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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 58
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Our readers' opinions
Other concerns are more importantDear A.M. Costa Rica: Thank you for your balanced report of the upcoming publicity on genetically modified crops in Costa Rica. Sincere people can be wrong. Many are wrong about the risks of vaccination, and many others are completely wrong about the potential impact of modified crops. The key to these types of media campaigns is the fear on which they are based. The formula includes "THEY are hiding the facts from us" and ends with "If we don't stop this, the world will be destroyed." THEY are always some sort of conspiracy, most often government and industry. We need not be naive — government and industry have been in collusion for as long as either has existed, but the answer to their abusive excess of power is to be armed with facts and to use them wisely. Of course Monsanto and other corporations operate in the interests of their vested power base not the shareholders, but the select few who control their corporate policy. Of course government acts in the interests of those who fund it not the taxpayers, but the political action committees and lobbyists that directly feed money from industry to the politicians. But the question here is not the existence of these forces, but whether they are inappropriately applied in the case of crop modification. Your closing paragraph bears repeating: "At University of California-Davis, renowned genetics researcher Pamela Ronald says 'After 20 years of careful study and rigorous peer review by thousands of independent scientists, every major scientific organization in the world has concluded that the process of genetic engineering is as safe or safer as older methods of genetic modification.”' The energy spent on this issue should be directed toward other concerns that will produce results beneficial to humankind, like stopping the militarization of Costa Rica. The United States is pouring millions into our country under the guise of protecting us against terrorism and drugs. One of their generals even recently announced that ISIS is moving terrorists into Latin America. Facts, folks. Where are the facts! John French
Heredia Mixing politics with science is unhelpful Dear A.M. Costa Rica: In these times of extreme political polarization, especially in the U.S., a subject like the safety of GMO, which should be relatively simple science, gets dragged into the cesspool of politics. Druker's stance — although I haven´t read his book and am responding to A.M.´s rather convoluted conclusion that because Druker´s and Goodall´s crowd have "probably never hoed corn rows," that Monsanto and the U.S. government who works for them, should be allowed to freely disseminate glyphosate, and other toxic compounds into the environment — seems more of a political manifesto, rather than a scientifically based publication. Their misguided approach of mixing politics with discredited research, is unhelpful to their cause. While AMCR may be correct in arguing that GMO as a process is scientifically safe, they are mute in addressing the real threat, which is the way corporate oligarchs have come to control governments. They (AMCR) are good at pointing the finger at those pointing the finger, yet seem to be in favor of business as usual as the oligarchies continue unchallenged at writing free trade agreements which tear away at constitutional guaranteed sovereignty rights and give the oligarchs monopolies on various levels of commercial farming, while wielding unbridled, and therefore unacceptable power over human, and environmental health and safety. Hari Singh Khalsa
Cóbano The risks are too high to go ahead Dear A.M. Costa Rica: The process of creating genetically modified organisms has been declared safe, and it seems to be quite safe. The problem is the materials used and the results. Some genes useful to achieve a desired result (such as resistance to a pesticide) are not beneficial for people or animals -- in fact some have been shown to be harmful. In addition, modifying a corn or soybean plant's genetics to instill resistance to Roundup, a weed herbicide, ensures that the food derived from that plant is exposed, probably heavily so, to the chemical. Your Monday, March 23, edition carried stories and letters and editorials about the controversy surrounding the GMO technology and products, You also reported on a study that reveals that Roundup contains an active ingredient that is reported to cause cancer. Thus, the GMO foods made Roundup-ready stand a good chance of also being possible causes of cancer. Is this a risk we should be forcing on our citizens just so that farmers can be more extravagant in their use of pesticides? Is it also fair to farmers who would prefer to raise GMO-free crops organically to have their neighbors raising GMO corn or soybeans or rice which will not only spread their GMO pollen across boundaries but will be sprayed with pesticides that are forbidden to organic farmers yet will probably be carried by the wind to reach their crops? I believe the answers are not all in yet, and the risks are too high to go ahead and spread GMO around the world before getting all the answers. Bob Oldham
