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... (754 words, 3 images, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)
A few weeks ago at the Auto Mercado in Jaco, it was very evident that even if Thanksgiving is not a Costa Rican holiday, is sure is one of the most celebrated American holidays in Costa Rica.
Signs were up for the holiday and products were already being displayed. Frozen turkeys, stuffing mix (including popular brands like Stove Top), salad fixing, sweet potatoes, green bean casseroles, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce as well as apple, pecan, mince, pumpkin pie and all of the other gastronomical goodies.
And there is something about Costa Rica potatoes (which are a bit sweeter) that makes unreal mash potatoes!
Unfortunately, turkeys are either imported frozen from the U.S. or purchased locally from Pipasa (a meat and poultry company) and is not cheap for a fresh bird: at least $3.50 per pound. So a 20lb bird could cost you around $70USD, compared to one in the US, where specials for birds can be as low as $7USD for a 13lb turkey.
Most will go ahead and buy frozen. PriceSmart and Auto Mercando have 15-18lbs turkeys for over $40. Auto Mercado is probably the most Americanize superstore in all of Costa Rica and imports many American goods along with Thanksgiving products, including stuffing mix, canned pumpkin, frozen pie crusts, canned onion rings and cranberries. Read more... (506 words, 2 images, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)
For the last four years I have been drawn like a magnet to San Jose, Costa Rica for Halloween. A few years prior I read a blog where the Blogger wrote how Halloween in Costa Rica is considered nothing but a “Gringo’s” pagan holiday, that was designed to seduce small children with candy and “not” an acceptable celebration among Ticos. Then it went on about this haunting, peasant folklore of El Cadejos – a young man (Joaquin) from Cartago who loved to party. After Joaquin got blindly drunk for a week straight, his father cursed and transformed him into El Cadejos, a terrifyingly huge black dog with fiery-red eyes destined to haunt Costa Rica forever, scaring those who don’t know when to stop their drunkenness.
I have heard that El Cadejos is slang for massive hangover. Read more... (768 words, 10 images, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)
President Laura Chinchilla
I don’t know if it is just me, but it seems like every time you turn around Costa Rica is having some sort of labor strike.
Last Monday, about 2000 union workers of Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) (government monopoly on power and light company) went on strike, and snarled traffic on several major streets in and around San Jose. They were protesting a bill in the Legislative Assembly to privatize the generation of electricity.
And back in July a meeting was held between the union and officials of the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS) over a strike that centered on reduction of benefits.
So … what could this be telling us?
First, let go to the political party of National Liberation Party, in which ex President Óscar Arias (May 2006-2010) and current President Laura Chinchilla are political members. The National Liberation Party supports [to a point] privatization, which has only been tolerable by unions in this small but creditable Central American country. After Arias, many were saying [because of privatization] it would put an end to National Liberation Party’s, needless to say, they were proven wrong when Chinchilla was voted in, keeping the party in power until 2014. Its evident both were voted into power to help reduce government waste and to promote economical growth. Read more... (719 words, 2 images, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)
The world’s most advance technology will have it 20th Birthday on Aug, 8th; thats when the “World Wide Web (www)” first gained a public face in 1991.
CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, publicized the new World Wide Web project, two years after, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee had begun creating HTML, HTTP and the first few Web pages at CERN.
The World Wide Web in its short span has grown into a multi-trillion dollar business – making it the fastest growing business in the history of mankind. In 1998, less than .1% of the population of Costa Rica (including the World) had no clue to what the Internet was.
With the Costa Rica’s Free Trade Agreement and ICE’s suddenly lost of its IP monopoly (caused by competition), and its recent monopoly on Apple iPhones Costa Rica is demanding technology, particularly internet service at an alarming rate.
According to a poll we have been conducting, seventy-eight percent of Costa Ricans are influence by technology. As one person commented on one of our Blog posts: Read more... (832 words, 2 images, estimated 3:20 mins reading time)
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