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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 12, 2015,
Vol.
15, No. 92
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U.S. seeks
applicants to fight drugs
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
This is another case of your U.S. tax dollars at work. The U.S. Embassy sought proposals for projects that "create social and economic opportunity to strengthen citizen security; promoting transparency to encourage a culture that resists corruption." The work is supposed to be done in Costa Rica. As with many of the U.S. government grant awards, the applicants were restricted to non-profit organizations and educational institutions. The projects are part of the Central America Regional Security Initiative, what the U.S. calls its Central American war on drugs. The successful recipients of a grant will receive from $100,000 to $250,000 out of a total budget of $900,000. The submission deadline already has passed, but there is no report on the successful applicants. Each project can be as long as two years. The embassy makes some unusual observations about Costa Rica: • In starting a business, potential new business owners are less willing to fight a slow bureaucratic process, and are therefore more vulnerable to engaging in corrupt practices to bypass this process. • As to coastal and border communities, it is critical to provide economic opportunities in these communities as attractive alternatives for at-risk populations that may turn to crime and illicit drugs for their livelihood. Says the embassy: "By the end of the project, grantees should demonstrate that their project has contributed to either: (1) safer and more productive communities by providing viable economic alternatives for at-risk targeted populations that are viable alternatives to dangerous activities tied to illicit drugs or (2) greater awareness, usage and transparency of available government services for members of the general public." The success of the project will be determined by the number of participating at-risk youth and women who report less pressure to collaborate with or work for narcotraffickers and the number of individuals employed as a result of the project, according to examples provided by the embassy. New system of collateral going into effect By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Next week a law will go into effect that will permit the use of using additional forms of security to secure loans. The system is expected to help small businesses that do not have real estate to secure agreements with creditors. The Registro Nacional was given a year to set up a system much like the one that exists for real estate to show what has been secured by a loan. Borrowers will be able to use patents, accounts receivables, contracts, crops in the ground and even cattle, according to a summary provided Monday by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio. Public officials, including President Luis Guillermo Solís, met to outline the benefits of the law, which goes into effect May 20. Of course in the past, lenders were able to accept material that was not real estate as collateral, but they might have had trouble collecting if the loan went into default. In addition there was no system to show if the personal property already had been used to secure an earlier loan. Turrialba grumbling again, experts report By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Volcano watchers said that two strong quakes took place Monday within the Turrialba volcano. The Red Sismológica Nacional attributed the quakes to vibrations in the walls of the internal vents of the mountain due to the passage of vapor, gas and ash. The Red said the first activity was reported at 12:40 p.m., and that a park guard reported the fall of ash. This emission lasted an hour and 10 minutes, said the Red. Then at 2:44 p.m. there was another series of vibrations that lasted 27 minutes. Volcano experts fully expect additional eruptions from the volcano. So far the most serious effects have been the closing three times of the major international airport in Alajuela because of ash on the runways. Study: Bilingualism aids understanding By the University of Chicago news staff
Children who hear more than one language spoken at home become better communicators, a new study from University of Chicago psychologists finds. Effective communication requires the ability to take others’ perspectives. Researchers discovered that children from multilingual environments are better at interpreting a speaker’s meaning than children who are exposed only to their native tongue. The most novel finding is that the children do not even have to be bilingual themselves. It is the exposure to more than one language that is the key for building effective social communication skills, researchers said. Previous studies have examined the effects of being bilingual on cognitive development. This study, published online by the journal Psychological Science, is the first to demonstrate the social benefits of just being exposed to multiple languages. “Children in multilingual environments have extensive social practice in monitoring who speaks what to whom, and observing the social patterns and allegiances that are formed based on language usage,” explained Katherine Kinzler, associate professor of psychology and an expert on language and social development. “These early socio-linguistic experiences could hone children’s skills at taking other people’s perspectives and provide them tools for effective communication.” Study co-author Boaz Keysar, professor of psychology and an internationally known expert on communication and cognition, said this study is part of a bigger research program that attempts to explain how humans learn to communicate. “Children are really good at acquiring language. They master the vocabulary and the syntax of the language, but they need more tools to be effective communicators,” said Keysar. “A lot of communication is about perspective taking, which is what our study measures.” Keysar, Ms. Kinzler