Costa Rica: Scientis discover new glass frog species with translucent skin

(wired.co.uk) - A new species of frog discovered in Costa Rica has such translucent skin on its underside that it's possible to see its internal organs.

The species, named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, is a type of glass frog, which are only found in regions of South and Central America. In this case, six specimens of the species have been found in the tropical wet forests of Costa Rica's Caribbean foothills. The nocturnal creature is distinct from other species thanks to skin texture, colouring and the sound of its call.

The glass frog was discovered by zoologists working at the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre and has been detailed in a study published in the online journalZootaxa. While bright green on top, the delicate frog's transparent underside allowed the researchers to study the arrangement of the frog's internal organs in detail. "The bulbous liver and digestive organs are covered in white peritonea. The heart and ventral vein are blood red. Lungs transparent, but with a network of red blood vessels. The gallbladder is transparent Sulphur Yellow," they write.

The frog has been named in honour of the senior author Brian Kubicki's mother Janet Diane Kubicki, and also Diana the Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals and woodland. "This being in relation to our own 'hunt' among Costa Rica’s mountainous forests to better understand the amphibians dwelling within," the authors explain. Full Story with pics

Chinese-backed Nicaragua canal could be $50B boondoggle

Boondoggle?
WASHINGTON — This week, Nicaraguan dignitaries and officials from a Hong Kong-based consortium inaugurated what could be the most ambitious infrastructure project in the Western Hemisphere. The planned Grand Canal of Nicaragua would span 172 miles across the Central American nation, cutting through Lake Nicaragua, the region’s largest freshwater reservoir. At a cost of about $50 billion, it would dwarf the Panama Canal in terms of capacity and bring untold economic benefits to what remains one of the poorest countries in the Americas.

“With this great canal, Nicaragua expects to move 5 percent of the world’s commerce that moves by sea, which will bring great economic benefits and double the GDP,” said Nicaraguan Vice President Omar Halleslevens at a groundbreaking ceremony on the Pacific Coast.

But there are many reasons to doubt the venture will be a success.

The dream of building a trans-oceanic waterway through Nicaragua is an old one, dating back to the 19th century. American proponents of such a project included the powerful Vanderbilt family and President Theodore Roosevelt. None of the earlier plans were realized.

($ referring to US Currency)

Nicaragua Is Going Ahead With a Massive Canal That Will Bisect the Country

Up yours Panama!

- On December 22, Nicaragua will begin construction on a massive canal that will bisect the country. Numerous independent scientists and engineers believe that the canal will be a disaster for both the people and environment of Nicaragua, and although the company hired to build the canal promised to study its environmental and social impacts, that work won't be complete until until April 2015—four months into the project. The Nicaraguan government, though, is celebrating the project's launch: one presidential confidante is calling the canal "a Christmas present" for the country.

Since Nicaragua signed a contract in June 2013 with the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company, scientists have been scrambling to evaluate the project's potential impacts, as Smithsonian reported in February. Last October, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation—the world's largest scientific organization devoted to tropical ecosystems—urged the Nicaraguan government to stop construction plans until adequate studies could be carried out. Local people, many of whom will be forced to evacuate their homes, have also been protesting the canal.

Based on the studies that have been conducted, the project's likely impacts include: 

1,500 square miles of forest, wetlands and coastlines dug up or disrupted, including in 9 protected areas

Losses to endangered species such as Baird’s tapirs, spider monkeys, jaguars, harpy eagles and nesting sea turtles 

Water contamination in Lake Nicaragua, which supplies most of the country's drinking water
Violations of the Nicaraguan Constitution, which protects the land rights of indigenous and afro-descendant peoplearmers and indigenous people

Loss of hurricane-buffering mangroves, replaced by a flood-prone waterway

Earlier this month, following an international scientific workshop, a group of multi-disciplinary experts concluded: "The proposed Canal and sub-projects will provide no economic benefit to the nation if the Project ultimately proves to be economically unfeasible." The Christmas presents they're looking for are a little different—"an exhaustive cost-benefits analysis, as well as analyses of the effects on national development, human rights, and legal and national security issues."

Read more: smithsonianmag.com

"Cinco de Mayo" Plenty of Beer, Little History.

Today (5 May 2012) Marks "Cinco de Mayo" A Day Filled With All Things Mexico, From Beer, Sombreros, etc. But To Many People Many Do Not Understand The Origins & The Significance Of This Day.

From The Associated Press:

Here’s what Cinco de Mayo has become in the U.S.: a celebration of all things Mexican, from mariachi music to sombreros, marked by schools, politicians and companies selling everything from beans to beer.
And here’s what Cinco de Mayo is not, despite all the signs in bar windows inviting revelers to drink: It’s not Mexico’s Independence Day, and it’s barely marked in Mexico, except in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is rooted in a complicated and short-lived 1862 military victory over the French.

The holiday has spread from the American Southwest, even though most are unaware of its original ties to the U.S. Civil War, abolition and promotion of civil rights for blacks.

Often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day (that’s Sept. 16), Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla between the victorious ragtag army of largely Mexican Indian soldiers against the invading French forces of Napoleon III. Mexican Americans, during the Chicano Movement of the 1970s, adopted the holiday for its David vs. Goliath storyline as motivation for civil rights struggles in Texas and California.
Over the years, the holiday has been adopted by beer companies as a way to penetrate the growing Latino market, even as the historical origins of the holiday remain largely forgotten.

David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine and health services at UCLA and author of the newly released “El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition,” said the holiday’s history in the U.S. goes back to the Gold Rush when thousands of immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America came to California during the Civil War.

According to Spanish-language newspapers at the time, this first group of multinational Latinos on U.S. soil identified with the Union Army’s fight against the Confederacy and often wrote pieces about the evils of slavery. Hayes-Bautista said these Latino immigrants were concerned about the Union’s lack of progress and Napoleon III’s interests in helping the South.

“It wasn’t until the news came about the Battle of Puebla that they got the good news they wanted,” said Hayes-Bautista. “Since Napoleon III was linked to the Confederacy, they saw the victory as the first sign that their side could win.”

They didn’t, of course, at least not for a few years. French forces took over Mexico after the Battle of Puebla, and installed Habsburg Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. He was captured by Mexican forces five years later and put to death.

But in the years that followed, Latinos in California and the U.S. Northwest celebrated Cinco de Mayo with parades of people dressed in Civil War uniforms and gave speeches about the significance of the Battle of Puebla in the larger struggle for abolition, said Hayes-Bautista.

The Cinco de Mayo-Civil War link remained until the Mexican Revolution, which sparked another wave of Mexican immigration to the U.S. Those immigrants had no connection to Cinco de Mayo—except that U.S. Latinos celebrated it.

“That’s when it became about David vs. Goliath, Indians beating a European force, and it took on a new meaning,” said Hayes-Bautista. “The Civil War ties disappeared.”

( Source Article )