Rubber pavement that regenerates with rainwater is the national winner of the James Dyson Award, an international award that challenges students and recent graduates to design something that solves a problem.
Created by Israel Antonio Briseño Carmona, a student at the Coahuila Autonomous University in Torreón, the self-regenerating pavement is made out of discarded tires.
Regeneration of the pavement occurs through the absorption of rainwater, a process that prevents road damage such as potholes.
Briseño said that his inspiration for the idea was a question: why do potholes appear every time it rains?
“What happens is that when it rains, water filters down to the sub-base creating a fault and when a car goes over it, it collapses. That’s why I wanted to turn the main agent of deterioration [asphalt or concrete] into an agent of recovery [rubber]. With my project, water would be a [source of] maintenance for our roads,” he explained.
Rubber pavement inventor Briseño.
Briseño obtained a patent for his unique idea in April under the name Paflec. It has not yet been used to build a road but Briseño hopes that will change soon.
He explained that he has a three-phase plan to make his road-building idea a reality.
The first phase involves meeting with an engineer to “resolve doubts” about the project and then building a short section of road to ensure that it functions as envisaged. The second phase is to certify the construction system with the national building certification organization ONNCCE and the third phase is to gain approval from the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation.
“In the medium term, I would like to start my own construction company to be able to implement my invention,” Briseño said.
The James Dyson Foundation also announced two Mexican runners-up, which along with the self-generating pavement are in contention for the international James Dyson Award that comes with a cash prize of 730,000 pesos (US $37,000).
The first runner-up is an automatic hygiene system designed by a team of students from the Emiliano Zapata Technological University in Morelos.
VIDEO: Cardboard crutches were second runner-up in the competition.
Called HA-WA (short for hand wash), the system makes use of infrared sensors to trigger the release of water and soap for washing the hands. It both reduces the amount of water that is used when the everyday action is performed and allows the water to be recycled for other domestic purposes such as the flushing of a toilet.
The second runner-up is an invention by Mexico City industrial designer Rafael Riego: crutches made out of recyclable cardboard.
The young entrepreneur said the aim of his idea is to make crutches available at a low cost to everyone who needs them.
“I downhill skateboard and have practiced martial arts my whole life, sports where ankle and knee injuries are prevalent . . . Having to use crutches many times I started paying attention to people with the same type of injuries. Not everyone has access to medical grade orthopedics and have to resort to homemade, unsafe methods,” Riego said.
“I’ve designed a low-cost method that is easy to manufacture to get everyone back on their feet safely.”
The international finalists, each of whom will win 120,000 pesos, will be announced October 17. The grand-prize winner will be announced November 14.
Law needed to protect native corn, federal agricultural official warns.
A high-ranking agriculture official has urged the approval of a law to protect native corn before the new North American trade agreement takes effect.
Víctor Suárez Carrera, undersecretary for food self-sufficiency at the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that approval of the law is crucial because the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement stipulates that Mexico must allow the registration of patents on a variety of foodstuffs, including corn.
“We need to have protection of our native corn . . .” he said.
“Producers of hybrid corn will be able to continue producing it. The law establishes that the only prohibition is on genetically modified corn. The legal reform seeks to prohibit the registration of patents related to the grain, with the purpose of protecting corn from the attempts of biotech companies to sell and market it,” Suárez added.
The undersecretary said that the law, a draft of which was approved by the Senate this week, will also protect people’s right to have a clean environment and healthy diet and to enjoy Mexico’s wide diversity of corn. Sixty-four different types of corn are grown in the country.
“[The law] is about maintaining the diverse production systems that have been passed on through hundreds of years . . . and which represent heritage of the nation and humanity,” Suárez said.
He said he was confident that a final version of the law will be passed soon. However, the proposal faces opposition from the National Agriculture Council (CNA).
In contrast to the claim made by Suárez, CNA president Bosco de la Vega said the proposed law in its current form poses a risk to farmers’ right to use hybrid corn seeds. The use of such seeds, he said, makes the production of high-quality and affordable tortillas possible and allows growers to make a decent living.
