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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, March 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 43
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Roxana Ramírez
Sánchez
They only needed one wheel to
participate in the weekendVuelta al Lago Arenal, the two-day recreational bike trip around the lake. Nicaraguan quake sensed in some parts of country By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 6.2 magnitude quake off the northwestern coast of Nicaragua was felt in the Central Valley at 3:37 a.m. Sunday. Instruments showed that the quake was felt in the western half of Costa Rica and most strongly in Paquera, San Ramón and Grecia, said the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería at the Universidad de Costa Rica. The Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicenter some 23 kilometers west southwest of Jiquillo, Nicaragua. The Laboratorio here said that due to the estimated depth of about 70 kilometers the quake probably was the result of internal deformations in the Cocos tectonic plate. The Laboratorio said that the depth and distance reduced the force of the earthquake as it reached Costa Rica. Perhaps in response to the Nicaraguan event, a 4.4 magnitude quake took place at 9:37 a.m. Sunday about 13.5 kilometers south southeast of Nosara on the far Pacific coast. The quake was registered as moderate on instruments in Nosara. Some showers predicted as seasonable change nears By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Weather experts have predicted a reduction in the northern winds today. Because the morning skies will be clear and the temperature hot, cloudy conditions will develop during the afternoon. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that this is typical of weather in March. The country is headed to a resumption of the rainy season. The cloudy condition is expected to generate showers in the central and south Pacific as well as possible brief showers in the west and south of the Central Valley, said the institute. Weekend motorcycle toll: Two drivers and passenger By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two men driving motorcycles and the passenger on a third died Saturday night in separate one-vehicle accidents. A man with the last name of Lobo died when his motorcycle left the road in Palmichal de Acosta and plunged down an embankment about 8 p.m.. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that he swerved to avoid hitting someone on a bicycle. He was 50. The passenger, identified by the last name of Hernández died when the motorcycle on which he was riding struck a wall. That happened in Damas-Fátima in Desamparados, also Saturday night. The driver was hospitalized. In the area known as Curó de Paquera on the Nicoya peninsula, 48-year-old man identified by the last name of Peralta died a few minutes before midnight Saturday when his motorcycle struck posts alongside the roadway. A passenger was hurt critically and taken to Hospital Monseñor Sanabria in Puntarenas, said agents. U.S. visitors face allegations of importing undeclared cash By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Costa Rican branch of the International Police Agency arrested a group of Americans for suspected money laundering on Thursday. According to the Judicial Investigating Organization. The suspects were coming from the United States with $45,820 in undeclared cash. They have been identified as Caridad Leiva Maité, 41, Angélica Figueroa, 20, and Pedro Humberto Figueroa, 18. A 17-year-old who was also traveling with the trio was sent to the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia for care. Authorities from the police agency reported that they received an anonymous tip that allowed them to make the arrest as soon as the three suspects entered the Juan Santamaría airport after their Miami arrival. The agents work at the new INTERPOL office set up in the airport. Bulging envelopes of cash were hidden inside suitcases stuffed with clothes. The money was only in denominations of 100-, 50- and 20-dollar bills, said agents.  Consejo de Vilaidad
photo
First of two bridges is nearly
finished.Circunvalación
returning
to four lanes Wednesday By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Highway officials think that a new eastbound bridge on the Circunvalación will be ready for traffic Wednesday morning. The pre-fabricated concrete and steel beams are in, and workmen were supposed to be pouring concrete over the weekend. The concrete is supposed to fill in the spaces between the pre-fabricated beams that are 75 meters long. That is about 246 feet. Officials said that the concrete needs three days to cure. Work soon will begin on a second-two-lane bridge, but transport official say that this will not affect the existing two temporary bridges that carry the eastbound traffic. Eventually the temporary bridges will be replaced but there will be a second new bridge in place, they said. The timetable calls for both bridges to be in service in May. The washout in August put this section at Hatillo out of service for a time and with restricted traffic since. The cost to businesses and ordinary citizens has been in the millions.