Turrialba Embracing cultural differences urged Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I am a one and a half year visitor here in Costa Rica, awaiting my residency as a pensionado, which I filed within 24 hours of arrival. The reasons that I came here are still strong in my mind and heart. Amazing weather, incredible biodiversity, reasonable cost of living, different cultural experiences. Having worked with, and in Mexico for about 16 years, I understand differences in national characteristics. It seems, from some recent posts in your publication, that many either forget, or refuse to accept the fact that they are guests in a foreign land. There is no benefit in renouncing non-American characteristics here in Costa Rica. There is every benefit in embracing the cultural differences here. We “foreigners” need to accept and understand that this country has existed with its own style for centuries. There is no reason to try to change things here, and every reason to accept things as they are. Without digressing into detail, I suggest that those who are unhappy here do indeed find somewhere else to live. Bob Brashears
Rohmoser Robbery suspect
had a familiar face
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
When Fuerza Pública officers pulled over a car with three suspects after pedestrians had been robbed at gunpoint in Alajuelita, they saw a familiar face. One of the suspects had been convicted of aggravated robbery. But a judicial panel gave him conditional release instead of putting him in prison. Police found a BB pistol and cell telephones. Semana
Santa information
Banco Nacional gives Semana Santa hours By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Banco Nacional said that it would close Holy Thursday, April 2, and reopen Monday, April 6. The reason is the Semana Santa holidays. In addition, the bank said that it would not provide evening services on Wednesday, April 1. The bank will close at 3:45 p.m. that day. There may be some variations at individual bank offices outside the metro area. For example, the office at the Depósito Libre de Golfito will be open Saturday, April 4, and Easter Sunday, April 5. The closing in the evening of April 2 might be a hardship to workers who are paid by check. But the automatic tellers will be in service all days. Good Shepherd Episcopal Church lists services By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Good Shepherd Episcopal (Anglican) Church has announced Holy Week services. All services are bilingual, an announcement said. The special services begin Palm Sunday, March 29, at 9 a.m. The Holy Wednesday services April 1 also is at 9 a.m. The service Holy Thursday, April 2, is at 6 p.m. The Good Friday service April 3 is from noon to 3 p.m., and the Great Vigil of Easter is Saturday, April 4, at 6 p.m. The Easter Sunday service April 5 is at 9 a.m. The church is on Avenida 4 at Calle 5 next to McDonald's.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 58 | |
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| For most of the country the rainy season will be drier this
year |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The rainy season is approaching, but this year all but northern Limón province is expected to have less rain than normal. The reason is the influence of El Niño in the Pacific. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional said that it expected the southern Pacific to begin the seasonal transition soon with the rains expected between April 1 and 5. The central Pacific will undergo a change in the last week in April while the Central Valley will be in the grips of the rainy season around May 6 to 10, the institute said. The northern Pacific is the first region to enter the dry season and the last to see the rain again. This year that will be about the middle of May, said the institute. Guanacaste again is expected to endure another drought with about 29 percent less rain than normal. That area and some of the rest of the country is under an emergency alert. Deficiencies in other areas of the country except northern Limón province are expected to range from 3 to 8 percent, said the institute. Limón is expected to have about 21 percent more rain this year than normal. |
 Instituto
Meteorológico Nacional graphic
Map shows the expected
deficiencies in rain by percentage and millimeters. |
| Heredia Centro invokes the dry law for two days in Semana
Santa |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Heredia municipal government says that the dry law will be in effect within that canton for Semana Santa. The dry law is now controlled by the cantons and not by a nationwide law. In Heredia this means alcohol will not be sold either in |
package
stores, bars or restaurants Thursday and Friday, April 2 and 3. The canton is one of the few to announce its decision. Others are expected to follow. The dry law is opposed by tourism interest, restaurant operators and hotel owners. These sectors reported big losses when the law was nationwide until three years ago. |
| Holiday food survey turns up the expected vast differences
in prices |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An economics ministry survey for consumers once again has found vast differences in food prices. The survey, done in the middle of the month, was in anticipation of Semana Santa. They visited 40 stores in the metro area. Surveyors checked the foods, like sardines, that are traditional this time of year. And it was Madrigal sardines in an 88-gram can that showed the biggest price difference, some 152 percent. Calvo tuna in a 120-gram can showed variation of up to 77 percent in the |
