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José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 152
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Plant experts
begin bacterium battle
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government has declared an emergency to fight a bacterium that is attacking ornamental palms and coffee plants. The disease caused the European Union to ban Costa Rican ornamental plants in May. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said that the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, has been linked to a serious outbreak among olive tress in Apulia, Italy, and that researchers there traced the strain to Costa Rica. In addition, the bacterium has been detected on Costa Rican citrus trees since at least 2005. The Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado said that 20 million colons, some $38,000, has been earmarked to fight the disease. The plant health agency is working with the Cámara de Plantas y Follajes Ornamentales de Costa Rica to open the way for Costa Rican ornamentals into Europe again. Experts from there are supposed to visit the country at the end of the year. An ornamental coffee plant from Costa Rica was found with the bacterium in France, according to online sources. Plant pathologists at Berkeley know about the disease because grape vines there can become infected. However, they said in a Web site dedicated to the bacterium that the strain in Italy is one that never has been detected in the United States. The ornamental plant business in Costa Rica provides jobs to at least 600 workers. The disease, like many plant illnesses, is spread by insects. The Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado said it would begin an effort to determine how widespread the bacterium is here. The European Food Safety Authority said that the bacterium is transmitted by certain types of sap-sucking hopper insects and that the current outbreak has affected 8,000 hectares of olive trees in the Puglia region of Southern Italy. The bacteria can be hosted in a very broad range of plants including almond, peach, plum, apricot, grapevines, citrus, coffee and olive as well as oak, elm, Ginkgo and sunflower, the authority said. Our readers' opinions
Incinerator waste also is a problemDear A.M. Costa Rica: May I support and amplify Dr. Loren B. Ford's concerns over power from waste plants in Costa Rica. I was involved in such project assessments in Europe. Dr. Ford mentions the importance of regulation and enforcement regarding toxic carcinogenic emissions. The other issue is that the residue, of around 20 percent of the volume burnt, still goes to landfill. It contains concentrated heavy metals and other nasty substances. Because these are now contained in ash, when it rains they rapidly leech out. If the waste site is improperly sealed, this leads to leakage into the water table. My experience is that developing countries rarely have suitable waste sites or enforce appropriate regulations for this. Less haste might be appropriate with this seemingly green idea. Chris Clarke
Grecia He appreciates article on Windows 10 Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Kudos to Mr. Garland Baker for warning us about Windows 10 and letting us know about ways to overcome Microsoft’s intrusion of privacy; I’ve saved a copy for reference. What I didn’t read however was what disadvantages occur to the user if we don’t install version 10 altogether other than missing out on ”The system is faster, more efficient and easier to understand.”? That’s always the claim, is it not, yet Vista and W8 were nothing but a pain in the processor until they straightened them out with numerous patches. I believe that creeping secret data mining is more dangerous than the debatable global warming science being touted by the anti-industry folks. And I find it irritating to receive countless pop-up ads and diversions while I’m in the middle of my work, necessitating frequent purging of cookies and software add-ons using my anti-malware. I’d rather see Microsoft put a little effort on freezing out this kind of thing from my Windows system rather than them joining the culprits in the effort. Whatever happened to simple Mr. Gates? Bob Normand
Quepos Dead photojournalist had been tortured Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association has expressed concern for the murder in Mexico of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, questioned the official means of protection and urged the authorities to urgently investigate so as to shed light on the crime and determine who was responsible so that it does not go unpunished. Espinosa, 31, worked for the Veracurz news agency AVC and was also correspondent of the magazine Proceso and of the Cuartoscuro agency. It was learned that his body, which showed signs of torture, was discovered on Friday in an apartment in the Mexico City neighborhood of Narvarte along with those of four women, several of whom were identified as Veracruz social activists. “We condemn Espinosa’s murder which we see as a serious sign of the decomposition and violence facing Mexico and journalists in particular,” declared association President Gustavo Mohme. “Something is failing,” added Mohme, editor of the Lima, Perú, newspaper La República, “and it is regrettable that Espinosa was killed precisely in Mexico City, where he had sought refuge so as to ensure his physical safety.” Until June this year Espinosa had been living and working for seven years in Xalapa, capital of Veracruz state, regarded as one of Mexico’s most dangerous places to work as a journalist. His move to Mexico City was made for reasons of security after he was attacked and intimidated on various occasions. Since 2012 he had been complaining of threats against his life connected to his work as a journalist . Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the press association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added, “We reiterate our criticism of the lack of stability and the ineffectiveness of the mechanism created in Mexico to protect journalists and human rights defenders.” Paolillo is editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda. Journalists, human rights organizations and social activists Sunday staged a demonstration in the Mexican capital calling for the official investigations to take into account Espinosa’s work as a journalist as a motive for the crime and the threats received by him, who used to cover social protests, among them those ones that demanded the solving of murders of journalists. Before learning of the discovery of the body the organization Artículo 19 published a Tweet saying, “At the request of Rubén Espinosa’s family it is made public that for the last 24 hours his whereabouts are unknown.” Also murdered in Mexico this year were journalists Filadelfo Sánchez Sarmiento of Oaxaca, Armando Saldaña Morales and Moisés Sánchez Cerezo, both from Veracruz. GOP candidates get their first forum By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Immigration was a key focus Monday night as Republicans hoping to be the next U.S. president took part in a forum ahead of the party's first official debate. Fourteen of the 17 major contenders were in New Hampshire for the two-hour event televised nationally on the same cable network that shows congressional proceedings and on local channels in the first states to vote in the nomination process early next year. Billionaire Donald Trump, the current leader in national polls, declined to participate, as did former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. The rest of the crowded field took turns speaking in individual interviews, a format different from the debate Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, that will allow candidates to address one another. That event will be limited to the top 10 candidates in national polls, according to party rules. They focused criticism on Democrats, particularly that party's leading candidate, Hillary Clinton, while expressing the need to focus on securing the nation's borders as a major component of immigration policy. "Until we get that border secure, it's not going to stop," former Texas governor Rick Perry said. "It's like a serious wound, you want to staunch the flow and that's not what's happening in this country now." Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said one piece of immigration reform should be limiting the number of people who are allowed to enter the U.S. to join family already living in the country. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also backed that idea. "We admit one million people a year legally to the United States, but we do so primarily on the basis of whether or not they have a relative living here," Rubio said. "We cannot afford to do it that way anymore. In the 21st century, legal immigration must be based on merit, on what you can contribute economically, basically whether you are coming to be an American as opposed to simply live in America." Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum advocated for a 25 percent cut in the number of low-skilled immigrants legally allowed into the country. Ohio's Gov. John Kasich said there should be an expansion in the guest worker program, and that illegal immigrants already in the U.S. who otherwise obey the law should be allowed to stay. On other topics, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker attacked the plan President Barack Obama unveiled Monday to cut carbon emissions from the nation's power plants, calling it a costly buzzsaw to the American economy. "I want to balance a sustainable environment with a sustainable economy, but the two have to go hand in hand," Walker said. Obama's Democratic Party has not yet announced a schedule for debates among its candidates in the November 2016 election. Five Democrats have declared they are in the race, with Mrs. Clinton the clear leader in polls. South Carolina's Sen. Lindsay Graham took aim at Mrs. Clinton at Monday's forum, suggesting she is being dishonest about her lack of public stance on the proposed Keystone oil pipeline and her controversial use of personal email during her time as secretary of State under Obama. "When she tells us, 'Trust me you've got all the emails you need,' we haven't even scratched the surface," Graham said. Thursday's Fox News event figures to include the same themes, as well as Trump, as candidates take part in the first of 12 debates planned by the Republican National Committee.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 152 | |
