As guns/gun control are a common topic here, this article seems of interest. Maybe it belongs in the humor section except that would really mean most political stupidness would belong there as well.

In any case, the article is about making your own guns. Check it out in Activist Post.

I need to buy a new desktop. Can anyone recommend a good shop in Managua, Granada or Jinotepe ...

Of course I want a good price but I also want a shop that I can rely on to do good work if I need something fixed while it is still under warranty.

Also, can anyone give me good advice about which brands have a good reputation for durability and value for money ...

much obliged for any advice anyone can offer.

Insight Crime has an article specifically about the drug routes of the Zetas and Sinaloa cartel through Guatemala. It offers some interesting thinking material on the whole trafficing business in Central America.

UC Davis researchers recently reported a breakthrough with blue-green algae making butanediol from CO2, sunlight & water with salts (nutrients). Photosynthesis.

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10450

http://inhabitat.com/engineered-blue-green-algae-can-make-fuel-from-sunl...

CO2 is soluble in water and can be culled from burning diesel (Nicaragua's main source for generating electricity) exhaust.

Good --if not great news:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-08/kenya-s-coffee-prices-climb-at-...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2kZHh590ms

Everyone seems to agree that in Nicaragua kids have poor access to health care, good schools and, well, just about everything else. But, is Nicaragua a bad place to bring up a kid?

I was discussing the mounting evidence that the legal drugs used in the US to fix what are perceived as psychological and behavorial issues have serious site effects -- one of them being violence -- with an NL member. The response I got surprised me. I don't want to out the person who wrote it but I think it is a very interesting point. The message was

First of all, my thanks to fyl for letting me post this topic...

I'm trying to gather proof that it would be legal for me to telecommute to a job with a British employer, paid in Britain, if I were living in Nicaragua under the Rentista programme, because my British employer's auditors KPMG's Nicaraguan office are currently stating it would be illegal and that is preventing me initiating the immigration process.

I'm British, my wife is Mexican and we're currently living in Mexico and have been working on moving to Nicaragua since May 2012.

I, along with a couple friends will be back in Esteli during the week of Jan 13 to do our usual visiting of various tabacaleras. I would like to see and/or do some non-cigar related things. Anyone have any tips for me? Also, where is the Chinese restaurant in Esteli? I'd like to see what Nicaraguan-Chinese food is like...

Montelimar questions again.

Going back to Nica in a week!! I'll be staying in MGA for a few days with the immediate family, and the wife wanted to go to Montelimar. Apparently it was Somoza's old vaction spot back in pre-revolution days.

Does anyone know that the Nica day rate is for the beach and buffets? The wife was saying there is a car-load rate, if not getting a room.

I just read " Claro modem antenna advise?" by syzygian2 and now I am really confused.

The thread at http://www.nicaliving.com/node/20849 has become a bit big and, as is usual, drifted from the original subject. This thread is to discuss one point that has evolved there -- gray areas.

Awhile back we signed up for Claro's 4G internet service, which should provide downloads up to 5Mbs on the HSPA+ network. Since we live in the campo about 1k SE of the town of Nandasmo we expected a lot worse, and got it. Typically downloads are less than 100kbps on the EDGE network. That's good enough to surf the web, slowly, and deal with banking, but not much more. The RSSI is about -83dBs. We're line-of-sight to towers in Catarina and Nandasmo, blocked only by trees.