Protesters plan to confront
Rafael Correa at speech today


A diverse group of environmentalists, feminists and gays will be protesting the speech here today of Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador.

Correa, here to attend the presidential inauguration, has scheduled a 4 p.m. presentation at the Universidad de Costa Rica. His topic is the achievements of the citizen revolution in Ecuador.

The environmentalists are unhappy because Correa is approving additional oil drilling leases in his country.

Feminists are unhappy because they said he characterized their ideology as one that destroys the family.

Gays are unhappy because Corea has mocked proposals for same-sex marriage.

Protesters will gather with their signs outside the university's law school before the speech.


Road deaths so far in 2014
are higher than in 2013


Transportation officials said that 105 person died in traffic mishaps during the first four months of the year. The number is 13 more than in the previous year.

The increase in deaths caused the head of the Policía de Tránsito,  German Marín, to issue orders for more enforcement on the highways.

Some 40 percent of those who died, 42, were driving or riding on a motorcycle, officials said.

The transport officials attributed the fatalities to excessive speed and/or alcohol. In addition, pedestrians are risking their lives by avoiding pedestrian bridges over major highways, they said.


Here are some quick steps
to fail the driving exam


The transport ministry has outlined some quick ways to fail the driving exam for a motor vehicle license.

Tops on the list is showing up for the test under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Having an accident will result in failure, too, the agency said.

Also driving more than 120 kilometers an hour during the test is guaranteed failure, said the Ministerio de Obras Públicos y Transportes. That's nearly 75 miles per hour.

In all there are 31 major errors that will result in failing the test, the ministry said. Some of the obvious ones are showing up with a vehicle in bad condition or going through a red light. But the ministry also says that showing up five minutes late also means failure.

The major errors cost a would-be driver 32 points. Since 80 points out of 100 are required to pass, the candidate has to wait 15 days to retake the test.

And add to the list running down a pedestrian. That, too, is a no no.

The ministry said that the list of rules will going into effect Tuesday. They are an effort to make driving tests more consistent.

Fortunately most expats who have a form of residency and a foreign license can obtain one in Costa Rica without taking the written and driving tests.


Meteor whacked Alberta,
Canadian experts suspect
   

The discovery of an ancient ring-like structure in southern Alberta suggests the area was struck by a meteorite large enough to leave an eight-kilometer-wide crater, producing an explosion strong enough to destroy present-day Calgary, say researchers from the Alberta Geological Survey and University of Alberta.

The first hints about the impact site near the southern Alberta hamlet of Bow City were discovered by a geologist with the Alberta Geological Survey and studied by a university team led by Doug Schmitt, Canada research chair in rock physics.

Time and glaciers have buried and eroded much of the evidence, making it impossible at this point to say with full certainty the ring-like structure was caused by a meteorite impact, but that's what seismic and geological evidence strongly suggests, said Schmitt, a co-author of a new paper about the discovery.

"We know that the impact occurred within the last 70 million years, and in that time about 1.5 kilometers of sediment has been eroded. That makes it really hard to pin down and actually date the impact."

Erosion has worn away all but the roots of the crater, leaving a semicircular depression eight kilometers across with a central peak. Schmitt says that when it formed, the crater likely reached a depth of 1.6 to 2.4 kilometers — the kind of impact his graduate student Wei Xie calculated would have had devastating consequences for life in the area.

"An impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance," he said. "If it happened today, Calgary (200 kilometers to the northwest) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (500 kilometers northwest), every window would have been blown out. Something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air, potentially would have global consequences; there could have been ramifications for decades."

The impact site was first discovered in 2009 by geologist Paul Glombick, who at the time was working on a geological map of the area for the Alberta Geological Survey. Glombick relied on existing geophysical log data from the oil and gas industry when he discovered a bowl-shaped structure.