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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 56
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 First year of
Pope Francis
marked with postal issue By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national postal service came out Wednesday with a stamp honoring the first Latin American pope, Francis, on his first year in office. The pontiff, who is from Argentina, is called Francisco in Spanish. The stamp is valued at 300 colons, about 56 U.S. cents. Like many of the commemorative issues by Correos de Costa Rica, the graphic is from an oil painting. The artist is Juan Manuel Delgado Méndez. Printing was by the La Uruca firm Imprenta Gozaka S.A. The stamp is available at the downtown main postal office and also online at the Correos Web site. Woman, 65, found murdered at her Pérez Zeledón home By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators say 65-year-old María Esquivel Ramírez probably was murdered by a robber. The Judicial Investigating Organization said a relative entered the house and found Ms. Ramírez dead at her home in the Peñas Blancas section of Pérez Zeledón Wednesday morning. After authorities were notified about the suspected homicide they arrived at the house and confirmed the death. They noted that the woman's mouth was gagged and her hands and feet were tied. A preliminary review showed that she had been hit by a blunt object on the head and on one eye. For now, authorities said they are only assuming the motive was a robbery. Numerous materials, including the woman's car, were missing from the house that had been left cluttered. The body was taken to the Morgue Judicial for autopsy as investigative work continues to narrow down any potential suspects. International festival set for women in Santa Ana By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
March has long been labelled as Women's History Month. Now for the first time, the poetry-based Festival Internacional Grito de Mujer 2014 will take place in Costa Rica Saturday. Poet Julieta Dobles Izaguirre is scheduled to receive the Premio Magón, which is the country's most-recognized cultural award. Her opening tribute will be followed by a variety of readings, musical recitals, and visual pieces from Costa Rican female artists. A dance group of young women from the Grupo Estable de Danza EMAI will perform for the crowd under the direction of Costa Rican ballerina Andrea Navarro. There will also be a number of poetry readings headed by the community-based “El Círculo de los Poetas Vivos de Santa Ana.” Following a theme slogan of “No more assaults against women,” the works will be dedicated to women all over the world. Grito de Mujer was founded in 2009 in the Dominican Republic by the poet Jael Uribe. Her goal in starting the project was to offer a Spanish voice to the budding conversation about women's roles and the importance of their artistic productions, organizers said. Thirty-seven countries from all over the world will be represented at the festival, they added. The festival is at 7 p.m. in the Auditorio de la Escuela Municipal en Artes Integradas in Santa Ana. Tourism firms from here court Russians at show By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Representatives of six Costa Rican tourism firms are in Moscow to promote the country to the Russians. The travel show, the Moscow International Travel & Tourism 2014, ends Saturday, said the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo. The tourism institute cited immigration figures that showed 4,146 entries by Russians to Costa Rica in 2013. That was a 17 percent increase from the year before. Russians also have considered investments here, including for casinos. Dartmouth musical group plans two performances By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Wind Ensemble of Dartmouth University in the U.S. state of New Hampshire plans two performances with the Banda Sinfónica Juvenil. The first is Friday in the Auditorio Nacional adjacent to the Museo de los Niños in north San José. That performance is at 7 p.m. The next day, Saturday, there is a 4 p.m. performance at the auditorium of the Iglesia Oasis de Esperanza in San Luis, Santo Domingo de Heredia.