stores, said
the report of the survey. There also were vast differences reported in similar items, such as frozen fish and miel de chiverre. The last, a product made from a very durable squash, is a Semana Santa favorite. Surveyors found a 123 percent difference among stores. Fresh fish also showed big differences. Tilapia showed a 148 percent difference while cod had prices that were twice the lowest amount. The ministry's consumer office also noted that some manufacturers have reduced the size of their cans. The survey report urged shoppers to check the unit price. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 58 | |||||
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| Ceremonial construction seen as bond among different Mayan
lifestyles |
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By the University of Arizona news service
Archaeologists working in Guatemala have unearthed new information about the Maya civilization's transition from a mobile, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary way of life. Led by University of Arizona archaeologists Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, the team's excavations of the ancient Maya lowlands site of Ceibal suggest that as the society transitioned from a heavy reliance on foraging to farming, mobile communities and settled groups co-existed and may have come together to collaborate on construction projects and participate in public ceremonies. The findings, to be published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, challenge two common assumptions: that mobile and sedentary groups maintained separate communities and that public buildings were constructed only after a society had fully put down roots. "There has been the theory that sedentary and mobile groups co-existed in various parts of the world, but most people thought the sedentary and mobile communities were separate, even though they were in relatively close areas," said Inomata, a professor of anthropology and lead author of the PNAS study. "Our study presents the first relatively concrete evidence that mobile and sedentary people came together to build a ceremonial center." A public plaza uncovered at Ceibal dates to about 950 B.C., with surrounding ceremonial buildings growing to monumental sizes by about 800 B.C. Yet, evidence of permanent residential dwellings in the area during that time is scarce. Most people were still living a traditional hunter-gatherer-like lifestyle, moving from place to place throughout the rainforest, as they would continue to do for five or six more centuries. The area's few permanent residents could not have built the plaza alone, Inomata said. "The construction of ceremonial buildings is pretty substantial, so there had to be more people working on that construction," he said. Inomata and his colleagues theorize that groups with varying degrees of mobility came together to construct the buildings and to participate in public ceremonies over the |
 University of Arizona/ Takeshi Inomata
This is a structure uncovered at Ceibal
from about 500 B.C.
next several hundred years. That process likely helped them to bond socially and eventually make the transition to a fully sedentary society. "This tells us something about the importance of ritual and construction. People tend to think that you have a developed society and then building comes. I think in many cases it's the other way around," Inomata said. "For those people living the traditional way of life, ceremony, ritual and construction became major forces for them to adapt a new way of life and build a new society. The process of gathering for ritual and gathering for construction helped bring together different people who were doing different things, and eventually that contributed to the later development of Mayan civilization." The transition was gradual, with the Maya making the shift to a fully sedentary agrarian society, reliant on maize, by about 400 or 300 B.C., Inomata said. "The most fascinating finding is that different peoples with diverse ways of life co-existed in apparent harmony for generations before establishing a more uniform society," said Melissa Burham, a study co-author and a graduate student in the university's School of Anthropology. "Discovering an ancient melting pot is definitely the unexpected highlight of this research." |
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2015 and may
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 58 | |||||||
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| Overfishing solution brings major environmental prize By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A supporter of a controversial way to prevent overfishing has won a major environmental prize. The winner, Jane Lubchenco, backed programs known as catch shares when she headed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 2009 to 2013. Catch shares set a maximum amount of fish that can be caught in a region, then divide the allowed catch among fishermen. These programs are credited with restoring several fish populations in the United States. “From 2000 to 2013, we went from having 92 overfished stocks to 40 and we went from having 0 rebuilt stocks to 34,” Ms. Lubchenco said. “It gives us incredible hope that we can replicate those successes elsewhere and really end overfishing at the global scale.” Proponents say the programs stop a race to the bottom, where fishermen try to catch as much as possible without regard for the