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José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 19, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 55
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 Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública
photo
The
Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas confiscated this mass of netswhen crew members detained two men who are accused of fishing illegally in the Gulf of Nicoya Wednesday. Cell phone use termed distracted driving By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Traffic laws still say that talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel is a violation. But such activity, what researchers call distracted driving, seems to be the norm. There are other ways to create danger on the highway, such as tuning the radio or eating lunch. But far more typical is the use of the cell telephone. Some of the biggest offenders are the taxi drivers, the professionals, who need the cell telephone to get business. “Based on recent studies, anything that takes your attention away, any glance away from the road for two seconds or longer can increase the risk of an accident from four to 24 times,” said David Hurwitz, an assistant professor of transportation engineering in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. He was quoted in a university release. The chances are high that driving in the metro area here is more risk-filled than doing so in Oregon. The motorcycles are all over. Traffic signals are not obeyed. Motorists do not stop at train tracks. One study has equated texting on a cell phone equivalent to driving drunk, according to Oregon State. Hurwitz said his recent research found that 27 percent of young respondents changed clothes or shoes while driving and some students worked on homework. And research has shown that more women use the cell telephone than male drivers. The cell telephone rule seems to be one that traffic police are now ignoring. That puts it in the category of seat-belt use and violations for blocking an intersection. Government media oligopolies decried Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has denounced the existence of government sponsored media oligopolies in various countries of Latin America. The allegation took place during a hearing in Washington, D.C., before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The press association declared that in Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Guatemala and Argentina the government, using public resources, have created powerful oligopolies to support those in power, with hundreds of radio stations, television channels, newspapers, news agencies and Web sites. The organization pointed out that a total media monopoly controlled by brothers Raúl and Fidel Castro, has existed in Cuba for 56 years. At a hearing called to debate issues of plurality, diversity and media concentration in the region, the Inter American Press Association defended its historic position in favor of the observance of Article 12 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, adopted in 2000. Article 12 warns that “Monopolies or oligopolies in the ownership and control of the media must be subject to anti-trust laws, as they conspire against democracy by limiting the plurality and diversity which ensures the full exercise of people’s right to information.” It also adds that “In no case should such laws apply exclusively to the media. The concession of radio and television broadcast frequencies should take into account democratic criteria that provide equal opportunity of access for all individuals.” “The IAPA opposes, has opposed and will oppose the existence of monopolies or oligopolies, both public and private, in the precise terms that are established by Article 12 of the Declaration of Principles,” said Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the organization's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information. He is editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda. “The problems of monopolies or oligopolies is one of the principal risks to freedom of expression,” he said. Bilinguals draw on two cultures, study says By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
According to a new study, speaking two languages may influence how people perceive the world around them by putting a different emphasis on certain reactions. Psycholinguists from Britain's Lancaster University say bilinguals may have a more flexible way of thinking by paying attention to things inherently emphasized in different cultures. They say that for instance Japanese speakers usually group objects by material they are made of instead of their shape, while Korean speakers emphasize on how objects fit together. Likewise, the Russian language has different words and a more precise distinction between light blue and dark blue colors, while the English language does not. Another test showed that after being distracted in one language bilinguals tended to have their responses influenced by the second language. In other words, English-German speakers acted like typical Germans when their English was blocked by repeating strings of numbers in German. The same worked the other way around. Lancaster University scientists say the conclusion is that bilinguals have the ability to negotiate between different perspectives in reaching conclusions about the world around them. Critics say the tests were only laboratory experiments and the findings may not apply to everyday life situations.  Earth Charter
photo
Photo of earlier event
gives an idea of the size of the paper roll.Giant poem
coming to Ciudad Colón
