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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Sept. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 174

New beach cleaner at Jacó gets a workout.

Photo by VistaCR.com

Jacó getting a little mechanical muscle to keep beach clean

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Beaches collect trash the way dogs collect fleas. At a heavily used beach like Jacó, trash pickup is a continual need.

But now the beach cleanup can be mechanized. The Central Pacific Chamber of Commerce plans to inaugurate new beach-cleaning machines Thursday with a ceremony on the sand in front of the Hotel Best Western. The organization said it expected Carlos Ricardo Benavides, the minister of tourism, to attend the 9 a.m. ceremony.

The Beach King II, built by Rockland Manufacturing Co. in Bedford, Pennsylvania, is pulled and powered by a John

Deere tractor. The cleaning device digs into the sand, picks it up on a shifting screen, sifts out trash and other particles and ejects the sand in a level stream to the rear.

The beach cleaners will be operated by the municipality as part of routine daily cleaning operations. Both machines were donated by DayStar Properties, said a release from the chamber.

The beach at Jacó is about 4 kms long, some 2.5 miles. The chamber said that the machines are part of the “Todos juntos por un mejor Jacó” campaign, and that operation of the beach cleaning machines is a milestone accomplishment for recent efforts to improve the local quality of life in Jacó.

Investigators say home invasion bandits are well-organized

By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Robbery investigators say they think that there is one organized band that is targeting the homes of seemingly wealthy residents in the metropolitan area.

Although there have been some arrests, the band contains a number of persons, they said.

The robbers have made a number of home invasions in the last few months in Escazú, Santa Ana and Rohrmoser. They may also have generated copycats.

In a curious case in Curridabat Saturday a man claims three men broke into his home and fatally shot his parents as they slept in bed. Agents are investigating, but they have detained the man, 21. The home already had been the site of a robbery, but police are not sure the bandits returned because the home did not show signs of being sacked.

Aug. 25 four men broke into a home in Rohrmoser only three blocks from the Pavas prosecutor's office and not far from the U.S. Embassy. The bandits found four children temporarily alone at the home of Douglas S. Nathan, a U.S. citizen. When a family friend returned to the home, the bandits threatened him and made off with appliances and about $25,000 said the Judicial Investigating Organization.

Also Aug. 25, bandits got away with about 5 million

colons, some $9,600, from a home in San Pedro de Montes de Oca between 7 and 8 p.m. They broke in through the front door.

Four robbery suspects came into police hands Wednesday night in San Antonio de Belén after an apartment was entered by bandits. The Policia Municipal said that a guard heard the cries of the apartment residents, identified as Francisco and Edgar Gonzáles Navarro, and those of an unidentified woman.

The local police and the Fuerza Pública responded and found four men getting into a vehicle. The men disregarded orders to surrender and took off down a dead-end street the local police said. They began firing at officers who responded and blew out the tires of the vehicle, they said. One suspect suffered bullet wounds.

Investigators said they were trying to link the four suspects with similar robberies that have taken place in Fatima de Belén, la Rivera and in the surrounding areas.

While the four suspects were in jail yet another home invasion took place, this one in Bello Horizonte, Escazú. There Alejandra Mata, a vice minister of Educación Pública was the victim. Investigators said this took place about 7:30 p.m. when the woman and an employee returned home to her house and opened the electric gate.
The bandits took kitchen appliances, 25 million colons ($48,000) and the woman's vehicle, said investigators.

The fine art of lying, or is it simply avoiding responsibility?

¿Mentirte yo? ¡Nunca!

“Lie to you? Never!” How many times do we hear this when we feel certain the speaker is lying through his or her teeth? In Costa Rica we hear this phrase, or variations thereof, all of the time. I often feel that the people who utter it may actually have convinced themselves what they’re saying is true, at least at the time they say it. It is only later that it turns out to have been a lie, so they don’t really feel responsible.