future of the fishery. With catch shares, fishermen's takes increase as the fishery recovers and grows. However, critics say these programs can drive small fishermen out of the market and raise barriers to people just getting started in the industry. Seventeen U.S. fisheries are in catch shares programs, and more are in development. Ms. Lubchenco will share the $200,000 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement with Madhav Gadgil of India’s Goa University, who drew praise for engaging local communities in environmental protection. U.S. officials deny hacking disclosed service identities By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. officials say there is no indication that a data breach led to Islamic State's posting on the Internet what it says are the names, addresses and photographs of 100 U.S. military personnel that it encouraged its supporters in the United States to kill. A U.S. defense official said "the safety of our service members is always a concern and we encourage our personnel to exercise appropriate force protection procedures." The official added that "services are conducting appropriate notifications in accordance with their service specific procedures," and said the Department of Defense takes all threats against service members seriously. The official, when asked if the information posted by Islamic State could be found by searching the Internet, said "there's an awful lot out there through Facebook, through media reports, and when you link all of this together, information becomes very accessible." A group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division said Sunday the details of the service members, who it claims were involved in U.S. air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria, came from government servers and databases. Confederate flag fight heard in Supreme Court By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The flag of the losing side of the U.S. Civil War, a symbol that many Americans consider racist, is at the heart of a complex free speech case that opened Monday at the Supreme Court. A group known as Sons of Confederate Veterans wanted the old flag of the Confederacy, a blue X containing stars on a red field, to be an optional logo on motor vehicle license plates in Texas. Many U.S. states allow motorists to add images and slogans that express deeply held views. And they bring in sizable revenues for state coffers: $17.6 million last year in Texas alone, where they cost about $30 apiece. But the Confederate flag represented a major secessionist battle in the 1860 to 64 war, which killed more than 600,000 people. The symbol continues to be used by many white supremacist groups. After receiving numerous protests against the license plate, the Texas State Board of Motor Vehicles denied the request, arguing that “a significant portion of the public associate the confederate flag with organizations advocating expressions of hate.” But the Sons of Confederate Veterans group argues that the flag also represents a kind of regional pride that is not bound by race. It has won the backing of some civil liberties groups which argue that the license plate qualifies for free speech protection under the Constitution’s First Amendment. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June. Ted Cruz announces plans at Falwell's Liberty University By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas became the first official candidate for the 2016 U.S. presidential election Monday with a rousing announcement speech at the country’s largest Christian university, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Cruz, 44, brought a large crowd of conservative students to their feet with a promise to reignite the promise of America as he sought to get the jump on what is expected to be a large field of Republican White House contenders for 2016. “I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America and that is why today I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States,” he stated. He vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law if he becomes president and said he would abolish the government’s tax-collecting agency, the Internal Revenue Service. On foreign policy, he told the crowd that as president he would, stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel and would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He also vowed to wage an aggressive military campaign against the Islamic State. “Imagine a president who says we will stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism, and we will call it by its name.” Cruz was one of 47 Senate Republicans who signed an open letter to Iran’s leaders warning that any nuclear deal reached with the Obama administration could be undone by a future president. Three other Republican senators who signed the letter are also expected to join the presidential race: Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Florida’s Marco Rubio and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham. Elected to the Senate in 2012, Cruz quickly established himself as a favorite of Tea Party conservatives. He led a 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor in 2013 to try and defund the health care law. He was also a leader of the 16-day partial government shutdown over Obamacare a few weeks later that hurt the Republican Party’s national image. He chose Liberty University for his launch as part of an effort to win over social and