Premium television sources
are cutting access via VPN


Expats who use a virtual private network to receive U.S.-based premium television may have problems.

The virtual private network, as described in A.M. Costa Rica last year, tricks U.S. company that do not want to distribute their signal overseas.

These include Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon Prime.

Some of the companies are cracking down., Hulu announced that it is blocking requests for shows that arrive through anonymous browsers.

One expat complained Tuesday night that Amazon no longer was providing the signal to his virtual private network setup. He said he expected nearly all of the premium channels to follow.

Many expats are not stealing the signal. They subscribe using a U.S. location and then access the video content by tricking the servers that they are in the United States. Many do this because Latin American alternatives are mostly in Spanish.


Dumb tweet causes pain
for cell phone provider


Humor sometimes is not humorous to others, and Twitter can offend. That is the lesson from a Sunday evening adventure by a Claro employee who had access to the company's Twitter account.

No names have been released by the company, but the situation is a big embarrassment.

Claro has a slogan ¡Claro que si! Perhaps playing off the slogan, the unnamed employee tweeted:

A no from a woman derives from the Latin beg me a little more. In Spanish, of course.

The roof dropped in a few minutes later as those who received the tweet responded.

By Monday, Claro has withdrawn the tweet and apologized.

The country's  Oficina de Control de Propaganda even issued a press release saying that no means no. The agency said that such use of media can construct a social reality.

It noted that many women suffer sexual violence.


Woman, 21, found dead
in her Cahuita home


The Judicial Investigating Organization said that a 21-year-old woman died from unknown causes in Cahuita.

The woman, identified as Juliana Brown, was found dead at her home by her husband Tuesday morning. Investigators found abrasions on her shoulders and back, they said.  A complete autopsy has been ordered.

Authorities said the body has been taken to the morgue to determine a cause of death.


Some consistency needed
or investments discouraged

Dear A.M. Costa Rica;

What Costa Rica could do to make things better for everyone would be to try to develop some sort of consistency in your regulatory regimen.  U.S. citizens are used to dealing with regulations, but when the rules are interpreted differently by each official we deal with, it encourages all people to avoid compliance and the resultant hassle. 

The banking rules currently in place, no matter if they are required by the U.S., Costa Rica or the international community, will discourage investment and cash flows into C.R. simply because of the uncertainty involved in the transactions.  It will have a dampening effect on the real estate market in particular given that in C.R. it is largely unregulated and therefore risky for investors. 

We love our place and Tico neighbors in C.R. and have returned every year for the last 14.  We plan to spend much more time there when we retire, but we would really like to see the banking procedures cleaned up and standardized.  Otherwise, we are happy with C.R.'s requirements and wouldn't think of heading for Panamá.  We are hoping the new administration can make some headway with these issues...

Experiment shows testing
of breath detects lung cancer


U.S. researchers have developed a breath test that detects lung cancer.  Researchers say the test is more sensitive than high-tech imaging, especially for distinguishing benign tumors from cancerous ones. 

When an X-ray scan of a patient's lungs reveals a nodule or tiny mass, the challenge for doctors is determining whether the growth is benign, or a sign of early stage cancer. Investigators say the breath analysis could help when used in conjunction with PET scans or other imaging modalities.
 
Researchers conducted a trial involving 107 patients with lung cancer, 40 people with benign lung nodules, and seven individuals whose cancer had spread to other parts of their body.  The results were compared to a group of 88 healthy individuals.
  
The breath analysis was almost as sensitive as high-tech imaging at identifying patients with lung cancer, and it was twice as accurate at distinguishing benign lung disease, dramatically reducing the rate of so-called false positives.

Michael Bousrama is an associate professor at the University of Louisville medical school and the study’s lead author. He says lung spots are often detected on an X-ray or CT scan when a patient goes to the doctor complaining of shortness of breath or chest pain.

“In this day and age what you do is you do a biopsy; either you stick a needle through the skin and into the lung, into the mass, or you do a bronchoscopy; or you might get a PET scan to determine whether or not it’s more or less likely to be cancer.   All of those things are expensive and the CT-guided biopsy and the bronchoscopy are invasive procedures.  They have complications and pain associated with them.  So the concept of being able to analyze somebody’s breath to help determine whether a given pulmonary nodule is cancer or not could be very appealing," said Bousrama.

Bousrama says the breath test, which can be done in the doctor’s office, has the potential to quickly put a patient’s mind at ease in determining that a growth is benign.

The test is designed to measure levels of four specific substances called carbonyl compounds, which are found in the breath of people with malignant tumors.  The majority of patients in the study with benign nodules had at most only one elevated carbonyl compound compared to people with stage IV lung cancer. They had three or four elevated cancer markers.

Bousrama envisions using the breath analysis to confirm an initial diagnosis of lung cancer using high-tech imaging.  He says the test won’t be available for a number of years.