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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 54
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 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
photo
Taxi driver is about to go for a ride.
Taxi was
bearing false license plates
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The taxi driver was not detained because of any criminal act toward a passenger. He was wanted because he failed to follow up on what amounts to a parole on an earlier charge. But the arrest does show a danger to expats when they use taxi services. The vehicle that police stopped was bearing false license plates, they said. The man's vehicle was stopped in the troubled neighborhood of La Tabla in San Rafael Abajo de Desamparados. The driver may have been just trying to make money by pretending to be a licensed taxi driver. But his last conviction was for carrying a firearm without a permit. When he appeared in court on that case, he was given conditional discharge, but police said he did not follow up on the attached conditions. Some taxi operators use a false license plate that is a duplicate of a legitimate taxi. That way they have have two vehicles on the road at once. However, other tax drivers discourage this and call police. Puriscal man dies in his vehicle By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 73-year-old German expat with the last name of Speger died Tuesday, and his vehicle went off the road and ended up in a ditch, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. The accident happened near the El Salto bridge outside of Liberia, the man's presumed destination. He was a Puriscal resident, judicial agents said. Agents said that the death may be the result of a heart attack. Investigators are trying to determine if there were marks on the pavement that indicated the man applied his brakes. Turrialba still being monitored closely By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Emergency commission staffers still are keeping a close eye on the Turrialba volcano even though it has not erupted since Friday evening. The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias is using the time to evaluate the response to the week of eruptions that sent ash into the Central Valley and closed the two area airports. Some areas close to the volcano are covered with ash and vegetation is destroyed. The fumes from the mountain has done a lot of damage even before the current spate of eruptions. Sensors still are detecting some activity beneath the mountain, but that is normal. One-person moto rule not supported By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The security minister has declined to support immediately a proposal to prohibit two persons on one motorcycle. The prohibition was advanced by Francisco Segura Montero, director of the Judicial Investigating Organization. He did so because many robberies and murders are done by the passenger on a motorcycle. The security minister, Gustavo Mata Vega, did support a proposal to have motorcycle drivers wear a vest displaying the license number of the vehicle. He also said he wants to prohibit helmets that hide completely the wearer's face. But of the one-person rule, he said the issue needs more study so as not to violate the rights of motorcyclists. He said most were good people. U.S. Fed considers raising the rate By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Top officials of the U.S. central bank are debating how soon and how much to raise the key interest rate. The U.S. Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates to nearly zero during the recession to bolster economic growth. Low interest rates make it less expensive for businesses to borrow the money needed to buy new equipment to expand and hire more workers. It also makes it easier for consumers to spend, and consumer demand drives most U.S. economic activity. Rising economic growth and falling unemployment show that such stimulus may no longer be needed. Researcher Chris Layden of Experis, part of the Manpower Group of companies, said a recent survey of thousands of employers across the country shows rising demand for goods and services, which is prompting many companies to plan to hire workers over the next several months. “For some time we have seen incremental increase in demand for goods and services, and that we think, is going to drive hiring intentions higher in the coming quarter, the second quarter of 2015. We are seeing that increase across all 13 industry sectors and really across all regions of the U.S.," said Layden. The Fed's job is to manage the economy to encourage full employment and stable prices. So the Fed must keep rates low long enough to bolster growth, jobs and to raise inflation closer to the two-percent annual rate many experts say is healthy for the economy. In an interview, PNC Bank economist Gus Faucher said rising wages in some areas could foreshadow rising inflation. “Businesses are finding the need to raise wages in order to retain their current workers or attract new ones. We saw that with Walmart’s recent decision that they are going to be raising wages for their workers, so I think we will see stronger wage growth in 2015 as the job market continues to tighten,” he said. If Fed officials wait too long, however, they risk sparking higher rates of inflation that could hurt economic growth. “They are concerned about the potential for higher inflation, so I think we will see the Fed gradually, increase interest rates, but it is going to be a process but it is going to be a period of years before interest rates get back to normal levels,” said Faucher. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak with journalists this afternoon and explain the central bank's decisions. Many economists are watching closely to see if the bank's formal written guidance drops the world patience. Some experts say investors are likely to see that change as a signal interest rates could be raised as soon as June. Other economists surveyed by financial news services say rates are likely to be hiked in September, and a few contend rates won't be pushed up by the Central Bank until next year. Banco Nacional gives Semana Santa hours By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Banco Nacional said that it would close Holy Thursday, April 2, and reopen Monday, April 6. The reason is the Semana Santa holidays. In addition, the bank said that it would not provide evening services on Wednesday, April 1. The bank will close at 3:45 p.m. that day. There may be some variations at individual bank offices outside the metro area. For example, the office at the Depósito Libre de Golfito will be open Saturday, April 4, and Easter Sunday, April 5. The closing in the evening of April 2 might be a hardship to workers who are paid by check. But the automatic tellers will be in service all days.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 54 | |
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| Emergency drills will test responses to major tsunamis
hitting the coasts |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
March 25 emergency agencies on the Atlantic and Caribbean will be holding two drills in which fictional tsunamis hit the coast of the Americas. One tsunami, generated by an 8.5 magnitude earthquake, is planned off the coast of Panamá and close to the Costa Rican Caribbean coast. The second rehearsal the same day involves a tsunami hitting the Florida coast. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, an agency of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is supervising. The dual exercise is called Caribe Wave 15, and it is designed to test the warning system and official responses. The commission said that in case of tsunamis, the distribution of information to the public is crucial. The agency also urged educational programs in schools and coastal communities. The agency said that in the last 500 years there have been 75 tsunamis recorded in the Caribbean. They are produced by seaquakes, earthquakes and the collapse of material into the ocean. Since the 19th century tsunamis have caused 4,000 deaths in the region, the commission said, citing statistics from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |
In recent
years development and tourism in coastal areas has increased the
vulnerability, said the commission. The first emergency drill was in 2011. The commission itself was created in 2005 along the lines of a similar agency in the Pacific. A.M. Costa Rica reported on tsunamis last March 6. A news article said that evidence indicates the Yucatan Peninsula was hit by a tsunami 1,500 years ago. The coastal area was devastated. There are several lines of evidence for an ancient tsunami, including a large, wedge-shaped berm about 15 feet above sea level paved with washing machine-sized stones, said the University of Colorado in a release. Set back in places more than a quarter of a mile from shore, the berm stretches for at least 30 miles, alternating between rocky headlands and crescent beaches as it tracks the outline of the Caribbean coast near the plush resorts of Playa del Carmen and Cancun, said the university. The last recorded tsunami here was actually just south in Panamá. A summary said that in April 22, 1991, at Bocas del Toro, Panamá, people reported that the sea receded less than 10 minutes after the Limón earthquake to the north. There was some damage when the sea returned. |
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Angels
Unearthly beings are part of expoBy the A.M. Costa Rica staff An exposition that includes large paintings of angels opens at the Galería Sophia Wanamaker in Los Yoses. The works are by Costa Rican Silvia Monge. The gallery said there are 15 large format paintings and two sculptures. The title is “Naturalezas Incorpóreas.” The gallery is within the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano. The gallery said the exhibit leaves open the question of whether these beings exist. The exhibition opens today and runs until April 28. Admission is free.  This work is called "Mundo invisible."
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 This Silvia
Monge work is
called "Abriendo alas."
