Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Owner says SUV in fatal Ohio crash was stolen

WARREN, Ohio (AP) ? Investigators Monday tried to piece together what eight teenagers crammed into an allegedly stolen SUV were up to before the vehicle flipped over into a pond, killing six of them.

Authorities gave few details on where the group of friends had been and why they were out around daybreak Sunday, speeding down a two-lane road. On Monday, the SUV's owner met with police and filed a stolen-car report; police said none of the teens were related to the owner or had asked to use the vehicle.

While the father of one of the dead said the teenagers were coming home from a sleepover at a friend's house, the mother of another boy killed said that her son and his best friend had lied about staying over at each other's homes that evening. She said she thinks they went to a party.

"If only he had listened," said Lisa Williamson, mother of 14-year-old Brandon Murray. "I told him, 'Don't you go nowhere.' But they're kids."

The SUV hit a guardrail in an industrial section of town and landed upside down in about 5 feet of water, filling up within minutes, State Highway Patrol Lt. Brian Holt. Five boys and a young woman, ages 14 to 19, were killed.

Two boys smashed a rear window, wriggled out of the wreckage and swam away, then ran a quarter-mile to a home to call 911, authorities said. Brian Henry, 18, and Asher Lewis, 15, suffered only minor injuries.

Investigators said they believe excessive speed was a key factor in the crash, which took place in a 35 mph zone alongside a steel mill near what's known in the neighborhood as "Dead Man's Curve." Authorities did not say how fast the SUV was going. They were also awaiting the results of drug and alcohol tests.

All eight teenagers were from Warren, a mostly blue-collar city of 41,000 near the Pennsylvania line, about 60 miles east of Cleveland.

Friends and family members described the teens as good kids who weren't troublemakers. Williamson said many of them would hang out and stay overnight in her basement to play video games, listen to music and watch movies.

She said her son called late Saturday night and said he was staying at the home of his best friend Ramone White. She said it wasn't until after the accident that she found out that wasn't true.

"It's what we did when we were growing up, too," said Williamson, who was wearing a rubbery "Jesus Loves You" bracelet that she took off her dead son's wrist.

Andre Bennett Sr., whose son Andrique was among those killed, said that his son and the others had all stayed over at a friend's house and that a girl offered them a ride home.

Chris Jones, 16, said he used to see most of the victims every day at school and in their neighborhood. He knew all but two in the crash.

"They're not always the best kids. They're not out there looking for straight A's," he said. "But none of these kids should be where they are today. This should have never had happened."

Five of the dead were trapped inside the sunken SUV. A sixth was thrown from the vehicle and was found underneath it when it was taken out of the water.

State police identified them as the 19-year-old driver, Alexis Cayson; Andrique Bennett, 14; Brandon Murray, 14; and Kirklan Behner, Ramone White and Daylan Ray, all 15. Cayson, Murray and Ray drowned, the coroner said. Autopsies on the others were incomplete.

"All I know is my baby is gone," said Derrick Ray, who came to the crash site after viewing his 15-year-old son Daylan's body at the morgue. He said he knew that his son, a football player who was looking forward to playing in high school, was out with friends, but didn't know their plans.

None of the teens in the five-seat 1998 Honda Passport were wearing seat belts, state police said.

___

Associated Press writers Tom Sheeran in Warren, John Seewer in Toledo, Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/owner-says-suv-fatal-ohio-crash-stolen-222303995.html

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The Oreo Splitting Wars Escalate with Carnegie Mellon's Brilliant Bot

In what is turning out to be one of the most entertaining marketing stunts of the past few years, Nabisco's Cookie vs. Creme challenge is attracting all kinds of talented minds from across the country. Including robotic researchers from Carnegie Mellon University who've even drafted their advanced bot HERB into Oreo separating service. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rk8IQHSHgnE/the-oreo-splitting-wars-escalate-with-carnegie-mellons-brilliant-bot

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The orphans of Japan's nuclear meltdown

When it comes to radiation exposure from the triple meltdown at Fukushima?s Daiichi nuclear power plant two years ago, the 91 boys and girls at the Fukushima Aiikuen orphanage are probably some of the most closely-watched kids in the prefecture.

Their food is tested daily for contamination. Their living environment has been cleaned to remove as many lingering radionuclides as possible. Their time outside is strictly monitored. And their health is regularly checked.

