A.M. Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
|
A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |||||||||
San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
|
run by Casa Presidencial By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Hackers successfully entered the Casa Presidencial Web site Sunday and put up a caricature in place of official content, the Presidencia reported Monday. The cyberattack took place around 10 p.m. after technicians put up the weekly Cadena Nacional television spot. The Presidencia said that government Web sites receive multiple attacks each day, but they usually are rejected by the security devices in place. Officials attributed the Sunday attack to a group called LatinHack, which has hundreds of members and has perpetrated at least 13,000 attacks of government sites in Spain, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Chile and the Dominican Republic, said officials. The presidential Web site has mirror sites containing the same material, so technicians were able to restore the primary site quickly, officials said. Much of the information of the Presidencia is stored in other servers and never were vulnerable to intruders, said the Presidencia. Our
reader's opinion
Retrain and
fine legionsof misbehaving motorcyclists Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I read your article Monday about the number of deaths and injuries caused by and to riders on motorcycles. It suggests that there be higher insurance premiums for people who ride motorcycles. Well, I think we all know that isn't really the answer. As long as the riders are still weaving in and out of traffic, turning where they want and doing all the other dangerous things we see them doing, there isn't going to be any change. Higher insurance premiums mean a lot of riders out there probably will have to walk or take the bus instead of using their motorcycle. Wouldn't it be more prudent to "retrain" motorcyclists or start fining them for doing the stupid things they do on the road? Maybe if they learned to be better drivers and followed the (oft-ignored) rules of the road, there wouldn't be so many accidents. Nel Cameron
Escazú
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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 |
|
San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo Stuart |
Reynaldo Quiros is at work. In front of him are the cheaper sombreros pintados, at 35,000 colons, about $70. Behind him are the more expensive ones. |
A.M. Costa Rica/Shahrazad Encinias Vela
|
Art fair vendors rebound after a weekend
they call crazy |
|
By
Shahrazad Encinias Vela
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff The Feria Internacional de las Artes is in full swing this week. The festival has trickled into San José since the beginning of the month with art exhibits at various galleries. Since Friday the event has become a 10-day extravaganza with vendors, activities, and musical performances. Parque La Sabana was divided into stations where different activities, vendors, performances, and lectures have been set up. Each vendor is assigned a location based on the product and theme of the business. Monday was a day for vendors to catch their breath and relax from the inaugural weekend. According to many artisans, the weekend was crazy. They said there wasn't room for everyone. Some even said they had run out of certain products. They took the day to make and replace what was sold. One of the artisans to use his down time productively was a man who makes accessories with leather. Federico DiCapua, is the owner of the business that carries his family name DiCapua. He sat on a folding plastic chair. He took another empty chair and used it as a table to make a purse. He leaned forward and grabbed a special tool used to shave leather in order to thin out the edges he had cut. The tool looked like a rough version of a metal razor. DiCapua has turned his family trade into a small business. He said the business is new but that his dad used to work with leather, and now he does. He said his father teased him that he began sewing leather at 3 years old. DiCapua laughed at his anecdote and continued to shave the leather. But not all vendors come from a family line of artisans. Ofelia Reategui, 61, discovered her artisan skill during her late 50s. At a time when most people who have worked go into retirement, she uncovered a secret talent. She has the ability, creativity, and the eye to make women's accessories such as purses, wallets and belts. From this she created a small business, Manos Latinas. Ms. Reategui uses all recycled material, she said. She is one of many Costa Rican designers who are part of an ecological |
A.M. Costa Rica/Shahrazad Encinias Vela
Federico DiCapua shaves leather
while Ofelia Reategui relaxes amid her products.fashion trend. The main materials she used are newspaper, leather, and a canvas banner. She said her idea came from the concept of recycling. From there, she said, she started to experiment with designs and then somehow she got creative. Other vendors stick to what is known, popular and organic. Reynaldo Quiros has been a Panama hatmaker for more than 30 years. He specializes in a custom hat that is famous, the sombrero pintado. Although his hats look very similar, he said he has more than 20 different styles on display. The styles vary on the design, color, and the amount of sewn laps or seams on the hat. The quality of the hat depends on the amount of laps. Any hat with more than 10 laps is considered to be quality, he said. Each one varies in price, from $70 to $250. The hat is made of bellota (Cardulovica palmata), fiber from palm. The Feria Internacional de las Artes will end on Sunday. The music, food, games, exhibits, performances, and vendors will continue to run during the week. |
|
You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
A.M. Costa Rica's
Fourth News page |
|
||||
San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
Humane Society condemns plans for Costa
Rican bull run |
|
Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
Humane Society International has come out against the proposed bull fiesta event Pamplona y Más scheduled to take place next month in Costa Rica. This kind of copycat spectacle, intended to emulate the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona, Spain, serves only to torment bulls, the organization said. The proposed festival Pamplona y Más, sponsored by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Costa Rica, centers around the release of several bulls to run through enclosed spaces. Humane Society International urged the Costa Rican government to take a strong stance against allowing the import of what it called a cruel event. Costa Rica already bans cockfighting and dog fights. “The tormenting of animals for amusement can never be acceptable,” said Cynthia Dent, director of Humane Society International-Latin America. “We encourage the Costa Rican authorities to refuse authorization for this event, and we |
strongly urge the Spanish government
and representatives to start
listening to the call of compassionate activists from around the world
and stop their efforts to perpetuate these events, both in Spain and
abroad.” The encierro or bull run of San Fermín is a yearly activity that takes place in July, during which hundreds of people run in front of bulls through a half mile stretch of narrow streets. This event not only causes great distress and fear to the bulls, but it usually results in hundreds of people being injured and sometimes even the death of some unlucky bystander, the organization noted. While bullfighting and related bull fiestas are still held in countries such as Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Perú and Ecuador, worldwide audiences have increasingly expressed their opposition to bullfighting and bull fiestas in general in recent years, the organization said. Humane Society International condemns both bullfighting and all other bull fiesta events, which cause unconscionable stress and panic to bulls, it said in a release. |
Another study concludes that sea-level
rise is inevitable |
|
By
the Rutgers University news staff
Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with sea levels 12 to 22 meters (40 to 70 feet) higher than at present, according to research published in the journal Geology. The researchers, led by Kenneth G. Miller, professor of earth and planetary sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, reached their conclusion by studying rock and soil cores in Virginia, Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific and New Zealand. They looked at the late Pliocene epoch, 2.7 million to 3.2 million years ago, the last time the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was at its current level, and atmospheric temperatures were 2 degrees C higher than they are now. “The difference in water volume released is the equivalent of melting the entire Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets, as well as some of the marine margin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said H. Richard Lane, program director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the work. “Such a rise of the modern oceans would swamp the world’s coasts and affect as much as 70 percent of the world’s population.” |
“You don’t need to sell your beach
real estate yet, because melting of
these large ice sheets will take from centuries to a few thousand
years,” Miller said. “The current trajectory for the 21st century
global rise of sea level is 2 to 3 feet (0.8 to 1 meter) due to warming
of the oceans, partial melting of mountain glaciers, and partial
melting of Greenland and Antarctica.” Sea levels won't get as high as depicted in this fanciful image for a long time. But a substantial rise is inevitable, Rutgers scientists say. Miller said that this research highlights the sensitivity of the earth’s great ice sheets to temperature change, suggesting that even a modest rise in temperature results in a large sea-level rise. “The natural state of the earth with present carbon dioxide levels is one with sea levels about 20 meters higher than at present,” he said. A news story last week contained lesser estimates of sea level rise. A Columbia University team, whose work was published in the journal Nature, estimates the seas rose 20 to 43 feet higher than today during a warm period between ice ages 440,000 years ago. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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 |
|||||||||
San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
British
pubs are facing a rocky time and future By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The British pub is famous worldwide, part of the social fabric of the land and a draw for tourists visiting the country. But hundreds of pubs across Britain are closing down every year. A roaring fire, a pint of beer, a cozy corner and good company; the British pub is famous worldwide as a place to escape the outside world. Names like the Rose and Crown, the Red Lion or the Three Horseshoes are an embedded part of culture. But this institution of British life is suffering. John Cryne is from the Campaign for Real Ale, which is leading the charge to save the British pub. "Sixteen a week in the UK are closing, often forever," said Cryne. "And it’s community local pubs, those that support their neighborhood, that are often the most under threat." Up and down the land, the boarded-up shells of former pubs are becoming a common sight. The Campaign for Real Ale says the problems stem from too much tax and the complex relationships between pub owners and managers, known as the tied pub system. "Pubs that are owned by large pub-owning companies are faced with a bit of a double-whammy" added Cryne. "In the first instance, they have to pay a rent for their premises, and we feel that in many cases the rent is a bit overstated. Then they’re caught out twice as they can only buy their beer through the pub company." The British Brewing and Pub Association represents the companies