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 54 | |||||
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| Slime-throwing tropical worm gives some tips to academic
engineers |
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By the Harvard University news service
The velvet worm is a slow-moving, unassuming creature. With its soft body, probing antennae, and stubby legs, it looks like a slug on stilts as it creeps along damp logs in tropical climates. But it has a secret weapon. In the dark of night, when an unsuspecting cricket or termite crosses its path, the worm unleashes an instantaneous torrent of slime. Two fine jets of the gluey substance spray out of openings on its head, oscillating in all directions to cast a sticky net that entraps prey and stops it in its tracks. Captivated, so to speak, by the worm’s split-second attack, researchers from Costa Rica, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and from universities in Chile and Brazil have been studying the creature from all angles. How, they asked, does such a slow, neurologically simple worm execute such a rapid and perfectly aimed movement? By applying new insights from anatomy, mathematics, experimental physics, and fluid dynamics, they now have an answer published in Nature Communications. The findings could inspire new microfluidic devices. Imagine a large syringe equipped, at its narrow tip, with an elastic tube shaped like the neck of a flexible drinking straw. That is apparently the velvet worm’s slime-shooting apparatus from its tail end where the slime is produced and stored in a reservoir to a pair of tiny nozzles called papillae on its head. Given this structure, a slow and gentle squeeze on the reservoir is all it takes to eject the slime with great speed and force. Most importantly, the shape and elasticity of the papillae ensure that as the slime exits, it sprays in all directions, like water gushing through a flailing garden hose. “The geometry of the system allows the worm to squirt fast and cover a wide area. That’s the magic,” says lead author Andrés Concha, formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and now an assistant professor at Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile. But it’s actually not the whole story, as Concha explains. A garden hose is much larger than the tube inside a velvet worm’s papillae. To get the flailing-hose effect within such minuscule passages, which range in diameter from 50 to 200 microns, the worm relies on the elasticity and corrugated shape of its papillae. These features lower the fluid velocity necessary to shake the tube. By identifying the features of the anatomy and material structure that enable the velvet worm to produce wide-spraying jets, the researchers have characterized a new type of flexible microfluidic system that they say could be used to produce fine droplets of liquid or fibrous nets, or to mix together several substances in laboratory or industrial settings. Concha and coauthor Paula Mellado, also an assistant professor at Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile, were both at Harvard SEAS when the velvet worm project launched. Other coauthors include Bernal Morera-Brenes, a biologist at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica and Julian Monge-Najera, a tropical biologist at the Universidad de Costa Rica. “After watching the David Attenborough film 'Life in the Undergrowth' with some high-speed footage of the worm’s slime jet, I suggested that an elastic-hydrodynamic |
 Adolfo Ibañez University/Cristiano
Sampaio-Costa and Andrés Concha
Shown here is the gigantic Peripatus solorzanoi. The masking
tape in the background measures two inches.instability of the nozzle could be a simpler solution to creating a chaotic jet, rather than muscle control,” explains coauthor L. Mahadevan, a Harvard professor of applied mathematics at Harvard. “Our work shows that this is indeed the case, and chalks up one more example of how evolution has co-opted a simple physical principle for a behavioral response," he said” The unusual velvet worms present a host of new questions for future research. “There are many cool properties of the glue that we need to explore,” Concha says. “If you put your fingers close to the mouth of the worm and you get some glue on your fingers, you wait seven seconds and you’re stuck. So one ambition is to be able to generate a synthetic glue like that, with biotechnological applications. I think there is some chemistry that we have to learn from the worm.” The diversity of the velvet worms, which make up the genus Onychophora, also poses the question of how the squirting mechanism can have evolved to work in worms that vary greatly in size. “That’s a great biological question,” Concha says. “By experience, we know that it works for all of these worms. Now, how they adapt the materials and the inner diameter of the hole inside the papillae, I don’t know. It’s very impressive. Even for babies, it works. You have a gigantic worm that’s eight or nine inches long and the baby is one inch, and already the mechanism is working.” While squirting mechanisms are common among animals, anything other than a straightforward arc of liquid typically requires an active movement and some degree of control. The range of approaches to that problem within the animal kingdom requires continued research. “Archer fish throw a jet of water, and it just follows a parabolic trajectory. Spitting cobras actively move their head to spray the poor fellow who is in front. And there are other cases. for example, spitting spiders, where the mechanism is unclear,” Concha says. Fortunately, he has access to the venomous spitting spiders at home in Chile, where he plans to study them further. “Some biologists have posed the question, is this elasticity or is there any active mechanism? From what is in the literature up to now, I don’t have an answer, so spitting spiders are a nice thing to look forward to.” This research was supported in part by the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 54 | |||||||