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by A.M. Costa Rica.com Ltda. 2014 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 56 | |
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| Costa Ricans are happy today but for historic reason |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Today is a day that should resonate in Costa Rica. Today is the U.N.-sponsored International Day of Happiness. But the country is celebrating another reason instead. Costa Rica styles itself as the happiest country in the world, based on a purported index by a progressive British think tank in 2009. A.M. Costa Rica headlined the news story then this way: "Sadly, the happy planet report is mostly ideology." Even though the sponsor, the New Economic Foundation, backtracked even in its own press release, the idea caught on for marketing purposes. The sponsor said: The nations that top the index aren’t the happiest places in the world, but the nations that score well show that achieving, long, happy lives without over-stretching the planet’s resources is possible." Vietnam ranked fifth. U.S. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon defined the day when he spoke at a General Assembly meeting on "Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm." He said the world “needs a new economic paradigm that recognizes the parity between the three pillars of sustainable development. Social, economic and environmental well-being are indivisible. Together they define gross global happiness.” The meeting was convened at an initiative of Bhutan, a country which recognized the supremacy of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of gross national happiness over gross national product, the U.N. said. A profound shift in attitudes is underway all over the world. People |
 Museo Histórico Casona de Santa Rosa
photo
Casona of Hacienda Santa Rosaare now recognizing that progress should be about increasing human happiness and well being, not just growing the economy, it added. There does not seem to be any official notice of the day planned in Costa Rica. Instead, the public schools are marking the Battle of Santa Rosa, which took place on this date in 1856. This was the first real battle in the so-called Campaña Nacional against the forces of William Walker. In a short encounter, the only major confrontation on Costa Rican soil, the Tico troops routed the Nicaraguan invaders. The large home, the Casona of Hacienda Santa Rosa, figured in the battle and the government rebuilt the historic structure when it burned down in 2002. |
Edgar Ayales, the finance minister, was able to smile as he presented some good news on employment to reporters Wednesday. |
 A.M. Costa Rica.Michael Krumholtz
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| Government debt continues to mushroom, finance minster
reports |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff With revolving charts and statistics behind him, Edgar Ayales Wednesday said that the budget deficit now sits at 5.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product. On his graph, Ayales then showed what the difference would look like in five years if the government does not follow the finance consolidation plan. “It couldn't be anymore clear that there is a fiscal problem,” Ayales said. He is the minister of Hacienda, the central government's top financial expert. He alluded to the government's continued spending trends as worrisome. From January to February, the gap between incomes and expenses increased another 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product, he said. The powerpoint presentation showed that the nation is on track to reach a debt of more than 7 percent soon. Ayales said he thinks government officials have been taking the deficit numbers too lightly. “To me, it's dangerous to say that six percent is manageable,” he said. In January, Ayales said the deficit could effectively be eliminated in five years. Wednesday he predicted the government's best hope by 2019 would be a return to 3 percent, which he said could be a more manageable task. Luís Guillermo Solís is expected to take over at the Casa l |
Presidencia May 8.
He will inherit the mounting debt from his predecessor Laura
Chinchilla. The minister refused to mention specific names since the
election is still technically a contest, but he did say whoever takes
over should follow a few pieces of advice laid out by the Ministerio de
Hacienda. According to his plan, the next government will be transparent and accountable, which are two values that the campaign of Solís pitched frequently. The plan further suggests more cautious spending, and Ayales criticized the many expensive projects made in Chinchilla's tenure. He also stressed better control over the level of spending within the public sector. He repeated the need for a joint agreement between the government, the courts, and the legislature in order to guarantee financial responsibility. His consolidation plan also calls for a fiscally minded administration that will work to gradually balance the budget. The government needs to begin by eliminating the primary deficit (which excludes the cost of interest), he said. A glimpse of good news came as Ayales said the unemployment rate is lower than in years past as it has dropped back to 8.3 percent. The finance minister credited this improvement to more job creation from the commercial and service sectors. The minister was expected to continue in his post if Johnny Araya Monge of the Partido Liberacón Nacional won the presidency. That does not seem likely because Araya has stopped campaigning. Solís of Acción Ciudadana has not announced an economics team. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 56 | |||||