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Earth Charter, Ciudad Colón will be the site of another edition of the giant poem. Participants can put their words on a 150-meter roll. This had been done in at least 57 cities. Organizers said they selected Ciudad Colón because that is the location of the Earth Charter International Secretariat. The event begins at 9 a.m. in the Ciudad Colón park. The poem is called a social participatory project. The event also is linked to World Poetry Day. The Earth Charter is described as an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 19, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 55 | |
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| Government Semana Santa rule does not sit well with hotel
chamber |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Hotel operators are unhappy because the central government is making employees work Monday through Wednesday on Semana Santa. Traditionally, the government workers have had the entire week off. President Luis Guillermo Solís, embroiled in a controversy over the fiscal deficit, government spending and new taxes, issued the decree providing just Thursday and Friday to be days off during the week. They are national holidays anyway. Although the week preceding Easter is filled with religious |
activities,
the bulk of the population seem to head to the beaches or mountains. And that is what the hotel operators want. The Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles said Wednesday that its members were expecting from 80 to 85 percent occupancy over Semana Santa. But with the change in plan by the government hotel operators expected that some reservations would be canceled, said the chamber. Government workers can go to the beach for the entire week as long as they have vacation time and receive supervisory approval, said Casa Presidencial Wednesday. |
| In Costa Rica the jungle lizards are not allowed on the menu |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police said they stopped three men carrying a suspicious bag in Tortuguero Wednesday. Officers quickly found that the bag contained three iguana. The officers concluded that the men were preparing to turn the lizards into dinner. But that is against the law in Costa Rica where taking creatures from the wild is prohibited. The Fuerza Pública officers delivered the iguanas to local representatives of the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Mares for reintroduction into the nearby national park. And the three men are going to court. The prohibition against eating iguana is not universal. In fact, the Internet is filled with iguana recipes ranging from soup to stew to a roast to a curry dish. Iguana eggs also are sought. Florida newspapers have published news stories encouraging the hunting and eating of the creatures because of overpopulation and their harvesting would solve the hunger problem. They were not joking. The critters are fair game in other Latin and Caribbean |
 Ministerio
de Seguriddad Pública
These guys were saved from the pot.
countries. Their fans say the meat tastes like chicken. In fact, scientists say the chicken and other birds are descendants of the dinosaurs. So chicken salad really is lizard salad. |
| U.S. expat businessman gunned down by would-be killers in
Escazú |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A U.S. expat businessman was the target of an assassination attempt late Wednesday morning in the Paco section of Escazú. The man had left a restaurant and entered his vehicle when two men on a motorcycle pulled up and shot him multiple times with a 9-mm. pistol, said judicial investigators. The victim went to Hospital San Juan de Dios where he was described as in critical condition. He suffered at least four bullet wounds to the body. |
There was
confusion over his identity. The Judicial Investigating
Organization said his last name was Noah. He also was identified
informally as Noah Freeman or Jason Feinman. Judicial police said he was 42. The agency also said he was in the real estate business, but other sources said he operated a call center. He was believed to be a long-time resident of the country. Judicial police said he lives in the area where the attack took place. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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2015 and may
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 19, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 55 | |||||
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| Researchers say they have solved a long-time question about
mammals |
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By the University of York news staff
Scientists at the University of York provided the key to solving the evolutionary puzzle surrounding what Charles Darwin called the strangest animals ever discovered. Published this week in Nature, the article describes a technical feat in obtaining a molecular phylogeny based on Pleistocene protein sequences. This is a first, which could herald a new chapter in palaeontology. Researchers in the university’s BioArCh research facility and Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry were called in by the Natural History Museum and the American Museum of Natural History to resolve the long-standing question of the fossils of Toxodon and Macrauchenia, the South American native ungulates or hooved mammals, the last of which disappeared only 10,000 years ago. The research shows that South American ungulates, similar to those whose fossils were found by Darwin 180 years ago in Uruguay and Argentina, are actually related to mammals like