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Netanyahu's Likud party appears to have most seats By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party emerged as the clear leader in Israel's parliamentary elections early Wednesday as he seeks a fourth term in office. With more than 90 percent of precincts reporting, Likud was set to win 30 seats compared to the 24 seats for its main challenger, the Zionist Union. Netanyahu has already declared victory for his conservative party, writing on Facebook that Likud won "against all odds." Thirty seats would be far below the 61 needed to have an outright majority in the 120-member body. The politicians will move into a process of coalition talks, with Netanyahu and Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog seeking the backing of enough smaller parties to become prime minister. Herzog said he will have to see what other parties win seats before he can look at "what kind of government we can form." The smaller parties range from Communists to orthodox Jews to the United Arab List, four Arab-led parties which joined forces and could wind up being a valuable asset. Exit polls gave the United Arab List 13 seats. Prime Minister Netanyahu campaigned on what his backers say is his strong record of keeping Israel secure. He reversed his policy this week and now says he will not support a Palestinian state. Herzog warned voters that the prime minister would be leading an extremist government that will tear Israel apart. Herzog said Israel should negotiate with the Palestinians. A reporter in Jerusalem covering the election said this could be the heaviest turnout in an Israeli election in quite some time. "That is being attributed to the tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and the opposition Labor-led center-left alliance led by Isaac Herzog. But other issues are also involved, in that there is a contest on the right side between the right-wing parties and on the left between the left-wing parties, and many say that it will be the center-left parties, a couple of smaller parties, that may be the ones that are the kingmakers of this election,” he said. U.S. drone may be down during mission over Syria By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. military said Tuesday it lost contact with an unarmed drone that was being remotely piloted over Syria, but could not corroborate reports that it was shot down. The Pentagon statement came after Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the Syrian military shot down a drone conducting a surveillance mission in Latakia province, along the Mediterranean coast. If the report is true, it would be the first U.S. aircraft shot down over Syria since a U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq expanded air strikes into Syria in September. Earlier on Tuesday, Amnesty International released a new report saying Syrian forces killed civilians in air strikes on the northern town of Raqqa last November in attacks that violated human rights law. The report presents accounts of air strikes on separate days that killed 115 civilians, including 14 children. Amnesty spoke by phone or Skype with witnesses to the attacks and local activists. They described air strikes that hit areas that had no military targets nearby or ones where civilians were killed in places where Islamic State militants were known or likely to be. Amnesty said those attacks amount to either direct attacks against civilians, indiscriminate bombings or disproportionate strikes, all of which are barred under international human rights law. Raqqa is a stronghold of the Islamic State group, but Amnesty said that does not give the government a reason to bomb the city as if the area were populated solely by the militants. "Syrian government forces have shown flagrant disregard for the rules of war in these ruthless air strikes," Amnesty's Philip Luther said. "Some of these attacks give every indication of being war crimes. "They have carried out repeated attacks on civilian areas without clearly identifying military targets, a blatant violation of the requirement to distinguish between civilians and military targets," he added. Also Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused Syrian government forces of dropping barrel bombs filled with poison gas on the town of Sarmin in Idlib province, killing six people and injuring dozens more. The government denied the reports. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations commission of inquiry on Syria said Tuesday that the investigators are prepared to release the names of those on its list of accused human rights violators. The commission released its latest report on the conflict, saying it has resisted publishing its private list of accused abusers, but that to continue keeping it secret would reinforce the impunity present in Syria. "We will share names and information about specific alleged perpetrators with state prosecution authorities that are preparing cases to be heard before a competent and impartial judiciary," said commission head Paulo Pinheiro. He specified the names would not be made public. Russia and China have each vetoed multiple draft Security Council resolutions on Syria since the conflict there began in March 2011. Letter with suspected poison intercepted at White House By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Secret Service says a letter addressed to the White House has tested positive for cyanide, a deadly poison. The agency, which is charged with protecting the president and other high-ranking officials, issued a statement Tuesday saying the letter was received at a screening facility away from the White House campus the day before. The letter initially tested negative for biological agents, but the agency said further tests returned a presumptive positive for cyanide. The letter has been sent to another facility for further testing. The Secret Service says it will have no further comment, due to the ongoing investigation. According to a Web site called The Intercept, a return address on the cyanide-laced letter is a man who has sent multiple packages to the White House dating back to 1995, including one that was covered in urine and feces. In 