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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, Monday, March 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 43 | |
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| The saga of the $5 + $2 land exit tax is very much typical pura vida |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Note to expats: You folks are on your own when it comes to the land exit tax. A.M. Costa Rica wrote about the tax in December, when an attempt to enforce it led to chaos at the border crossings. The problem was not the $5 fee (plus $2 more for baggage search even if the traveler has none). The government created a tax and did not provide an easy way to pay it. Only now are a few credit/debit card machines appearing at the major land crossing points. Officials expected travelers to visit Bancredito before going to the border. The mystery is why did the Dirección General de Tributación pick the least known state bank to handle the tax instead of Banco Nacional or Banco de Costa Rica. Even today Bancredito does not even mention the land exit tax on its Web site. Maybe that is because bank officials and tax agency officials have not figured out how to accept the tax online. So from Dec. 23 until Friday expats were in the dark as to whether they need to pay the tax before crossing the border. A helpful lady at Tributación insisted strongly in early January that the tax was being collected. Her story ran counter to the reports from expats who actually crossed the border. |
When the finance
minister, Edgar Ayala, returned from a heart operation in the United
States, a reporter asked him in mid-January about the tax. He really
did not know but he said he had heard of some complaints.
That probably was the chaos just before Christmas. He immediately instructed an aide to investigate and report to the newsman the results of the inquiries. The aide never did. But the Ministerio de Hacienda, the parent agency of Tributación, announced Thursday that the tax would go into effect today, Monday, March 3. A.M. Costa Rica wrote a news story. That is HERE! Then the electrons were hardly dry on the news story when the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería sent out a press release saying the agency would be collecting the tax starting in the first minutes of Saturday, March 1. Saturday, John Koger, who operates A Safe Passage, a Tica Bus agency, reported that he was told by bus company officials that the tax has been suspended again. The bus company ought to know because it is ready to provide the tax receipts for its passengers. No one in government was available to confirm the suspension. Hacienda is the same ministry that draws up the nation's budget. |
 Photo courtesy of Tommy Peters.
Heinrich Flaig, Isaac Manobla,
Bradie Kozera, and Tommy Peters in Baja California, Mexico. |
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| An adventure of a lifetime ends for Colorado bikers in
Escazú |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff A pair of tired cyclists slowly climb up a hill on Ruta 27 outside Escazú. A stranger driving the other way in traffic points his head out the window and yells, "You're almost there." After four months and roughly 5,000 kilometers of biking through México and Central America, cousins Bradie Kozera and Tommy Peters are indeed close to the end. "I got kind of emotional, thinking, man, you have no idea what you just said," Peters said. "I really am almost there. We started this trip four months ago and now I'm within five kilometers of finishing the greatest accomplishment of my life." Their journey partly stemmed from a shared desire to prove the worth of sustainable travel and eco-tourism. The cousins began riding from San Diego, California, Oct. 29 with two friends, Isaac Manobla and Heinrich Flaig, who branched off in Guatemala and are still biking to Brazil for the World Cup. Originally Kozera and Peters had planned to cross the equator in Ecuador, but the Colorado natives said they had to change their plans to return back to the U.S. to start working again. They said they realized that they wanted their trip to be less of a timed race and more of a cultural adventure where they could have opportunities to soak up hospitality offered by towns and their people. "We figured out you just can't give yourself deadlines or expectations," Kozera said. "We finally just figured out, well, we really like it here so let's stay for two or three nights instead of biking every single day." Most nights the pair would have to knock on doors for shelter or plots of land where they could set up their hammocks and tents. Though locals were opening their doors to two sweat-coated and smelling Americans, the bikers said that almost every family they met let them stay at their houses and even fed them dinner and offered them hot showers. From the outset the two said they had a goal to see life from the perspective of poorer populations, away from too many cities or tourist hubs. Their bikes became tools to travel to some of the unseen coves and tucked-away corners that lifelong travelers on mapped-out itineraries may never see. "We got to experience these small communities where no one really goes to travel," Peters said. "We got to interact with these families and have dinner with them and stay at their house." Before they started the long trek, family and friends had warned Kozera and Peters to stay safe. In reflecting on their trip, they said that not only did they never experience a truly threatening situation, they really only ran into people who loved their story and wanted to help. “The hospitality we’ve seen in a variety of places has been unreal,” Peters said, as Kozera echoed his words. He said they would |
 Photo courtesy of Tommy Peters.