?[In the general public] the level of awareness about these issues varies from family to family. Here, once we decide something is necessary, each child receives the same attention,? says Hisao Saito, who directs the sprawling wood-and-concrete facility perched on a hillside in southern Fukushima City, about 35 miles from the destroyed reactors.

In some cases, the prefectural government ? which is charged with overseeing Fukushima?s eight orphanages ? is providing this special care. In other cases, however, children at orphanages are falling through bureaucratic cracks and must rely on other sources for help reducing and tracking their exposure to radiation.

RECOMMENDED: Think you know Japan? Take our quiz to find out.

The prefecture paid to clean up the grounds at six orphanages. At Aiikuen, concrete was power-hosed, trees were chopped down, and grass was scraped off hillsides to remove contaminants like radioactive cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years. This February the prefecture also supplied each Fukushima orphanage with a device for testing food and a staff member to operate it.

For these measures, Mr. Saito says he is grateful. But, he insists, ?It?s not enough ... Government support comes slowly. The private sector is faster.?

He has relied on an outpouring of domestic and international aid for things like summer trips out of the prefecture, food with zero contamination, and detailed monitoring of radiation exposure.

'HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO JUDGE OUR SAFETY?'

At Iwaki Ikueisha, a different Fukushima orphanage located 21 miles from the damaged plant, problems with the official disaster response began immediately after an explosion sent radionuclides flying into the air on March 12, 2011.

?The evacuation zone was expanding, from 10 kilometers to 20 [6 miles to 12]. How were we supposed to judge our safety?? recalls Seiko Ichikawa, who at the time was assistant director of the facility caring for 23 children (today she is director).

Members of the media wearing protective suits and masks are escorted by TEPCO employees as they go on a visit near the No.4 reactor (C) and its foundation construction (R) for the storage of melted ... more? Members of the media wearing protective suits and masks are escorted by TEPCO employees as they go on a visit near the No.4 reactor (C) and its foundation construction (R) for the storage of melted fuel rods at Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture March 6, 2013, ahead of the second-year of anniversary of the disaster. Members of the media were allowed into the plant on Wednesday ahead of the second-year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake, which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. REUTERS/Issei Kato less?

The size of the evacuation zone was controversial ? the United States urged citizens living up to 50 miles from the plant to evacuate ? and many families in the neighborhood fled. The tsunami and earthquake that set off the nuclear disaster also wiped out infrastructure: food, gasoline, and other supplies were running low, and banks were closed. Water lines had broken, so Ms. Ichikawa and the other staff collected water from springs in the mountains.

But on March 14, a second explosion rocked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and a city official came to warn remaining residents against drinking the spring water.

?At that point I called the prefecture [to request we be evacuated]. They said, ?You?re outside the official evacuation zone. If you want to leave, you can do so on your own,?? Ichikawa says.

The staff found several places willing to shelter the children but hesitated to leave without more gas and cash.

On March 15, residents within 19 miles of the plant were asked to stay inside. Ichikawa kept calling the disaster-swamped prefecture to ask for help. Finally on March 18, officials agreed to evacuate the children for two weeks ? because of the food shortages, not the radiation.

?I understand that a calm [government] response was impossible. Everyone was a disaster victim, everyone was panicked. But there was a group of small children living here, and I wanted the prefecture to make an independent decision based on that fact, regardless of numbers set by the national government," says Ichikawa.

A representative of the prefecture?s child welfare office was not able to confirm the exact details of post-disaster events, but says that the prefecture?s policy was to follow evacuation instructions from the central government.

THE OTHER PROBLEM

As it turned out, winds carried a comparatively small amount of radioactive cesium to the city of Iwaki, where the facility is located, so long-term environmental contamination is less of a concern there than it is for Saito in Fukushima. On the other hand, fallout maps suggest that the children may have been exposed to short-lived iodine-131, which doctors say can cause cancer.

When it came time to screen the children for radiation-related health problems, however, Ichikawa says she ran into another problem. The prefectural government is providing free health screenings to all Fukushima children. In the case of some of the children she cares for, the notices for these exams never arrived.

That?s because many orphans in Japan actually have at least one living parent. Though they live away from home because of abuse, neglect, or other reasons, their official addresses remain unchanged. For this reason the health screening notices went to parents, some of whom didn?t pass them on to the orphanage.