If their use is outlawed, production of corn in Mexico could significantly decline, de la Vega said.
“With concern, we watched the Mexican Senate pass a bill on Tuesday which, although it has the laudable objective of protecting native Mexican corn, has significant risks for the commercial production of the main crop we have in the country,” he said.
He expressed regret that the law was approved “without frank and open dialogue to ensure that the objective of preserving traditions and biodiversity is achieved” without risking national food security.
One month after a massacre in a bar in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, that left 31 people dead, there have been no confirmed arrests in connection with the case.
The August 27 attack on the Caballo Blanco (White Horse) bar, the single worst act of violence since President López Obrador took office last December, is under investigation by the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).
But officials there have provided no information about the progress of the probe.
According to media reports, four armed men entered the bar in downtown Coatzacoalcos and began shooting. The attackers then threw fuel inside the building followed by molotov cocktails before blocking the sole exit, leaving patrons and employees trapped inside as a fire took hold.
Among the victims were 13 women who worked as table dancers.
Veracruz Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez said on September 9 that the FGR had identified the perpetrators of the crime and arrested an undisclosed number of them but added that it was not up to him to provide details.
“I’m going to be respectful of the investigation process . . . The federal Attorney General’s Office will provide the information,” he said.
However, the FGR has remained silent, which would appear to indicate that there have been no arrests. Federal authorities usually make a public announcement after the perpetrators of high profile crimes have been detained.
While the investigation is shrouded in secrecy, the news website e-consulta reported that there are two main lines of inquiry: that the attack was part of a turf war between rival crime gangs or came after the owners of the bar refused to comply with extortion demands.
Governor García claimed the day after last month’s attack that one of those responsible was Ricardo “La Loca” N., who is presumed to be a low-level hitman for the CJNG.
The governor – and President López Obrador – also claimed that the suspect had previously been arrested and released by the Veracruz Attorney General’s Office while headed by Jorge Winckler.
Winckler, who has been accused of collusion with organized crime, denied the charge, claiming that the Veracruz delegation of the FGR, not state authorities, released Ricardo N., who was a suspect in several arson attacks.
While the FGR has kept quiet about its investigation into the massacre that left at least 20 orphans, the National Human Rights Commission has been vocal about the case, demanding that authorities conduct an “effective and exhaustive” probe to locate and arrest those responsible and hold them to account.
The commission also urged the Veracruz government to provide protection to 12 family members of victims as well as two survivors who say they have received death threats in the aftermath of the August 27 atrocity.
A crowd gathered Friday for the opening of Apple's new store.
The global technology company Apple opened its first flagship store in Mexico on Friday in the Antara shopping center in the Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco.
Apple retail and personnel vice president Deirdre O’Brien said at the store’s inauguration that it represents an important step for Apple’s global expansion.
“At Apple, we’ve always seen Mexico as a priority market,” she said. “In our expansion plans, it was a natural step for our first Latin American flagship store to open in a city and a country where our users have a great passion for our products and our innovation.”
The Antara store is the second Apple store in Mexico — the other is in the city’s Santa Fe district — but the first high-profile flagship store in Latin America. The only other flagship stores are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and China.
“We’ve always emphasized inclusion in our stores, we always have opportunities for people who are enthusiastic about technology, design, innovation, people who live for and pass on the passion they have for Apple,” said O’Brien.
The store features seven-meter-tall glass doors similar to the doors in Apple’s flagship store in Union Square, San Francisco, which O’Brien said are a symbol of a welcoming atmosphere. Inside, around 150 products are displayed on 10 long wooden tables.
Apple hopes that the store will become a meeting space for people who want to learn how to use Apple products in new creative ways. The company’s hiring process makes sure there are creative people such as musicians, photographers and poets among the store’s sales team.
The store will also offer free workshops on photography, music, painting and other subjects.
Teams of residents and fishermen have removed more than 100 tonnes of garbage from the Río Blanco in Veracruz in the municipalities of Ignacio de la Llave and Tlalixcoyan.
