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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 257
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Members of U.S.
Congress visit Cubans
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The U.S. government has shown some interest in the plight of at least 6,000 Cubans who are stuck at the Costa Rica-Nicaraguan border. An influential member of the U.S. Congress, Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, was in the country Tuesday to get a first-hand look on the
If the U.S. government has provided any help to the stranded Cubans here, there has been no announcement of the fact. Some individual U.S. expats have provided food and support. Cubans already in the United States usually are anti-Communist due to their experiences on their island home. They also generally vote Republican, which may be why there is no obvious assistance from the Barack Obama administration, which is Democratic. Meanwhile, the situation for the stranded Cubans continues to be confusing. Costa Rican officials thought they had struck a deal with El Salvador and México Monday, and the plan is to fly Cubans from Costa Rica to El Salvador and then guide them to México by bus. The deal has yet to be outlined in details, and it has been characterized as a pilot plan. Generally officials seek to fly out Cubans from Daniel Oduber airport, but there has been suggestions that Cubans will have to pay for the flight and the country's exit tax. After more than a month stuck in Costa Rica, many of the Cubans are broke. So is Costa Rica, which has spent in excess of $1 million housing the migrants in 37 public shelters. Other Cubans are stuck in northern Panamá becasue Costa Rica will accept no more. Once in El Salvador, the Cubans most likely will be asked to pay more money for the bus trip north. Savings will reduce the pain, bank says By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Banco Nacional has issued advice to customers about how to smooth out the cuesta de enero, the big financial hump in January generated by expenses in December. The advice probably will not help this year, because the bank suggests saving early and putting away part of the mandatory Christmas bonus, the aguinaldo. But there always is next year, and the bank suggests using its various investment programs. The situation being what is is, many Costa Ricans will be seeking loans instead. The cuesta de enero is not a bad period for the many pawnshops. A quick look at a pawn shop window shows that some of the Christmas gifts end up there in a few weeks for loans that are a small percentage of the article's worth. The pawn shops or casas de empeño are not just a source of funds for burglars and robbers, For many Costa Ricans, they are an integral part of their monthly finances. Police frustrate outboard motor thefts By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuerza Pública officers made eight arrests early Tuesday on the crime-plagued west coast of the Gulf of Nicoya. The police agency said that officers stopped a vehicle and a motorcycle and located five stolen outboard motors. The police agency said that the motors had been stolen from boats around Jicaral, Puntarenas. The arrests took place at a checkpoint in Pueblo Viejo de Nicoya, said the Fuerza Pública. Communities on the west shore of the gulf, which is the east shore of the Nicoya peninsula, have been plagued by crimes, and police had stepped up patrols. There also has been an effort to link communities and involve them in the crime fight. The crimes seem to involve commercial fishing communities where boats and motors can be found. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 257 | ||
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| Officials are estimating 557 murders by the end of the year |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Despite an overwhelming police presence, Costa Rica will end the year with an estimated 557 murders. Officials reported that there now are 553 cases, and they expect at least four more before the year ends. That was the summary given Tuesday by Walter Espinoza, the head of the Judicial Investigating Organization. Also Tuesday the Fuerza Pública said its officers had detained an incredible 3,056 persons between Nov. 30 and Dec. 15, part of a holiday operation. The biggest number was drug arrests, said the report. Given that trend, the number of arrests probably will be double that figure by Jan. 5. Law enforcement officials are pushing for more resources. The Fuerza Pública stands to get another windfall if lawmakers approve a renewal of the corporate tax. Some 95 |
percent of
the proceeds go to the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública for
its 14,000 officers. The murder figures were incomplete. Although the judicial agency said that 205 killings were for revenge, 27 percent were said to have an unknown motive. and the number of murders as a result of stickups and robberies was not given. There were 477 murders reported last year, so the increase this year is 16.7 percent if the estimate holds. By contrast, El Salvador reported 8,150 murders by the middle of September. In Costa Rica, the theory had been that murders were mainly the result of disputes among drug gangs, This no longer seems to be the case, as the crime seems to be turning into a way to solve personal differences. There also seems to be active murder-for-hire businesses. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 257 |
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| Robot mules lacked stealth, so U.S. Marines send them packing | |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A robotic mule called AlphaDog won't be part of the few, the proud, the Marines, anytime soon. As it turns out, the robot is too loud, and is being sidelined. The LS3, or Legged Squad Support System, became widely known through a video showing the hulking, noisy robot lumbering through the woods, loaded with gear. Boston Dynamics, the company owned by Google's parent, Alphabet, Inc., built the robot of burden. It was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The idea behind the device was to unburden Marines from the increasing amount of gear they carry. LS3 was reported to be able carry more than 180 kilograms for up to 24 hours without the need for an operator. "As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential, possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself," Kyle Olson, a spokesman for the Warfighting Lab, told Military.com. "They took it as it was: a loud robot that's going to give away their position." AlphaDog’s roaring sound was said to resemble an angry swarm of bees, according to the site Ars Technica. |