religious conservatives within the Republican Party, a key voting bloc in early presidential contest states like Iowa. Liberty was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, a hero to the social conservative movement in the U.S. The son of an American mother and a Cuban father, Cruz was born in Canada but legal experts say that since his mother was an American citizen he should meet the basic constitutional requirements to run for president. Cruz hopes to stand out in a crowded Republican field, said University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato. “You realize that it is an unformed field. It is obvious from every survey that has been done that the Republican faithful are completely undecided. There is no frontrunner. The weakness of Jeb Bush in the polls, I think, is notable. He is yet to break 20 in any of the major national polls, and he’s well behind in some of the key state polls.” With the launch of his campaign, the 2016 election cycle officially gets underway. And while Republicans expect a large field of candidates complete with multiple debates, many are excited at the prospect of trying to take back the White House after eight years of Barack Obama in 2016. Among them is Republican political strategist Phillip Stutts. “We’ve never had a group of presidential candidates like the group that is going to be running in 2016. Twelve, 14 candidates that are substantive, that have records, that have done things.” Democrats, meanwhile, look forward to what they expect will be a far less crowded field of primary contenders hoping to succeed President Obama in the White House. At the head of that list is former secretary of State Hillary Clinton who could announce her plans as soon as next month. Internet of things seen as wide open to hackers By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
There’s no need explaining to Adam and Heather Schreck how the Internet can threaten privacy in unexpected ways. They know firsthand. Last spring, the Cincinnati-area couple was asleep one night when Heather awoke to what sounded like a man’s voice coming from their infant’s bedroom. There, Heather found an unknown person was watching their daughter via the video monitor attached to the crib, again and again yelling, "Wake up, baby!" When her husband entered moments later, the webcam swiveled up to look at the couple, with the user screaming obscenities at Adam until he yanked the camera’s plugs. "Someone had hacked in from outside," Heather told a local TV station. Added her husband, "You kinda do feel violated." The Schrecks are among many Americans who are learning how the Internet of things, the collection of everyday appliances that users increasingly can manipulate via the Web, can provide equal measures of convenience as well as privacy and security challenges. While their case grabbed headlines, such stories are becoming more common. And, according to a security report released earlier this month, the threats presented by the rapidly expanding Internet of Things, or IoT, are likely even larger than previously thought. "Back in the day, it used to be mass-mailing email worms, but obviously things have changed," said Candid Wueest, co-author of "Insecurity in the Internet of Things" and a principal threat researcher with the Internet security firm Symantec. "It’s clear everything's connected now. Unfortunately, connected also means 'could be attacked.' " The industry analyst firm Gartner estimates that 4.9 billion smart devices, will be in use this year, with that number skyrocketing to 25 billion in just five years. These things increasingly touch on nearly every aspect of personal and professional lives: smart TVs, closed-circuit cameras, heating and cooling systems, cars, refrigerators, ovens and door locks. Chances are pretty good that if it can be built, someone will connect it to the Internet. The IoT promises a world of enhanced convenience. For example, someone can turn up air conditioning via the smartphone before returning from the beach or switch on and off home lights and oven while still at work. But, Wueest said, every new device connected to a home network or Internet creates a new path for hackers to break in. And this, he said, is not an issue many manufacturers are addressing. "We see people are buying these devices. The question is: How secure are they? Does your neighbor see what you’re doing at home? Could he actually switch off your lights?" Wueest asked. Previous studies have suggested the answer is a qualified yes. A 2014 study by researchers at HP Fortify found the average IoT device – such as for home alarms, thermostats and garage door openers – has an average of 25 vulnerabilities, with 70 percent of devices vulnerable to attack. Earlier this year, Wueest and his team at Symantec’s Global Security Response Lab began looking more deeply into these connected devices. They analyzed 50 smart home devices, already on the market, for security or privacy exploits. Nearly every device Wueest’s team looked at had one or more security vulnerabilities: most of them basic, and some as fundamental as not having password-protecting devices or requiring user authentication. "It’s devastating and shocking to see that we still see so many devices with no proper authentication implemented," Wueest said. "So for many of the devices we looked at, we actually saw that once you deployed them in your Wi-Fi at home, your network, they don’t require any additional