The 43rd global conference of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was held in San Jose just a few days ago, and it was a momentous occasion not just for Costa Rica as a host country clearly desiring to become a significant force in Information Technology in Latin America, but also for everyone who makes a living on the Internet. The conference got underway with a...

Drivers who have been ticketed for driving behind the wheel of souped-up cars with modifications to the engine, injection or emissions do not have to pay any fines at this time. Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall) has been reviewing a series of complaints against sections of Article 132 of the controversial Transit Law. Drivers have the chance to appeal the infraction and free themselves from having...

In a previous Reader's Mail article published on The Costa Rica Star, we answered a question regarding the importation of wine and other products for the purpose of tasting and sampling. On that article, we mentioned that the famed California winemaker Kerry Damskey was studying the possibility of choosing a high-altitude region to grow quality grapes. According to wine industry journal Decanter, ...

At the recent annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, Treasury Minister Fernando Herrero Acosta announced that Costa Rica is planning to issue a new round of sovereign debt. Financial media outlets Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported on the story, citing a minimum figure of $500 million, although the proposed yield and maturity date are still unknown. One thing that Fe...

The National Seismologic Network (RSN in Spanish) and the Observatory of Volcanic and Seismic Activity in Costa Rica (OVSICORI) have issued reports of an earthquake just before 2:00 pm with an epicenter inland from the Gulf of Nicoya, 1 kilometer north of Costa de Pajaros. According to the OVSICORI, the quake was felt in parts of Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Jaco Beach, and the occidental region of...

From now until March 20th at 6:00 pm, readers of The Costa Rica Star have a chance to get creative with messages left on our Facebook wall and win two weekend tickets to the 2012 Festival Imperial. There are many reasons to participate, like TV on the Radio, the beautiful and talented ladies who will grace the stages, the onstage antics of Gogol Bordello and Cypress Hill, and many more. Ele...

The majestic ARC Gloria, a sailing school for officer candidates in the Colombian Navy, made a friendly visit to the port of Limon over the weekend. According to newspaper La Prensa Libre, the frigate's mission in Limon was to strengthen ties between the Costa Rica and Colombia, the closest South American neighbor -geographically speaking. The Gloria's home port is Cartagena de Indias. She not ...

Should Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army be captured alive and brought to justice, his actions may be reviewed and his fate decided by a judge from Costa Rica. Elizabeth Odio Benito, our former Vice-President, is currently sitting in the International Criminal Court (ICC), and her wisdom in the sentencing against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo has established a precedent tha...

Alia Cardinale Villalobos was the first woman to cross the finish line at the 2012 Santiago Triathlon Pan American Cup in Piedra Roja, Chile. The Tica's victory was downright and clear, as her finish time was 2:07:58, while the second and third places in the elite triathlon were 2:10:53 and 2:10:32, respectively earned by Brazilian and South Korean competitors. Alia was born in Ciudad Quesada a...

National labor unions are expected to meet with President Laura Chinchilla later today to deliver an ultimatum. The unions want the government to approve a reasonable and equitable salary increase or face massive labor strikes that will not only involve public workers, but may also count with the support and solidarity of the private sector. This is the third formal meeting between the public e...

SAN JOSE – The annual gallo pinto fair held at Paseo Colon earlier today managed to attract more people than the Calle 13 concert on Friday night at the nearby La Sabana metropolitan park. The culinary activity, which showcases the most representative folkloric dish in Costa Rica, was part of the "Smoke-Free Sundays" initiative that the Municipality of San Jose is promoting each year. During ea...

At the beginning of 2012, the U.S. dollar (USD) was on track to recover ground lost against the humble Costa Rica colon (CRC) by a healthy margin. Economists and foreign currency analysts still expect a gradual increase on part of the USD against the CRC thanks to several factors; including the certainty that several measures of the Fiscal Reform plan will be implemented in the next few months, an...

This year's Festival Imperial is heavier on the estrogen than in previous years, and that's a very good thing. While we wait for the lucky reader who will take home two free weekend tickets to the festival, here's a look at some of the female artists who will grace the stages at La Guacima speedway in Alajuela on Saturday, March 24th and Sunday, March 25th. The Great Wilderness – Costa Rica ...

Students of the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Institute of Technology in Costa Rica (TEC in Spanish) in Cartago are enjoying a new and unique laboratory facility. Eight intermodal containers, also known as conex boxes, that were once used for shipping have been smartly recycled into a new structure that will house four laboratory facilities for media, robotics, 3-D modeling, and Information ...