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| Ministerio de Obras Públicas tower is first of $300 million project | |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The $11 million tower for the public works ministry is just the first step. The central government plans to accommodate 11 public agencies in the same high-traffic area of Plaza Víquez. That was reaffirmed Monday by the presidential news sheet GobiernoCR that is produced weekly at Casa Presidencial. The report said that the area would be called Ciudad Gobierno. These agencies are expected to relocate there, according to Casa Presidencial publication: Ministerio de Planificación Nacional, Ministerio de Hacienda, Ministerio de Vivienda, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Instituto de Vivienda y Urbanismo, Ministerio de Educación Pública, Ministerio de Gobernación y Policía, Imprenta Nacional, Dirección de Migración y Extranjería, Dirección Nacional de Desarrollo Comunal and Dirección Nacional del Servicio Civil. Those are in addition to the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes, which already has awarded a contract for its prefabricated concrete tower. The government said it plans to save 32 billion colons a year that it now pays in rents. That is about $60.6 million. The total project is expected to cost $300 million. The government announcement said that putting the agencies all in one place will benefit the public. The immigration agency is now in La Uruca along the General Cañas Autopista. There was no indication from where the government expected to get the money for these towers. |
 Casa Presidencail photo
Another view of the
Ministerio de Obras Públicas towerThe plan seems to eliminate that of the Ministerio de Hacienda that was seeking to purchase an eight-story building northwest of the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Pedro. There also was a plan to relocate Casa Presidencial from its rented quarters in Zapote to the east side of Parque Nacional. The state already owns the land on which the government city would be erected. Meanwhile, the legislature is planning to build its own tower. |
| Five die in flurries of gunfire Sunday night and Monday
morning |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Five men died and two suffered gunshot wounds Sunday night and Monday morning. Four persons died in two shootings in Desamparados Sunday night. Someone gunned down a man on the streets of Jacó early Monday and wounded a bystander. In Dulce Nombre de Coronado a robber shot a 21 year old. The first killing happened about 9 p.m. Sunday in San Juan de Dios de Desamparados. A man with the last name of Fallas was walking along a street when a gunman on a motorcycle drove up and shot him. The second killing in Desamparados was in Loma Linda. There three persons died execution style. |
The Judicial
Investigating Organization said that a 39-year-old man with the last
name of González, a 34-year-old man with the
last name of Ramos and a 23-year-old man with the last name of Beita
were listed as victims. Two masked men arrived and shot Beita and Ramos in a house. Seconds later they encountered González in another structure and shot him, too. That was about 11 p.m. Sunday. About 1:30 a.m. in Jacó a 28-year-old man with the last name of De la Rosa was on a public street in the center of town when a gunman walked up and shot him fatally. A person nearby, identified by the last name of Rodríguez, suffered a bullet wound to the hand. Local police detained a suspect. The 21-year-old robbery victim with the last name of Salgueras was walking with a woman in Dulce Nombre about 10 p.m. Sunday when he suffered two bullet wounds. He went to Hospital Calderón Guardia. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 152 | |||||
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| Malware is now coming to computers disguised as innocent
advertising |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A new form of digital malicious software that preys on users' implicit trust in major online brands, such as YouTube or Adobe, is rapidly spreading across the Internet. Worse yet, these malvertisements may soon become the primary means of distributing what is known as malware, leaving users with little or no defense, a new study says. Researchers at the digital security firm RiskIQ will release their study today at the annual Black Hat cybersecurity and hacking convention in Las Vegas. The RiskIQ researchers monitored more than 2 billion Web pages and 10 million mobile apps over the past year. They found that the incidence of malvertising on those sites jumped by a whopping 260 percent from last year. The number of unique malvertisements also grew from year-ago levels by 60 percent. "Malvertisements is a combination of malware and advertisements, or simply malware that comes through an advertisement," said James Pleger, RiskIQ's research director and the report's author. "The litmus test for me is, first, if it’s something I don’t want on my computer, and second, if it was delivered through an advertisement, then it’s malvertising." For most users, a malvertisement would look as legitimate and indistinguishable as any of the other thousand-odd online ads offered up daily on Web sites, blogs and social networks. Malvertisements' hiding-in-the-open nature makes them effective at skirting the built-up skepticism of online trickery, Pleger said. Among the most popular malvertisements currently are pop-up ads advising users to update their software from a trusted service, such as Adobe’s popular Flash player. "So you go to a common Web site, and you get a pop-up with an ad that says your Flash is out of date," Pleger said. "... This isn’t actually Flash telling you it’s out of date. It’s an ad on the Web site that actually delivers malware. People click on that and they’re easily tricked into downloading it." Complicating matters, some malvertisements employ what are known as drive-by exploit kits, which can deliver malware through software security holes without the user having to click on a link or download anything. As soon as an ad loads onto a computer, smartphone or tablet, the device is infected. |