and their co-authors, doctoral students in psychology Samantha Fan and Zoe Liberman, had 72 4- to 6-year-old children participate in a social communication task. The children were from one of three language backgrounds: monolinguals (children who heard and spoke only English and had little experience with other languages); exposures (children who primarily heard and spoke English, but they had some regular exposure to speakers of another language); and bilinguals (children who were exposed to two languages on a regular basis and were able to speak and understand both languages). There were 24 children in each group. Each child who participated sat on one side of a table across from an adult and played a communication game that required moving objects in a grid. The child was able to see all of the objects, but the adult on the other side of the grid had some squares blocked and could not see all the objects. To make sure that children understood that the adult could not see everything, the child first played the game from the adult’s side. For the critical test, the adult would ask the child to move an object in the grid. For example, she would say, “I see a small car, could you move the small car?” The child could see three cars: small, medium and large. The adult, however, could only see two cars: the medium and the large ones. To correctly interpret the adult’s intended meaning, the child would have to take into account that the adult could not see the smallest car, and move the one that the adult actually intended, the medium car. The monolingual children were not as good at understanding the adult’s intended meaning in this game, as they moved the correct object only about 50 percent of the time. But mere exposure to another language improved children’s ability to understand the adult’s perspective and select the correct objects. The children in the exposure group selected correctly 76 percent of the time, and the bilingual group took the adult’s perspective in the game correctly 77 percent of the time. “Language is social,” noted Ms. Fan. “Being exposed to multiple languages gives you a very different social experience, which could help children develop more effective communication skills.” Some parents seem wary of second-language exposure for their young children, Ms. Kinzler commented. Yet, in addition to learning another language, their children might unintentionally be getting intensive training in perspective taking, which could make them better communicators in any language. Bird migrations blamed on lack of seeds By the University of Utah news staff
With puzzling variability, vast numbers of birds from Canada’s forests migrate hundreds or thousands of miles south from their usual winter range. These migrations were first noticed by birdwatchers decades ago, but the driving factors have never been fully explained. Now scientists have pinpointed the climate pattern that likely sets the stage, a discovery that could make it possible to predict the events more than a year in advance. The researchers found that persistent shifts in rainfall and temperature drive boom-and-bust cycles in forest seed production, which in turn drive the mass migrations of pine siskins, the most widespread and visible of the migrants. “It’s a chain reaction from climate to seeds to birds,” says atmospheric scientist Court Strong, an assistant professor at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. Many seed-eating species, including Bohemian and cedar waxwings, boreal chickadees, red and white-winged crossbills, purple finches, pine and evening grosbeaks, red-breasted nuthatches, and common and hoary redpolls, migrate. The authors focused on the pine siskin, a species featured prominently in earlier work. Previous studies have found evidence that these migrations are triggered by food shortages caused by the large-scale collapse of seed production in northern pine, spruce and fir forests. “We’ve known for a long time that weather was probably important, but prior analyses by ecologists have been unable to identify exactly what role weather was playing in this phenomenon,” says ecologist Walt Koenig, a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and co-author of the new study incorporating climate science. “It’s a good example of the value of interdisciplinary work,” Koenig says. To resolve the question, the scientists turned to a remarkable trove of data gathered by backyard birders as part of Project FeederWatch, a citizen science initiative run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. FeederWatcher volunteers systematically record bird sightings from November through early April and they gave the scientists more than two million observations of pine siskins since 1989. The data makes it possible to track the movement of bird populations at a continent-wide scale.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015 and may not be
reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 92 | |
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| Price regulator cuts taxi fares in face of low inflation |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Taxi drivers are going to have to work longer hours and perhaps more days to make the same money because the nation's regulatory agency has cut fares. For both city and rural taxis, the cut is 10 colons for the first kilometer. The rate now is 640 colons, and the new rate is 630 colons. For urban taxis the rate for subsequent kilometers drops from 640 to 610 colons. Rural taxis now charge 795 for each additional kilometers. That rate will become 770 colons. |
Taxis at Juan
Santamaría airport also face reductions. The
current rate for the first kilometer drops from 930 to 925 colons for
sedans and 930 to 925 colons for microbuses. Subsequent kilometers will
be a cut of 30 colons for sedans to 780 and for microbuses to 900
colons. The agency said that the adjustment in fares was done to compensate for a low inflation rate. The reductions come at a time when the nation's gasoline monopoly is seeking higher rates for motor fuels. The rates go into effect when the decree is published in the La Gaceta official newspaper. |