Tico track star Nery Brenes came back from Istanbul with a huge smile and a shiny gold medal to offer to his people. The current World Champion on the 400-meter category is very deserving of the clamor he is currently enjoying, and the effusiveness he has shown is solid proof. While Nery's incredible athleticism and hard work have certainly paid off, a series of articles in La Nacion indicate that...

The rivers Chachagua and Chachaguita are considered potential sources of hydroelectric power by national utility firms such as ICE, Fuerza y Luz and private co-ops. Members of the community in Chachagua in San Isidro de Penas Blancas are not in agreement. Earlier this week, hundreds of residents of Chachagua protested their displeasure at different plans to develop hydroelectric plants on their...

The free, open-air concert of Puerto Rican musical wonder group Calle 13 drew around 60,000 Ticos to La Sabana last night and set the stage for the rest of the 2012 International Festival of the Arts (FIA). Calle 13 managed to heat up the FIA, which will continue until March 25th. The night concert started with "Digo lo que pienso", followed by the mega-hit "Baile de los pobres." As is their si...

Respected British medical journal The Lancet recently published a comprehensive article about the three factors affecting our public health care system and how La Caja is dealing with them. The author of the article is David Boddiger, an experienced journalist who is also the editor of The Tico Times. In his detailed article, Boddiger cites the global economic crisis, along with careless spendi...

Warner Rojas, a mountain climber and adventurer, wants people in Costa Rica to follow him to the Himalayas as he becomes the first Tico to plant the flag at the summit of the Everest. Starting on March 27, Warner will begin broadcasting his voyage and arduous climb online and on television thanks to an array of digital broadcasting tools he will be carrying along. The special broadcast will beg...

For millions of people around the world who share some sort of cultural affinity with Irish culture, the Saint Patrick's Day celebration is a special time to rejoice. It has been part of the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church since the 15th century, and in Costa Rica it is celebrated as a religious feast day with a Mass service, although it isn't a holy day of obligation like it is in Irel...

Online digital newspaper Costa Rica Hoy recently reported on the efforts of Ticos to support the Kony 2012 movement, an Internet social media effort that has captured international headlines in recent days. Mario Murillo is one of the main supporters and coordinators of the Kony 2012 movement in Costa Rica. His wish is to not only raise awareness to the atrocities committed by the Ugandan rebel le...

A promising find by a group of Yale University researchers studying the properties of fungi in the Amazon rainforest was once a subject investigated by a young Tica college student for her Bachelor thesis. The map to the right of this article shows the biodiversity areas in Costa Rica where Angelica Acuna Gonzalez indicated the presence of pestalotiopsis microspora. Recent news regarding the am...

A legislator from the powerful National Liberation (PLN is Spanish) political party and our current Minister of Security may see their immunity stripped in order to answer to civil and criminal complaints. One case is that of Jorge Angulo Mora, a legislator who is facing charges of undue influence and financial extortion. The other case is that of Mario Zamora Cordero, our current Minister of Secu...

Alejandro Jimenez Gonzalez AKA Palidejo is a Tico businessman who is currently detained in Guatemala on charges of having masterminded a botched assassination that lead to the tragic demise of Facundo Cabral, a troubadour and messenger of peace and justice for the under-privileged in Latin America. The unfolding of the tragedy and the arrival of Jimenez in Guatemala is proof that life is often ...

One of the most exciting musical acts that will play at the Festival Imperial this year is TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn-based band that has been producing an interesting brand of indie rock. TV on the Radio may not be as popular as some of the other acts playing at Festival Imperial, such as Maroon Five and Bjork, but they are darlings of the finicky indie rock critic industry spearheaded by Pitchf...

The styluses of the seismometers at the research departments of our national universities were busy on Tuesday, March 13th with reports of an earthquake that was slightly felt during lunchtime. The epicenter of the seismic event has not yet been pinpointed. The initial reports from the Seismic and Volcanology Observatory (OVSICORI in Spanish) indicate that the epicenter was three kilometers sou...

SANTA ANA – The most senior man in Costa Rica celebrated his 112th anniversary on this Earth with a birthday party at the TGIF restaurant in Escazu on Saturday, March 10. Jose Uriel Delegado Corrales is a resident of a senior living center located in Piedades, Santa Ana. Don Jose Uriel's birthday party also served to celebrate the noble work of the senior living center that is managed by pious...