Perhaps the
biggest challenge in tracking down and eliminating
malvertising is what Pleger calls the vast, complex ecosystem that
creates online ads in the first place. Think of the cyber-ad space this way: Each site visited gathers as much information as it can: identity, social media activity, friends, the other Web sites visited and current searches. All that information and more is collected and then shared across a labyrinthine web of marketing firms, allowing advertisers to instantly create highly tailored and customized ads. That, for example, is how Facebook knows someone was shopping for gym shoes, because earlier the user was searching Amazon for the exact same thing. It also explains how the host sites often inadvertently can play host to malvertising, even while trying to combat it. "Security was an afterthought in this ad world," Pleger said. "This retargeting of ads almost makes a perfect platform for malvertising. You can actually use malvertisements to target specific types of users you’re interested in infecting. This is why it's a huge issue for users." Pleger expects malvertising will continue to surge in the coming year. He predicts the attacks increasingly will target mobile devices. "As more people are mobile, it’s a little easier to target them and they’re a little more used to some of the ad content in there," Pleger said. "We’re going to see a shift toward mobile and an increase in general of malvertising." While cybersecurity firms and e-commerce sites such as Amazon scramble to keep up with the evolving malvertisement threat, users can develop a few commonsense habits to try to keep devices clean. One of the best, said Pleger, is regularly updating a computer’s operating systems and applications. "The important thing, when you update your software, is that you go to that vendor’s Web site," Pleger said. "You don’t wait for pop-ups but proactively update yourself." Other good cyber-hygiene habits include creating strong passwords and using different passwords between various programs. That said, history proves that many users pay lip service to those suggestions, but rarely actually employ them. |
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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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 152 | |||||||
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| Puerto Rico misses payment and technically is in default By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The government of Puerto Rico has confirmed that it failed to make a $58 million debt payment that was due Saturday, a move that amounted to a default for the first time in its 117 years as a United States possession. Puerto Rican officials had warned Friday that they would not make the payment because the island legislature failed to appropriate the funds, but they argued it should not be considered a default. But Moody's Investor Service said Monday the missed payment was the first in what it believes will be broad defaults on commonwealth debt. The territory did make a payment on the interest of about $628,000, saying it lacked the funds to pay the amount in full. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla shocked investors in June when he said the island's debt, totaling $72 billion, was unpayable and required restructuring. This includes debts, owed not just by the central government, but also those of public corporations, like utility companies, and cities. Puerto Rico is the third largest issuer of state and local debt in the United States, behind only California and New York. Much of the island's debt is held by individual U.S. investors in hedge funds, mutual funds or other investment accounts raising questions about how the U.S. economy might be affected now that Puerto Rico has fallen behind on its debt payments. Puerto Rico has no bankruptcy protection, the ability to restructure in order to pay off debt. Bankruptcy is open to state municipalities but not to territories. The City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013. Two weeks ago, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Charles Schumer introduced a bill that would grant Puerto Rico the authority "to allow its municipalities and public utilities to readjust their debts under the supervision of a bankruptcy court." “This measure is vital to prevent a humanitarian and financial catastrophe, a clearly avoidable disaster,” said Blumenthal at the time. He added that "creditors, investors, ordinary citizens" would be harmed if the measure were not passed. “We can either do the right thing and give Puerto Rico the bankruptcy option it needs and deserves, or we can risk a disaster on the island and billions in bailout payments later,” Schumer said. Economic troubles in Puerto Rico are not new. The territory has been in recession since 2005 when the U.S. Congress ended a tax credit designed to attract businesses to Puerto Rico. Since then, the territory has borrowed to stay afloat. “Puerto Rico’s illness is a chronic condition.” the Puerto Rican congressional representative, Pedro Pierluisi, wrote in The New York Times recently. “The unemployment rate, poverty rate and median household income have always been far worse than any state’s. The main cause is inequality.” Pierluisi was making the case that Puerto Rico’s status as a territory, rather than a state, has led to second-class treatment. Residents of Puerto Rico cannot elect the president or senators, and Pierluisi, himself, is a non-voting member of the House of Representatives. "It is little wonder then that Puerto Rico is in recession, has excessive debt and is bleeding population," he said. "Unequal treatment at the federal level, combined with mismanagement at the local level, has a debilitating effect on the island's economy." 