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| Scientist embarks on a project to create full-color
portraits of pollinators |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
While the collapse of honey bee colonies in North America is still an unsolved mystery, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey is trying to preserve the memory of thousands of varieties of pollinating insects, some of which may become extinct. A mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder is devastating honeybee populations all over the world. Conservationists say some of North America's 4,000 bee species could be wiped out. Rutgers University researcher Rachael Winfree said honeybees are not the only pollinators in danger. “What we found is that the native wild insects are doing about a half of the flower visitation,” she said. A scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Sam Droege, said bees are too beautiful to be forgotten if they vanish forever. So, with the help of a lab technician, he is making full-color portraits of them. “When you look at our native species, you are talking metallic colors, metallic greens, blues, blacks with heavy pitting, some are highly armored, some are red,” he said. Droege is photographing not only the domesticated honeybees, but also many of the wild species that pollinate crops. He collects some of the specimens himself, while others are sent to him by government agencies, researchers and institutions across the country. Before their photo session, the bees must be washed and dried. Droege positions them in a special white box that bounces the light, leaving no shadows. The photographs, taken from multiple angles, are merged by a computer program into a single beautiful picture. |
 U.S. Geological Survey, Sam Droege
Bombus griseocollis queen from
South Dakota BadlandsDroege said his work has two components. “One component is simply scientific, so that it illustrates our identification guide, which are very technical and can only be seen by a small number of people. But the other aspect is sort of a vehicle for talking and illustrating all the beauty.” Droege said the detailed photos will help researchers by saving them time and preventing identification errors. Some of the pictures are available at the U.S. Geological Survey Web site. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, March 20, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 56 | |||||
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| Some debris spotted in ocean sends searchers to location By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Australia announced it has located possible debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner in the southern Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament today that two objects were spotted in satellite imagery. He said an Orion surveillance aircraft and three other planes are headed to the location. "I would like to inform the house that new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," said Abbott. Abbott warned against making presumptions about the nature of the objects, saying it will be extremely difficult to locate them. Officials plan to hold a news conference in Canberra later today to discuss the findings. John Young, the general manager of Australia’s maritime authority, said the debris was found 2,500 kilometers southwest of the western city of Perth. Young said the floating objects are relatively indistinct in the satellite images, but that one appeared to be about 24 meters long. He said the water in the area is believed to be several thousands meters deep. The weather is reported to be moderate, but Young said poor visibility could hamper efforts to locate the debris. Malaysia Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a statement that he spoke with Abbott and other Australian officials about the development, but stressed that nothing has been confirmed. There have been several false leads in the search since the plane disappeared March 8 without a trace with 239 people on board. No other information on the location of the objects was immediately available. Australia has been helping coordinate the southern section of the search for the Boeing 777. At least 26 nations have been hunting for the plane across a search area covering more than seven million square kilometers. Investigators believe someone with advanced knowledge of aircraft deliberately diverted the plane either south toward the Indian Ocean or north toward Central Asia. They have refused to rule out any possibility, including terrorism, pilot suicide, or a mechanical malfunction. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the search is a top priority for the United States. He told a U.S. television station that he has put every available resource into the effort. American and Malaysia investigators have been trying to analyze data from a flight simulator belonging to one of the plane's pilots. Malaysian officials say some of the data has been deleted and is now in the process of being reconstructed. Pilots and others advance theories on social networks By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Plenty of theories surround what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Not only are analysts and the flying public mesmerized by the plane's mysterious disappearance, pilots themselves are examining the facts and trying to figure out what happened. On Facebook, users are posting photos of airplane controls, panels, manuals, and radars. Pilot forums are buzzing as they share information about the plane’s disappearance. One U.S. forum has nearly 150,000 hits and 64 pages of comments. Bud Musser is a retired airline captain who flew the same model Boeing 777 that is missing. He says the pilot community is shocked that a 777 is involved. "It is so sophisticated. It's so automated that you can make it do whatever you want if you learn how to fly that airplane," Musser said. "It's the first airplane that the engineers listened to the pilots on how to design the cockpit. It's user-friendly." But not so user-friendly that someone without prior aviation knowledge could reprogram its route. A week after the plane went missing March 8, Malaysian authorities put the two Malaysian pilots under more scrutiny and searched their homes. The U.S. pilot community is sensitive about putting pilots' reputations at stake. They say pilots know many lives are entrusted to them. Vic Hooper has more than 4,000 hours as a Boeing 777 captain in Asia. He says pilots work without immediate oversight, thousands of kilometers from their supervisors. "They make decisions autonomously based on the situation around them, and they are responsible for their outcomes," said Hooper. The pilot groups offer plenty of scenarios. Musser says curiosity drives the chatter. “It’s a disappeared airplane," he said. "It’s kinda like out of the 1950s, or 60s TV show 'The Twilight Zone.' You just don’t know what happened and you can’t explain it.” The old U.S. television show always ended with a bizarre, unexpected twist. Resistant tuberculosis seen as worldwide health hazard By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The medical aid group Doctors without Borders warns that drug-resistant tuberculosis has become a global threat. It says despite the growing number of cases, there are no effective treatments. Doctors Without Borders has released a crisis alert called "The New Face of an Old Disease." The group, also known by the French acronym MSF, says urgent action is needed to solve the problem. Dr. Phillip Du Cros, a TB advisor for the group, said, “In MSF’s experience, we are seeing MDR-TB – or multi-drug resistant TB – in more and more countries and in more numbers in our programs.” There are about 500,000 new cases of MDR-TB every year. Du Cros said that it’s hard enough dealing with MDR-TB, let alone an even stronger strain of the bacteria that causes XDR-TB or extensively drug resistant tuberculosis. He tells the story of an infected child in Central Asia. “After a year of treatment, she was failing treatment with all the drugs that we have. So this poor child had gone through treatment where she had suffered from nausea almost every day and she was going deaf from one of the drugs. She was having to take over seven different drugs every day, all with different side effects. And despite trying to take all of this treatment she was failing treatment and showing the limits of the treatment that we have available currently,” he said. Standard TB drugs do not work against the new forms of the disease. Treatment for MDR-TB could last two years, during which time a patient may swallow 10,000 pills and have daily injections for eight months. And after all that, it may not work. Du Cros said, “I think the main reason this has got to be a big problem is that although we’ve made some progress tackling TB, in recent years the global community has turned away from investing in improving on what we can do with TB. We’ve been satisfied with old answers. The reality is that we don’t currently have the answers that will solve the problem of TB. We don’t have actually effective treatments in new regimens that will actually tackle the large epidemic of multi-drug-resistant TB. Bacteria can build resistance when TB patients fail to complete their drug regimen and when countries do not strictly control the use of medications. “It’s a global problem, which the global community needs to take responsibility for. Not just international organizations like our own or the World Health Organization, but I think also governments and pharmaceutical companies and academics. There are maybe lots of good individual initiatives, but I think as a global community we really need to come together urgently and look at how we can have faster solutions that are going to deliver a real change at ground level for this epidemic,” he said. The solution, he said, is a much shorter, more effective treatment. Currently, there are only about five to eight drugs used to treat resistant TB depending on the regimen needed. The two latest drugs available are actually the first new TB medications developed in 40 years. “Although that’s cause for optimism,” he said, “we still don’t know how to use those drugs in new regimens. And so we’re limited by adding them to a regimen that is already highly toxic and difficult for patients to take.” Du Cros added if a global investment is not made to address the epidemic there will be a price to pay. “As an example, in the United States in the early 90s, there was an outbreak of multi-drug resistant TB. And as a result of a few hundred cases the public health program invested nearly one billion dollars. That number of patients is not even a third of what we see in one of our