Archive for June 2nd, 2008
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Marilyn Monroe would have celebrated her 82nd birthday on June 1st had she been alive today. Hard to believe. In her short lifetime, which tragically ended in 1962,
Date of Birth
1 June 1926, Los Angeles, California, USA
Date of Death
5 August 1962, Los Angeles, California, USA (drug overdose)
Birth Name
Norma Jean Mortensen
Nickname
The Blonde Bombshell
Height
5′ 5½” (1.66 m)
Mini Biography: Her mother was a film-cutter at RKO Studios who, widowed and insane, abandoned her to sequence of foster homes. She was almost smothered to death at two, nearly raped at six. At nine the LA Orphans’ Home paid her a nickel a month for kitchen work while taking back a penny every Sunday for church. At sixteen she worked in an aircraft plant and married a man she called Daddy; he went into the military, she modeled, they divorced in 1946. She owned 200 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied acting at the Actors’ lab in Hollywood, and took literature courses at UCLA downtown. 20th Century Fox gave her a contract but let it lapse a year later. In 1948, Columbia gave her a six-month contract, turned her over to coach Natasha Lytess and featured her in the B movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948) in which she sang two numbers. Joseph L. Mankiewicz saw her in a small part in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and put her in All About Eve (1950), resulting in 20th Century re-signing her to a seven-year contract. Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) launched her as a sex symbol superstar. When she went to a supper honoring her The Seven Year Itch (1955) she arrived in a red chiffon gown borrowed from the studio (she had never owned a gown). The same year she married and divorced baseball great ‘Joe Dimaggio’ (their wedding night was spent in Paso Robles, CA). After The Seven Year Itch (1955), she wanted serious acting to replace the sexpot image and went to New York’s Actors Studio. She worked with director Lee Strasberg and also underwent psychoanalysis to learn more about herself. Critics praised her transformation in Bus Stop (1956) and the press was stunned by her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller. True to form, she had no veil to match her beige wedding dress so she dyed one in coffee; he wore one of the two suits he owned. They went to England that fall where she made The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) with Laurence Olivier, fighting with him and falling further prey to alcohol and pills. Two miscarriages and gynecological surgery followed. So did an affair with Yves Montand. Work on her last picture The Misfits (1961), written for her by departing husband Miller was interrupted by exhaustion. She was dropped from the unfinished Something’s Got to Give (1962) due to chronic lateness and drug dependency. Four months later she was found dead in her Brentwood home of a drug overdose, adjudged “probable suicide”.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
The year 2008 has started with the right foot for Costa Rica’s tourist industry . During the first 3 months of 2007, the amount of tourists who had arrived to Costa Rica via air travel were around the 400 thousand range. For this same period of the current year, this number went up to the 500 thousand range thus clearly representing an important increase in tourist influx.
The constant participation in foreign travel markets and fairs has helped Costa Rica become more visible to the world travel industry. Over the years, the country has taken all the precautions and care in making sure that all tour operators as well as hotels operate under conscious, yet strict means of actions in order to maintain the country’s sustainability.
In 2007, Costa Rica received almost 2 billion tourists that generated an income of 1.9 million dollars. Considering the 14% increase in tourist arrival during the first trimester of 2008 in comparison to 2007, the current year can easily close with an income of over 2 billion dollars.
Costa Rica’s tourism industry is one of the country’s main source of income thanks to the diverse availability in lodging and attractions. Although the Pacific and Atlantic beaches are the main reason visitors come to the Costa Rican Hotels , a vast number of tourists come for its beauty and nature. Volcanoes, lakes, bird watching, surfing, zip lining, hot air ballooning and hot springs are just a small example of what is available in Costa Rica.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Real Intercontinental Hotel is building an annex tower at its facilities in Guachipelin, Escazu, to the west of San Jose. The new building will be home to Club & Tower, which will be eight stories high and will have 98 rooms, including 13 suites, three master suites, and a presidential suite. According to Real Intercontinental sources, the new facility will open to the public next August 15th.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
The new marina would house 500 boats.
SolerPazos Group has announced that it will go ahead with plans to build a marina in Moin, Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Isla Moin, as it will be called, will become the first mega marina in Costa Rica and will include a luxury hotel, 600 condominiums, 100 homes and 100 ocean view villas amid its 113 hectares and 2.5 kilometers of beach front land. The marina itself will have 500 spaces for the yachts and “mega-yachts”.
The building permits have been obtained for the first stage of the marina that requires a total investment of $150 million, while the project is still awaiting approval from the Interinstitutional Commission on Tourist Marinas and Docks (Cimat). This stage will consist of building the international marina, capable of harboring yachts measuring between 50 to 250 feet. It aims at becoming the largest marina in the whole Caribbean. Once the first phase is finished, the construction of the rest of the complex can start. The mayor of Limon, Eduardo Barboza, received this information last week, and is now expected to give the go ahead so that work can start promptly as this is the final step before building can start.
While talk of the construction of a marina in Puerto Viejo caused havoc and protest with the majority of the population rallying against it, it looks like the marina Isla Moin is going to happen with little opposition. The Isla Moin has promised to keep a certain harmony with nature, while the marina of Puerto Viejo would have an irreversible ecological impact, causing severe damage to the flora and fauna of this small paradise. So far the project for Puerto Viejo is on pause. SolerPazos is a Costa Rican company and also promises to use all national labor to construct the marina.
(more…)
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Twenty-six percent of the territory of Costa Rica is protected, but there are only 500 wardens for the prevention of deforestation, poaching –particularly of endangered species–, and the misuse of wilderness areas. According to the National Conservation Areas System (SINAC in Spanish), the 500 have to cover 1.3 million hectares (over 3.2 million acres). If it were possible to divide that area, it would mean that each warden is responsible for 2,654 hectares (6,558 acres). According to The Nature Conservancy, as of 2005, an additional 888 wardens were a must, but in the last two years only 12 new positions have been opened. To add to their woes, the protectors of wildlife are underpaid (a little over $465 a month), work 20 days in a row, and lack even basic equipment, SINAC sources pointed out.
As part of the efforts to be less dependent on oil, starting next October, only gasoline with ethanol and diesel with bio-diesel will be available at Costa Rican gas stations. Vice-Minister of Energy Julio Matamoros explained that all types of gasoline will have 7.5 percent of ethanol, obtained from sugar cane, while diesel will have 2 percent to 5 percent bio-diesel, from oil palm. He added that an information campaign will start in July, so that drivers will be prepared for the changes, expected to be minimal, if any, in modern vehicles. Regarding prices, authorities do not know yet if there will be changes. According to the program, the percentage of bio-fuels will increase in the future.
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