talking about one or two incidents, you’re talking about a wide geographic location, and we’re talking about some sort of organized effort,” Cooper said. Cooper is a frequent visitor to Japan, and after the news of the vandalizing broke, he contacted a member of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s staff to air his organization’s concerns. Cooper said the recent defacing campaign emerged earlier this month when Tokyo librarians noticed that numerous copies of the diary were damaged. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga condemned the destruction of the books. Rotem Kowner, professor of Japanese history and culture at the University of Haifa in Israel, said "Diary of a Young Girl" has been popular in Japan since its publication there in 1952. “The popularity has not dwindled during all those years, I think by now more than five million copies have been sold, so this is probably one of the most popular books for youth in Japan throughout the postwar years,” Kowner said. The development also comes at a time when tensions concerning atrocities committed by Japan during World War II have risen, with critics in China and South Korea calling on Tokyo to do more to atone for its past. Abe recently visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a monument to the country’s war dead that also includes the remains of 14 convicted war criminals, an action that caused immediate condemnation from Bejing and Seoul. “There is a huge internal debate and struggle within Japan, and of course across Asia, of coming to grips with what happened in the era of Imperial Japan and the atrocities that took place in Asia, and the current tensions between China and Japan,” Cooper said. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 40 | |||||||||
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Drought exposes gold hidden in California rivers By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The severe drought in southern California has created lots of hardship, but it also has created a new California gold rush. Rapidly receding water levels in rivers and creeks are exposing gold under rocks and in crevices that used to be inaccessible. Golddiggers are turning out with pans and other equipment, often with entire families, hoping to strike it rich as long as they stay on public land and do not dig in someone else's claim. Most people are finding small nuggets and slivers that make good conversation pieces. A few lucky amateurs are digging up as much as $200 in gold. The original California Gold Rush of 1849 is one of the great stories of U.S. history. The discovery of the precious metal in northern California brought hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to California with the dreams of great wealth. Only a handful of people found enough gold to get rich, but the Gold Rush led to statehood for California and the growth of large cities, including San Francisco. This time around, it was a true gold rush for one northern California couple right in their own backyard. While walking their dog on their property, they stumbled on some decaying tin cans poking up from the ground under a tree. The cans held $10 million in rare gold coins from the late 1800s. Coin experts said the money is in mint condition and dates between 1847 and 1894, in denominations of $5, $10 and $20. They say it is extremely rare to find such coins in perfect condition. No one knows who buried the treasure, and the couple who found it wish to remain anonymous. Some of the coins go on public display this week. |
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| From Page 7: State telecom firm to launch its 4G LTE system By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the state-run power and telecom company, will be launching its 4G LTE service today. The increase up in mobil telephone speed is considered a step to true 4G standards. LTE means long-term evolution, and the system is considered the first world standard for mobil networks. It has been used in other countries starting nearly five years ago. The state company faced some legal challenges to market this system. A court decision last week affirmed the company's right to use the system. Although the 4G LTE is not quite true 4G, the system is close enough so that it will be marketed under that name. The state company has called its product Ultra. Either a chip or a datacard will be available. Speeds are supposed to be between six and 10 megabits per second. Capacity is supposed to be from one gigabyte to five gigabytes, according to the company. Actual speeds depend on the customer's equipment and the locations where the company has the system in operation, it said. |