Finally, Costa Ricasometimes help the families with chores like pulling water out of a well in return for these poorer agrarian people providing roofs or plates of food. On the rare occasions when they would ride into touristy or backpacking hotspots, other travelers immediately became curious to hear about this active and green way to see the world. “We would just start talking to people about our adventure, and I think it’s really opened up the door,” Kozera said. “I hope that its education towards opening up this new avenue towards tourism.” Kozera and Peters are staying with a local couple in Escazú who they met through Peters’ grandmother and plan to box up their bikes and fly home Wednesday. They have been updating their blog called "Ranger Rides' along the away to chronicle their story. They agreed that it feels bittersweet to finally be here in Costa Rica, at the end of their road. As they stopped atop that steep hill coming into town, Kozera looked at his cousin and said, “I’m kind of sad, man. The grass is always greener on the other side.” |
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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 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, Monday, March 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 43 | |||||
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| Experience narrowly defeats youth in cricket season opener
in Limón |
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Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The San José cricket team, the Corsairs, defeated the Limón Cricket Club Sunday at Earth University. In a well-attended game, the Corsairs won by 17 runs over their younger opponents. The score was 79 runs for 8 wickets. Limon were all out for 62 runs, so the game was close. Limon's elder batsman Anderson scored 17 runs while Corsairs Zain Ul-Tashnoni took three wickets for one run. Corsairs captain Lofty took three wickets for 14 runs. Man of the match was Zain. Also in attendance was Tom Humphries of the International Cricket Council. The Corsairs, elder statesmen of cricket in Costa Rica, did well to win by such a slim margin. Their opposing team whose average age was in their 20s and made up of nationals and Hondurans, Guatemalans and Mexicans played with unexpected finesse and only lost by the smallest of margins. Anyone interested in the game of cricket can log onto www.costaricacricket.org for details of how to either join or participate. |
 Sheldon Haseltine photo
Cricket
season is off with a closely fought match for the 2014 season.
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Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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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, Monday, March 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 43 | |||||
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| U.N.'s Ban will meet Jaua on Venezuela's violence By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
United Nations officials say Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet with Venezuela's foreign minister in Geneva Tuesday to discuss violent street protests against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua will also speak to the U.N. Human Rights Council about the student-led protests. Venezuela's U.N. ambassador, Jorge Valero, said in a radio interview Saturday that the talks would be an opportunity for Jaua to explain how his government has been advancing the peace process and what measures are being taken to recover from the disturbances. Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Maduro because of the country's high crime rate, inflation and shortages of staples such as milk and flour. The Maduro government, which succeeded that of the late Hugo Chávez, blames the violence on right-wing opponents of his government, accusing them of receiving support from the United States. The U.S. government denies involvement in the unrest. Anti-government protesters continued to clash with Venezuela's security forces, as violent street demonstrations dragged into the third day Saturday of a national holiday. Scattered barricades blocked streets in the capital, Caracas, as student demonstrators threw stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails at security forces, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. One national guardsman was shot dead as he tried to remove a barricade, bringing the death toll in three weeks of clashes to at least 18. Another guardsman was wounded. Venezuelans began a week-long national holiday Thursday. People traditionally abandon cities and head for Caribbean beaches to relax and party for the Carnival holiday. Maduro says there will be an extra day off Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of Chavez's death from cancer. Officials hope the long break will dampen the student-led protests.  Voice of America/J. Taboh
The most famous edible orchid is
the vanilla, a vine-form orchid native to Central and South America.New orchid
exhibition gives