 Voice of America
photo
A pair of AlphaDogs about the
size of real mules/Boston Dynamics developed a smaller, quieter robot called Spot, which will also be sidelined because it is under the same contract as AlphaDog. Spot could carry 18 kilograms. A spokesman told NBC News the Marines will still explore the use of robots-of-burden because they see the necessity of autonomous, unmanned, and robotic capabilities that could offer Marines a tactical edge through technological overmatch. |
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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 news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 257 | |||||||
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| Colombia's president to visit Obama at White House Feb. 4 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. President Barack Obama will host Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House in February, just weeks before Colombia's deadline for a final peace deal with leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia. The White House said Tuesday the planned Feb. 4 visit would be an opportunity to celebrate the successful partnership between the United States and Colombia and to support the efforts of President Santos to achieve a just and lasting peace accord with the FARC. The United States spent more than $10 billion on a program called Plan Colombia, a military and diplomatic mission to help the Colombian government wipe out drug cartels and put down a 50-year Marxist rebellion. After several years of talks mediated by Norway and Cuba, Colombia and the rebels have given themselves a March 23 deadline for a final and comprehensive peace agreement. Five decades of fighting have killed 220,000 people and forced millions from their homes. Also Tuesday, a right-wing militia leader charged with hundreds of murders was freed from a Colombian prison. The man, Ramon Isaza, served eight years behind bars. He originally was given a much longer prison term, but his time was reduced as part of a 2006 peace deal. Isaza battled the leftist rebels, but also fought for control of Colombia's wealthy and notorious Medellin drug cartel. Teen and his mom on the run turn up in Puerto Vallarta By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S and Mexican officials say authorities in Mexico have detained an American teenager wanted for violating his probation in connection with a drunk-driving crash that killed four people in 2013. 18-year-old Ethan Couch and his mother were taken into custody in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s west coast. The U.S. Department of Justice had offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Couch’s arrest. He missed a mandatory meeting with his probation officer Dec. 10. Officials in Texas, where Couch is wanted, have said they believe he fled in November after a video surfaced showing him drinking at a party in what would be a violation of his probation conditions. The 2013 crash happened when Couch was 16 years old and drunk and slammed into an SUV that was on the side of the road. He pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years of probation. The case made national news when a defense expert said that his wealthy parents treated him too softly, which ingrained a sense of irresponsibility, or what he termed affluenza. Chicago police officer pleads innocent in teen's shooting By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A white Chicago police officer who shot a black teenager 16 times has pleaded innocent to murder charges, as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short his vacation after two more fatal police shootings. Jason Van Dyke entered his plea Tuesday at Chicago's Cook County Courthouse, where he is charged with six counts of murder for the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Last month's release of police dashboard video that showed the shooting increased tensions in the city and set off weeks of protests that led to the resignation of Chicago's police chief, Garry McCarthy. The video shows McDonald jogging towards police, and then walking away as he's shot 16 times, many bullets hitting him after he falls to the ground. Saturday, police fatally shot a 19-year-old male student and a 55-year-old mother of five. Both victims were African American. The race of the police officers involved in Saturday's response to what police called, a domestic disturbance has not been revealed. The Chicago police department said when its officers arrived on the scene Saturday they were "confronted by a combative subject, resulting in the discharging of the officer's weapon, fatally wounding two individuals." A police statement said the woman, Bettie Jones, "was accidentally struck and tragically killed." While the police offered little information about the shooting, a report in The Chicago Tribune newspaper said Quintonio LeGrier, the student, was threatening his father with a metal baseball bat when the police were called. The newspaper said it appeared LeGrier and Jones, who was LeGrier's downstairs neighbor, both arrived at their shared front door at about the same time. The Tribune account reports LeGrier's mother, Janet Cooksey, said the family was told her son was shot seven times. Ms. Cooksey told the newspaper her son "didn't have a gun. He had a bat." She said one or two shots would have brought him down. She said "You call the police, you try to get help and, you lose a loved one. What are they trained for? Just to kill? ...My son was an honor student. He's here for Christmas break and now I've lost