Posts:
Bored? - (De El Mercurio del lunes 6/4) Arte religioso y exposiciones en la apertura de las fiestas (Religious art and exhibitions at the opening of the festivities) - There are several exhibits that will kick off the fiestas for the 469th anniversary of the Fundación...
There was a moment around 1980 when the world seemed to run on two channels of reality at once. On the evening news the announcer spoke in grave tones about the American hostages held in Tehran after the seizure of the U.S. embassy in the Iran hostage crisis. The...
By Trisha Pasricha, MD Science has finally settled the age-old debate of whose farts smell worse — men or women. But to appreciate the answer, you need to understand how researchers figured it out. The methodology alone deserves an award. The man responsible is Dr....
With more than 100 legal challenges filed against legislation sponsored by President Daniel Noboa, the Constitutional Court is bracing for new attacks from the government. Among the law suits the court will consider are claims against a law streamlining the process of...
In conversations with some expats who have been in Cuenca for a while, a quiet pattern begins to show up. It does not arrive all at once, and it is not something everyone notices. But for those who do, it changes how the city feels in a way that is hard to reverse. At...
By Kamilia Lahrichi For expats in Argentina — and all over Latin America, for that matter — the idea of punctuality is one of the hardest things to understand. Argentines, in particular, have a very relaxed attitude towards time. In fact, punctuality can seem rude....
By Will Glovinsky A story has been going around about artificial intelligence for the past decade: At some point, AI advances, robots and self-driving cars will throw countless people out of work. The rich folks who control AI companies will get richer. Most other...
Neighborhoods in Quito and Guayaquil suffered electric blackouts of two to four hours over the Easter weekend. The National Electricity Corporation (Cnel) posted messages on X shortly before most outages on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but provided no explanation....
By Elias Aboujaoude Birthrates are collapsing across the developed world, and the numbers are stark enough to unsettle most demographers. Nearly three‑quarters of humanity already live in countries with fertility at sub-replacement levels, according to the United...
Charlie woke up late on Good Friday, which would not normally require explanation except that in Cuenca, Good Friday means Semana Santa is in full swing, the construction crew on the lot next door has taken the week off, and the particular form of alarm clock I have...
Ecuador’s Internal Revenue Service (SRI) is backing down on plans to charge a 15% value added tax on most dairy and bakery products. SRI said it was “correcting the interpretation” of its Wednesday announcement of new taxes that sparked complaints from dairy and...
Bored? (De El Mercurio del viernes, 3/4) Escuela presenta proyecto "Constelaciones estelares" (School Presents “Star Constellations” Project) - The Unidad Educativa Eugenio Espejo will present its multidisciplinary stage project "Constelaciones estelares" next...
By Luisa Torres As we age, the risk of falling increases and becomes increasingly perilous. A fall can be a real health setback for a frail, elderly person. And, more older adults are dying from falls today than 20 years ago. A recent study showed that more than...
The water levels at the Mazar reservoir and Rio Coca, the sources that power the country’s two largest electric generation plants, is dropping rapidly. On Thursday, Ecuador's Electric Corporation (Celec) reported that generation at the Coca Coda Sinclair plant is...
Ecuador is claiming it has achieved “concrete results” in its fight against organized crime, as the country joins forces with the United States to conduct an anti-cartel military offensive. On Wednesday, the government of President Daniel Noboa announced that...
Ever since John Milton wrote his famous poem 'Paradise Lost', something about the word “paradise” that should make a normal person hesitate, because it nearly always comes attached to a brochure, a visa category, a casino in the Bahamas, and a silence about how things...
In the Achuar territory, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, scientists and indigenous communities are driving a key change. The replacement of combustion engines with solar boats is beginning to transform the soundscape. In this regard, the noise that dominated the rivers for...
The Internal Revenue Service (SRI) has ordered retail outlets to begin charging the 15% value added tax on dozens of previously untaxed food items, including bread and most dairy products. The SRI says its order does not change existing tax rules and only provides...
The Cuenca-Molleturo-Guayaquil and Cuenca-Girón-Machala highways will soon become toll roads, President Daniel Noboa announced Wednesday. Plagued for years by landslides and sinkholes, both highways have suffered frequent closures, especially during rainy weather. "We...
You don’t notice these rules at first. Most people don’t even realize they exist. Life feels easy enough. The cafés are welcoming. The routines settle in. The city seems open. Then something small happens. A reaction you didn’t expect. A distance you can’t quite...