stimulation to the senses By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington features a vibrant collection of orchids from all over the world. This elegant flower is not solely ornamental, its uses also extend to medicine and cooking. To walk into the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington is to encounter a feast for the senses. Johann Strauss’s classic "Blue Danube" waltz fills the air as does the sweet aroma of hundreds of fragrant orchids. This sensory orchestra is part of a new exhibit fittingly called Orchid Symphony, an annual collaboration with Smithsonian Gardens. The garden chose Orchid Symphony as a theme so it could display a wide variety of orchids, while the symphony “suggested a feeling of elegance and grandeur that we thought was fitting with orchids and also the architecture of our conservatory,” said Nick Nelson, the landscape architect at the U.S. Botanic Garden. “We have fountains that we have computer programmed and synchronized with classical music, a lovely elegant orchid chandelier in the center of the garden." In keeping with the musical theme, there are also topiaries in the shape of a violin, a cello and other musical instruments “to add a bit of whimsy to the garden,” he said. Nelson added that while the garden has a permanent orchid room within the conservatory, this time of year they have thousands of orchids coming into bloom, which provides a great opportunity to get the message of orchids across to the public. Orchids are found in almost every eco-system in the world. Jungle orchids thrive in various tropical climates and there are desert orchids blooming in arid environments, according to the garden's deputy executive director Ari Novy. “The orchids that you’re likely to find growing either in a greenhouse such as this, or that you can buy at a garden center, are probably what we call epiphytic or tropical orchids, meaning they are orchids that in nature are found growing on other plants, especially forest trees,” he said. "But there are many other kinds of orchids as well.” He pointed to a flower that he identified as a Mexipedium orchid. “It’s an orchid found in Mexico, that loves growing on rocks,” he said. “It’s therefore called a lithophyte, meaning a plant that grows on rocks.” Just like a cactus or any other desert-adapted plant, this orchid can store moisture so that it can handle the long periods of drought in the arid environment. Novy also pointed to a batch of lovely purple flowers with elongated green leaves called Bletilla striata, or the Chinese ground orchid. “Not only is it sold because it’s so beautiful,” he said, “but it’s also used in traditional Chinese medicine where it’s ground up into a powder and used to stop excessive bleeding.” In addition to using orchids for medicinal purposes, many cultures eat them in food products, often unknowingly. The most famous edible orchid is the vanilla, said Novy. “Vanilla is a vine-form orchid that’s native to Central and South America, although vanilla production today is most famous in Madagascar.” Madagascar is the largest producer of vanilla beans, but since the island lacks the plant's pollinating bee species, the flowers must be hand-pollinated. Orchids, as with roses, are often created to honor someone famous. A large painting of a Cattleya Michelle Obama orchid, by artist Patricia Laspino, is on display in the entry foyer of the Garden. It is the latest in a line of First Lady orchids that began in 1929 with the pink bloom named for Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover. Novy said, as a plant scientist, orchids occupy a very special place in his heart. “Orchids are absolutely gorgeous. They capture our imaginations. They showcase all of the colors of the rainbow in a way that’s just wonderful for us to see.” “And so at the end of the day," he said, "what we’re trying to do here at the United States Botanic Garden is we’re trying to educate. But we know that we can educate best if we first put a smile on your face.” Good, bad of Bracero project outlined in traveling exhibit By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When hundreds of thousands of American men went to combat during World War II, they left behind a labor shortage on farms and factories. One answer to the shortage was the 1942 Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, an agreement between the United States and Mexico, more commonly known as the Bracero program. It allowed 4.5 million Mexicans to work in the U.S. over the program's 22-year existence. The benefits and pitfalls are now part of a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that comes as some U.S. lawmakers consider a new Bracero worker program as part of immigration reform. The idea to come and work in the United States was something Saturnino Gonzáles Diaz's father planted in him early. "When I was born, my father was in Chicago. And he put in my mind, Chicago, Chicago," he said. Gonzáles's father was one of the first workers to take advantage of the Bracero program. In 1943, he found work on the railroad in Chicago. The experience and the money he earned allowed Gonzáles and his family to live a good life in Mexico. "He bought a house and everything at the time. He all the time talk to me about the Braceros, and I want to go to the Braceros," he said. When Gonzáles was accepted into the Bracero program in the early 1960s, he left for California to pick fruits and vegetables. "Before I come to the United States I was a boxer, I do a lot of exercise," he said. "Fields don't do nothing to me! I'm a champion at picking strawberries!" While Gonzáles's experience was positive, Lorenzo Cano painted a different picture of working the fields in Texas. He said they would only pay him less than a dollar a day and because of that some of the experiences that he and others had weren't the greatest. "I think the experience of Bracero workers really depended on the place, the type of work they were doing, and the proclivities of particular employers," said Geraldo Cadava, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, which is hosting the Smithsonian exhibit "Bittersweet Harvest." It looks at the best and the worst of the Bracero program. "Some states, like Texas, for example, even had their ability to participate in the Bracero program revoked from them because exploitation was