Authorities had previously estimated that about 60 tonnes of garbage were floating along a six-kilometer stretch of the river. But the amount of trash that had washed into the river turned out to be a lot more.
Veracruz environmental authorities traced the source of the garbage to eight illegal garbage dumps, mostly in the municipalities of Cuichapa and Omealca. There are at least 300 tonnes of garbage in the landfills, which have been closed by authorities.
According to Sergio Rodríguez, head of the state environmental protection agency, a large amount of garbage was left on a bank of the Río Blanco in a dump in Cuichapa. The garbage was then carried away by the river when the water level rose.
The trash has been contained in a lagoon to prevent it from reaching the main Alvarado lagoon system, which is home to the biggest population of manatees in Veracruz.
Fernando García, a fisherman who works in the lagoon system, told Televisa that the situation is threatening his source of livelihood.
“The river flows into the sea, and that’s bad because there’s a lot of pollution,” he said. “If it gets to us, at the mouth of the river, that will make it hard for us to work.”
The garbage that was removed from the river is being taken to a landfill in the municipality of Medellín.
State police take over in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán.
A police force in Michoacán is the latest to investigate officers for criminal behavior.
Michoacán Attorney General Adrián López Solís announced that seven municipal police in Ziracuaretiro were arrested on Thursday in connection with the forced disappearance of two workers on an avocado farm.
López said an investigation established that the seven officers arrested the manager and two employees of the El Papayo farm on September 10 and stole their telephones and documents related to the property.
After beating and handcuffing the men, the police released one of the employees and left with the other two people in a Ziracuaretiro police car. They have not been seen since.
On Friday, 56 Michoacán state police officers assumed responsibility for law enforcement in the municipality. The state also designated a new police chief.
The incident is the latest in Ziracuaretiro and other Michoacán municipalities to indicate that organized crime continues its efforts to capture a piece of the lucrative avocado industry.
United States agricultural inspectors have been the targets of theft and harassment twice since mid-August, triggering a warning that a program that certifies avocados for export to the U.S. could be suspended.
Jalisco is facing “a dengue epidemic,” Governor Enrique Alfaro said on Thursday, explaining that the metropolitan area of Guadalajara is the worst affected area of the state.
There were 4,290 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne tropical disease in Jalisco to September 15 and 25,000 probable cases. Only Veracruz has reported a higher number of confirmed cases.
The state Secretariat of Health confirmed this week that two people have died of dengue in Jalisco this year, while 22 other deaths are being investigated to determine whether the disease was the cause.
In a video posted to social media, Alfaro said that dengue is not only affecting Jalisco but most of Mexico and the greater region.
He rejected the claim that his government is to blame for the high number of cases in the state this year, explaining that 116 million pesos (US $5.9 million) has been spent on anti-dengue measures such as mosquito spraying.
The figure is 45 million pesos higher than the amount spent on spraying and other preventative measures in 2018, Alfaro said.
“There’s no shortage of material [pesticides], personnel or equipment to fumigate,” he said.
At the start of the video, the governor took aim at opponents of his government as well as media outlets who he claimed have been spreading misinformation about the dengue outbreak.
“There has been a lot of speculation about this issue and as always there are those who are trying to spread fear and take a political advantage with something that is more dangerous than the disease itself: lies,” Alfaro said.
“The same people as always have tried to generate the perception that the government is responsible . . . that it has been negligent and hasn’t acted on time. They’ve tried to make the public believe that it’s an issue of a lack of medicines when in fact there isn’t even a vaccine against dengue,” he added.
“. . . We’re up against a systematic attempt by our adversaries and some manipulative media to land a blow against our government.”
Alfaro said that climate change was to blame for the high number of dengue cases in Jalisco, pointing to higher temperatures and heavier rain this year.
He also said that a new strain of dengue, serotype-2, has reached Mexico from South and Central America, explaining that people are more susceptible to it because there is no immunity among the population.
“This is a serious and complex problem that hasn’t been created by government actions or negligence,” Alfaro said.
