Art opening: ‘Jojmá, Biná, Daat'
Guatemalan artist Víctor Pérez-Maldonado's Hebrew-inspired paintings, 8 p.m., Amodeo Gallery, 100 meters east of end of Boulevard Rohrmoser, info: 2291-1908, http://web.mac.com/vicpm.

Malpaís in concert
Costa Rican band folk rock, tonight and tomorrow, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Arnoldo Castillo in concert
Tico pop, Jazz Café, Escazú, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.  

Transiciones live
Latin rhythms, 9 p.m., at Mac's American Bar, Sabana Sur, info: 2231- 3145.

Cualquiera, Una Historia de Tres Mujeres de la Zona Roja
Short about three women of the dangerous Costa Rican Calle 12, 8:30 p.m. Trans. Canal VM Latino, Channel 29.

Play: ‘Exorcismale, Una Historia de Amor en Tiempos de la Inquisición'
Drama, through Sun. 8 p.m., Teatro 1887, CENAC, 2257-5524.

New driving restrictions are set to come into effect today that will keep certain motorists from driving at peak hours in central San José.

Drivers of oversized vehicles will also be prohibited from traveling through the capital or on certain major highways. Violators of either decree could be slapped with a 5,000 colones ($9.70) fine.

Meanwhile, the President Oscar Arias administration hopes to push through legislation in coming weeks that would eliminate the tax on diesel and shift it to regular and super.

The same bill would also double the tax on some diesel vehicles and transfer ¢10 billion (about $19.4 million) to the National Oil Refinery, making up for revenue lost when the government suspended a proposed ¢85/liter hike in diesel prices.

Light freight, transport and special equipment vehicles that run on diesel would be excluded from the new tax.

The newest peak hour restrictions will be enforced on the Circunvalación, the route runs around San José, and will be based on hour, day of the week and the last digit of a driver's license plate (see map and chart).

Vehicles with plates ending with a 1 or 2 are forbidden on Monday, those with a 3 or 4 on Tuesday, 5 and 6 on Wednesday, 7 and 8 on Thursday, and 9 and 0 on Friday. The restrictions are from 6-8:30 a.m. and from 4:30-7 p.m.

Overweight vehicles can no longer travel through downtown San José, nor along Route 32 (Braulio Carrillo), General Cañas Highway (Alajuela), Bernardo Soto Highway (San Ramón), Próspero Fernández Highway (Santa Ana), and Florencio del Castillo Highway (Cartago).

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias said Costa Ricans are living in a “true national emergency” due to ever-rising oil prices. He urged legislators to work together to pass the bill within the next four weeks.

The government is pitching the diesel tax cut as a means to help the agricultural, industrial and transport sectors, as well as the 80 percent of Costa Ricans who use public transportation on a daily basis for work.

Should the bill fail, Arias said, the Public Services Regulatory Authority will be forced to raise fuel prices across the board.

“Everyone will have to pay equally,” Arias said. “The government insists that we protect the people with the least resources.”

Nine out of 10 Costa Rican students age 12 to 24 are using e-mail, according to a recent University of Costa Rica (UCR) study, whose authors say the activity is having a positive impact on young people's lives.

“What we've found is a positive correlation in general terms between young people and the use of technology, especially computers and the Internet,” said Juan Manuel Villasuso, director of UCR's Information and Knowledge Society Program (PROSIC).

“We find that the young people who use technology most have a more positive attitude toward life, better academic performance, more social life – the opposite of what a lot of people think,” he said.

However, he said, a small group experiences physical trouble, such as back problems because of excessive use of technology.

Villasuso said that the rate of e-mail use among youth goes up with age. “There's a higher usage among students between 21 and 24 than young people from 12 to 15, for example,” he said.

The study found that the most frequent use of e-mail, 40 percent, is to share jokes and other entertaining content between friends, followed by 23 percent for group academic projects.

PROSIC in the past few years has conducted general studies on Costa Rican society's advancement with technology, but the report presented yesterday is the program's first to focus entirely on children and young adults.

The study's results (www.prosic.ucr.ac.cr) are based on a May-December survey of 4,037 high-school and college students, rural and urban, and do not include people of the same age who have already left school.

Nicaragua's military is developing an eco-battalion that will protect the country's two largest natural reserves, according to Orland Talavera, the military's director of civil affairs.

Talavera told The Nica Times that a total $6 million in aid from Finland, Norway and Denmark will go toward training and deploying the battalion, which will protect the Bosawas biosphere reserve in northern Nicaragua bordering Honduras, and Indio Maiz biological reserve in the south, which borders Costa Rica.

While Bosawas has suffered from massive forest fires in recent dry months, Indio Maiz faces rampant deforestation and forest fires associated with illegal settlements inside the reserve.

The “ecological battalion,” which will include as many as 700 Nicaraguan soldiers, will likely be deployed before the end of the year, he said.