authentication. Anyone. . . can send commands and do what they like." For example, the Symantec team identified one vulnerability in a popular smart door lock that would have allowed a hacker, with one command, to unlock thousands of doors across the country. The Symantec report details a variety of attack pathways and tactics hackers could use to gain control over a host of smart things. While some of those include obvious holes, such as password protection, Wueest’s team found a range of back-end vulnerabilities nearly identical to those that home computer manufacturers identified and fixed a decade ago. "It’s a beginner’s mistake. ... It seems like history is repeating," he said. “We see the same mistakes, like Web site vulnerabilities or not using passwords being repeated again and again. The question for us: Are the manufacturers not doing it because users are requesting it?" The report doesn’t directly ascribe blame for the security lapses, but researcher Wueest said both users and manufacturers share in the problems and the solutions. On the user end, he said that even if offered robust password security, most users still opt for all-too-hackable passcodes such as "1-2-3-4." Additionally, he said, once people get a device up and working, they’re often unlikely to adjust the security settings or download software updates to patch security holes, exactly what enabled hacking of the Schrecks' baby cam. Such good Web hygiene habits, Wueest said, can go a long way to discouraging the bad guys. And while Wueest believes manufacturers should take privacy and security more seriously, the only way that’s likely to happen is if customers begin demanding it. "If you’re thinking about buying these devices – and by all means, I use a few of these at home so we’re not saying don’t use them – you should check out the manufacturer's Web site and see if they have a record of updating patches and fixes," he said. “If you don’t see anything like this, this might be a good indication that they don’t really look into the security." So, is the IoT something to be welcomed or feared? Should people begin worrying about the their toasters or coffeemakers? No, Wueest said, at least not yet. But it is time for everyone connecting up those 5 billion smart things in their homes and offices to be aware that they can bring as much insecurity as they can convenience.  California Science Center photo
Many of the scrolls are
just fragmentsDead Sea
Scrolls exhibit
on display in California By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered in the mid-20th century, and they are still yielding clues about life and religious beliefs in ancient Israel. An exhibit in Los Angeles shows how modern science is bringing the history of these ancient documents to life. The largest exhibit of its kind ever shown outside Israel can be seen at the California Science Center. Visitors learn the story of the scrolls, ancient manuscripts that were hidden in caves in the modern-day West Bank during the first century, to safeguard them from advancing Roman troops during a Jewish rebellion. The scrolls were written over hundreds of years and illustrate the diversity of ancient Israel, which was home to various Jewish sects, as well as early Christians. Israel's consul general in Los Angeles, David Siegel, whose office helped bring the exhibit to the city, says the documents include sectarian writings and Biblical texts that are important to three faiths. “When that shepherd in 1947 entered that cave and found these parchments, what he discovered were the earliest known manuscripts of the Bible. So they're significant obviously to Jews, but they're also significant to Christians and they're significant to Muslims," said Siegel. The California Science Center's Diane Perlov says scientists have studied the manuscripts using modern techniques piecing together thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments into hundreds of documents. She says they used different kinds of light to decipher hidden texts, and tested the material for dating. “Scientists used multi-spectral imaging, carbon 14 dating, DNA analysis and other tools to match up all these individual pieces to the same scroll, to read them," said Perlov. Exhibit co-curator Risa Levitt Kohn says the dry climate of the region helped preserve the writings, leading to one of the most important archeological discoveries of recent times. “The humidity, the temperature, the fact that these documents were hidden in caves," said Kohn. Together with 20 Dead Sea Scrolls, on display in the exhibit, visitors can see royal and ritual objects and items from daily life that span 1,200 years. They include a small figure thought to be Asherah, the mother goddess once worshipped throughout the ancient Near East, as well as coins, pottery, and a three-ton stone from the Western Wall, the only remains of the second Jewish temple that was destroyed by invading Romans in the year 70. The objects show the diversity of cultures, Jewish, Greek and Roman, that sometimes led to tensions. The ongoing analysis is the work of many experts, says exhibit co-curator Debora Ben-Ami of the Israeli Antiquities Authority. “We are showing a complete story, coming from the present, going back to the past, to a different time, to a different place, and then understanding all the context and all the importance of this history," said Ms. Ben-Ami. Ms. Ben-Ami says many questions are still unsettled, including the identity of the people who hid