Natural compound found
to be better bug chaser


Those expats who want to be as green as the Jolly Green Giant yet still keep mosquitoes away may soon have an option.

A new report said that a natural compound called isolongifolenone is more effective than DEET in repelling insects.

The findings are outlined in an article by Aijun Zhang and others in the Journal of Medical Entomology, according to the Entomological Society of America, the journal's publisher.  Isolongifolenone is found in the tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America, and also repels ticks, which can carry disease.

Derivatives of isolongifolenone have been widely and safely used as fragrances in cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants, and paper products, and new processing methods may make it as cheap to produce as DEET, the society said.

The authors found that isolongifolenone deters the biting of the Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi Liston mosquitoes more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide (DEET) in laboratory bioassays, said the society. These are the mosquitoes linked to malaria, yellow fever and dengue, all serious diseases of the tropics.

Since “isolongifolenone is easily synthesized from inexpensive turpentine oil feedstock,” the authors wrote, “we are therefore confident that the compound has significant potential as an inexpensive and safe repellent for protection of large human populations against blood-feeding arthropods.”


Girl wins right to wear
skirt to her school class


The family of a Tres Rios secondary student had to fight up to the Sala IV constitutional court to affirm the girl's right to wear a skirt.

In a decision announced Tuesday, the magistrates ordered the school officials to permit the girl to attend classes in a skirt. The girl's father, identified by the last names of Salazar Campos, protested the school's December 2007 decision to require all the female students to wear pants.

He said his family was not Catholic and their religion prohibited women from wearing pants, according to the decision. The family's beliefs were not explained further.

When he was denied his request by the school officials, he sought relief in the courts. He brought the case against the school, the Colegio Ing. Alejandro Quesada Ramírez, and the  Ministerio de Educación Pública.


His mother beat cancer
with wheat grass and diet

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I’ve been reading with interest what I perceive as the closed mind of Dr. John Cocker in the debate of alternative medicine vs. the allopathic approach. Permit me to relate a simple case of lymph cancer that my mother had. Back in the mid 1970s, my mother was diagnosed with lymphoma. Her doctor wanted her to undergo an immediate treatment of chemotherapy and radiation.

My mom, always an independent thinker, had read widely about all health matters. She decided that she would rather undergo an alternative approach and chose a regime of wheat grass and a whole food diet as advocated by Ann Whigmore in Boston.

When she related this to her doctor, he flat out told her she would be dead in six months if she chose that treatment. Never to be intimidated by doctors, she told him that she would be dead in six months if she did undergo his treatment. As a result of this the doctor sent her a registered letter divorcing himself as her physician. Perhaps he was afraid of a future lawsuit, or perhaps he was simply a horse’s ass.

To make a long story short, within six months, after following a very strict regime of alternative treatment, she went back to another physician for a checkup. The doctor could find absolutely no trace of lymphoma in her body and she lived a cancer free life for another 7 years.


People fearful in Grenada
because of U.S. invasion

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I have often considered airing an opinion in your paper, but it wasn't until I read the article by Mr. Bruce Simpson of Miami, Florida, that I felt absolutely compelled to respond.

In the "opinion" article published in the Tuesday, Feb. 10th's online paper, he identified himself as a "mercenary" who took part in the invasion of Grenada in the 1970's. He states that the people were ". . . full of fear because the existing regime was...suppressing all rights."  I would posit that the people were indeed full of fear, but rather that their fear was the result of their peace being invaded by an army of gun-waving special forces trained in the art of killing. 

Mr. Simpson further writes that he was in Panamá, several days after that "invasion", and that  ". . . the people were happy to see change coming to their country,"  although he doesn't state in what capacity he was involved in that invasion. Was he involved in the arrests and detentions of politicians and labor leaders?  I'm sure they were very happy with being unjustly incarcerated for over 18 months. Or, was he involved in something more sinister, such as the cold-blooded execution of an estimated 4,000 Panamanians? 

Was he walking the streets of the poor people whose neighborhoods were purposefully torched and burned to the ground?  I'm sure he would have found a lot of happy, welcoming faces there.

Yes, I couldn't resist airing a reply to Mr. Simpson's opinion because he is so obviously either at best, a misguided agent of disinformation, more commonly called a liar...or at worst, an agent of the empire's "intelligence" community.