horses rather than elephants and other species with ancient evolutionary ties to Africa as some taxonomists have maintained. Previously, attempts by scientists to pinpoint the origin of animals using morphology-based analysis and ancient DNA, had failed. The latter approach was compromised because scientists were unable to recover any identifiable mammalian DNA from fossil specimens. This is likely to be the case for large numbers of important fossils from tropical or temperate deposits, as DNA preservation is ultimately controlled by the temperature history of the material. But the structural protein, collagen, is likely to survive around 10 times longer than DNA so the York scientists used analysis to screen 48 fossil bone samples of Toxodon platensis and Macrauchenia patachonica, discovered in the 19th century in the same area as those recovered by Darwin. This produced sequences covering more than 90 per cent of the collagen molecule, effectively providing a barcode for the two species. The York research team was headed by Professor Matthew Collins, of BioArCh, and Professor Jane Thomas-Oates, director of York’s Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry, and included PhD student Frido Welker and Dr. Jessica Thomas from the university’s Department of Biology. Dr. Thomas, who conducted the molecular analysis, said “By producing the most comprehensive example of sequencing of its type, we have been able to resolve the taxonomic placement of these mammals, and solve a question that has baffled paleaontologists for more than a century.” Collins said: “We now have the potential to address many more of these challenges and to explore the evolutionary process much further back in prehistory.” Ian Barnes, a curator at the Natural History Museum said: |
 University of York graphic
This is the Toxodon that probably roamed Costa
Rica, too.“Although the bones of these animals had been studied for over 180 years, no clear picture of their origins had been reached. Our analyses began by investigating ancient DNA to try to resolve the problem.” “Fitting South American ungulates to the mammalian family tree has always been a major challenge for paleontologists, because anatomically they were these weird mosaics, exhibiting features found in a huge variety of quite unrelated species living all over the place." said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s Department of Mammalogy. “This is what puzzled Darwin and his collaborator Richard Owen so much in the early 19th century. With all of these conflicting signals, they couldn’t say whether these ungulates were related to giant rodents, or elephants, or camels — or what have you.” With modern techniques of phylogenetic interpretation, the researchers were able to conclusively show that the closest living relatives of these species were the perissodactyls, the group that includes horses, rhinos, and tapirs. This makes them part of Laurasiatheria, one of the major groups of placental mammals. The molecular evidence corroborates a view held by some leading paleontologists that the ancestors of these South American ungulates came from North America more than 60 million years ago, probably just after the mass extinction that killed off non-avian dinosaurs and many other vertebrates. Because the South American ungulates were such a large and varied group, it is not clear whether other lineages not studied by the researchers all had the same origin. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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Tunisia shocked by attack that killed many tourists By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Tunisia's parliament called for a day of solidarity after gunmen opened fire at one of the capital's top tourism sites, killing 19 people and wounding more than 40 others. "The target of the attack was the parliament and the national museum," said Parliament President Mohamed Enaceur during a special session late Wednesday. "These are symbols, and this attack was a message to tell us that terrorism today has changed in that it has a presence in the city and is eyeing our national symbols." Prime Minister Habib Essid said two assailants wearing military-style uniforms hunted and chased down tourists at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis before taking a small group captive. Police killed two attackers in an operation to free the hostages. Authorities said they were searching for up to three potential accomplices. Japanese officials said Thursday the dead included three people from Japan. Essid said two Tunisians were among the victims, along with people from Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Tunisian television showed images of older tourists and children fleeing the scene under the cover of armed security forces. A spokesman for the interior ministry said at least 100 people were inside the museum at the time of the attack. In a television address to the nation Wednesday evening, President Beji Caid Essebsi said, "I want the people of Tunisia to understand firstly and lastly that we are in a war with terror, and these savage minority groups will not frighten us.'' The U. N. Security Council strongly condemned the shootings. Yan St. Pierre, the CEO of the Berlin-based security firm MOSECON, said the museum's location next to the parliament building could have been targeted specifically to shut down the work of the government, which was scheduled to pass even tougher anti-terrorism laws Wednesday. “The Bardo being so close to the parliament, it provided a soft target. It allowed them to disrupt voting on that bill. They succeeded. They had to evacuate