the scrolls. But scientists and scholars are still working to shed light on these ancient documents. Optimism of Americans sets them apart in world By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Americans still think hard work will take them places. That sense of can-do optimism sets people of the U.S.A. apart from the rest of the world. In a Pew Research Center survey of people in 44 countries, 57 percent of Americans disagreed with the statement, “Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control.” That percentage was much higher than most other countries and high above the global median of 38 percent. When asked on a scale of 0 to 10 how important working hard is to getting ahead in life, 73 percent of Americans gave it a 10 or said it was very important. Among the other 44 countries, the global median was 50 percent. When compared to other wealthy countries, Americans also stand out when it comes to their religiosity. People in richer nations are usually less likely than those in poorer countries to say religion plays a very important role in their lives. But not when it comes to Americans. More than half of Americans (54 percent) say religion is very important in their lives. That is much higher than people in Canada (24 percent), Australia (21 percent) and Germany (21 percent), which are the next three wealthiest economies Pew surveyed from 2011 through 2013. In the U.S., 53 percent say belief in God is a prerequisite for being moral and having good values, compared to 23 percent in Australia and 15 percent in France, according to the study. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 24, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 58 | |||||||||
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 University of Maryland photo/Andrew J.
Crawford
Panamanian Golden FrogSome frog
bacteria found to be protective
By the Virginia Polytechnic Institute news
staff
A team of scientists including Virginia Tech researchers is one step closer to understanding how bacteria on a frog’s skin affects its likelihood of contracting disease. A frog-killing fungus known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, has already led to the decline of more than 200 amphibian species including the now extinct-in-the-wild Panamanian golden frog. In a recent study, the research team attempted to apply beneficial bacteria found on the skin of various Bd-resistant wild Panamanian frog species to Panamanian golden frogs in captivity, to see if this would stimulate a defense against the disease. They found that while the treatment with beneficial bacteria was not successful due to its inability to stick to the skin, there were some frogs that survived exposure to the fungus. These survivors actually had unique bacterial communities on their skin before the experiments started. The results were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. The next step is to explore these new bacterial communities. “We were disappointed that the treatment didn’t work, but glad to have discovered new information about the relationship between these symbiotic microbial communities and amphibian disease resistance,” said Lisa Belden, an associate professor of biological sciences at Virginia Tech. “Every bit of information gets us closer to getting these frogs back into nature.” Studying the microbial communities of Panamanian golden frogs was the dissertation focus of Professor Belden’s former graduate student, Matthew Becker, who earned a doctorate in biological sciences from Virginia Tech in 2014 and is now a fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “Anything that can help us predict resistance to this disease is very useful because the ultimate goal of this research is to establish healthy populations of golden frogs in their native habitat,” Professor Becker told Smithsonian Science News. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. home sales show slight increase By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The number of existing homes sold in the United States rose 1.2 percent in February, a modest increase over the previous month. Monday's report from the National Association of Realtors also said home prices climbed 4.7 percent from the same period a year ago. If homes continued selling at this pace for a full year, 4.88 million houses would change hands. Economists watch home sales closely because severe problems in the housing sector played a key role in the financial crisis. Monday's report gives information about sales of existing homes, which make up the majority of the market. Today experts will publish data on new home sales, which make up about 15 percent of transactions. Also on Tuesday, government experts will report on the U.S. inflation rate for February. Economists surveyed by the Bloomberg financial news service predict that prices will be two-tenths of a percent higher than the prior month. U.S. central bank chairwoman Janet Yellen recently told journalists that inflation will probably stay below a 1 percent annual rate this year. That worries Federal Reserve officials who have been trying to boost inflation to the 2 percent annual rate they think is healthy for the economy. Friday a separate report is expected to show that the U.S. economy grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the last few months of 2014. If that prediction by economists turns out to be correct, it would mean U.S. growth was a little faster than first estimated. |