This is Arthur Smiley's photo that was a winner in an A.M. Costa Rica photo contest. The campesinos are using the bueyes to prepare the fields for the next crop. The photo makes it obvious that farm work is hard work |
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| Friday is a day to celebrate the work of the nation's
farmers and ranchers |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Just as everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, everyone will be a farmer Friday, which is the Día del Agricultor Costarricense. This also will be a day when real farmers issue their annual complaints about low returns on their investment. The day has been celebrated officially since 1968 when the law creating the day passed. Costa Rica is land rich in plant life and the necessities for plant growth. However, farmers continually cite road conditions and transportation costs as impediments to getting their product to the market. |
This is the
type of occupation when the producer does not set the
price. Farmers frequently complain that they are victims of sharp
practices by wholesales and even truckers. Farmers also do not set the price of the goods they buy. So they lose both ways. In a few rural areas expats are trying to set up systems where producers can pool their crops to seek a better market price. The growth of the weekend ferias took place because farmers can sell their products directly to the end consumer. Coope Ande in a tribute to agriculturalists asked the question what would happen if there were no farmers. The answer is obvious. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 92 | |||||
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| Drug-resistant typhoid strain found in half of samples from
63 countries |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Scientists say a strain of typhoid that is resistant to antibiotics has become the dominant strain of the infection in many parts of Africa and East Asia. The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, involved sequencing more than 1,800 samples of typhoid bacteria from 63 countries. It said one drug resistant strain of the bacteria, called H58, was found in 47 percent of all the samples that were analyzed. Scientists say the strand emerged in South Asia in the 1970s and spread to other parts of Asia as well as East and South Africa. They also found evidence of a recent wave of transmissions in Africa. Typhoid is caused by a bacteria called Salmonella typhi, and is spread through food and water that is contaminated with feces or urine. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 20 |
million
people are infected with typhoid every year, with at least 200,000
people dying of the bacteria. Typhoid is usually treated using antibiotics. A vaccine has been developed, but it does not work in all cases, and it is not widely available in many countries. One of the study's authors, Kathryn Holt, from the University of Melbourne, Australia, said drug-resistant typhoid "has been coming and going since the 1970s." She said that in the H58 strain, "these genes are becoming a stable part of the genome, which means multiple antibiotic resistant typhoid is here to stay." The scientists called for increased surveillance of the H58 stain, as well as cutting back on the inappropriate use of antibiotics, improving sanitation in poor countries, and expanding vaccination programs. Symptoms of typhoid include fever, headaches, abdominal pain, pink spots on the chest and liver complications. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 92 | |||||||
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| U.S., China appear to have dueling cyber attack systems By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As the World Wide Web has evolved and grown more complicated, so have the tools and techniques of cyber-espionage and military action. Perhaps nowhere is this evolution more clearly seen than in China’s recently disclosed Great Cannon and its similarities to a tool reportedly possessed by the United States known as QUANTUM. Depending on how they are wielded, both can serve as a high-tech tool for spies, intimidating weapons of cyberassault or a combination of both, analysts say. In March, the operators of GitHub, a popular site among software developers, noticed something unusual. Two open-source project sites on GitHub, both aimed at circumventing Chinese censorship of the Web, were under a heavy and sustained denial of service attack. The attack itself wasn’t all that surprising: the hosted sites GreatFire and a mirror copy of The New York Times in Mandarin had long been irritants to Chinese cyber officials. What was different this time is that much of the traffic appeared to be coming from computers outside the Great Firewall, many within the U.S., they said. The attacks lasted for more than a week, and not only took the two targets offline but seriously crippled GitHub. In April, researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab confirmed that it was indeed something new and something powerful. Dubbed The Great Cannon, it’s a tool that Chinese officials could use for censorship, espionage, or worse. "The operational deployment of the Great Cannon represents a significant escalation in state-level information control: the normalization of widespread use of an attack tool to enforce censorship by weaponizing users," the researchers wrote. “The Great Cannon is not simply an extension of the Great Firewall, but a distinct attack tool that hijacks traffic to individual IP addresses, and can arbitrarily replace unencrypted content as a man-in-the-middle attack.” And it has the Obama administration wary. Jeff Rathke, acting deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said any effort to censor the Web or use it in an offensive fashion is troubling. “We are concerned by reports that China has used a new cyber capability to interfere with the ability of worldwide Internet users to access content posted outside of China,” Rathke said. “The cyberattack manipulated international Web traffic intended for one of China’s biggest Web-services companies and turned it into malicious traffic directed at U.S. sites," he said last week. “We have asked Chinese authorities to investigate this activity and provide us with the results of their investigation.” For well over a decade, Chinese officials have routinely blocked access from within China to a variety of Web sites, typically for hosting content that is critical of Beijing or its policies, using something often called The Great FireWall of China. The Great Firewall uses a mesh of active and passive filters that can scan for keywords in messages and search requests. Keywords deemed triggers reroute Web traffic away from banned pages and either to government-approved sites or into the oblivion of cyberspace. The Great Cannon uses the Firewall’s existing infrastructure, but then weaponizes global Web traffic into a focused, offensive system. In its first use, the Great Cannon was used to censor sites Beijing finds troublesome. But cyber-researcher and report co-author Nicholas Weaver says censorship is the least of the threats posed by the device. “It was basically big and showy, but not very effective,” he said, warning that with little modification the Great Cannon could take on powerful offensive capabilities. “I could modify it, for example, to intercept all emails coming from China directed to a target,” he said. “If there happens to be an email to my target with a Word document, I could modify that Word document to contain an exploit, which would be effectively unnoticeable to everybody.” But China isn’t alone in possessing such advanced cybertools. A full year before the Great Cannon’s launch, in March 2014, journalists Ryan Gallagher and Glenn Greenwald published a lengthy report on a series of classified programs run by the U.S. National Security Agency, the details of which were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Among those programs are several that allegedly operate under the name QUANTUM. Citing the leaked NSA documents, Gallagher and Greenwald detail QUANTUM’s ability to conduct actions which potentially would allow the NSA to alter or destroy a target’s databases, employ botnets for sustained attacks, and even reroute Web traffic to phony NSA-sponsored sites. That makes QUANTUM a powerful bundle of tools that could, conceivably, allow the NSA near-complete access and control of a target’s computer systems. Queries to the NSA for comment about the existence of QUANTUM were not returned. But Citizen Lab researchers, in their report on the Great Cannon, noted similarities between the Great Cannon and QUANTUM. “While employed for a highly visible attack in this case, the Great Cannon clearly has the capability for use in a manner similar to the NSA’s QUANTUM system, affording China the opportunity to deliver exploits targeting any foreign computer that communicates with any China-based Web site not fully utilizing HTTPS,” researchers wrote. The powerful Web tools go to the heart of an emerging debate of whether they are espionage tools or offensive weapons. “Neither,” said Bruce Schneier, a longtime crypto-analyst and chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm Resilient Systems. “There’s no difference anymore.” Schneier and others say that techniques used in the Great Cannon and QUANTUM aren’t new. In his book “Data and Goliath,” Schneier writes that the technology has been available on the market for years. “The cyberweapons manufacturer Hacking Team sells packet injection technology to any government willing to pay for it,” Schneier wrote. “Criminals use it. And there are hacker tools that give the capability to individuals as well. All of these existed before I wrote about QUANTUM. By using its knowledge to attack others rather than to build up the Internet's defenses, the NSA has worked to ensure that anyone can use packet injection to hack into computers.” Schneier says the boundary between cyber-espionage and cyberattacks is gone, and that “as long as cyber-espionage equals cyberattack, we would be much safer if we focused the NSA's efforts on securing the Internet from these attacks.” Researcher Weaver said that while QUANTUM may have more in common with the Great Firewall than the Great Cannon, these tools – whether used for espionage or censorship or something else – are essentially weapons. "The Great Cannon is explicitly an offensive weapon. It just was used here to further their censorship goals," Weaver said. "The actual Cannon design is not constructed to efficiently block banned content, but rather its designed to explicitly hijack remote computers." And, Weaver said, there’s only really one way to protect anyone’s computers or communications from being attacked. “Encrypt everything,” Weaver said. “Every unencrypted Web site or communication is a vulnerability if your adversary can see the traffic and knows it’s coming from you. That’s the fundamental problem. We need to encrypt everything, all the time, as a matter of self-defense.” NSA chief urges framework for using and protecting data By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States must create a framework for mass data collection that can quickly yield insights while still protecting citizens’ privacy, the nation’s cyber chief said Monday. Michael Rogers, who heads both the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, said such a framework is vital to identifying and heading off terrorist activities. "What concerns me the most is timely access to data, because if we are going to generate outcomes in a process that takes weeks and months, it doesn't really generate the kind of value we need," said Rogers, a U.S. Navy admiral. "We need to come up with a process that lets us generate insights and access the data in a much quicker time frame," he said. Rogers’ comments, at a cybersecurity forum at the George Washington University in Washington, were his first since a federal appeals court ruled last Thursday that NSA's bulk collection of telephone records is illegal. The ruling adds urgency to congressional reforms of surveillance undertaken through the Patriot Act, legislation set to expire June 1. The massive surveillance effort, exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also has angered some of America’s European allies who were subjected to scrutiny. Last month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill that would extend the controversial surveillance authority through 2020. Proponents believe the screening enables the discovery of potential terrorist activity. President Barack Obama has proposed that the government no longer collect telephone records, but that the records should be held by private telephone companies. The government would be able to query individual phone numbers upon the order of a special court. "It just can't be the government doing this all by itself" because the number of threats has never been greater, Rogers said. "Cyber is a great equalizer. To achieve capability in cyber doesn't take billions of dollars." There’s no easy answer to balancing rights versus safety, the NSA chief said. "Information is increasingly becoming a weapon . . . leading to a loss of life." He also called for more sharing of information between government and industry about cybersecurity threats. U.S. presents strong defense against critics of rights status By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States has mounted a vigorous defense at a United Nations public hearing to examine the U.S.'s human rights record. Representatives from 117 countries questioned the U.S. on issues including police brutality, racism and torture during the half-day hearing held by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. The U.S. was represented at the hearing by a large legal team fielding questions and sharp criticism from U.N. member states about the U.S. human rights record. The most persistent observations and expressions of disapproval had to do with alleged discriminatory practices against racial minorities and the excessive use of force by law enforcement. The U.S. delegation said it was proud of the country's human rights record, but admitted the record was not spotless. It fell to James Cadogan, senior counselor to the assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, to explain several controversial cases involving police and minorities, including the fatal shooting last year of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The police officer who shot and killed the African-American teenager was not indicted. Cadogan, who works in the Civil Rights Division, said the Department of Justice investigates and brings civil actions to change unlawful or discriminatory policing policies when systemic problems emerge. “For instance, in March, we released a report finding that the police department of Ferguson, Missouri, engaged in a pattern or practice of racially discriminatory policing. Furthermore, we have opened more than 20 investigations in the last six years, including an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department announced on Friday. And, we are currently enforcing 16 landmark agreements with state or local law enforcement agencies,” said Cadogan. The investigation in Baltimore, Maryland, follows the death of 25-year-old African-American Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in police custody. Six officers in this case have been charged in his death. People who say they were victims of racial discrimination and attended the hearing were not satisfied with U.S. assurances it was doing its best to eliminate excessive use of force and discriminatory practices in the country’s police forces. One person presented testimony on the sidelines of the meeting about the suffering he said he and his family endured following the fatal police shooting of his sister. An off-duty Chicago police officer fatally shot Martinez Sutton’s sister, Rekia Boyd, on March 21, 2012, while she was in a park with friends. The police officer who shot Boyd was acquitted three weeks ago in what civil rights lawyers call a flawed trial. Sutton said he does not expect that anything will change following the uproar over Michael Brown or Freddie Gray. “I came here to raise awareness about this issue as I have been doing for three years. I have been going around asking for help… I do not expect them to do anything because - I mean: Let us be real, it has been going on for years and what has been done? As I stated before, they say the guilty should be punished. I want them to show us instead of tell us,” said Sutton. Countries participating in the debate proposed a number of recommendations to the U.S. These included calls for the U.S. to abolish capital punishment, close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, prevent acts of torture, eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and combat violence against women. The U.N. public hearing is part of the so-called Universal Periodic Review, which all 193 U.N. member countries must undergo every four years. This is the second time the United States' record has been examined under this procedure. A U.N. report on the review and recommendations are scheduled to be adopted Friday. Legacy of Steve Jobs called continuing Apple philosophy By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In the three years since his death, the company Steve Jobs led has more than doubled in size and continues to engage in risky, inspired innovations like the Apple watch. “He worked really hard in his last years to set up Apple for success and create systems and ways of thinking that would live on after his death,” said Rick Tetzeli, co-author of "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader," who believes the company’s continued success is one of the Apple co-founder’s greatest legacies. Jobs died of complications associated with pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 in 2011. For the book, Tetzeli interviewed the people who knew Jobs best. Through such stories, he and co-author Brent Schlender explore the many facets of Jobs' personality. He was often described as difficult and obsessive over the smallest details in the design of his products. “If you worked closely with Steve Jobs, you had stood up to him,” Tetzeli said. “He dismissed people who did not fight for their ideas. So he fought with his all close executives. It was that natural sort of debate that he thought would lead to the best products.” Tetzeli found that Jobs took a very personal interest in peoples’ lives and understood that money was a big motivator. “People who worked for him closely made a lot of money, but it was much more about the quality of your work, doing the best work you possibly could do,” he said. “And even people who got fired by him or who ended their relationships with him badly, all say they did the best work of their life while working for him.” In 2009, while Jobs was on the waiting list for a liver transplant, senior Apple executive Tim Cook approached his ailing boss, mentor and friend and offered his liver. Jobs said no. “Cook told us this story because he thought it was a story that showed how Jobs was not a selfish man,” Tetzeli said. “But it’s also a story that showed us how intense the relationships were between Jobs and his key lieutenants.” Tetzeli believes the development of the iPhone was the pinnacle of Jobs’ career. “It’s the most important device he created,” he said. “It changes the way we think of technology. It makes technology a mobile thing in a way that it never had been before. It’s a profound, profound change from the world where our technology just sits at a desk.” |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 92 | |||||||||
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U.N. agency urges
stronger traffic laws
Special to A.M. Costa Rica
In Latin America and the Caribbean, over half of road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists, according to a regional report on road safety published by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. The report warns that stronger traffic law enforcement is needed to reduce the number of road deaths and especially to protect vulnerable groups. In the Americas, some 150,000 people died in 2010 as a result of traffic injuries. The health organization's "Report on Road Safety in the Region of the Americas" notes that the risks faced by different types of road users differ significantly across subregions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 27 percent of road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, 20 percent among motorcyclists and 3.7 percent among bicyclists. In North America, the highest proportion of deaths is among car occupants (70 percent), with pedestrians accounting for 12 percent of road deaths. In the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, 44 percent of road traffic deaths are among motorcyclists. As motorcycles have become a more common form of transportation in the Americas, they have also grown as a road safety concern, the report notes. Motorcycle-related mortality rose significantly between 1998 and 2010 in all subregions. "The challenge for the Americas is to have adequate public transportation policies to cope with the increased use of motorcycles and to ensure measures that will protect all vulnerable road users," said Eugenia Rodrigues, the organiation's regional advisor on road safety. "The region has made progress in terms of legislation in recent years, but there is still a lot that needs to be done." The regional report on road safety notes that 42 percent of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean is now protected by drinking-and-driving laws, but only five of the 14 countries with such laws consider their enforcement as good. The report also warns that laws on motorcycle helmet use have improved, but more efforts are needed to enforce those laws and to ensure that helmets meet quality standards. The report also notes that policies that promote walking or biking must be accompanied by investments in public transportation systems to provide alternatives to motor vehicle transport and in particular to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The countries of the Americas in 2011 collectively adopted a regional road safety action plan that calls on countries to adapt their legislation to address the top five risk factors for road safety: speed, alcohol, helmet use, seat-belt use and child restraints. The Third United Nations Global Road Safety Week, observed May 4 to 10, seeks to draw attention to the plight of children on the world's roads and to spur action to better ensure their safety. The health organization said it is joining the call for the adoption of 10 key strategies to ensure child safety on roads and streets: controlling speed, reducing drinking and driving, using helmets for bicyclists and motorcyclists, restraining children in vehicles, improving children's ability to see and be seen, enhancing road infrastructure, adapting vehicle design, reducing risks for young drivers, providing appropriate care for injured children, and supervising children around streets and roads. |
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| From Page 7: Picasso painting is record at $179 million By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Two 20th century masterpieces smashed world records at a New York art auction Monday, dubbed by collectors as the sale of the century. Pablo Picasso's "The Woman of Algiers -- Version O" sold for more than $179 million at Christie's Auction House. This was the highest price ever paid for a single painting. The Spanish master created the work as part of a series of paintings created in 1954 and 1955. The name of the telephone buyer was not disclosed. Another buyer paid $141 million for Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti's "Pointing Man." That price smashed the record for a piece of sculpture. Another Giacometti pointing man sculpture held the previous record. Thirty-four pieces of rare art were sold at Monday's auction, bringing in $706 million. Experts say interest in modern art and Impressionism is soaring among private investors. |