?We get information on where each child lives from the municipal governments. If the municipalities don?t have the child?s [correct] address, it?s hard for us, within this system, to reach them. We want to contact the orphanages [directly] but that is something we still need to work on,? a press officer at the Fukushima Health Management Survey?s oversight center says.

Ichikawa says ultimately, she had the children screened through a nonprofit organization rather than through the prefecture.

At Fukushima Aiikuen, lowering radiation exposure remains a daily concern.

The cleanup reduced radiation below the officially-targeted level of 0.23 microsieverts per hour on most concrete surfaces, but where runoff collects, hotspots more than 50 times that level remain. For that reason Saito has nearly eliminated outside playtime for toddlers and reduced it to two hours per day for elementary-aged children.

One 9-year-old girl who lives at the orphanage with two younger siblings says she worries about the contamination.

?I?m the big sister. I try to tell my little brother and sister not to touch anything when they are outside,? she says.

For his part, Saito is focused on the future. He devoted the past year to working with Fukushima?s other orphanages to develop a disaster response plan in case the still-unstable reactors release radiation again. He has also carefully recorded exposure levels and health data in a file for each child.

?These kids will have no one to support them when they leave here,? he says. ?I hope they never need this data, but I think it?s likely that lawsuits will happen down the line. If they develop cancer, and someone says, ?How can you prove what caused it?? they?ll be able to come to the orphanage and get this file. We have a responsibility to do this.?

In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 photo, a fishing boat washed ashore during the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami sits in the devastated area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. (AP Photo/Junji ... more? In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 photo, a fishing boat washed ashore during the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami sits in the devastated area in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) less? ?

RECOMMENDED: Think you know Japan? Take our quiz to find out.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-years-japans-nuclear-meltdown-happened-fukushimas-orphans-140300750.html

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Use Divergent Thinking to Make Big Decisions

Use Divergent Thinking to Make Big Decisions When we make decisions, we often subconsciously narrow down our choices to two options, and then can't see other possibilities later. This convergent thinking can be useful for fact-based problems, but when making less clear-cut choices, it often prevents us from seeing the best solution.

Toni Bernhard at Psychology Today fell into the convergent thinking trap while dealing with a chronic illness. Either she was healthy or she was sick. Either she could go to work, or she was useless. Once she made everything black and white in her mind, it suddenly became impossible to see a middle ground.

Over time though, she made a conscious effort to be a more divergent thinker. For example, she realized she could do some aspects of her job without sacrificing her health. This same advice can work for anyone to help make decisions or shape their frame of mind. All you have to is identify when you're choosing from predetermined options, rather than actively looking for other choices. Be sure to check out the source link to learn more.

What Type of Thinker Are You? | Psychology Today

Photo by Eneas

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/U9nGtFRVoMM/use-divergent-thinking-to-make-big-decisions

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Monday, March 11, 2013

What Things Should a First-Time Home Renter Know?

If you've never rented an apartment (or any kind of home) before, you can make a lot of mistakes. In most cases that would make for a good learning experience, but renter mistakes are often a little costly and landlords aren't always forgiving. For those of you who've rented before, what advice would you give to a first-timer?

For starters, use this checklist. It'll help you ask the right questions and check for common problems when choosing a place. If you're thinking of customizing your place, make sure you do it without pissing off your landlord. Those are a few basics. Long-time renters (and property owners), let's hear your advice in the discussions.

Tips for a first apartment | Reddit

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/y8tcpibubno/what-things-should-a-first+time-home-renter-know

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

HTC One is in the house

HTC One

Finally, we've got our hands on the HTC One for official one-on-one time. This is finished hardware, and nearly complete software, so it's time to get our official HTC One review under way.

Before all that, though, it's worth reading over our HTC One preview. While things have been simplified, there's still a lot to go over. And if you've yet to visit our HTC One forums, there's a lot of good stuff going on in there as well.

A now a few quick thoughts, now that we've got the HTC One away from the show floors and into a more intimate setting. (We've turned down the lights and lit a few candles for this guy.)

read more



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/eE7J2NRFmcI/story01.htm

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South Dakota Gun Law: Teachers Allowed to Carry Weapons in Class

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/south-dakota-gun-law-teachers-allowed-to-carry-weapons-in-class/

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