that own pubs. Its chief executive, Brigid Simmonds, rebuts the accusation that owners charge too much and says it all comes down to tax. “Brewers are only making a penny a pint," said Ms. Simmonds. "For pubs, because they are small businesses, they have to pass on that increase in tax to the customer, and they’re really struggling in this economic climate as people are struggling throughout the world. But there are some great pubs out there. Pubs are the third reason why the majority of people want to visit the UK.” Pubs and breweries do agree on one thing, lower taxes on liquor sold in stores means more people choose to drink at home. Plenty of pubs are bucking the trend. The Pineapple in north London dates from the 19th century. Its carved wooden interior enjoys protected heritage status. The owner wanted to sell it to be developed into apartments, a common fate for closing pubs. A vociferous campaign by local residents saved it, and Simon Rennie took over the management. "I think it was Prince Charles that actually said, 'The pub is the hub.' And it really is. The pub is the hub of the community," said Rennie. Supernatural and romance boost young adult books By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A movie version of Suzanne Collins' popular series of novels, "The Hunger Games," opens in U.S. theaters this month. It is expected to provide an even bigger boost to what has become one of the most lucrative segments of the publishing market: Young adult fiction. While book sales overall have dropped by 5 percent, sales of these novels, many of which feature romance with a supernatural twist, have gone up more than 80 percent. In the Houston suburb of Tomball, these women get together frequently to socialize and chat about the books they are reading. Cathy Clark says many of those books targeted at teens also attract adult readers like her. "You have those really strong authors in Young Adult and no matter what your age, they appeal and paranormal is something different," she said. Some 70 kilometers away, in west Houston, fans of young adult supernatural romance novels recently packed the Blue Willow bookstore to meet four authors on a tour sponsored by their publisher, Harper Collins. Cynthia Hand, author of two books about Clara, a teenage girl with special powers, says she has found a bond with her fans. "I love the idea that we are sharing the same story, that we know the same people," she said. Courtney Allison Moulton's books are full of sword fights and other action that she says resonates with a lot of male readers. "I had a buddy who spent a couple of years in Afghanistan and he brought my book over there with him and he shared with the other, you know, these really tough Army guys reading my book and they are excited about the action," she said. The supernatural quality of that action attracts 25-year-old Exal Iraheta. "It takes you out of the normality that is your life, your routine life, and who doesn't want to feel special," she asks. |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
A.M.
Costa
Rica's sixth news page |
|
|||||||||
San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 57 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
Latin America news |
of digital TV transmitter By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Laura Chinchilla Monday welcomed the change to digital transmission by Canal 13 of the Sistema Nacional de Radio y Television and announced that the government was the first to use the Japanese-Brazilian digital format. Viewers quickly asked the television channel via its Web site what would happen to television sets that now use the Advanced Television Systems Committee standards or ATSC. The Japanese-Brazilian system is called ISDB.Tb. Ms. Chinchilla negotiated a grant from the Japanese to obtain the equipment for the transmissions. A committee has been set up to study the various digital systems and pick one for the country. Resident Oscar Arias Sánchez issued a decree in 2010 adopting the Japanese-Brazilian system. Canal 13 made a broadcast from Casa Presidencial, and called it the first in Costa Rica. However, foreign digital programming has been here for years. Amnet, for example, offers at least 240 different digital channels. Amnet requires persons with older television sets to obtain a convert box to change the digital signal into analog data. However, the president's message and Canal 13 made no mention of the compatibility situation. Other television stations are broadcasting digitally now, but just to the Internet. Teletica and Repretel both have feeds that send selected programming to computers. So does the new Canal 9. White House criticizes Cuba's actions on dissent By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House says the detention of protestors in Cuba ahead of a papal visit underscores Havana's disdain for the universal rights of its people. In a statement Monday, the White House called for Cuban authorities to abandon their tactics of intimidation and harassment to stifle peaceful dissent. Cuban authorities detained more than 50 members of the Ladies in White protest group late Saturday and Sunday, including many who intended to participate in the group's weekly protest march Sunday through Havana. An activist with the Ladies in White said more than 30 of the women were detained Sunday as they prepared to attend Mass at a Roman Catholic Church. Others were arrested late Saturday. They have all since been released. Pope Benedict, who is visiting the island next week, is expected to encourage the government to grant increased rights to political activists. The Ladies in White are relatives of some of 75 dissidents arrested in a 2003 government crackdown in Cuba. Those dissidents have all since been released. |
Latin
Americn news feeds are disabled on archived pages.
|
|
Costa Rican News |
AMCostaRicaArchives.com |
Retire NOW in Costa Rica |
CostaRicaReport.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food |
|
Jo
Stuart |
What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |