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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Thursday,
May 14, 2015,
Vol.
15, No. 94
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Solar power grid
link will carry a cost
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Home and business owners who plan to produce solar electricity and sell it back to the utility are going to face a lot of a paperwork and costs. The nation's regulatory agency said Wednesday that those who do so will have to pay for the connections themselves because the costs should not be born by electrical users who are not selling energy back to the utilities. Left unsaid is exactly how much these connections will cost. The homes presumably already are hooked to the electrical net but with power flowing in just one direction. The agency, the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos, said that this cost of hooking up has yet to be announced. That will be done by the Intendencia de Energía. Power companies have been foot dragging for months over the sale of power by private generators. The companies are involved in writing the rules, so those with solar electrical generators might be surprised by the complexity. The idea is that those with the solar panels will be able to sell their excess power to the utilities when they are generating a surplus. At other times the home or commercial building will draw what extra power it needs from the utility. The price the utility pays for the excess will offset somewhat the cost of the electric bill. However, the Autoridad already has said that payments for private power generation might be only once a year. Utilities are required to purchase the excess power because of a law. Those installing solar panels have said that wrestling with the bureaucracy on behalf of customers will be part of the job. Rough seas predicted on both coasts By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The weather is not a local phenomenon. A high pressure system in the Atlantic is merging with a low pressure system north of Colombia generating choppy Caribbean seas. And in Antarctica there is an intense storm that is doing the same for the Pacific. These are the reports of the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Three meter waves are expected in the Caribbean, said the Centro. The wave height should diminish by Saturday, it added. Waves nearly that high were predicted for Wednesday for the south Pacific with slightly smaller waves at points up the coast. The wave height is expected to diminish today. On both coasts, the Centro said that there would be danger to small boats, particularly at river mouths. The Pacific beaches also will have rip tides, that can be fatal to bathers, the Centro noted. In any event, the breakers are supposed to be very strong. Instability causing winds and downpours By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Unstable weather conditions will bring electrical storms this morning to the Caribbean coast and the northern zone, said the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. The Ríos Sixaola and Bananito were reported rising in the late afternoon. In the Central Valley the instability will mean strong winds, cloudy skies and some showers, the institute added. The weather institute also said that there will be strong winds in the north Pacific with heavy downpours in the central and south Pacific coasts Our reader's opinion
U.N. food estimate seems overblownDear A.M. Costa Rica: Refer to subject article today's A.M. Costa Rica - with specific reference to the following paragraph: "The world population is expected to climb to 9 billion by 2050. By that time the demand for food will double. Accommodating those future needs is a concern today, especially for the more than 800 million people who go to bed hungry." By my calculations: Current population at 7.2 billion vs 9.0 billion projected by 2050 equals a 25 percent increase in population. This results in (according to the U.N.) a 100 percent increase in demand for food. This type of fear mongering is nothing new as it has been ongoing for at least the past half century to my recollection. Outright silliness proving once again that the U.N. has progressed (?) well beyond its Best Before Date a long time ago. J. H. Penner
Richmond, British Columbia Press group raps Venezuelan exit order Special to A.M. Costa Rica
A Venezuelan court has prevented the departure from the country of 22 executives and representatives of news media involved in a lawsuit filed by the national assembly president, Diosdado Cabello. They're accused of having reproduced an article that links Cabello with drug trafficking. Judge María Eugenia Núñez Wednesday issued the restriction which prohibits owners and executives of the newspapers El Nacional and Tal Cual and the online publication La Patilla to leave Venezuela, as requested by Cabello in a suit filed April 23, said the Inter American Press Association which condemned the court order. Those three media outlets reproduced a report published by the Spanish newspaper ABC based on statements by Leamsy Salazar, a former close collaborator of Cabello. The information, attested to by the Spanish newspaper’s editors, declared that Cabello was one of the heads of the Soles drug cartel that engages in cocaine trafficking in Venezuela. Among the 22 persons subject to the court order are Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of El Nacional, Teodoro Petkoff Malec, editor of Tal Cual, and Alberto Federico Ravell, owner of La Patilla. Inter American Press Association President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Perú, newspaper La República, declared that the order to the media executives not to leave the country “demonstrates once more how the Venezuelan judicial system is being used as an instrument of political power. There is no compliance with the guarantees of due process, which imply that the judge should have first interrogated the accused individually to determine whether or not to issue the restriction order in each case.” Concerning the issue in question, the lawsuit for having published assertions made by the foreign press, Mohme said, “This action violates the principles established by the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which ruled that the media cannot be held responsible for faithfully publishing information that was originally disseminated by other media.” Mohme thus was referring to the court’s ruling that exonerated journalist Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, currently Costa Rica’s communication minister, and the San José newspaper La Nación, after they were found guilty of defamation by that country’s Corte Suprema, for having replicated news items from European media concerning alleged corrupt acts that involved a former Costa Rican diplomat. The chairman of the association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, said that the court’s action occurs within an overall framework of serious restrictions and attacks on critical and independent media, which “unmasks the climate of authoritarianism that the Nicolás Maduro regime favors.” “This judicial harassment,” Paolillo added, “is another link in the long restrictive chain that includes strangling the privately owned media so as to purchase them, directly or through front men, and thus build up an extensive propaganda machinery, which conspires against the free flow of plural and diverse information, that is essential for a democracy.” U.S. bee colony losses more than 40% By the University of Maryland news staff
Beekeepers across the United States lost more than 40 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2014 to April 2015, according to the latest results of an annual nationwide survey. While winter loss rates improved slightly compared to last year, summer losses - and consequently, total annual losses were more severe. Commercial beekeepers were hit particularly hard by the high rate of summer losses, which outstripped winter losses for the first time in five years, stoking concerns over the long-term trend of poor health in honey bee colonies. The survey, which asks both commercial and small-scale beekeepers to track the health and survival rates of their honey bee colonies, is conducted each year by the Bee Informed Partnership in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "We traditionally thought of winter losses as a more important indicator of health, because surviving the cold winter months is a crucial test for any bee colony," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Maryland and project director for the Bee Informed Partnership. "But we now know that summer loss rates are significant too. This is especially so for commercial beekeepers, who are now losing more colonies in the summertime compared to the winter. Years ago, this was unheard of." Beekeepers who responded to the survey lost a total of 42.1 percent of their colonies over the course of the year. Winter loss rates decreased from 23.7 percent last year to 23.1 percent this year, while summer loss rates increased from 19.8 percent to 27.4 percent. Among backyard beekeepers (defined as those who manage fewer than 50 colonies), a clear culprit in losses is the varroa mite, a lethal parasite that can easily spread among colonies. Among commercial beekeepers, the causes of the majority of losses are not as clear. "Backyard beekeepers were more prone to heavy mite infestations, but we believe that is because a majority of them are not taking appropriate steps to control mites," vanEngelsdorp said. "Commercial keepers were particularly prone to summer losses. But they typically take more aggressive action against varroa mites, so there must be other factors at play." This is the ninth year of the winter loss survey, and the fifth year to include summer and annual losses in addition to winter loss data. More than 6,000 beekeepers from all 50 states responded to this year's survey. All told, these beekeepers are responsible for nearly 15 percent of the nation's estimated 2.74 million managed honey bee colonies. The survey is part of a larger research effort to understand why honey bee colonies are in such poor health, and what can be done to manage the situation.
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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, Thursday, May 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 94 | |
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School children on their way to Escuela de Santa Rita pass by heavily armed Fuerza Pública officers, who will be guarding the school for an indefinite time. |
 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública photo
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| Police mount guard to secure battleground among three drug
gangs |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
School children went to classes Wednesday under police guard in a notorious section of Alajuela. The area, called El Infiernillo, was the scene of a war among three gangs Tuesday that culminated with battles with police. The three gangs are trying to assert dominance over the area, part of Barrio San José, for drug sales and other illegal activities. Some residents said they have been sleeping in a bath tub for fear of stray bullets. After gunfire broke out Tuesday morning, parents quickly |
removed
their children from the local Escuela de Santa Rita after police
secured the area Wednesday. Juan José Andrade Morales, the
head of the
Fuerza Pública, met with public school officials to map out a
strategy
to safeguard youngsters. That meant stationing heavily armed officers around the school and along routes children take. At one point there were some 50 heavily armed police officers in the area. Officials noted that the Alajuela force cannot dedicate half of its strength to this small area, so police are working with judicial agents to break up the gangs. The adult leaders are well known. Many of the gang members are juveniles. |
| Lawmaker wants court to order gender parity on legislative
committees |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A female legislator has filed a constitutional court case because she said there is a disparity in the number of women on key legislative committees. The lawmaker is Emilia Molina Cruz of the Partido Acción Ciudadana. She said that the legislature is 38 percent women but that at least one committee has only men as members. The Costa Rica electoral code provides that party lists presented for election contain a representative number of women. |
There does
not seem to be an established law or tradition
in the legislature where membership is defined by politics. The appeal is supported by Frente Amplio, the Movimiento Libertario and other members of the legislator's political party. Both the Partido Acción Ciudadana and Frente Amplio were not members of a coalition that won leadership roles May 1. The appeal seeks to have the constitutional court order the president of the Asamblea Legislativa to guarantee membership of women in the various legislative commissions. |
| Displays from 20 museums to be presented Monday at culture
ministry |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The culture ministry is celebrating the international day of museums Monday by bringing together displays from 20 such institutions at the Centro Nacional de la Cultura. The event is called the Feria de Museos Costarricenses. The free event is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museums also will be having events on their home grounds. Among the exhibitors are some of the lesser-known museums. They are: Museo Calderón Guardia, Museo de Arte Costarricense, |
Museo
de Arte y
Diseño Contemporáneo, Museo de la Comunidad Judía
de Costa Rica, Museo
Histórico Agrícola de Santa Ana / Centro de
Conservación Santa Ana,
Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría, Museo Islita,
Museo La Salle
de Ciencias Naturales, Museo Leone de Ujarrás. Also the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, Museo Regional de San Ramón, Museo Regional Omar Salazar Obando de Turrialba, Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica, Parque Zoológico, Jardín Botánico Nacional Simón Bolívar, Archivo Nacional, Fundación ARS TEOR/éTica, Asociación AcciónArte, Conarte, and Fundación ILAM. |
| 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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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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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 94 | |||||
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| More U.S. citizens choosing to give up their citizenship
over tax rules |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
It’s a highly coveted passport that represents freedom and opportunity to millions of people worldwide, yet more Americans than ever are renouncing their U.S. citizenship. A record number of Americans, 1,337, relinquished their passports in the first three months of 2015, according to the U.S. government. That’s up 18 percent from last year at this time, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News, and nearly 40 percent of the total 3,415 Americans who gave up their passports in 2014. “It was a gut wrenching experience that I do not think I will ever be over,” former American Ruth Freeborn told reason.com. Ms. Freeborn says she is a stay-at-home mother who married a Canadian man and moved to Canada to help care for his elderly parents. She blames the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act for forcing her into a decision she didn’t want to make. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which was enacted by Congress in 2010, was designed to target rich Americans who use foreign accounts to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The legislation known as FATCA requires that foreign financial institutions report accounts held by U.S. taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. government agency responsible for tax collection. The United States taxes its citizens on all income, regardless of where it is earned or where a person lives. This can lead to complicated and time-consuming paperwork that some ex-patriots complain has been made even more burdensome by FATCA. “The cost of compliance with the complex tax treatment of non-resident U.S. citizens and the potential penalties I face for incorrect filings and for holding non-U.S. securities forces |
me to
consider whether it would be more advantageous to give up
my U.S. citizenship,” Stephanos Orestis, an American living in Norway,
wrote in a March 23 letter to the Senate Finance Committee.
“The thought of doing so is highly distressing
for me since I am a born and bred American with a love for my country.” More than 7 million Americans live abroad, according to the IRS. Many of those who have chosen to renounce their citizenship have limited ties to the United States. Some were born in the United States but have lived elsewhere their entire lives. Anyone born in the U.S. automatically receives citizenship, as do people born abroad to American parents. Eduardo Saverin, the Brazilian-born billionaire co-founder of Facebook, trimmed his tax bill when he relinquished his U.S. citizenship in 2012. “I am obligated to and will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the U.S. government,” said Saverin in a statement at the time. “I have paid and will continue to pay any taxes due on everything I earned while a U.S. citizen.” As Saverin learned, giving up U.S. citizenship doesn’t come cheap. There’s the $2,350 renunciation fee and an exit tax that can climb into the millions of dollars. But some who have renounced have found there’s an emotional cost to giving up U.S. citizenship, which often goes to the core of Americans’ identity. American-born Patricia Moon, who lives in Canada, renounced her citizenship not long after FATCA was enacted. “I was terrified we’d lose all our money,” Ms. Moon, who became a Canadian citizen in 2008, told the Guardian. But the decision to give up her American passport wasn’t an easy one. “It was like cutting off my right arm.” |
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 |
| 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 Fifth
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| U.S. House votes to end collecting phone records By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Legislation that would end the U.S. National Security Agency's massive collection of telephone records of ordinary Americans has been overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives. The legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, passed Wednesday by a vote 338 to 88. Instead of the bulk collection of phone records, including the date, time, and duration of the phone call, the bill would require the NSA to obtain the records from private phone companies after getting a court order from a secret national security court. The program came under fire from advocates of civil liberties after former contractor Edward Snowden disclosed it to journalists in 2013. The House bill received strong support from both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, as well as President Barack Obama. The measure now moves over to the Senate, where it is strongly opposed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has sponsored a measure that would renew the current program. However, a large bipartisan faction is also demanding an end to the NSA program, which could force McConnell to bring the reform measure up for a vote. The NSA bulk telephone collection program was authorized under the USA Patriot Act, which was passed in days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City. A federal appeals court in New York just last week ruled the NSA bulk phone collection program was illegal, but refused to issue an injunction against the agency. The section of the USA Patriot Act that authorized the NSA program is due to expire on June 1. Massive numbers of records probably not needed today By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As U.S. lawmakers debate whether to continue an American spy agency’s massive collection of telephone metadata or approve a less intrusive version, experts say the program may not be as critical as it was once thought to be. The collection program falls under section 215 of the Patriot Act, which was passed in the panic-filled aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. One former senior intelligence official, acknowledged priorities have changed. “There may be a sense that it may not be as important as we thought it was going to be in 2001, 2002,” the former official said in a telephone interview. Moreover, he said, the line between civil liberties and security has also shifted. “The country saw the line very differently on Sept. 13, 2001, in which case I think there was a sense of ‘do whatever you have to do,’” he said. “I think the country has dialed back a little bit, perhaps because we’ve not had any terrorist attack.” Supporters of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection have said it is an important tool to prevent terrorist attacks. Critics believe it is a violation of Americans’ civil liberties. In 2001, mobile phones were widely used by al-Qaida and other terrorist networks. The U.S. military has used satellite and cell phone signals to help locate targets. Today, terrorists are aware they can be tracked through cell phone calls, and leaders of groups like the Islamic State have warned their followers of the risks. As a result, terrorists and their supporters use a medley of different electronic communication tools, such as WhatsApp, SnapChat, TextSecure, Twitter, Kik, ChatSecure, Telegram, RedPhone, Silent Phone, several of which offer destruct features after use. They also discuss the latest technologies to avoid being detected by government-led content surveillance. Carrie Cordero, director of national security studies at Georgetown Law, says despite the attention the Section 215 bulk telephone metadata collection is getting, it is less relevant in the U.S. counterterrorism effort than it used to be. “Is it the most valuable program? Probably not,” Ms. Cordero said. But she adds that national security leaders say it is still useful. “They are not asserting that it’s the most productive collection program that exists, but that it was intended to fill a particular gap that was identified after September 11, and that it’s an insurance policy to ensure that that gap doesn’t occur again.” A federal appeals court in early May declared the bulk gathering of phone data as illegal, on the basis that collecting such a high volume of phone records strained the reasonable definition of what is relevant to a particular investigation. Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel in the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Section 215, the authority under which U.S. intelligence agencies collect data on telephone numbers of calls to, from and within the United States, and which was due to expire on June 1, was used as a doorway into even broader and more intrusive surveillance techniques. “Section 215 is collecting a lot of records, I don’t want to understate that,” Nojeim said, and added that “it is used to identify potential targets for more invasive surveillance, including communications content surveillance. This is how it works: the FBI or NSA collect phone call records, then run a particular number against those records. Once they find what number has been calling what number, they can establish networks and patterns of phone calls. That information is then used to help them decide whom to target under a different part of the Patriot Act, known as Section 702. Under Section 702, surveillance has to be targeted, that is, it has to be selector-based, meaning either a particular email or phone number. Once that is established, the content of the information associated with that email or phone number can be collected and surveilled. That would include social media, texts, emails and other modes of communication. Section 702, Nojeim said, “is a particularly difficult statute because it involves surveillance conducted in the United States of people outside the United States by compelling U.S. providers to turn over their communications content.” But there is more. Even though Section 702 cannot be used to target Americans, it is used to target foreigners who may speak with Americans. “What the statute is being used for is to compel a U.S. provider to, for example, turn over all the emails to or from a particular email address that is associated with a non-U.S. person abroad. Those emails may well include the communications of people who are in the United States or people who are Americans,” explained Nojeim. As yet, Congress has not focused on this statute, which is not due to expire until 2017. “Those types of content-based collections, I think government officials have said, are probably the most valuable means of collecting signals intelligence,” Cordero said. Even if that statute comes under fire, intelligence agencies can also collect information on leads developed through Section 215 with another tool in their surveillance tool box: Executive Order 12333. That order was first issued by President Ronald Reagan to govern surveillance and other intelligence techniques used to collect foreign intelligence information. According to Nojeim, the EO 12333 definition of foreign intelligence information is so broad that it imposes no meaningful restriction on surveillance of people outside the United States. Under the order, any activity of a foreign person, whether or not tied to a foreign government, qualifies as foreign intelligence information and can also be collected in bulk. “When collection is done in bulk, more and more communications of people who have nothing to do with a foreign government, foreign terrorist organization, who have nothing to do with spying or espionage, gets collected, including the communications of Americans,” Nojeim said. The volume of the NSA’s mass surveillance and bulk telephone metadata gathering became public after it was leaked by Edward Snowden to The Guardian newspaper. Critics said the breadth of the surveillance surpassed the intention of the law. Bob Litt, general counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged last week that the intelligence community needs to be more transparent about its work if it wants to maintain public support. But he insisted there has to be a balance between transparency and security. “The fact of the matter is the more you authorize release of information about specifically what we are doing, the more you enable people to evade what we’re doing, and that is the balance that has to be struck in any kind of legislation like this.” The former senior intelligence official who agreed to speak also agreed with that assessment, and said if the US public felt more comfortable with its government dialing back its intelligence, that was its decision. But, he warned, “If we dial it back, if it turns out we dialed back too far in the other direction, and something happens, I would like Congress to stand up and take responsibility for that instead of blaming it on the intelligence services.” Harriet Tubman may win a place on new $20 bill By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The legendary Harriet Tubman, a black woman and escaped slave who led thousands of other slaves to freedom in the years before the Civil War, could one day become the new face of the U.S. $20 bill. More than 600,000 people voted in an online campaign dubbed Women on 20s, which seeks to remove the image of the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson, from the currency in favor of an accomplished woman by 2020. The campaign marks the 100th anniversary of the formal ratification of the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote. Although only the U.S. Treasury secretary can authorize the currency redesign, bills have also been introduced in Congress to put a woman's image on the banknote. Ms. Tubman helped blacks escape bondage from southern U.S. plantations by traveling along the so-called underground railroad, a secret network of people who shared her goal of abolishing the practice of slavery. Ms. Tubman won more than 118,000 votes to be the face on the $20 bill, putting her ahead of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 1950s civil rights hero Rosa Parks, and Wilma Mankiller, a native American and first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. "Our work won't be done until we're holding a Harriet $20 bill in our hands," said Susan Ades Stone, the group's executive director. Ms. Stone says the group has sent the results of the poll to President Barack Obama, and has asked him to instruct Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to move forward with the redesign. At present, the only woman on a currently circulating piece of U.S. currency is Sacagawea, on the dollar coin. Sacagawea was an American Indian woman who accompanied explorers Lewis and Clark on their expedition of the Western United States. The U.S. Mint lists two other coins depicting women: Helen Keller is on the reverse side of the 2003 Alabama quarter and Susan B. Anthony was on the dollar coin until 1981. Handshake grip considered good indication of health By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The strength of a grip could be a doctor's first clue about a person's long-term health. In a new study from Canada's McMaster University, researchers found that a handshake is a better indicator of health than blood pressure. Writing in the journal The Lancet, they reported that reduced grip strength was consistently linked with early death, disability and illness. Researchers measured muscle strength in nearly 140,000 adults over four years in 17 countries. Using a handgrip dynamometer, they found that for every 5-kilogram decline in grip strength, there was a 17 percent increased risk of death from any cause. That level of risk was not affected by any identifiable differences among the participants, including age, gender, education, physical activity or their countries' wealth. The researchers did take into account the probability that a healthy grip for a young man is likely to be stronger than the healthy grip of an old woman. They also noted that ethnicity appeared to make a difference. Further study is needed to set a benchmark for different countries, they said. Principal investigator Darryl Leong suggested, "Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual's risk of death and cardiovascular disease." What's not clear is whether working to strengthen a grip also improves health, Leong said more research was needed to answer that question. Debate surrounds bill to allow U.S. oil exports By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Proposed legislation to end a decades-long ban on exporting most U.S.-produced crude oil is sparking sharp debate in Washington and the energy industry. One oil company chief says the outdated rules hurt his company and keep the U.S. economy vulnerable to foreign oil producers. But ban supporters say ending it would boost consumer energy prices and hurt the environment. One bill to end the ban has been introduced in the House, another is expected in the Senate. U.S. drivers waited in long, frustrating lines in 1973 when Arab oil exporters cut supplies to the United States. Worries about access to oil and soaring prices then prompted a new law blocking the export of U.S.-produced crude oil. The ban had little effect when the United States was importing more and more crude to make up for falling U.S. oil production. But new techniques in recent years, called fracking, boosted domestic production and cut U.S. demand for imported oil. That falling demand pushed down global prices and, ironically, hurt U.S. frackers. Oil producers say lifting the export ban, which they call outdated would help their companies. Chris Faulker, who leads Breitling Oil, said, “Things have changed, we are not in the idea of fear and scarcity; exuberance and abundance describes the United States of America today. But this law is continuing to hold us back and drag us into the 1970s." But ending the ban would hurt consumers, said Tyson Slocum, who runs the energy program at the Public Citizen advocacy group. “The likely result would be higher gasoline prices in the U.S. market," said Slocum. Oil industry experts say exports, however, could cut U.S. gasoline prices. “Because it is putting more supply, other options into the world markets. Gasoline is marketed across the planet not just in the United States so we could see a price reduction occur," said Faulker. The industry’s critics also say exporting crude would encourage more drilling which would hurt the environment. “Allowing uninhibited oil exports is going to vastly increase the rate of fracking and that is going to cause a lot more environmental harm," said Slocum. However, the oil industry calls environmental concerns exaggerated, and contends that properly conducted drilling, including fracking, does not cause undue harm. |
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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 sixth news page |
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 University of Pennsylvania/Mary P.
Williams
Saurornitholestes sullivani attacks
a much larger dinosaur.New,
smaller dino called fierce hunter
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
It may have been small, but the newly identified dinosaur was fierce. The 75 million-year-old fossil skull, found by paleontologist Robert Sullivan in New Mexico in 1999, was thought to be from a species of raptor found in what is now Montana and Alberta, part of a family of swift, powerful predatory dinosaurs like the velociraptor. But Steven Jasinski, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, found some subtle, but significant, differences. This dinosaur, which he named Saurornitholestes sullivani, had an unusually large area of its skull where the brain's olfactory bulb would be. That meant this species "had a relatively better sense of smell. This keen olfaction may have made S. sullivani an intimidating predator as well." S. sullivani, which lived around the end of the age of dinosaurs, is the only named creature from this period found in the southern part of North America. It was less than a meter high at its hip, and about 2 meters from head to tail. Jasinski suggested that it was agile and fast, perhaps hunting in packs, "not a dinosaur you would want to mess with." Jasinski's findings are reported in this month's New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. Macaques join the ranks of tool-users By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Like early Homo sapiens, Burmese long-tailed macaques use stone tools to get to their food. A study published in the journal PLOS One details how the monkeys on an island in southern Thailand use stones and shells to hammer open oysters and shellfish. During eight years of observation, Amanda Tan from Nanyan Technological University in Singapore identified the parts of the tool used (the flat face, the narrow edge or the point) and the ways they were used (hammering with one hand, bashing down with both hands, using them with a stone anvil). Tan and her colleagues determined that 80 percent of the macaques on the island used tools, and that they chose the tool based on the need. They used the point of smaller stones for the precision strikes needed to crack open oysters and the flat side of large stones to hammer other shellfish that were placed on larger rocks. Earlier studies have found other primates using tools. Cataloging the tools and actions used by macaques can help future studies comparing tool use and how it developed among different primates. |
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| From Page 7: Sustainable builders presenting green expo By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Green builders from all over the Americas are meeting through Friday at the Hotel Barceló San José Palacio in La Uruca, and there is an expo of environmentally friendly building products and techniques that is open to the public during the daytime both today and Friday. The sponsor is the Consejo de Construcción Verde de Costa Rica. An announcement said that today will be inaugurated the Programa EDGE, which is designed to evaluate and calculate the carbon dioxide emitted by a building as well as its energy consumption, water use and other resources. Representatives from a number of national and international agencies are attending the conference. They met with former president José María Figueres of the Carbon War Fund at a welcoming reception. |