There were more than 16,000 confirmed cases of dengue fever in 16 states during the first eight and a half months of the year, more than triple the number reported in the same period of 2018. Forty-three deaths have been reported across the country.
However, the director of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Programs, Dr. Ruy López Ridaura, explained that states allocated their own funds to purchase pesticides and asserted that mosquito spraying has occurred throughout the year in all areas susceptible to dengue outbreaks.
Two-thirds of insecticides for the control of dengue are purchased by state governments, he said, explaining that federal authorities buy the product later in the year because they only assist spraying efforts when the states’ own capacity to combat mosquitoes is exceeded.
Dealership remains closed after a commando attack.
An armed attack that forced the closure of a Ford dealership in Celaya, Guanajuato, is believed to have come after the owners refused to comply with extortion demands.
A commando opened fire on the Ford Montes dealership in the central Mexico city in the early hours of September 19, damaging several vehicles and leaving the owners with multi-million-peso losses.
The subsequent closure of the dealership has left about 85 people without a job.
The newspaper Periódico Correo reported that the employees were aware that a criminal group had in recent months demanded extortion payments known as cobro de piso from the owners. But they refused to pay.
The owners haven’t officially announced the closure of their business but all vehicles have been removed from the dealership, which hasn’t opened since the attack.
Both large and small businesses in Celaya have been the target of extortion demands from criminal groups.
Jorge Rincón Maldonado, the president of a Celaya business group, said it is unclear exactly how many businesses have closed as a result of extortion but he acknowledged that there is a problem. Not all business owners report the extortion demands and threats they receive to authorities, he added.
Earlier this month, the local president of the Business Coordinating Council appealed to Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo to address the problem that has led some business owners not only to close shop but leave Celaya altogether.
“There are businesses that are in crisis, they’re closing their doors, leaving people unemployed. After so much effort to create jobs, business owners . . . are worried. It’s not fair that they have to leave the city, it’s not fair that they have to leave their business, not due to a lack of planning or strategy or a bad decision but something [insecurity] they can’t control,” Jesús Torres Ramos said on September 11.
Five days later, Guanajuato Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre announced that a local extortion racket had been broken up and that 12 suspects had been arrested.
But the crime remains an ongoing concern in Celaya and many businesses that closed due to extortion remain shuttered, Periódico Correo said.
Magdalena Rosales Cruz, a lawmaker who represents Celaya, called on the governor and Mayor Elvira Paniagua to submit a report to Congress to explain the actions they are taking at the state and municipal level to strengthen the police presence in the city.
Rosales also claimed that Paniagua has refused to acknowledge the extortion problem in Celaya.
“Celaya is today one of the most violent cities in the world and we can’t forget that in the middle of one of the worst extortion crises the city has gone through, the mayor refused on repeated occasions [to acknowledge] the situation,” she said.
“People of Celaya are living in a constant state of fear and despair. Even though the state authorities made the sensationalist declaration that they arrested an [extortion] ringleader, the people feel the same.”
Richard Gresham checks out a 300-year-old tree in Manantlán.
The Manantlán Biosphere Reserve is a 2,860-meter-high mountain range located 150 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara, straddling the states of Jalisco and Colima. The area was declared a reserve in 1987 and a year later was internationally recognized as such by UNESCO.
When I discovered that a friend of mine, Sergi Gómez, was leading tours to Manantlán, I decided to go have a look.
One Saturday morning I set out from Guadalajara and after two hours reached the home of Gómez on the outskirts of Colima. We caught my friend busy working on the construction of his new hyperadobe house, built from hundreds of earth-filled mesh bags, stacked one upon the other, igloo-fashion.
Gómez is the head of Aventura Camp Colima. When I asked him about the Sierra de Manantlán, he said, “This area drew worldwide attention in 1979 when a primitive, perennial corn called Zea diploperenis was discovered there. The local people call this milpilla or chapule and most botanists agree it is probably the original species of corn that all the hybrids in the world are descended from.
“This discovery got scientists investigating the sierra, and what they found was an astonishing number of other rare plants endemic only to Manantlán. So the University of Guadalajara decided to set up a research station there and now we know that there are five ecosystems operating up and down those mountains. Over 2,900 species of plants have been identified there as well as 110 species of mammals and 336 species of birds. All this adds up to a truly unique site. I’ve traveled around to all of Mexico’s national parks and in my book, Manantlán is the most beautiful.”
Tree branches in Manantlán are laden with bromeliads, orchids, lichen and moss.
Gómez told us there were two ways to reach the indigenous village of Terrero, population 300. One route, he said, is entirely paved. “The other,” he stated, “is much steeper and a good part of it is just a narrow dirt road with a high wall on one side and a sheer 500-meter drop on the other. You do have four-wheel drive, I hope? With brakes in perfect condition? I’ve seen a number of abandoned cars and trucks on that road, all of them parked with their front wheels up tight against the wall.”
In spite of this gruesome scenario, Gómez recommended we go up to Manantlán via one road and come down the other, “in order to have a complete experience.”
We decided to ascend via the paved road. Along the way we spotted a sign in the shape of a big fish. This was a restaurant where — Gómez had told us — we could eat delicious homegrown tilapia.
“We ought to stop here on the way down,” I told my friend Richard.
“Unless, of course, we take the other road back,” he replied with a gleam in his eye.
We soon discovered that the paving of our one-lane road had been done in a minimalist style. Two parallel strips of concrete had been laid down and too bad for you if your wheels were wider apart. Not terribly helpful were occasional road signs that seemed to say, “Please narrow the distance between your tires.”
A hanging bridges gives a great view of a doline 85 meters deep.
As we rose little by little in altitude, the foliage kept changing. This was so fascinating that we found ourselves stopping again and again: “Look, on the tree branches: orchids, bromeliads, lichen, Spanish moss!”
At last we reached Terrero, altitude around 2,222 meters, where we saw lots of cabins for rent, but no people. We soon discovered that everyone was at the funeral of one of the best-loved members of the community. Nevertheless, someone immediately came to show us to our cabin which, we were happy to discover, was located 300 meters from the main road, in a quiet spot at the end of a rustic brecha.
“Disculpe,” we were then told, “but you’ll have no lights tonight. We have solar panels here, but someone stole the battery.”
The water was another thing that wasn’t working that night but fortunately we had come prepared for camping and I suggest anyone planning to sleep in Terrero ought to be equally ready for anything.
Since the per-person cost of one of these cabins is only 200 pesos per night, we felt we couldn’t complain and off we went for a delightful walk in the woods, cheered on by the incredible song of a clarín jilguero (brown-backed solitaire), which sounds a bit like three flutes being played simultaneously.
Well, that walk convinced us that Sergi Gómez was right in calling Manantlán unique. The foliage was truly exuberant and we spotted all kinds of mushrooms, including some blue ones we were later told are good to eat. Upon our return, our cabin was suddenly shrouded in fog. This vanished as quickly as it came and as the sun set we heard a bizarre cry which we were at first convinced was of human origin. It turned out, in the end, to be the call of a lonesome Herpetotheres cachinnans or laughing falcon.
Cabin for rent in El Terrero.
On Sunday a local guide named Leopoldo took us to a hanging bridge rigged over an 85-meter-deep doline, a funnel-shaped hole very typical of these limestone hills, frequently including a deep, narrow shaft at the bottom.
Manantlán is, in fact, famed for its hundreds of vertical caves, most of them occurring at the bottom of dolines, and this hanging bridge is a clever way to introduce tourists to this typical geological feature. For safety’s sake, each visitor dons a harness and a helmet and clips into a steel cable before venturing onto the swaying bridge.
Our next stop was el Mirador del Filete lookout point from which, it is said, you can see the Pacific on a clear day. The view, in fact, turned out to be magnificent, but equally so was the half-hour walk to get there. So many strange plants, insects and mushrooms did we see that, in my opinion, the walk alone deserves five stars.
