Low pressure probably
means more rain today


The weather is being affected today by low pressure areas that are creating more instability. This leads to cloudy skies and thunderstorms, according to the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center places a low pressure area off the coast of Guanacaste. There is a low probability that the system will develop into a tropical storm, and the system seems to be moving west or northwest, the agency said.

Today's rains will be mainly in the Pacific coast, the northern zone and the Central Valley, the Costa Rican weather institute said. But rain in the Caribbean mountains can produce flooding below, it added.


Chamber alerting members
to crimes in Quepos area


The Cámera Comercial in Quepos is alerting members to a home invasion and armed robbery. An e-mail alert from the chamber said that three armed men entered a home early Wednesday and held a man there at gunpoint while they took items.

A neighbor obtained the plate number of the car the men used, the chamber said. The Judicial Investigating Organization is involved in the case.

The chamber e-mail alert is another entry into citizens taking responsibility to notify their community of crimes, mainly violent ones.

There are several other e-mail alert systems in use in Costa Rica now.


Emergency decree sought
for damages Heredia areas


Five legislative deputies have asked President Laura Chinchilla to declare a state of emergency for Heredia in the sections that were hit hard by heavy rain last week.

The areas are an San Pablo, Santo Domingo, San Rafael and Heredia Centro.

About 100 homes were damaged or destroyed by flash floods and some 300 persons had to spend time in shelters. In addition infrastructure like drains, bridges and electrical lines were damaged.

The state of emergency would free up funds so state agencies could provide help.


Manuel Antonio resort helps
replace monkey bridges


When high winds ravaged Manuel Antonio and its famous national park June 1, the monkeys suffered, too. Some 30 man-made monkey bridges are being replaced for the benefit of the mono titi or squirrel monkeys.

The project is by Kids Saving the Rainforest, a local environmental organization with financial help from Byblos Resort & Casino.

“Giving the monkeys safe passage over busy roads and populated areas by strategically placing rope “bridges” is an integral part of our work.” said Jennifer Rice, representative of Kids Saving the Rainforest.

“Not only have over a quarter of the bridges been destroyed, but thousands of trees in the rainforest have come down or broken, making it extremely difficult for the monkeys to travel the canopy in search of food and shelter. Some have been electrocuted trying to find new routes because they now have to pass through live wires and transformers. It is crucial to get the bridges up again.” added Ms. Rice.

The project cost about $2,000. Kids Saving the Rain Forest can be located at the organization's Web site.


Students trust Google
to give credible links


Google it. That's what many college students do when asked to read an excerpt of a play for class, write a resume or find the e-mail address of a politician.

They trust Google so much that a Northwestern University study has found many students only click on Web sites that turn up at the top of Google searches to complete assigned tasks. If they don't use Google, researchers found that students trust other brand-name search engines and brand-name Web sites to lead them to information.

The study was published by the International Journal of Communication.

"Many students think, ‘Google placed it number one, so, of course it's credible,'" said Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern. "This is potentially tricky because Google doesn't rank a site by its credibility."

In the published, study 102 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago sat at computers with researchers. Each student was asked to bring up the page that's usually on their screen when they start using the Web.

The activity on their screens was captured on video as researchers gave the students a variety of hypothetical information-seeking tasks to perform online. Time and again, researchers watched students navigate to brand-name search engines — usually Google — and to brand-name Web sites to find information. Researchers also asked students questions about Web sites they chose.

After using Google to get to a website, this interaction occurred between a researcher and a study participant:

Researcher: "What is this Web site?"

Student: "Oh, I don't know. The first thing that came up."

"Search engine rankings seem extremely important," Hargittai said. “We found that a Web site’s layout or content almost didn’t even matter to the students. What mattered is that it was the No. 1 result on Google."

Aside from Google, other online brands that students mentioned most often to complete tasks were: Yahoo!, SparkNotes, MapQuest, Microsoft, Wikipedia, AOL and Facebook.

Some of the students did give more credibility to Web sites ending in dot-gov, dot-edu or dot-org. However, Hargittai said most didn't know dot-org domain names could be registered by anyone, and thus are not inherently different from dot-com sites.

"Just because younger people grew up with the Web doesn't mean they're universally savvy with it," Hargittai said. "Educators should show specific Web sites in class and talk about why a source is or isn't credible."

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