Are you confused yet? Well, let me explain: In the States the plumber says he’ll be at your house at 10 a.m. to fix your erupting kitchen sink, but he doesn’t show up until 2 in the afternoon. In Costa Rica if the plumber says 10 a.m. he means 10 a.m. but that doesn’t necessarily mean 10 a.m. today. Or if he says Monday that doesn’t necessarily mean this Monday. He doesn’t consider this lying, just covering all his bases.

Perhaps I’m being unrealistic, or it is just plain old fashioned, but I still expect dinner guests to show up at least near to the appointed time. A friend of ours is notorious for his tardiness. We invited him for dinner once. The agreed-upon evening was Friday, though, given his reputation, setting a specific hour seemed pointless.

We expected him to arrive any time between 5 and 9 p.m. But when he didn’t show up at all, I was miffed.

When I called him next day, he had a battery of excuses, among them, “But you didn’t say what Friday.” I answered that when “Friday” is the day after tomorrow one can safely assume that is the intended “Friday.” If he was confused about the day he should have called to confirm. In any case, he made it up to us by inviting us to dine at his place the following week. All was forgiven. But he knew I had been seriously annoyed by his irresponsible behavior, and he never came late to any appointment with me again.

Many years ago we bought some kitchen appliances at the duty-free market down in Golfito. The woman representing the truckers told us to expect delivery on Tuesday. I asked her to write down the exact date indicating which “Tuesday” she might have in mind and at least an approximation of the time of day the shipment might arrive. I explained to her that we were returning to the States and if the goods were late we could well be gone not to return to Costa Rica for several months.

True to form, however, Tuesday came and went without witnessing the arrival of our new stove and refrigerator. When the truck finally did arrive, 24 hours late, I did not answer the door. The disconcerted driver pounded away, but all remained silent within. Then, from behind the front door, I heard the driver expressing his frustrations over his cell phone to the woman in Golfito who’d made the arrangements.

Presently the phone at our house rang and I answered it with a cheery “¡Hola!” It was, of course, the mendacious matron. “Señor Soto, Señor Soto!” she said in a state approaching panic. “The truck with your appliances is in front of your house!”

“Oh really,” I coolly replied. “¡Si, si, si!” she went on, her voice rising in pitch and volume with each repetition of the word. “Are you not at home?”

The
way we say it

By Daniel Soto

“No,” said I.

“But is this not your home phone number?”

“Yes, this is my home phone number.”

“Then how can you not be at home!?” she asked, now nearing total exasperation.

“Because,” I calmly replied, “You see, I can lie as easily as you can.”

Of course, in the end I did accept the shipment, but I also deducted 25 percent off the delivery charge. When the driver protested, I showed him the paper where the woman had clearly written down the day, date, and time the truck was promised to arrive. I told him I was deducting the money from his fee because the goods were delivered a day late. If he didn’t like it he could take it up with his friend back in Golfito who had set up the shipment in the first place. As you can imagine, he was not what one would call a “happy camper” when he left our house.

This kind of lying is endemic in Costa Rica. The attitude seems to be, “Tell the customer anything to get his money and shut him up, he’ll receive the goods when we get them there, and that’s all there is to that.”

But it’s also possible to lie without saying — or writing — a word. Though the Costa Rican press was positively effusive over the opening of diplomatic relations with mainland China because of the cozy trade agreements that resulted and the anticipation of the arrival of cheap Chinese goods in Costa Rican stores, hardly a word has been mentioned in our press about China’s abysmal human rights record, or the fact that those cheap goods are often produced by what amounts to slave labor.

The same can be said of the trade agreement with the United States: Though countless millions of fulsome words have been said and printed about the glorious benefits this treaty will allegedly provide to ordinary Costa Ricans, our press has clearly repudiated its responsibility to inform the public by neglecting almost altogether to discuss the actual substance of the document. For this reason few Costa Ricans, including, I dare say, many in the government, have not even the foggiest impression of what the trade agreement actually says.