2013, letters addressed to President Barack Obama and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker were laced with the poison ricin. One person was arrested in the incident. Pacific airline travelers benefit from class action By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Travelers who flew on eight airlines across the Pacific between 2000 and this year are eligible for benefits from a class action lawsuit involving ticket price-fixing. A lawsuit continues against five more air carriers accused of the same thing. The case involves tickets purchased from a total of 26 airlines. Settlements have been reached with eight airlines and a lawsuit continues against five more. The carriers which have settled, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines, have agreed to refund nearly $40 million. Attorney Adam Zapala, who has been working on the case, explains it grew out of numerous U.S. government investigations into price-fixing in the air cargo industry. “Many of the same players in the air passenger industry also are air cargo carriers. In fact a lot of the cargo that's carried day to day throughout the world is carried in the belly of air passenger planes. And there is a very large class action pending in the eastern district of New York that pertains to the air cargo price-fixing case. And many of the defendants in that case are defendants in our case, as well,” said Zapala. Zapala said how much money passengers potentially can get depends on how many of them file applications for claims. “People will be paid out on a pro rata basis according to the number of flights they had during the period of time. If only 20 percent of the class file claims then that 20 percent of the class will be divvying up the 40 million dollars,” he explained. The attorney said that uncovering price-fixing takes a lot of time and money but hopefully such legal actions dissuade businesses from engaging in this anti-competitive behavior. The class action suit claims airlines colluded to fix prices on trans-Pacific travel, resulting in passengers paying more than was necessary. The routes involved were between the United States and Asia, Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific islands. New York seeks to keep fashion industry there By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Many of the world's most revered designers create their fashions in New York City. But often those designs are manufactured overseas to save money. Now, New York is providing economic incentives to encourage more manufacturing in the city and entice emerging designers to take root there. In New York City, the fashion industry accounts for more than 5 percent of the workforce and generates nearly $18 billion a year in retail sales. Despite economic ups and downs, wholesalers, manufacturers and designers have been doing business here in New York's Garment district since the 1880s. Mayor Bill de Blasio says the industry is integral to the city. “Not only a functionally key sector of our economy but one of the most iconic industries in this city. Something so deeply identified with the character and personality of New York City and we want to make sure it stays that way and, in fact, becomes stronger,” he said. This year, the city will allocate $15 million to encourage emerging designers and manufacturers to create fashions locally through a program called Made in New York. Eligible companies like Leota, must sell at least 1,000 products annually and design, cut, sew, assemble and finish their fashions in the city. Founder Sarah Carson is looking forward to additional Made in New York production incentives. “Getting that financing as a small business, as a growing business, is really key to expanding my business here to creating more jobs right here in New York and fueling the growth of the garment industry and fashion industry in New York,” she said. Leota was launched in New York four years ago and has steadily grown. But manufacturing in New York has limitations: sky-high rents, an aging workforce and outdated technology. “We lack some of the technology that we need to do some of the knitting techniques and laser cutting and popular styles that people are buying right now," Ms. Carson said. "We can’t make them here.” The Made in New York program provides incentives to factories that invest in technology and workforce development. So far, the city has granted more than a million dollars to eligible factories. Kenny Hung owns the local factory where Leota designs are manufactured. It's a family business he runs with his wife, Carmen. He says there is not enough consistent fashion manufacturing work to keep his seamstresses busy year round. To help fix that, the city created an electronic platform connecting local designers with local production facilities. Hopefully, that means more business for factories and skilled workers. Plus, if Hung invests in technology upgrades, he could qualify for cash incentives that would position his factory as an even more attractive option for New York-based designers. Air Force veteran faces charge of terror support By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A U.S. Air Force veteran is being charged with trying to provide material support to the Islamic State militant group. A Justice Department statement says a grand jury also indicted Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh on obstruction of justice charges. The statement Tuesday quoted federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch as saying, "Born and raised in the United States, Pugh allegedly turned his back on his country and attempted to travel to Syria in order to join a terrorist organization." Pugh allegedly tried to join the Islamic State group earlier this year, weeks after being fired from his job as an airplane mechanic in the Middle East. He reportedly served in the Air Force as an avionics instrument system specialist, later working for private companies. Pugh faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. Ms. Lynch, President Barack Obama's nominee to become the nation's next attorney general, thanked