Yesterday many websites were in a World-Wide Blackout against The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill, and it’s sister bill, Protect IP Act (PIPA), that is currently working their way through the United States Congress and the Senate. These new bills threaten every facet of the internet by letting government regulate what can and can not be seen; a form of censorship - just like China and Iraq does to their Internet users.
Craig's List Blackout in Protest of SOPA and PIPA
Thousands of website owners, webmasters, and SEOs (including Tico Times Directory), joined with the big boys like Google, Craig’s Lists, and Wikipedia and protested for 24/hrs this scary and very unfair bill. The purpose of the blackout was twofold: to raise public awareness, and to encourage people to share their views with their elected representatives.
Fighting online piracy is VERY important and we believe in the copyrights and trademarks protection of others. Unfortunately, SOPA and PIPA bills target the innocent places like American social networks, Blogs and search engines. This alone undermines the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S jobs. In otherwords, those in protest, believe the bill violates a few US Amendment Rights, like the 1st Amendment – Freedom of Speech. Read more... (755 words, 3 images, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)
A female Mediterranean fruit fly pumps eggs through her ovipositor into the soft outer layers of a ripe coffee berry. Coffee is one of Costa Rica's prime exports
In 2011 National Geographic had a photo contest and ironically one of the winners in the nature category was a picture of a fruit fly resting on a green coffee bean in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Obviously unknown to the photographer, it implicated one of Costa Rica’s worst nightmares is alive, well, and continues to threaten Costa Rica’s multimillion dollar agriculture business.
The Mediterranean fruit fly, is one of the world’s most destructive fruit pests. This pest attacks more than 260 different fruits, flowers, vegetables and nuts and causes billions of dollars in damages.
It was in 1955 the Mediterranean fruit fly first invaded Costa Rica and did over $2 million in damages, or in today’s dollar, around $20 million. And back in 1955, the agriculture business was only a fraction of what it is today. With said, Costa Rica has taken massive steps to combat any infestation and has established detection procedures so that the pest does not make Costa Rica its home. Read more... (519 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)
Up until quite recently in Costa Rica, the proposition of saving both money and the Earth with photovoltaic solar systems has stood on some pretty shaky ground. But that is changing. Nowadays, more and more Costa Ricans and expats are installing stand-alone or autonomous photovoltaic systems in the country’s remotest regions and have made it possible for people to live well where ordinarily they could not. Also, although stand-alone solar systems are worth their investment versus a generator, with their large battery banks they do constitute a hefty initial outlay – but it is worth it? Yes it is!
Imagine investing in a product that builds the most home equity, requires no maintenance, comes with a factory warranty of 25 years, begins paying for itself the month after it’s installed and diminishes your home or business’ carbon footprint. A photovoltaic grid-tie system reduces or eliminates electricity bills through solar panels that generate energy for the grid, which is obliged to deduct the energy’s cost from the owner’s monthly bills. In other words, the electricity bill is either reduced substantially or eliminated. The system is essentially solar panels and an inverter. Read more... (740 words, 2 images, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)
Coffee has always played a major role in Costa Rica’s history and economy. Up until a few years ago it was Costa Rica’s #1 exported and very commercialized product. The largest growing areas are in the provinces of San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Puntarenas, and Cartago. It is grown just about everywhere in Costa Rica.
Even if I like all the commercial brands like Cafe Milagro and Britt, I really prefer the tiny low-volume farm-specific coffee producers who now keep their lots separate, and either sells just the beans and/or mills it themselves where they keep total control of the process with the best possible flavors and prices. One can still buy a kilo (2.2lbs) of coffee between 3-$6 USD. The San Jose Central Mercado has several coffee retailers that offer local prices.
Costa Rica coffee is considered some of the best in the world. It is high in caffeine, very good body, exquisite aroma and excellent acidity. With said, it is often blended with inferior varieties. Many of the US store brand coffees have a mixture of Costa Rica beans.
Costa Rica has six coffee regions, West Valley, Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Orosi, Brunca and Turrialba. The coffee is grown in varies altitudes from 2400-5500 feet and each has their signature tastes. Read more... (492 words, 2 images, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)
In the last couple of weeks one of our accounts has been having a hard time logging into their server. So after they rebooted the router a few times and then cleaned the ends of the cables the problem still existed. For a while it was driving me a bit crazy why this was happening until suddenly that light bulb clicked on; I remembered the article I wrote back in April, 2010, Net Neutrality For Costa Rica – Throttling Bandwidth Usages and Charging For It.
A Free Trade Agreement signed with the US and Canada (a few years back) ensured that private companies are able to operate in the telecoms sector. State-owned ISP, Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA) has already formed alliances with the main cable operators to allow them to provide broadband services and ICE has been working feverishly to upgrade their system. Since then, the competition has been going hog wild running fiber optic just about everywhere, which leads one to ask two big questions: Read more... (1073 words, 1 image, estimated 4:18 mins reading time)
- Are some of Costa Rica Internet Service Providers (ISP) starting to throttle bandwidth to save money?
- And could this be the first sign that these companies may start charging their customers for excessive and/or limit bandwidth as we wrote about back in April, 2010?
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