more widespread in Texas than in other places," said Cadava. When the program ended, many Braceros eventually immigrated to the United States to start lives in places where they worked. Amid the current immigration reform debate in Congress, some lawmakers want to start a new Bracero program. "I think that those who are simply saying that we need a new Bracero program today are not paying attention to the full complexity of the program and the conditions of exploitation under which Bracero workers labored," he said. Gonzáles, who now lives in Chicago where his father worked, thinks a new Bracero program could curb illegal immigration and costly deportations. "If you are illegal, they treat you like a dog. Send you back to Mexico. Crippled or whatever. It's better, I think, to get the Braceros, again," he said. But proposals for a new program face stiff opposition from labor unions and are one reason lawmakers have not been able to move immigration reform forward. Wind installations reported to diminish hurricane forces By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of new electricity around the world. In 2012, global wind energy capacity grew by 19 percent, with more than 150,000 turbines operating in 90 countries. Now a new study suggests offshore turbines could have an additional environmental benefit: weakening the power of hurricanes. Over several decades, Stanford University's Mark Jacobson has developed a complex computer model to study air pollution, energy, weather and climate. The engineering professor recently used it to address a nagging question facing the renewable energy industry: could hurricane force winds destroy offshore windmills? “The first thought I had was, well maybe the turbines would extract enough power from the hurricane to diminish the hurricane, but I couldn’t prove that yet, unless I ran some numerical simulations,” he said. So, Jacobson, co-author of the study in Nature Climate Change, ran the numbers on three of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. East and Gulf coasts in recent years. The model simulated what would happen if large wind farms with tens of thousands of turbines had been in the path of those storms. “We found that the hurricanes would be dissipated quite a bit if you have large arrays of offshore wind turbines," Jacobson said. "The storm surge could be reduced by up to 79 percent and wind speeds by 50 percent or even more.” The resulting milder winds would also prevent damage to the turbines. Jacobson explains that as the hurricane approaches, the spinning blades remove energy from the storm’s edge and slow down the wind behind it. That slowdown in turn would lower wave height and reduce the winds that push those waves toward the coast. “So by the time the hurricane gets to shore, it’s significantly weakened," he said. "And storm surge is due to winds going long distance over the water, and the storm surge is reduced quite a bit as well," Jacobsen said. "So these two benefits, reduced wind and reduced storm surge, due to the large arrays of offshore turbines.” New research shows that an offshore wind farm could have weakened Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, which devastated New Orleans. Storm surge leads to flooding and death, says University of Delaware Professor Cristina Archer, a co-author of the study. She says barrier walls or islands buffer storm surge, but, the study shows turbines can also play a role. “We thought we could actually act on the wind, which is the driving force of the storm surge," she said. "So by reducing the wind, you are actually reducing the storm surge dramatically.” Archer suggests locating wind farms in offshore hot spots where they could tap the wind for electricity, offsetting fossil fuel use and its resulting emissions and pollution. They could also act as insurance against storm damage, as the study simulations demonstrate. “If you can be smart about it, then you can have still very, very high benefits and locally. So, for example, for Katrina, we placed the turbines just up wind of New Orleans," she said. "And, so we protected New Orleans by taking action in New Orleans. So local actions had actual local benefits.” That 2005 hurricane on the Gulf Coast was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with a death toll in the thousands. The study suggests that while there has been political and social resistance in the United States to installing even a few hundred offshore wind turbines, let alone tens of thousands, a wind farm would pay for itself in the long term by generating power and helping to reduce hurricane damage. Ms. Archer sees partnerships developing among policy makers, emergency managers and the wind industry that could lead to new strategies for coastal power and protection that can also save lives. Beefing up building strength seen as severe weather fix By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Climate change is making it harder than usual for scientists to figure out what the future will bring and what impact weather changes will have on society and the economy. Severe weather events destroy homes, businesses and lives. Some fairly simple changes may reduce the toll. In a laboratory test, a house built with conventional techniques falls apart in hurricane-force winds. The survivor has stronger shingles, thicker roof boards, and metal straps holding floors together. Wind tunnel tests were done by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. It says stronger construction costs a little more, but holds up much better to extreme weather. Unusually strong storms, like Typhoon Haiyan, have convinced the chairman of the U. S. Senate Homeland Security Committee, Tom Carper, that extreme