'Trainwreck' actress urges restrictions on gun sales By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. actress and comedian Amy Schumer has teamed up with her cousin, Sen. Charles Schumer, to call for stricter gun control laws. Schumer said Monday she was completely devastated when she heard about the recent shooting at a Lafayette, Louisiana, screening of her latest movie "Trainwreck" in which two people died. Ms. Schumer joined her senator cousin in New York Monday as he unveiled proposed legislation that would make it harder for violent criminals and the mentally ill to obtain guns. "If there is anything that the mass shooting in Lafayette, Chattanooga, Charleston, Virginia Tech, Aurora and many other places has taught us, it's that we should do everything in our power to tighten these loopholes and prevent weapons from falling into the hands of hateful evil-doers and the mentally disturbed," Sen. Schumer said. Schumer's proposed legislation would also reward states that submit information into a background check system and penalize states that do not. Amy Schumer said at Monday's press conference, "These shootings have got to stop. I don't know how else to say it." She said the shooting at her movie "Trainwreck" made the issue of gun violence extremely personal and said she has thought about the victims each day since the tragedy. "Preventing dangerous people from getting guns is very possible. We have common sense solutions. We can toughen background checks and stop the sale of firearms to folks who have a violent history or a history of mental illness. We can invest more in treating mental illness instead of slashing funding. These are not extreme ideas," Ms. Schumer said. After the shooting in Lafayette, gun-control advocate Sarah Clements wrote an open letter to the actress calling on her to take a stand on the issue. Ms. Schumer tweeted "Don't worry; I'm on it. You'll see." Sen. Schumer said his cousin Amy is a perfect spokesperson for the issue of gun control and said he is grateful to have her collaboration. He said in addition to his proposed legislation, he will also call on Congress to preserve mental health funding and substance abuse programs. The gunman who opened fire in the Lafayette movie theater last month is said to have had a long history of serious anger issues and mental illness. Police said 59-year-old John Russel Houser legally bought the .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun from a pawn shop which he used to kill two young women and wound nine other people. About 100 people were in the theater watching the film "Trainwreck" when the gunman began shooting his fellow movie goers with the handgun. Two years ago, the U.S. Congress rejected an effort to strengthen gun-control laws. The proposed measure would have expanded background checks on potential gun buyers, strengthened a ban on military-style assault weapons and limited ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. The Senate action came after months of national debate on the issue in the wake of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children were killed. Death penalty still on table for movie house murderer By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A jury in the western U.S. state of Colorado has declined to rule out the death penalty for 27-year-old James Holmes, who was found guilty last month in the 2012 shooting deaths of 12 moviegoers near Denver. Monday's decision, reached after less than three hours of deliberations, sets the stage for a final round of arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys. Those proceedings, set to open today, are expected to include emotional testimony from victims and relatives about suffering and harm in the aftermath of the massacre. Once those arguments are concluded, the jury will make its final decision on Holmes' ultimate fate. Seventy others were wounded inside the packed theater in suburban Centennial, when Holmes, dressed in tactical clothing and wearing a gas mask, set off tear gas grenades and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons in July 2012. The same jurors found Holmes guilty last month on 165 charges of murder and attempted murder, after an emotional 10-week trial. That verdict was reached in less than 12 hours of deliberations, with jurors rejecting defense arguments that Holmes suffered a psychotic break and was legally insane when he launched the massacre. Prosecutors opened their case in April, acknowledging Holmes' history of mental illness. But they argued that he meticulously plotted the attack, carefully calculating its location. They also argued that Holmes was fully aware of his objectives when he entered the theater