programs in one country. If we don’t start to step-in early to deal with the problem now, you can multiply that figure by a huge number that you can pluck out of the air.” The Doctors without Borders alert said, “With only one in five people in need receiving treatment, the fatal, airborne disease is left to spread indiscriminately.” Democrats worried at ratings of president as elections loom By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama’s public approval ratings have hit new lows in recent weeks, sparking fears among Democrats about their chances in the November midterm congressional elections. Historically speaking, two-term presidents experience losses in midterm congressional elections. It’s usually not a question of if, but how many? This year the stakes are especially high because Republicans believe they have an excellent chance of wresting control of the Senate from Democrats, which would have enormous political implications for the final two years of the Obama presidency. It’s still too early to know what impact the crisis in Ukraine is having on Obama’s ratings. His recent drop in the polls seems tied to concerns about the economy and lingering problems with his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. Republicans haven’t been shy about hammering the president on his handling of Ukraine, feeding a narrative they have been pushing for some time now about what they see as the general weakness of the Obama foreign policy approach and a negative impact on the image of the U.S. abroad. The recent results of a special congressional election in Florida excited Republicans and sparked new worries among Democrats about what may transpire in November. Republican David Jolly won a narrow victory over Democrat Alex Sink and his victory confirmed for some the Republican strategy of focusing in on the unpopularity of the health care law. Democrats were hoping their strategy of focusing on fixes to the controversial law would be enough to neutralize it in competitive races this year, but the Florida race seems to suggest that may not be enough. Democrats are also worried about the president’s stubbornly weak approval ratings, hovering in most surveys in the low 40-percent area. That is usually an indicator of trouble for the president’s party in competitive midterm races and it also means the White House will be limiting Obama’s campaign appearances in states and congressional districts where Republicans are strong. In short, if Democrats are to keep their majority in the Senate they will probably want to keep the president out of those Red-leaning Republican states where Democratic candidates will be looking to put some distance between themselves and the president. Carroll Doherty is director of political research at the Pew Research Center in Washington. “He is at best in the low 40 percent range for job approval, not a good sign for an incumbent president in the sixth year who wants to gain seats in Congress.” Congressional Democrats have taken note of the president’s weakening approval ratings and are already calibrating what it may mean for their re-election hopes in November, says analyst John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It is the area where presidents worry and they worry about midterm elections and that their popularity will affect the party and ultimately hurt his majority in the Congress.” Another lesson from the recent Florida race is who turned out to vote. Democrats did not get their supporters out to the polls as they had hoped while Republicans were able to do a better job of firing up their base, in large part because of opposition to Obamacare. Most experts already see a Republican advantage in this year’s midterm elections because the voter turnout in non-presidential election years tends to skew toward older white voters, a strong constituency for the Republicans. The younger, more female and more ethnically diverse electorate that helped to elect Barack Obama twice in 2008 and 2012 is not likely to show up in similar strength this year, and that has Democrats scrambling to find ways to motivate their core supporters. Carroll Doherty with Pew says Democrats have a chance to be competitive in November if they can find a way to somehow cut into the Republican advantage on turnout, according to the latest research he’s seen. “What it is showing is that there is no wave election for the Republicans or the Democrats at this point. It looks pretty even, which means that the turnout is going to be a big factor and Republicans in midterms do pretty well in turnout.” Most experts now say the Democrats have a tough slog to try to retake the House. They would need a pickup of 17 seats in the 435-seat House and that is not looking very likely. The real battle remains the Senate where a gain of six Republican seats would give them a narrow majority in the Senate. Republican control of both the House and the Senate in the final two years of the Obama presidency would likely be a recipe for even tighter gridlock. Fortier says even if Republicans only come close to winning control of the Senate, the die may be cast for the remainder of the Obama presidency. “I think either way we are facing divided government for the rest of President Obama’s term and that means either a lot of conflict or an occasional issue where they can find some sort of compromise.” One issue for hoped-for compromise is immigration reform, something even some Republicans could help them expand their base of support beyond