parliament because of the attack on the Bardo," St. Pierre said. St. Pierre said he believes the attack could have the long-term impact of making the Tunisian government, which he said remains in transition, even more fragile. But he added that as chaos in neighboring Libya deepens the regional security crisis, he expects terrorist attacks against soft targets like the museum to continue. Netanyahu ready to form new government soon By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will do everything in his power to ensure the well being and security of all Israeli citizens. Netanyahu made his comments Wednesday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a day after his conservative Likud party scored a resounding victory in Israel's parliamentary election. With nearly all of the ballots counted, Likud captured 30 of the 120 seats in parliament, compared with 24 seats for its main challenger, the Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog. Exit polls Tuesday had projected a tight race, with the two sides at 24 seats apiece. Netanyahu said Wednesday he intends to form a government in the next two to three weeks, which would give him a fourth term as prime minister. A statement from his office said he has already reached out to smaller parties in order to form the 61-seat coalition he needs to govern. One key will be Moshe Kahlon's centrist Kulanu party, which won 10 seats in Tuesday's vote. Kahlon is expected to be the next finance minister. "The citizens of Israel expect us to quickly put together a leadership that will work for them regarding security, economy and society as we committed to do, and we will do so," Netanyahu said. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Secretary of State John Kerry called Netanyahu to congratulate him on the victory and that President Barack Obama will do so in the coming days. The election was viewed closely regarding its impact on U.S.-Israeli relations. Differences on key issues, including the Iranian nuclear negotiations and stalled peace talks, have led to increased tensions between the two governments. Earnest said unprecedented security cooperation between the United States and Israel will continue, and he voiced support for a two-state solution with Israel and the Palestinians. Netanyahu said earlier this week he would never support a Palestinian state, reversing the position he had held during his administration as the two sides conducted peace talks that eventually broke down. A U.N. spokesperson, speaking on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said it will be incumbent on the new Israeli government to create the conditions leading to a final peace deal with the Palestinians. He said Israel should take steps including a cessation of illegal settlement building on occupied Palestinian land. Meanwhile, Senior Palestinian Authority official Abdullah Abdullah expressed disappointment at the results. The Palestinians are now likely to press ahead with their attempts to bring war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court. Reaction in U.S. depends on political inclinations By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu savors his party’s decisive victory in parliamentary elections, U.S. lawmakers are reacting along party lines while analysts are more circumspect. It was unclear Wednesday how the win will affect U.S. relations with Israel. Tensions had mounted over the long-stalled Middle East peace process and the prime minister’s recent, impassioned speech before the U.S. Congress, during which he warned against an Iran nuclear deal. The move was criticized as undermining the Obama administration and its international partners. House Speaker John Boehner, who invited Netanyahu to speak, tweeted "heartfelt congratulations" to the prime minister: "Looking forward to continuing the strong bond between #Israel & America." "The people of Israel have spoken," U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House’s leading Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday. "I respect the results that they have produced. I think that what they have produced will be a continued lively discussion about the peace process." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry phoned Netanyahu to extend congratulations, the White House said, noting that President Barack Obama would do so "in the coming days." Earlier this week, Netanyahu infuriated the White House and some of Israel's other Western allies by declaring he would not support a two-state solution to ease tensions with Palestinians. "I think that whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel," the prime minister said. Security tops economic concerns? Netanyahu’s win means security trumped domestic issues, said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, referencing some Israelis' concerns about pocketbook issues. But the South Carolina Republican, a vocal critic of President Barack Obama, said the vote contained a message for the American leader. "Embrace the reality that Iran is toppling one neighbor after the other, and that you are negotiating regarding their nuclear ambition and they are not paying any price for destabilizing the region," Graham said. The administration has "an obsession with a nuclear deal with Iran that is disturbing everybody in the region." Talks with Iran emerge as major political issue By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