weather is the “new norm.” "Extreme weather events have increased in frequency over the past 50 years and are expected to become even more common, more intense, and more costly," said Carper. Hurricane Sandy hit beachfront businesses along the U.S. East Coast, including Carper's home state. Insurance companies had to pay out huge claims. To limit such losses, the insurance industry can raise premiums for businesses in vulnerable locations and offer discounts to clients who make their buildings more resilient with upgraded construction techniques. Managing risks is the job of insurance brokers like Kevin Connelly of the Graham Co., who spoke via Skype. “We are either going to price your insurance at a huge markup, or we are not going to write it at all, which is just as bad obviously," said Connelly. Drought is another suspected consequence of climate change, and dry ground means more wildfires in California. Current mathematical models of climate change do a poor job of predicting the economic impact of drought and other weather events, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Robert Pindyck, who spoke via Skype. “I think all we can do, taking all of that into account, is come up with some very rough numbers, very rough estimates, "said Pindyck. "Consensus estimates that maybe experts provide, that give us a view of what would the catastrophic outcome look like if we don’t do anything?” To help deal with this serious problem, Pindyck says policy makers should take actions such as imposing a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. A carbon tax would encourage companies and families to use less energy and generate fewer of the gases thought to be driving changes in the climate. But other analysts say it is unlikely a new tax will get approval in the U.S. Congress any time soon. Hong Kong rally protests slashing attack on editor By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
At least 10,000 people rallied in Hong Kong Sunday to support press freedom. The demonstration was organized by journalists' associations concerned about violence against the media after unknown thugs brutally attacked one of the city's most influential editors. People wore black and shouted slogans in support of Kevin Lau, the former editor in chief of one of the city's most respected newspapers. Lau was attacked by thugs Wednesday. Wing Liu and Kyley Shek work at Ming Pao, the paper Lau edited till last January. “Hong Kong does not allow this kind of violence, we need freedom,” said Ms. Liu. Kevin Lau was ambushed by unidentified thugs who slashed him six times on his legs and back, then fled on a motorbike. Ms. Wang, an accountant, also came out to show her support. “I was heart-broken when I heard. Why can Hong Kong be in a situation like this?” asked Ms. Wang. Police are reviewing Ming Pao's recent reporting, looking for coverage that might have angered someone and made him a target. Over the years, similar attacks against journalists have remained unsolved in Hong Kong and Joyce Ng, a former reporter at Ming Pao, said she fears Lau's attackers will not be caught either. But she said it is important to take to the streets. “We are just hoping to give pressure to the police, and to raise public awareness,” said Ms. Ng. The attack against Lau comes at a sensitive time for Hong Kong. This year Beijing will decide over the details on universal suffrage, which the former British colony was promised for 2017. There are also mounting fears that Beijing is increasing its influence over the media in Hong Kong. Ming Pao's decision to dismiss Lau in January was seen as a sign of such interference. Staff at Ming Pao blamed the management for having removed the outspoken editor in an attempt to tone down the paper's critical voice. Hong Kong Journalists Association vice-chairwoman Shirley Yam said in recent years Hong Kong and the mainland have become financially and economically interconnected. Journalists in Hong Kong are increasingly touching on mainland's interests in their reporting. “We actually do not know who we are meddling with. We are in a situation where we do what we think it is right. We just report what we have seen as the facts, without taking into much consideration or without much knowledge on how those people will react,” said Ms. Yam. Days after Lau's attack, several groups have launched signature campaigns, which like Sunday's rally aim at putting pressure on the executive and the police to protect journalists. Lau left the intensive care unit on Saturday, and his wife says he is facing a long recovery.  University of Utah graphic
This map shows the outlines of
modern Siberia (left) and Alaska (right) with dashed lines. The broader
area in darker green, now covered by ocean, represents the Bering land
bridge from 28,000 to 18,000 years ago Those en route to America spent years isolated, study says University
of Utah news service