older white voters. But so far it’s unclear if Republicans are willing to take a chance on an issue that could alienate their conservative supporters during an election year. Nose spray vaccine uses nanotechnological technique By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scientists have developed a revolutionary vaccine that does not require refrigeration or booster shots, making the so-called nanovaccine a potential game-changer in curbing disease in the developing world. Experts believe the drug, which is delivered in a nose spray, could extend immunization to millions of people who are not now vaccinated against dangerous, infectious diseases. Scientists say the vaccine is the first to use nanoparticles, a relatively new technology in medicine that embeds proteins from disease-causing organisms into tiny, polymer spheres five hundred times smaller than the width of a human hair. Balaji Narasimhan, a chemical engineer at Iowa State University, led a team of researchers that developed the nasal spray. Like other vaccines, the protein-containing nanoparticles contained in the spray prime the body’s immune system to recognize and mount a protective response against dangerous diseases without actually causing illness. Narasimhan says a huge advantage of the nanovaccine is that it does not require refrigeration, which is challenging in remote parts of the world and drives up the cost of traditional vaccines. “The price of the vaccine would go down," he said. "But the logistics of employing these vaccines into various parts of the world would also be tremendously impacted by a room temperature storage vaccine that would not need refrigeration.” Narasimhan says nanovaccines developed in the lab remained effective for up to six months without refrigeration. A nanovaccine can be designed to target any disease, according to Narasimhan, by sealing proteins from the pathogens inside the spheres. Researchers have so far developed experimental vaccine sprays against influenza and pneumonia, as well as a number of bioterrorism agents, including plague and anthrax. Narasimhan says designer nanovaccines could potentially be used to contain emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, new influenza strains and drug-resistant tuberculosis. They can even be formulated to include antibiotics and antimicrobials to help treat disease. A person only needs to be immunized once with a nanovaccine. Narasimhan says boosters are not needed to resensitize the immune system against a disease because of the way the nanoparticles work. “When they come into contact with the body, the body fluids, water mainly, degrades the particles," he said. "And as the particles degrade, they release that protein slowly. So that slow release of the protein is what essentially gives the body the type of memory that it acquires to remember the infection and obviates the need for a booster shot.” Narasimhan envisions someday having nanovaccines against any number of tropical diseases, including cholera, diphtheria and dengue fever, once researchers identify target proteins. Balaji Narasimhan unveiled his nanovaccine at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas, Texas.  University of California, Berkley, Bancroft
Library photo
This is the letter that was
translated.Ancient Eqyptian
soldier
expressed typical concerns By
the Rice University news staff
A newly deciphered 1,800-year-old letter from an Egyptian solider serving in a Roman legion in Europe to his family back home shows striking similarities to what some soldiers may be feeling here and now. Rice religious studies graduate student Grant Adamson took up the task in 2011 when he was assigned the papyrus to work on during a summer institute hosted at Brigham Young University. The private letter sent home by Roman military recruit Aurelius Polion was originally discovered in 1899 by the expedition team of Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt in the ancient Egyptian city of Tebtunis. It had been catalogued and described briefly before, but to this point no one had deciphered and published the letter, which was written mostly in Greek. “This letter was just one of many documents that Grenfell and Hunt unearthed,” Adamson said. “And because it was in such bad shape, no one had worked much on it for about 100 years.” Even now portions of the letter’s contents are uncertain or missing and not possible to reconstruct. Polion’s letter to his brother, sister and his mother, called the bread seller, reads like one of a man who is very desperate to reach his family after sending six letters that have gone unanswered. He wrote in part: “I pray that you are in good health night and day, and I always make obeisance before all the gods on your behalf. I do not cease writing to you, but you do not have me in mind. But I do my part writing to you always and do not cease bearing you (in mind) and having you in my heart. But you never wrote to me concerning your health, how you are doing. I am worried about you because although you received letters from me often, you never wrote back to me so that I may know how you. Adamson believes that Polion was stationed in the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior at Aquincum, modern day Budapest, but he said that the legion to which Polion belonged is known to have been mobile and may have traveled as far as Byzantium, modern day Istanbul. “Polion was literate, and literacy was rarer then that it is now, but his handwriting, spelling and Greek grammar