No matter what happens with the negotiations over curbing Iran’s nuclear program, count on the issue being front and center during next year’s U.S. presidential election campaign. The recent letter sent to Iran’s leaders by 47 Senate Republicans highlights the sharp divide between the Obama administration’s approach to the Iran talks and the skeptical view from conservative critics. The letter, authored by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, set off a political firestorm in Washington. But for the most part the Republicans who signed the letter are standing by it and a defiant Cotton issued a defense on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Well it is a simple fact of our Constitution that if Congress does not approve the deal then it may not last. And the deal that is on the table right now is a very bad deal.” Cotton later said: “The president views Congress as an afterthought. Iran’s leaders clearly have the message now, and I think it was important they got the message.” Many Democrats were appalled by what they saw as a breach of precedent by members of Congress communicating directly with a foreign power and leading U.S. adversary. Secretary of State John Kerry responded to Cotton on the CBS’ show Face the Nation. “What I do know is that this letter is absolutely calculated directly to interfere with these negotiations,” he said. Likely Democratic contender Hillary Clinton defended the Obama administration’s negotiating approach and went after the Republicans who signed the letter. “Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander in chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.” Clinton added, “No one considering running for commander in chief should be signing on.” It’s likely much more about this will come out in the presidential primary debates that begin later this year. “The letter signed by 47 Republican senators is just truly unprecedented,” said Ken Sofer, a national security expert with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, who says the issue will resonate into 2016. “To undermine a president’s private negotiations with another world leader is just something we have never seen before.” The political flap over the letter is just the beginning. Supporters of the Obama administration’s efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran took heart from a recent CNN-ORC poll that found 68 percent of those surveyed supported the diplomatic negotiations with Iran while 29 percent were opposed. Support seemed to cross party lines with 77 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents favoring the talks. Americans were more divided on whether the Republican letter to Iran was a good idea. Forty-nine percent said the letter went too far while 39 percent said it was appropriate, another sign that policy toward Iran will remain a divisive political issue for the foreseeable future. The widely divergent attitudes of the Obama White House and conservatives in Congress has already emerged as a major point focus in the very early stage of the U.S. presidential campaign with likely Republican presidential contenders trying to outdo one another in sounding tough on Iran. An early indication of the focus on Iran came during the recent Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington where numerous Republican White House hopefuls auditioned in front of a boisterous conservative crowd. Former Texas governor and likely presidential contender Rick Perry set the tone early on when he listed his foreign policy priorities. “Number one is Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons — period,” he said. Several other likely contenders followed Perry to the stage including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio has staked out a conservative approach on foreign policy. Rubio said this week that as president he would be willing to defy European allies and pull the U.S. out of any nuclear deal agreed to under the Obama administration. Rubio, Cruz, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul signed the Republican letter to Iran and other likely Republican White House contenders have also expressed support. Jeb Bush brought up the issue during a recent visit to the early presidential primary state of New Hampshire. “I’m considering the possibility of running for president, and I would, as president, not negotiate a treaty with Iran that would legitimize the Ayatollah and the brutality of that regime,” he said. Wisconsin's Walker also weighed in during an interview with WMUR TV in Manchester, New Hampshire. “If you are making a major decision with a foreign country, in this case like Iran, I think the Constitution clearly requires the advice and consent of the United States Congress,” he said. The firestorm over the letter also shows that polarized domestic politics is having a negative impact on foreign policy, said George Washington University political analyst Matt Dallek. “There is a ton of animosity and I think after Obama signed the executive order on immigration reform the Republican’s attitude in Congress was ‘we are going to do everything we can to kind of get back at him, to poke him, to undermine him even in areas where traditionally it is not Congress’ role,”’ he said. World health chief seeks end to tobacco companies By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The director-general of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that she would like to see all tobacco companies shut down. Margaret Chan, speaking at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, told delegates that "it's going to be a tough fight. We should not give up until we make sure the tobacco industry goes out of business." Dr. Chan said cigarette companies use all kinds of tactics to try to undermine anti-tobacco laws around the world, including funding political parties and giving money directly to