the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and local police for their help with the case. "It is this type of collaboration that results in swift investigative work to stop individuals such as this from making any further contribution to terrorist organizations such as ISIL," said New York Police Commissioner William Bratton. Pugh reportedly traveled from Egypt to Turkey in an effort to cross into Syria, but Turkish authorities sent him back to Egypt. Authorities there deported him to the United States after finding multiple electronic devices on him, including a cell phone that had a photo of a machine gun. The Justice Department statement says when the U.S. terrorism task force searched his laptop, they found a number of recent Internet searches for Islamic State-related information, as well as downloaded videos, including one showing Islamic State members executing prisoners. New Secret Service head faces unhappy lawmakers By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The new head of the U.S. Secret Service appeared Tuesday before outraged lawmakers who demanded to know why incidents of misconduct continue to plague his agency. Testifying in front of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Joseph Clancy was peppered with inquiries about the latest episode at the White House, which involved a late-night disruption at a command post during an investigation of a possible bomb. The Secret Service director said he did not learn about the March 4 incident until five days later from an anonymous email, a delay he described as unacceptable. Clancy did not address whether the agents returning from a party were impaired at the time of the accident, but he said there is "an element in our agency that copes with stresses by using alcohol.'' He described the incident as "my first test'' as director, adding that the two senior agents involved were not given a sobriety test after bumping their government car into an orange barrel marking the perimeter of the investigation. Lawmakers objected to his response, saying it already should have been clear to agency employees that such behavior would not be tolerated. Clancy agreed with much of the criticism, but said he had to wait for a Homeland Security Department Inspector General's investigation to be completed before he could take action beyond reassigning the two agents to non-supervisory desk jobs outside the White House. Problems within the Secret Service have been highlighted in recent years as agents and officers have been caught up in a series of embarrassing incidents. The most scandalous incident involved more than a dozen agents and officers caught up in a prostitution scandal in Colombia in advance of a 2012 presidential visit. At the time, then-director Mark Sullivan insisted that there was not a larger culture problem within the vaunted law enforcement agency charged with protecting the president. His successor, Julia Pierson, made similar assurances after two drunken incidents came to light involving employees on presidential trips. Ms. Pierson was ousted last year after details of two serious security breaches were disclosed. The most serious was in September when a man armed with a knife was able to climb over a White House fence and run deep into the executive mansion before being subdued. Most U.S. users maintain their old Internet habits By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Some two years after Edward Snowden revealed that he leaked classified documents about government snooping, some Americans say they have taken extra precautions to protect themselves online. But by and large, most seemingly have not changed their Internet or mobile phone habits. Those are the conclusions of a report released this week by the Pew Research Center’s Internet project that explores U.S. attitudes about electronic surveillance. Titled "Americans’ Privacy Strategies Post Snowden," the study is the first to probe not only Americans’ opinions about alleged National Security Agency monitoring of phones and the Internet, but also how those opinions are shaping their behavior. "In this report, we have indications that a sizable segment of Americans are changing some of their behaviors in response to the Snowden leaks," lead author and Pew senior researcher Mary Madden said. "But most of these changes are not highly technical and instead point to self-censoring behavior." Nearly 90 percent of the 475 respondents had heard at least a little about the NSA programs revealed in the Snowden leaks, with about 30 percent saying they’ve heard a lot. Of that 90 percent, just about one-third say they’ve altered their behavior in some way to help shield their activities and guard their privacy on the phone or online. These steps included changing privacy settings on social media like Facebook (17 percent), avoiding certain apps or programs (15 percent), or communicating more in person than electronically (14 percent). One possible reason more adults didn’t change their behavior, Madden said, is a lack of awareness of available tools or a perceived lack of technological knowledge. "Things like encryption, proxy servers, anonymity services … these are all technologies that are being used by a pretty small segment of the population right now," Madden said. "We find that over half of Americans say they in fact it would be difficult for them to find tools and strategies for them to be more private online." Study focus groups revealed another possible explanation, one that surprised the researchers. "There’s actually a segment of folks . . . didn’t take these steps because they didn’t want to appear suspicious or invite scrutiny," Madden said. "Some people actually feel the folks that actually are using encryption tools are then creating a red flag for their behaviors online." Overall, a majority of respondents (57 percent) said it was unacceptable for the U.S. government to monitor the communications of U.S. citizens, a result Madden says is very much in line with previous research findings from Pew’s Research Center for People and the Press. However, 54 percent said the U.S. monitoring of citizens of other countries was acceptable and