So, it would seem, like sins, there are also lies of commission and omission, but it’s sometimes difficult to decide which of these is the more pernicious.

You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE!

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Sept. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 174

Scientist say they have figured out chemistry of red tide

By the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
news service

In work that could one day help prevent millions of dollars in economic losses for seaside communities, chemists have demonstrated how tiny marine organisms likely produce the red tide toxin that periodically shuts down beaches and shellfish beds.

In the Aug. 31 cover story of Science, the team describes an elegant method for synthesizing the lethal components of red tides. The researchers believe their method approximates the synthesis used by algae, a reaction that chemists have tried for decades to replicate, without success. The researchers are with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Understanding how and why red tides occur could help scientists figure out how to prevent the blooms, which cause significant ecological and economic damage. The New England shellfish industry, for example, lost tens of millions of dollars during a 2005 outbreak, and red tide killed 30 endangered manatees off the coast of Florida this spring.

The last serious Pacific red tide was in November 2005 and affected Nicaragua and El Salvador. One woman was said to have died. Officials in El Salvador prohibited the collection and sale of shellfish from Nov. 18, 2005 to March 24, 2006. The economic impact was severe.

The discovery by Timothy Jamison, an associate professor, and graduate student Ivan Vilotijevic not only could shed light on how algae known as dinoflagellates generate red tides, but could also help speed up efforts to develop cystic fibrosis drugs from a compound closely related to the toxin.

Red tides, also known as algal blooms, strike unpredictably and poison shellfish, making them dangerous for humans to eat. It is unknown what causes dinoflagellates to produce the red tide toxins, but it may be a defense mechanism, possibly provoked by changes in the tides, temperature shifts or other environmental stresses.

One of the primary toxic components of red tide is brevetoxin, a large and complex molecule that is very difficult to synthesize.

Twenty-two years ago, chemist Koji Nakanishi of Columbia University proposed a cascade, or series of chemical steps, that dinoflagellates could use to produce brevetoxin and other red tide toxins. However, chemists have been unable to demonstrate such a cascade in the

National Institute of Water and Atmosphere/M. Godfrey

The dramatic appearance of a red tide algal bloom at Leigh, near Cape Rodney, New Zealand.

laboratory, and many came to believe that the "Nakanishi Hypothesis" would never be proven.

"A lot of people thought that this type of cascade may be impossible," said Jamison. "Because Nakanishi's hypothesis accounts for so much of the complexity in these toxins, it makes a lot of sense, but there hasn't really been any evidence for it since it was first proposed."

Jamison and Vilotijevic's work offers the first evidence that Nakanishi's hypothesis is feasible.

Their work could also help accelerate drug discovery efforts. Brevenal, another dinoflagellate product related to the red tide toxins, has shown potential as a powerful treatment for cystic fibrosis. It can also protect against the effects of the toxins.

"Now that we can make these complex molecules quickly, we can hopefully facilitate the search for even better protective agents and even more effective . . . therapies," said Jamison.

Until now, synthesizing just a few milligrams of red tide toxin or related compounds, using a non-cascade method, required dozens of person-years of effort.

The new synthesis depends on two critical factors — giving the reaction a jump start and conducting the reaction in water. Conducting the reaction in water is necessary to a successful synthesis. Water is normally considered a poor solvent for organic reactions, so most laboratory reactions are performed in organic solvents. However, when Vilotijevic introduced water into the reaction, he noticed that it proceeded much more quickly and selectively.

Journal's survey of foreign policy experts says world growing more dangerous
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services A hundred of America’s most respected foreign policy experts see a world that is growing more dangerous, a national security strategy in disarray, and a war in Iraq that is alarmingly off-track. And that’s six years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, which prompted the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the larger war against terrorism.	The opinions are the results of a survey by Foreign Policy magazine and the liberal policy group, Center for American Progress. Most of the experts surveyed think the next al-Qaida stronghold will be in Pakistan. They also chose Pakistan as the country most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists.

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Sept. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 174

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Sept. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 174