politicians. "Governments wishing to protect their citizens through larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packs or by introducing plainer packaging are being intimidated by industry's threats of lengthy and costly litigation," she said. Two of the world's best-known billionaires, computer magnate Bill Gates and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced an anti-tobacco litigation fund to help countries pay for such court battles. World Health says tobacco use is falling and nonsmoking is becoming the norm around the world. It recommends that governments step up action against the tobacco industry's efforts to fight the trend. Medical experts call tobacco use, including smoking and chewing, a major cause of such diseases as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. They also say secondhand smoke causes cancer and other problems in nonsmokers. World Health says tobacco kills 6 million people a year. Two firms pioneer cars that can drive themselves By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two major technology companies say they intend to take radical steps toward preparing self-driving cars for introduction to everyday life. British-based Delphi Automotive will send its converted Audi SQ5 on an eight-day, 5,600-kilometer drive from San Francisco to New York City, starting Sunday, with the aim of testing its automatic drive systems. The car is equipped with four short-range radars, three cameras and six distance-measuring lasers, along with a range of other systems. Its human passengers will sit back and observe the car’s performance on open roads, but will take control when it gets off the highways. In the meantime, the U.S. computer chip maker Nvidia unveiled an experimental computer designed to allow autonomous cars to learn from experience instead of reacting according to a predefined set of rules. With Nvidia's programming, the cars will gain expertise the same way humans do — by learning from thousands of different situations they encounter in everyday driving. Over time, for instance, the car’s computer should be able to distinguish between the need to brake for a small animal that suddenly runs out in front of the vehicle but not for a piece of newspaper blown across the road. Non-profit videos help poor farmers grow food By the University of Illinois news staff
Subsistence farmers in Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean are learning how to construct raised planting beds and install drip irrigation systems to boost their agricultural productivity, conserve water and perhaps even halt the rapid advance of desertification in some drought-prone regions. This educational effort, led in large part by nonprofit groups and private donors, is getting a boost from Scientific Animations Without Borders, an initiative that produces animated educational videos that can be played and shared on cellphones and other digital devices. The videos focus on health, agricultural production and development, and are narrated in local languages, reaching many who cannot read. Carl Burkybile, the agricultural director of Healing Hands International, a faith-based, humanitarian nonprofit group that, among other things, teaches survival gardening, first contacted Scientific Animations Without Borders co-founders, University of Illinois entomology Professor Barry Pittendrigh and Center for African Studies assistant director Julia Bello-Bravo, in the summer of 2014. Burkybile, an Urbana resident, asked the pair to work with him to develop animated videos to help get the survival gardening information into more hands. “This is exciting from my perspective,” Ms. Bello-Bravo said. “Here is someone from the community who was already going global with important agricultural information. He worked with us on every detail of these videos, and now he is actively sharing them globally.” The Scientific Animations team routinely works with community educators to develop educational animations to meet their needs. Today, the non-profit offers dozens of videos in more than 20 languages. The video developers consult international experts on the topics the animations address. The videos are made available at no cost to the public and to educators who can share them widely. “If we can partner with a group, even if they can’t bring financial resources to the table, sometimes they bring even more valuable resources: expertise, time and goodwill,” Pittendrigh said. “Sometimes you can move mountains with goodwill.” “We’re excited about what we’ve developed with SAWBO,” Burkybile said. “We have survival gardening handouts that I’ve developed in English and Spanish right now, but many poor farmers are illiterate. With the cellphone videos, they can learn how to do these things, even though they can’t read.” The videos demonstrate how to build raised planting beds using layers of vegetation, animal manure and soil. They also show how to install a drip irrigation system. Healing Hands International provides the drip irrigation buckets, lines and hardware to those it serves, but most of the techniques in the videos also can be adapted by people who have no access to drip lines, Burkybile said. “We say to farmers, don’t think about what you don’t have; think about what you do have,” he said. “So they have vegetation, animal manure, kitchen scraps. They can make their own fertilizer.” If they lack drip lines, farmers can water the plants by hand. If water is scarce, they are instructed to water only at the base of each plant. The videos show how to build 15-meter long planting beds that are one meter wide with two rows of plants per bed. “With 10 gallons or 40 liters of water per day, they can raise enough vegetables to feed a family of five to seven during the dry season,” Burkybile said. “So if one bed will feed your family, the second one is income, and the third one and the fourth one. So first we want to feed the family and then have an income so that the kids can get an education and the family can be productive and prosperous.” The survival gardening videos are now available in English, Spanish and French, and soon will be translated into Swahili, Creole and Portuguese. So far, the videos have been shown in El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya and South Sudan, Burkybile said. |