a full 60 percent said monitoring American leaders and leaders of other nations was acceptable. "Younger adults are less likely to be OK with monitoring of other groups, and in general Americans have become less confident that these programs are in the public interest," Madden said. "Given our previous studies, and the high levels of concern that we monitored, it’s not particularly surprising. What was surprising is that Republicans have become less confident over time, more so than Democrats," she said. Previous studies by Pew have strongly indicated a large majority of Americans fear they have lost the ability to protect their privacy in general and particularly online, with little consensus about what, if anything, could help reverse that trend. "Overall, Americans just feel as though they’ve lost control about how their personal information is used; not just government monitoring, but companies’ use of it as well," Madden said. "So all these stories about government data collection and data breaches that are coming through the news just feed into this greater sense that they’ve lost control of their privacy." |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 54 | |||||||||
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By the Interamerican Association for
Environmental Defense
news staff In a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, four organizations requested renewed attention to human rights violations committed by corporations. The Washington, D.C., hearing was jointly requested by the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, a regional organization; the Association for Human Rights of Peru; the Center for Human Rights and Environment of Argentina, and Justiça Global of Brazil. The organizations applauded the commission’s openness to directly addressing, for the first time, the theme of business and human rights in a public hearing. “Through various mechanisms in recent years, the commission has received a large amount of information about cases of human rights violations in which corporations have played a central role, but the problem has worsened because of a lack of effective solutions. In this sense, one of the biggest challenges the commission has is to find ways to address the issue properly and to help both the states and the corporations to fulfill their human rights obligations,” said Astrid Puentes, co-executive director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense Through their work, the organizations have seen that most recurrent aspects of the problem include: the impacts of megaprojects and extractive industries on human rights and the environment; difficulties in guaranteeing the right to participation and access to information for affected people and communities; the absence of human rights impact assessments; systematic violations of labor rights and forced labor practices; the privatization of public security forces to protect business activities, and aggression towards and criminalization of people who defend the environment, their territory and human rights. At the hearing, the organizations reminded that progress has been made in the development of international standards on business and human rights. One such example, they explained, is the U. N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. "However, because compliance is voluntary and there are various legal loopholes, this instrument has not been effective enough to prevent the continuation of human rights abuses," said Alexandra Montgomery of Justiça Global. "Also, effective regulation of territorial and extraterritorial State obligations regarding the responsibilities of transnational corporations on national, regional and international levels does not exist. This sort of vacuum prevents both the safeguarding of people’s rights, and access to appropriate compensation and justice for victims,” The organizations presented information about the opportunities the commission has to strengthen the implementation of existing standards. They emphasized the following points: * The commission should promote corporations’ respect for human rights. This includes promoting state responsibility for adequate supervision of business activities and for establishment of binding obligations for them, since the voluntary nature of the Guiding Principles compromises and puts at risk the protection of human rights. * Based on the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System in relation to the obligations of states to respect and guarantee human rights, the commission can develop specific measures for states to supervise business activities to ensure that they do not violate human rights. * Respect for human rights by states and companies must not be subject to economic or political considerations. * It is necessary to strengthen access to justice for victims of human rights abuses by businesses through recommendations for improvement and implementation of accountability mechanisms and international forums, such as the commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. “We hope that as a result of the hearing, the commission initiates dialogues that incorporate the experience of civil society organizations and of United Nations agencies to strengthen the respect of and guarantees for human rights in the region,” concluded Gloria Cano, of the Association for Human Rights of Peru. |
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| Creative cuisine
gets governmental boost By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government has declared the Plan Nacional de la Gastronomía Costarricense Sostenible y Saludable to be in the public interest. Officials hope that the retail food industry will develop a Costa Rican cuisine that will attract tourism and generate employment and encourage good eating habits. Vice President Ana Helena Chacón said that the declaration also has the potential to promote creativity and innovation, thereby encouraging the growth of the industry. Officials said they also hope that the development of a distinctive Costa Rican cuisine would generate investment and preserve the national food heritage. |