and opened fire. Police testimony during the trial showed Holmes buying a ticket to the midnight screening of the movie "The Dark Knight Rises" and sitting in the front row. About 20 minutes into the premiere, he left the theater and returned dressed in black, wearing a ballistic helmet and other military items. Witness testimony showed some in the audience thought he was wearing a costume, like other moviegoers devoted to a series of action fantasy films depicting the exploits of the fictional Batman character. Upon his return, testimony showed Holmes throwing two gas canisters into the audience. Police said he then opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun, a semi-automatic assault rifle and eventually a .40 caliber handgun. Police said 76 shots were fired. Psychiatrists who testified for the defense said Holmes lacked the ability to tell right from wrong, and was therefore incapable of acting with criminal intent. Police chiefs meet in wake of spike in violent crimes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Police chiefs from big cities in the United States met Monday to discuss how to deal with a dangerous spike in violent crime, especially gun shootings. The meeting in Washington of the Major Cities Chiefs Association was organized to help cities compare examples of gun violence and come up with solutions. "We came together to help identify ways to interrupt this violent trend and ensure that our cities continue to thrive," said the association's president, Tom Manger. According to an association survey, homicides in 35 big U.S. cities are up 19 percent this year on average. Sixty-two percent of cities reported increases in non-fatal shootings. Washington, D.C., Police Chief Cathy Lanier said there was an urgency to the summit. She attributed the violent crime spike in the U.S. capital to a rising use of synthetic drugs and offenses by repeat gun offenders. "We knew we had to walk out of here with some immediate solutions that can be implemented, thinking that maybe it was a bunch of local solutions," she said. "But what it appears is that there needs to be some nationwide. Not tactics, strategies, right? So there's got to be some immediate strategy implementation and some long-term strategy implementation." The meeting followed a series of deadly months in big U.S. cities such as Washington, Baltimore and Chicago. Washington has recorded 87 homicides this year, up from 69 in the same period last year. Baltimore had 45 homicides in July, the highest monthly total since 1972, and recorded 42 killings when its homicide rate began to skyrocket in May. The May violence came after Baltimore was devastated by rioting in April following the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody. In the Midwest, more than 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago since the beginning of this year, about 100 more than for the same period in 2014. Milwaukee posted 47 homicides in the first half of this year, more than double the number for the same period in 2014.  The talkative Canadian hitchhiking robot
Robot
mugged in Philadelphia
receives offers of assistance By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
HitchBOT, the talkative Canadian hitchhiking robot that met an untimely demise at the hands of vandals in the United States, might get a new lease on life. Its creators, Frauke Zeller and David Smith, say they have been overwhelmed with offers to help revive the robot since it was vandalized beyond repair during the weekend on the streets of Philadelphia, the northeastern U.S. city known as the City of Brotherly Love. It had already hitchhiked across parts of Canada, the Netherlands and Germany as part of an experiment to chronicle the interaction between humans and robots. HitchBOT started its 4,800-kilometer U.S. journey in Boston, but only made it about 480 kilometers southwestward to Philadelphia before the vandals wrecked it and left it in pieces alongside a city street, to the disgust of many people there. HitchBOT relied on the kindness of people to move it from city to city, striking up short conversations and answering trivia questions by consulting facts in its built-in computers. When it got tired, HitchBOT told its human friends it needed a rest, a recharging in their car's cellphone outlet. The robot was assembled from $1,000 worth of household and hardware store odds and ends. It had a LED-lit smiley face in a transparent cake saver on top of a plastic beer pail and swimming pool noodles for limbs. One Philadelphian said, "Bunch of crumbs, right? You do not do that. I mean, what did the robot do to anybody, I am saying?" "Oh dear, my body was damaged," the robot wrote on its Web site. "I guess sometimes bad things happen to good robots! My trip must come to an end for now, but my love for humans will never fade. Thank you to all my friends." Obama plans major speech to sell Iran nuclear deal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama is planning to make a major speech later this week to discuss the international accord to restrain Iran's nuclear program. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama will raise arguments he believes are central to supporting the accord, which bars Iran from building an atomic weapon in the coming years in exchange for lifting crippling Western and U.N. sanctions. Earnest also said the president thinks the U.S. Congress should support an international effort to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon through diplomacy. The spokesman said no one else has put forth a legitimate option to curtailing Iran's nuclear program other than the military option. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday with top intelligence officials expressing doubts about America’s ability to detect any cheating by Iran on the terms of last month’s landmark international nuclear accord. “No, I am not confident of that. I don’t think anybody could tell you that they are particularly confident about that,” said Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican. Congress is in the midst of a 60-day review of the pact and is expected to vote next month on whether to accept or reject it. If it is rejected, Obama has promised to veto the legislation, which would force the Senate and House to muster a two-thirds majority to override the veto. A public opinion poll released Monday shows by a two-to-one margin U.S. citizens oppose the Iranian nuclear accord and think it will make the world less safe. The poll by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut showed registered U.S. voters, by a 57 percent to 28 percent margin, oppose the deal the United States and five other world powers finalized last month with Tehran. By a similar 58-to-30 percent margin, the voters said the deal would make the world less safe. A total of 1,644 people were surveyed, with the rest of the people questioned saying they had no opinion, did not know whether they favor the deal or whether it will make the world safer. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 152 | |||||||||
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By the University of Surrey news staff
A man in a sharp, grey suit, reclining in a leather chair, laptop open on the flip-down table in front of him, a smiley stewardess serving him a scotch and soda. This is often the idealized image of airline travel, particularly business travel, because it's zapped through TV sets during ad breaks and laid out on double page spreads in glossy magazines. It's this glamorization of mobility and hypermobility and the often overlooked personal and social consequences of frequent travel, that Scott Cohen set out to explore and make transparent the one-sided mirror that frames hypermobility as desirable in his paper "The darker side of hypermobility." In his critical review, Cohen first explores evidence denoting that a high social status is often associated with frequent travel, particularly in more privileged societies in northern Europe. The amount of miles travelled, the number of places you've lived and visited all articulate network capital and a higher status in life, especially now there is the platform of social media to display travelness through interactive maps, selfies and check-ins for friends to see and admire. Cohen explains that the consequences of hypermobility need to be addressed, firstly because it's becoming increasingly common due to more low-cost travel, therefore affecting more and more people, and secondly it is a significant barrier to behavioral change in consumption and environmental sustainability. Cohen explores the following consequences of frequent travel. Physiological: jet lag, deep vein thrombosis and increased exposure to radiation. Psychological: stress, anxiety, travel disorientation, feelings of loneliness and isolation (for both the traveller and the spouse left at home) and identity confusion. Social: the negative impact on spouse and children at home, feeling out of sync with the home community and weakened friendships. Cohen states that these negative personal and social costs have been silenced by the glamorization of hypermobility through advertising, social media and other forms of public discourse. He concludes that in order to pursue the de-glamorization of frequent travel, humans need to better understand the discourses that make it fashionable and aspirational. Only then can they break the intricate bonds between high mobility and social capital, and to ultimately change transport behavior. Problems found in civil registry By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Of the 45,481 filings in the civil registry from 2007 to 2014, 7,591 do not have an official seal, said the Contraloría General de la República. The seal or the signature of the person doing the registration is vital, the watchdog agency said. The Contraloría said it checked the files of births, marriages and deaths at the Registro Civil of the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. And, it said, it found problems with the system. |
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| From Page 7: Cartago overview planned for tour operators By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The regional chamber is inviting tourism operators to discover Cartago. The chamber, the Cámara de Comercio, Industria, Turismo y Servicios de Cartago, has scheduled two days, Thursday and Friday, for those connected with tours and also travel agents to visit and learn what the area has to offer, The program Descubra Cartago has the support of the Cámara Nacional de Turismo and the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo. An announcement said that Thursday would cover the historic central canton, Paraiso and Cachi. Visitors will have a chance to see hotels and restaurants along the route. Friday the visits are in Orosi, Ujarrás as well as Cachi. More details are HERE! |