Now it was time to decide whether we would go home the way we came or risk the scary-sounding, ultra-steep route via the little village of Campo 4. I reminded Richard of that wonderful tilapia restaurant, but — naturally — we had to go check out the looks of the partially paved road.
In Mexico, of course, unforeseen factors are forever influencing the next turn of events.
Who did we find standing at the edge of the cliff but a hitchhiker name Paz, who told us that the questionable road was actually in very fine shape, a snap for a 4WD like ours.
[soliloquy id="90439"]
So, down the steep camino we crept, again stopping over and over to gasp at the amazing changes in flora we encountered every 10 minutes as we descended. Thanks to Paz, we learned there was a great restaurant at Campo 4, one we would never have spotted because it has no sign. Thus we were introduced to Cocina Economica Mari and the delicious dishes of María Engracia Pedraza Orozco, a prize-winning cook in Colima.
So ended our adventure, with an unexpected gourmet meal perched on the side of a nearly vertical precipice at the southeast end of the never disappointing Sierra de Manantlán.
Only upon my return did I learn that we had visited only a little corner of the biosphere reserve and had come nowhere near Las Joyas Research Station, an omission which I hope to remedy in the near future.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
The two-sided, 17th-century screen. This side shows an early Mexico City.
Sotheby’s auction house is selling a “once-in-a-lifetime” 17th-century folding screen depicting the conquest of Mexico and the early days of Mexico City.
Bidding for the Japanese-style screen called Biombo de la Conquista de México y Vista de la Ciudad de México (Byōbu of the Conquest of Mexico and View of Mexico City) opened on Thursday and will run until October 11.
Sotheby’s has set a starting bid of US $2.8 million and estimates that the screen will fetch a price between $3 million and $5 million. The artist who created the piece is unknown.
“We are privileged to present this Mexican national treasure for sale this season,” said Anna Di Stasi, director of Sotheby’s Latin American Art Department.
“Emerging from a distinguished private collection, this is the type of historic and powerful work of art that we are honored to handle once in a lifetime.”
The side of the screen depicting the conquest of Tenochtitlán.
Measuring just over two meters high and more than five meters long, the screen is comprised of 10 individual panels.
Sotheby’s said the work “belongs to a specific group of biombos executed in the second half of the 17th century to assert the distinct identity and history of the criollo [American-born Spanish citizens] in New Spain.”
The auction house said the screen is “the greatest work of its kind remaining in private hands” and related to other similar biombos held in public institutions such as the Franz Mayer Museum and the National Museum of History in Mexico City.
On one side is a “richly detailed, violent and dynamic rendering of the conquest of Tenochtitlán,” which was to become Mexico City.
The artwork is inspired by the True History of the Conquest of New Spain, a 16th-century firsthand account of Hernan Cortés’ conquest of Mexico written by fellow conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo.
It features several depictions of Cortés and Moctezuma II, the tlatoani, or leader of the Aztec Empire, including the two men’s first meeting. The former is shown alongside an entourage of soldiers and priests at the meeting while the latter is carried on a resplendent throne and surrounded by Aztec noblemen.
Starting bid for the 10-panel screen is US $2.8 million.
Other key scenes from the conquest are shown across the 10 panels, including the arrival of Cortés’ ships in Veracruz, various battles between the Spaniards and Aztecs such as the attack on the Templo Mayor and Moctezuma in his famous last moments before he is stoned to death.
The opposite site of the biombo features a “stunning bird’s eye of the new city” founded by the Spanish, Sotheby’s said.
The artwork, based on a 1628 map of the city, emphasizes “the dignity and nobility of the Americas under Spanish rule” and contrasts “the violent image of the conquest with a vision of peace and order.”
A key in the lower left corner details the names of 71 landmarks featured in the artwork. They include the metropolitan cathedral, the National Palace and the aqueduct of Chapultepec.
Sotheby’s explained that the screen is part of Mexico’s national heritage and cannot be permanently removed from the country.
It is offered for sale online and not available for inspection or delivery outside of Mexico, the auction house said, adding that the painting will be released to the purchaser in Mexico, in compliance with all local requirements.