Everyone knows that coffee is only second to crude oil in terms of trading commodities, and thus the coffee industry can be pretty lucrative. Billions of dollars in future contracts for coffee are traded daily in commodities exchanges around the world. The burgeoning coffee culture and high demand for the drink around the world puts money in the pockets of large-scale farmers, distributors, and gi...

In a news article aired by the National Radio Chamber of Costa Rica (CANARA in Spanish), renowned agricultural and ecosystems expert Alexander Bonilla Duran gave some interesting insight behind Kolbi, ICE's amphibian choice for branding of its popular wireless communications and data services. The powerful government-sponsored ICE consortium currently enjoys the lion's share of the lucrative Tico ...

Digital community newspaper La Fragua, along with various other news sources, recently reported on the planned donation of more than 19,000 computers by the government to students at public schools nationwide. This is part of a greater initiative that was first brought to light a few months ago by the Omar Dengo Foundation. The foundation's namesake was an intellectual who was one of the first to ...

Costa Rica is getting some free worldwide publicity thanks to the hottest tablet computers in the market. In Wednesday's video presentation of the long-awaited new Apple iPad, which is not called iPad 3, images of the Poas volcano and some of our beaches are clearly seen. The iPad promotional video, which can be seen here (QuickTime download and installation may be required), includes a section...

In a recent article titled "Is Wall Street Bullish on Costa Rica?", The Costa Rica Star mentioned that shares of the Ad Astra Rocket Company seem like a good investment due to the tenacity of NASA officials in allocating funds for Mars exploration, despite a sharply reduced budget. This move by NASA bodes well for commercial space exploration outfits like Ad Astra that can support NASA's missions ...

In a recent article that appeared on the online edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor David P. Barash of the University of Washington points out a correlation between our Ley 8101 de Paternidad Responsable (Responsible Fatherhood Law - PDF) and current enrollment figures in our public grade schools. Compared to last year, enrollment in our schools decreased by almost 13,000 stude...

The chart accompanying this article shows a graphical representation of historical data released by our Executive Branch in relation to the rate of traditional and non-traditional exports across a five-year period. This chart took a couple of minutes to make and did not involve downloading data. By using a powerful web application called Junar, charts like the one here can be easily created simply...

The latest viral video coming out of Costa Rica is beginning to make the rounds on the online social networks. At the former Aviarios del Caribe bird sanctuary near Cahuita, home to a new sloth rescue center, an orphan baby sloth comes down with a nasty case of mange. This condition necessitates a whole body shave and skin treatment, and the new viral video depicts just that. The tiny sloth is sha...

A dear reader named Sharon recently left a question on the Facebook profile of The Costa Rica Star about the questionable practice of private health facilities charging money upfront for ambulance transportation or even medical procedures. She also wanted to know about the insurance policies accepted by private hospitals like CIMA, Clinica Biblica and Hospital La Catolica. Sharon thinks that the I...

Author's Note: This is not medical advice. When it comes to matters of immunization and prophylaxis, readers are urged to consult with health care professionals. News about the status of certain vaccines in our country have dominated headlines in recent days. The most notorious headline has been that of the special vaccines against the seasonal influenza AH1N1 and AH3N2. According to a report i...

In the eleventh hour, hard rock station 91.5 FM "The Species" survived a fate worse than oblivion thanks to the hard work and dedication of Tico headbangers who simply refused to let their beloved missing link fade away. The radio station had been slated for closure or change in format by parent company Cadena Radial Costarricense (CRC), a modest media group that counts nine radio stations in Cost...

While Liberia and other parts of Guanacaste are developing fast and experiencing significant growth, the sustainable communities in the Osa Peninsula and our Southern Pacific seem to be taking a different approach to residential development. In the case of Finca Bellavista, sustainability is achieved by seeing the forest for the trees and showing deep respect for nature. Finca Bellavista is a t...

You have seen them proudly adorning many of our historical landmarks, such as the National Museum, our Judicial Complex, the National Assembly, the Children's Museum, and our Embassy in Washington DC. In the past, you may have also seen them unceremoniously used as lawn ornaments on the homes of powerful Tico families. Our solemn, gray petrospheres never fail to attract attention, and they will so...