Genetic and environmental evidence indicates that after the ancestors of Native Americans left Asia, they spent 10,000 years in shrubby lowlands on a broad land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska. Archaeological evidence is lacking because it drowned beneath the Bering Sea when levels rose. University of Utah anthropologist Dennis O’Rourke and two colleagues make that argument in the Friday issue of the journal Science. They seek to reconcile existing genetic and paleoenvironmental evidence for human habitation on the Bering land bridge, also called Beringia, with an absence of archaeological evidence. O’Rourke says cumulative evidence indicates the ancestors of Native Americans lived on the Bering land bridge “in the neighborhood of 10,000 years,” from roughly 25,000 years ago until they began moving into the Americas about 15,000 years ago once glacial ice sheets melted and opened migration routes. O’Rourke co-authored the Science Perspective column – titled “Out of Beringia?” – with archaeologist John Hoffecker of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Scott Elias, a paleoecologist at the University of London. Perspective columns in Science don’t feature research by the authors, but instead are meant to highlight and provide context for exciting new research in a field or across fields. “Nobody disputes that the ancestors of Native American peoples came from Asia over the coast and interior of the land bridge” during an ice age called the last glacial maximum, which lasted from 28,000 to at least 18,000 years ago, O’Rourke says, The ice sheets extended south into the Pacific Northwest, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Ohio. Large expanses of Siberia and Beringia were cold but lacked glaciers. The absence of archaeological sites and the inhospitable nature of open, treeless landscape known as tundra steppe mean that “archaeologists have not given much credence to the idea there was a population that lived on the Bering land bridge for thousands of years,” he adds. O’Rourke and colleagues say that in recent years, paleoecologists, scientists who study ancient environments, drilled sediment cores from the Bering Sea and Alaskan bogs. Those sediments contain pollen, plant and insect fossils, suggesting the Bering land bridge wasn’t just barren, grassy tundra steppe but was dotted by areas where there were brushy shrubs and even trees such as spruce, birch, willow and alder. “We’re putting it together with the archaeology and genetics that speak to American origins and saying, look, there was an environment with trees and shrubs that was very different than the open, grassy steppe. It was an area where people could have had resources, lived and persisted through the last glacial maximum in Beringia,” O’Rourke says. “That may have been critical for the people to subsist because they would have had wood for construction and for fires. Otherwise, they would have had to use bone, which is difficult to burn.” During the last glacial maximum, thick glacial ice sheets extended south into what now is the northern United States, sea levels dropped some 400 feet, O’Rourke says. As the glaciers melted, sea levels began to rise, reaching current levels 6,000 years ago. During the long glacial period, Siberia and Alaska were linked by the Bering land bridge, which contrary to the name’s implication, really was a huge swath of land north, between and south of Siberia and Alaska, at the present sites of the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea. At its largest extent, Beringia measured as much as 1,000 miles from north to south and as much as 3,000 miles from Siberia’s Verkoyansk Range east to the Mackenzie River in Canada. The theory that humans inhabited the Bering land bridge for some 10,000 years “helps explain how a Native American genome became separate from its Asian ancestor,” O’Rourke says. “At some point, the genetic blueprint that defines Native American populations had to become distinct from that Asian ancestry,” he explains. “The only way to do that was for the population to be isolated. Most of us don’t believe that isolation took place in Siberia because we don’t see a place where a population could be sufficiently isolated. It would always have been in contact with other Asian groups on its periphery.” “But if there were these shrub-tundra refugia in central Beringia, that provided a place where isolation could occur” due to distance from Siberia, O’Rourke says. O’Rourke and colleagues point to a study of mitochondrial DNA, genetic information passed by mothers, sampled from Native Americans throughout the Americas. The study found that the unique genome or genetic blueprint of Native Americans arose sometime before 25,000 years ago but didn’t spread through the Americas until about 15,000 years ago. “This result indicated that a substantial population existed somewhere, in isolation from the rest of Asia, while its genome differentiated from the parental Asian genome,” O’Rourke says. “The researchers suggested Beringia as the location for this isolated population and suggested it existed there for several thousand years before members of the population migrated southward into the rest of North and, ultimately, South America as retreating glaciers provided routes for southern migration.” “Several other genetic-genomic analyses of Native American populations have resulted in similar conclusions,” he adds. For a long time, many scientists thought the land bridge was a uniform tundra-steppe environment, a broad windswept grassland devoid of shrubs and trees, O’Rourke says. But in recent years, sediment cores drilled in the Bering Sea and along the Alaskan coast, the now-submerged lowlands of Beringia, found pollens of trees and shrubs. That “suggests Beringia was not a uniform tundra-steppe environment, but a patchwork of environments, including substantial areas of lowland shrub tundra,” O’Rourke says. “These shrub-tundra areas were likely refugia for a population that would be invisible archaeologically, since the former Beringian lowlands are now submerged.” “Large herd animals like bison or mammoths likely lived on the highland steppe tundra because they graze. Many smaller animals, birds, elk and moose would have been in the shrub tundra,” he adds. Moose browse shrubs instead of grazing on grass. Other research indicates “that much of Beringia. particularly the lowlands, appears to have had average summer temperatures nearly identical or only slightly cooler in some regions to those in the