him." The Chicago Sun –Times reported that LeGrier’s father, Antonio, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Chicago Monday. Mayor Emanuel’s spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said in a statement Monday that the mayor would cut short a family vacation with his wife and three children in Cuba in order to, “continue the ongoing work of restoring accountability and trust in the Chicago Police Department.” She said the mayor had been in constant contact with acting police superintendent John Escalante. The U.S. Justice Department is investigation the behavior of the Chicago police force. Emanuel said it was not acceptable that some Chicago police officers treat African Americans, particularly young men, differently than whites and he regretted that African American parents told their children to be wary of police. Better training of officers is among the police department reforms Emanuel has promised. Other steps include a special panel to investigate internal police practices and reopening closed cases of police shootings found to be justified. Pataki ends his campaign with farewell television ad By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The field of Republican presidential contenders is narrowing further, after former New York governor George Pataki said he is ending his race for president. Pataki, who was the governor of New York during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, announced the end of his longshot presidential bid Tuesday in a television ad. "While tonight is the end of my journey for the White House as I suspend my campaign for president, I'm confident we can elect the right person, someone who will bring us together," he said. The 70-year-old, who has relatively centrist political views compared to many of his GOP rivals, had struggled to raise funds and had barely registered in national opinion polls. Pataki was a strong critic of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, saying the billionaire businessman was divisive and unfit to lead the United States. With Pataki's departure, the field of Republican presidential contenders has been narrowed to 12 ahead of the first nominating contest, which is set for Feb. 1 in Iowa. Diabetes seen as contributor to the risk of dementia By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Diabetes appears to increase the risk of dementia, which affects cognition and memory, according to Australian researchers who reviewed the results of 14 studies involving more than two million people. The analysis also included data on 100,000 dementia patients. People with Type II diabetes were found to be 60 percent more likely than people without diabetes to develop any form of dementia. In particular, they were at increased risk of vascular dementia, which affects blood flow to the brain. Experts say vascular dementia is usually the result of a series of small brain strokes. The investigators found that diabetic women were two times more likely than non-diabetics to be diagnosed with vascular dementia. The rate for women also was higher than for men with diabetes. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which is marked by an accumulation of protein debris in the brain. Vascular dementia is caused by impaired blood vessels to the brain, and is more common in diabetics. The authors of the study suggest that women may be more at risk of vascular dementia because they are not treated as often as men for conditions such as high blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure contributes to heart disease. More research is needed to understand how excess blood sugar affects blood vessels, particularly in women, according to the scientists. They emphasized that keeping fit through exercise and diet, and not smoking, can help decrease the risk of vascular dementia in diabetics. The findings were published in the journal Diabetes Care. Pirating movies on increase, monitoring watchdog reports By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Hollywood’s award season is just around the corner, but one movie has already garnered a dubious honor. "Interstellar," the science fiction blockbuster starring Matthew McConaughey, has been named the most pirated movie of 2015, with 46 million illegal downloads, according to piracy watchdog firm Excipio. Just behind it was "Fast & Furious 7" with 44 million downloads. Rounding out the top five were "Avengers: Age of Ultron" with 41 million downloads, "Jurassic World" with 36.8 million downloads and "Mad Max: Fury Road" with 36.4 million downloads. Excipio also noted that piracy seems to be growing. Last year’s most downloaded movie was "Wolf of Wall St.," which was downloaded a mere 30 million times. That would not have made the top 10 this year. The most downloaded television show was HBO's "Game of Thrones," with some 14.4 million illegal downloads. Excipio’s data was collected from Jan. 1 to Dec. 25. Motorhead lead singer dies just two days after diagnosis By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
British hard rock icon Lemmy, the lead singer and bass player for Motorhead, had died at the age of 70, two days after being diagnosed with cancer. “There is no easy way to say this . . . our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer,” Motorhead said in a Facebook posting Monday “We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words.” The band noted that he had been diagnosed with cancer Saturday. Born Ian Kilmister, Lemmy formed Motorhead in 1975. He was known for his aggressive bass and his gravelly voice on such songs as “Bomber,” “Overkill” and the band’s most famous track “Ace of Spades.” “It's still very popular. When we do it onstage, everyone loves it," Lemmy told Rolling Stone in August. Many rock and heavy metal musicians have been paying tribute to the Motorhead front man. On Twitter, Ozzy Osbourne called him a warrior and a legend: "Lost one of my best friends, Lemmy, today. He will be sadly missed. He was a warrior and a legend. I will see you on the other side." "We've lost a friend & legend," Foo Fighters said in a Facebook posting. Metallica tweeted that it would be “forever grateful for all your inspiration.” Lemmy was known for his hard-living lifestyle that including heavy drinking. While confirming his death, Motorhead urged fans to “play Lemmy's music loud. Have a drink or few. Share stories. Celebrate the life this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself. He would want exactly that." Researchers identify areas of high probability for plague By the State University of New York