are erratic,” Adamson said, which made English translation of the damaged letter even more difficult. “He likely would have been multilingual, communicating in Egyptian or Greek at home in Egypt before he enlisted in the army and then communicating in Latin with the army in Pannonia.” Adamson believes Polion wrote home in Greek because writing home in Egyptian was not really an option at the time, and because his family in Egypt most likely did not know much Latin. To establish an approximate date for the letter, Adamson depended on handwriting styles and a few other more specific hints. “Dating ancient papyri is generally hard to do very specifically unless there happens to be a date or known event mentioned in the text,” Adamson said. “But you can make a preliminary decision based on the handwriting.” Another hint is the soldier’s Roman name Aurelius. He could have acquired it as part of a widespread granting of Roman citizenship in the year 212. And another hint is Polion’s reference to a consular commander, which suggests a date after 214 when the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior came under consular governance. Because of the letter’s personal nature and common theme of familial concern, Adamson’s publication of it in the latest volume of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists has been receiving national and international media attention. “One thing that I think is important about this letter is that it reflects the emotions of a soldier in the ancient world,” said April DeConick, chairwoman of Rice’s Religious Studies Department and Adamson’s faculty adviser. “His emotions are really no different than those of soldiers today, who are longing to go home.” The papyrus is housed at the University of California, Berkley’s Bancroft Library. |
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Use of spices can
cut intake of salt, researchers report By
the American Heart Association news service
Teaching people how to flavor food with spices and herbs is considerably more effective at lowering salt intake than having them do it on their own, according to research presented on Wednesday. In the first phase of the study, 55 volunteers ate a low-sodium diet for four weeks. Researchers provided all foods and calorie-containing drinks. Salt is the main source of sodium in food. In the second phase, half of the study volunteers participated in a 20-week behavioral intervention aimed at reducing their sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams a day by using spices and herbs. The other half reduced sodium on their own. More than 60 percent of the participants in the study had high blood pressure, 18 percent had diabetes and they were overweight. The researchers found that in the first phase, sodium intake decreased from an average 3,450 milligrams a day to an average 1,656 milligrams. In the second phase, sodium intake increased in both groups. But those who received the behavioral intervention consumed an average 966 milligrams a day of sodium less than the group that didn’t receive the intervention. “People in the intervention group learned problem-solving strategies, use of herbs and spices in recipes, how culture influences spice choices, how to monitor diet, overcoming the barriers to making dietary changes, how to choose and order foods when eating out and how to make low-sodium intake permanent,” said Cheryl A. M. Anderson, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California San Diego. Those assigned to the behavioral intervention group had cooking demonstrations and had a chance to share how they were changing traditional recipes to remove salt and include spices. The researchers didn’t emphasize specific spices, and encouraged participants to try different things to find out what they liked most. “Salt is abundant in the food supply, and the average sodium level for Americans is very high — much higher than what is recommended for healthy living,” Professor Anderson said. “We studied the use of a behavioral intervention where people learn how to use spices and herbs and less salt in their daily lives.” Given the challenges of lowering salt in the American diet, we need a public health approach aimed at making it possible for consumers to cut intake, said the professor. |
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| From Page 7: Tourism chamber opposes alcohol restrictions By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The national tourism chamber urged the nations 81 municipalities to allow the sale of alcohol for Semana Santa and also around the day of the national elections April 6. A recent change in the law gave municipalities the power to make this decision. The Cámara Nacional de Turismo said in a letter to the various municipal councils that prohibiting the sale of alcohol is something that has a negative impact on tourism. The chamber said that only 6 percent of the municipalities has said what they will do. The Municipalities of Tibás, Mora, El Guarco and San Rafael de Heredia have said they will not restrict the sale of alcohol but the central canton of San José will, the chamber said. Typically the restrictions, if there are any, will apply to Holy Thursday and Good Friday during Semana Santa and the day before and the day after the national elections. The chamber also urged municipalities to make a decision quickly so tourism operators, bar owners and restaurant operators will know. In the past, the decision was made at the national level. |