region today,” O’Rourke says. “The local environments likely were not as daunting as many have assumed for years. They probably hunkered down pretty good in the winter though. It would have been cold.” The idea that rising sea levels covered evidence of human migration to the Americas has long been cited by researchers studying how early Native Americans moved south along the Pacific coast as the glaciers receded and sea levels rose. O’Rourke says the idea hasn’t been used before to explain the scarcity of archaeological sites in Alaska and Siberia, which were highlands when the land bridge was exposed. But O’Rourke and his colleagues say archaeological sites must be found in Beringia if the long human layover there is to be confirmed. Although most such sites are underwater, some evidence of human habitation in shrub tundra might remain above sea level in low-lying portions of Alaska and eastern Chukotkam,” which is in Russia. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, March 3, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 43 | |||||||||
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 University of Massachusetts at Amherst photo
The much-studied foot of a gecko
that resulted in a sticky use.Biologists
defend research
that might warrant chuckle By
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
news staff Scoffing at or cutting funds for basic biological research on unusual animal adaptations from gila monster venom to snail sex, though politically appealing to some, is short-sighted and only makes it more likely that important economic and social benefits will be missed in the long run, say a group of evolutionary biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Writing in a recent issue of BioScience, researchers Patricia Brennan, Duncan Irschick, Norman Johnson and Craig Albertson argue that “innovations often arise from unlikely sources” and “reducing our ability to creatively examine unique biological phenomena will ultimately harm not only education and health but also the ability to innovate, a major driver of the global economy.” First author Ms. Brennan, known for her duck genitalia studies that could eventually aid human medical science, points out, “Basic science has increasingly come under attack, and there is a growing perception that studying odd science ideas with no clear societal benefits should be stopped. But we feel that these are the precise sorts of investigations that may lead to major innovations in biomedicine, technology and military applications.” She and colleagues point to several specific examples where advances in understanding basic biological evolutionary adaptations led to successful technological applications, sometimes decades after the original work. Without basic work first published in 1967 on the enzyme Taq polymerase, for example, science wouldn’t have the immensely powerful DNA replication technique known as polymerase chain reaction, now providing vast benefits in medicine, agriculture and criminal justice. A recent invention from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst underscores the value of basic science, the authors add. Benefitting from more than 50 years of basic research on gecko ecology and the remarkable anatomy that allows these lizards to walk up smooth walls and across the ceiling, a research team invented Geckskin, an adhesive that can attach a 700-pound weight to a smooth surface on an index-card-sized pad. Functional morphologist Duncan Irschick, a member of that team, says, “Gecko adhesion stands as a classic example where long-term research on a seemingly frivolous topic has led to a major innovation with enormous potential for making an economic contribution.” He and colleagues say experts have identified more than 2,000 instances of technology inspired by evolutionary innovations, including highly efficient solar panels, insulated glass, and body armor inspired by mantis shrimp appendages. The public is already interested in oddball science and related success stories, the authors add, and “the abundance of organismal biology science stories in the news shows that studies have mass appeal. This suggests they can play a role in education,” particularly in a nation where only 40 percent of the public acknowledges evolution. Evolutionary developmental biologist Craig Albertson notes, “It’s easy to assume that innovation happens from well-planned research, but the history of innovation does not tell that story.” Norman Johnson adds, “We are not suggesting that applied science is unimportant, far from it. We are merely pointing out the long-term value and innovations that arise from what is commonly viewed as wasteful spending.” |
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| From Page 7: Wednesday begins countdown to Semana Santa By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday in Christian tradition. The day represents the start of Lent, a period of reflection, fasting and prayer leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Easter is April 20 this year. Aside from the religious significance, business people have to adjust their schedule because at least the Thursday and Friday before Easter are holidays. And for many in government and private industry, the entire week, Semana Santa, is a holiday. That means business will not be as usual. In fact, it might not be at all. For the tourist industry, this is a big season, although many Costa Ricans have a way of finding either a relative or a place to pitch a tent at the beaches. Costa Rica does not have the carnival tradition of other Latin countries. Brazil, Venezuela and even New Orleans are celebrating in anticipation of the restrictions of the 40 days of Lent. |