Downstate Medical Center news staff
Researchers have identified and mapped areas of high probability of plague bacteria in the western United States. Their findings were published in a recent edition of the journal, PeerJ. This investigation predicted animal plague occurrence across western states based on reported occurrences of plague in wild and domestic animal hosts. Plague is a disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium found in rodents and their fleas in many areas around the world. “This study used surveillance data of plague in wild and domestic animals in the American West to identify and map those areas with the greatest potential for human exposure to this infection, which can be particularly deadly when transmitted to humans,” said Michael Walsh. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center "The findings can be used by public health agencies to target specific areas for enhanced plague surveillance within areas and counties predicted to be at high risk, as well as by other research teams to direct the sampling of local wildlife populations for the identification of Yersinia pestis in wild animals that find themselves in close proximity to humans and human developed landscapes," he added. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plague was first introduced into the United States in 1900, by rat–infested steamships that had sailed from affected areas. Epidemics occurred in port cities, with the last urban plague epidemic in the United States occurring in Los Angeles from 1924 through 1925. Plague then spread from urban rats to rural rodent species, and became entrenched in many areas of the western United States. Since that time, plague has occurred as scattered cases in rural areas. Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions: Northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado; and California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada The Centers also noted that in recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases has been reported each year. Plague has occurred in people of all ages, though 50 percent of cases occur in people ages 12 toi45. The authors note in their article that while animal transmission to humans is much less common in modern times, significant plague risk remains in parts of the western U.S. Moreover, risk to some threatened species can be quite substantive. They identified areas of high risk in central Colorado, north-central New Mexico, and southwestern and northeastern California. |
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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 sixth news page |
| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 257 | |||||||||
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This
receptionist is really a robot
By the Nanyang Technological University
news staff
Say hello to Nadine, a receptionist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is friendly and will greet you back. Next time you meet her, she will remember your name and your previous conversation with her. She looks almost like a human being with soft skin and flowing brunette hair. She smiles when greeting you, looks at you in the eye when talking, and can also shake hands with you. Unlike conventional robots, Nadine has her own personality, mood and emotions. She can be happy or sad, depending on the conversation. She also has a good memory and can recognize the people she has met, and remembers what the person had said before. Nadine is the latest social robot developed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University. The doppelganger of its creator, Nadia Thalmann, Nadine is powered by intelligent software similar to Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Nadine can be a personal assistant in offices and homes in future. And she can be used as social companions for the young and the elderly. A humanoid like Nadine is just one of the interfaces where the technology can be applied. It can also be made virtual and appear on a TV or computer screen, and become a low-cost virtual social companion. With further progress in robotics sparked by technological improvements in silicon chips, sensors and computation, physical social robots such as Nadine are poised to become more visible in offices and homes in future. Professor Thalmann, the director of the Institute for Media Innovation who led the development of Nadine, said these social robots are among the university’s many exciting new media innovations that companies can leverage for commercialization. “Robotics technologies have advanced significantly over the past few decades and are already being used in manufacturing and logistics. As countries worldwide face challenges of an aging population, social robots can be one solution to address the shrinking workforce, become personal companions for children and the elderly at home, and even serve as a platform for healthcare services in future,” said Professor Thalmann, an expert in virtual humans. |
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| From Page 7: Wind projects planned for Liberia and Tilarán By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Spanish firms Gamesa and Iberdrola Ingeniería have been contracted to build two more wind farms in Costa Rica. They will be in Tilarán and Liberia. Gamesa already has built a similar generating setup in Orosí and constructed others in Honduras and Nicaragua. The owner of the wind farms will be Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy. A press release by the Spanish firms said that the wind farms would provide electricity for 60,000 homes and provide jobs for 400 persons during construction. The projects are expected to be in operation by the end of next year. |