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contents of
this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2015 and may
not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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By the Washington State University news
staff
Bad news in the media got you down? News consumers have only themselves to blame, says new research showing that it's actually buying habits that drive negative press. The research looks at the negative news phenomenon through the prism of economic science. And while previous studies have focused on the supply side by examining media output, the current analysis is among the first to investigate a negative news bias from the consumer or demand side. Washington State University Professor Jill McCluskey and her colleagues at the University of Leuven in Belgium created a theoretical model that illustrates how consumers get more value from negative news than positive news. Focusing on newspapers, the researchers looked at the way people use information from news articles to enhance their well-being and avoid losses. Their model analyzed how much happiness consumers derived from choosing either bad or good news. The results showed greater individual benefit from reading the bad news. Collectively, this tendency creates a societal preference for negative news stories said Professor McCluskey. "Newspapers act on this demand by reporting more bad news to attract readers and sell more papers," she said. The study was published in the journal Information Economics and Policy. The researchers built their model on an economic theory asserting that as an individual's income increases, the impact of each additional dollar diminishes. "When you are very poor and hungry, for example, each dollar is worth a lot as it helps you buy enough food to eat," Professor McCluskey said. "But once you have more money and can count on regular meals, it's the losses that will affect you more. In terms of happiness and well-being, a $1,000 loss will affect you more than a $1,000 windfall." The same idea applies to information offered in newspapers, the Internet, TV or radio. In their model, the researchers used a measurement called utility to assess the benefits or drawbacks people get from consuming a good or service, in this case, positive and negative news stories. Their findings highlight a strong human tendency to avoid risk. McCluskey said consumers read good news to glean information about benefits from a positive event, which might improve their own income or welfare. Reading about the success of a Fortune 500 company, for example, might help one decide to invest in their stock. Bad news, on the other hand, provides information on how to avoid a negative event or loss to one's well being. Reading bad news helps consumers avoid making bad choices. "Food scares are a good illustration as they are widely covered by the media," Professor McCluskey said. To protect their health, "people choose to avoid the suspected food, such as beef during the Mad Cow scare, or spinach with the E.coli outbreaks." Over time, Professor McCluskey said the model clearly showed individuals gain a greater advantage from reading bad news than good news. These consumers, either consciously or subconsciously, then continue to choose newspapers with more negative reporting. In response, news outlets take advantage of that risk aversion to maximize their profits. Despite its benefits to readers, bad news generates negative consequences of its own, the researchers found. For instance, too much bad news can be depressing to some people. Skewing media toward bad news can also cause heightened fear of risk that differs from the scientific consensus, like concerns about genetic engineering, said Professor McCluskey. And bad news can lead to extended or exaggerated responses to a negative event. "Even after the E. coli scare was over, people still wouldn't buy spinach. There can be a lot of impact on growers and wasted food with these scares," she said. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. Fed says it will hold line on interest By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. central bank signaled Wednesday that the job market will have to improve further and inflation will have to rise a bit before it raises interest rates from record lows. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen told journalists that a rate hike could come later this year, but only if economic data indicated the time was right. After wrapping up a two-day meeting, Fed policymakers said an increase was unlikely at their next meeting in April, but they dropped a pledge to be patient in deciding when to begin raising rates. They also lowered their forecast for economic growth and noted that inflation would most likely remain low. The Fed has kept its key short-term rate nearly at zero since late 2008 to help the economy recover from the financial crisis and recession. A rate increase would push up consumer and business rates. |
