News & Blues 7/21

Litigation Nation

After Lauren Rosenberg was hit by a car while trying to cross a
four-lane highway in Park City, Utah, at night, she sued Google Inc.,
claiming its online directions were “not reasonably safe for
pedestrians.” Although social networks, websites and cable-news
networks blasted Rosenberg for ignoring her own safety to blindly
follow online directions, her lawyer, Allen Young, insisted that Google
Maps “created a trap with walking instructions that people rely on.”
Google official Elaine Filadelfo pointed out that every software
version of Google Maps warns that walking routes may be missing
sidewalks or pedestrian paths. (Associated Press)

Litigation Nation Jr.

After Canadian slow-pitch softball player George Black, 53, lost
sight of a line drive in the setting sun and wound up getting hit in
the face while playing third base, he filed a lawsuit seeking $1.5
million. The defendant is the company that owns the playing field,
ArcelorMittal Dofasco, which Black’s lawsuit argues should have
provided a sun screen to protect him and other players and warned them
“of the dangers of the sun at that particular time of day.” Denying
Dofasco’s motion to have the case dismissed, despite expert testimony
that most ball fields are designed so the sun doesn’t shine in the
batter’s, not the fielders’ eyes, and that it would be impractical to
provide sun shading for all infield positions at all times, Ontario
Superior Court Judge James R.H. Turnbull ruled the case could proceed
to trial. “I’m going after them,” Black said. (Canada’s The Globe and Mail)

Unkosher for Passover

Cigarettes may contain traces of pig blood, according to Dutch
researchers, who found cigarette companies using pig hemoglobin to make
filters to trap harmful chemicals before they enter smokers’ lungs.
Although cigarette manufacturers voluntarily list the contents of their
products on their websites, those are proven-dangerous ingredients.
They lump pig’s blood under undisclosed “processing aids,” which “do
not functionally affect the finished product,” said Australian public
health professor Simon Chapman, who pointed out Jewish, Islamic and
vegetarian smokers would find inhaling pig’s blood “very offensive.”
(Australian Associated Press)

Spring Cleaning

Twenty Nepali climbers embarked on a mission to remove decades-old
garbage from Mount Everest’s “death zone,” the area above 26,246 feet
known for its treacherous terrain, freezing temperatures and lack of
oxygen. Targeting empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, torn tents,
ropes and utensils left by climbers, the Extreme Everest Expedition
2010 is the first to pick up litter from that elevation. “The garbage
was buried under snow in the past,” expedition leader Namgyal Sherpa,
30, said. “But now it has come out on the surface because of the
melting snow due to global warming.” (Reuters)

Outsourcing Upgrade

Professors at some U.S. universities have begun sending students’
papers to India, Singapore and Malaysia to be graded. The
Virginia-based company EduMetry provides the service, called
Virtual-TA, to a mix of for-profit and nonprofit institutions, many of
them business schools. The company points out that its graders, all of
whom have at least master’s degrees, return graded work faster than
professors can and that professors freed from grading papers can devote
more time to teaching and research. “People need to get past thinking
that grading must be done by the people who are teaching,” said Chandru
Rajam, a business professor at George Washington University who helped
found EduMetry five years ago. “Sometimes people get so caught up in
the mousetrap that they forget about the mouse.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Next Step Is Obvious

Among the hottest categories for public consumption on social
networks is pictures of food posted before it is eaten. One of the
largest and most active Flickr groups, called “I Ate This,” includes
more than 300,000 photos contributed by more than 19,000 members, who
are limited to posting 50 photos a month. The same trend appears on
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Foodspotting, Shutterfly, Chowhound and
FoodCandy. “I like to show off what I’m eating or something I’ve made
that I’m proud of,” Pamela Hollinger, 36, a radio programmer and
announcer in Stephensville, Texas, said. “I think getting an iPhone had
a lot to do with it. It’s so easy to just take a quick picture of what
I’m eating.” Aware of the trend, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Fuji have
released cameras with special “food” or “cuisine” modes, costing
between $200 and $600. (The New York Times)

Second-Amendment Follies

Two men who finished shooting at an abandoned farmhouse with a
.45-caliber handgun and a .22-caliber rifle were returning home but
“stopped their vehicle in order to shoot the guns again,” according to
Will County Sheriff’s official Pat Barry. When they did, Barry said,
one of them, Matthew B. Eastman, 20, “accidentally shot himself in the
right hand.” (Chicago’s WBBM Radio)

When Guns Are Outlawed

A man robbed two convenience stores in Hilltown Township, Pa., by
threatening the clerks with a hypodermic needle. Authorities said the
robber, estimated to be in his 20s, didn’t get any money from the first
store but fled with $600 from the second. (Allentown’s The Morning Call)

Cause and Defect

Earthquakes are caused by women who wear immodest clothing and
behave promiscuously, according to a senior Islamic cleric in Iran.
“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt
their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases
earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, Tehran’s acting Friday prayer
leader, told Iranian media. The only way “to avoid being buried under
the rubble,” Sedighi noted, is “to take refuge in religion and to adopt
our lives to Islam’s moral codes,” including women covering themselves
from head to toe in loose-fitting clothing. (Associated Press)

A 24-year-old Muslim woman died while driving a go-kart at a
recreational area in New South Wales, Australia, when part of her
loose-fitting, head-to-toe burqa got caught in the vehicle’s wheels and
strangled her. (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Slightest Provocation

Authorities in Allegheny County, Pa., charged Robert Abrams, 40,
with killing his wife during an argument by hitting her in the head
with a hammer at least 10 times and stabbing her, then setting their
house on fire to conceal evidence of the killing. Police Superintendent
Charles Moffatt said the two quarreled because Abrams had stayed up
late the night before to watch a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game, which
went into three overtimes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Lorraine Bulloch, 43, accidentally stabbed her 1-year-old niece in
the head during an argument over the price of gas used when she drove
her brother to buy beer in Chatham County, Ga. The police report said
the argument escalated when the brother began calling her names, and
she responded by grabbing a knife from a drawer and throwing it at him.
He ducked, and the blade struck the girl, who was hospitalized in
serious condition. (Savannah Morning News)

Unfriendly Skies

Europe’s Ryanair confirmed it intends charging passengers to use the
restroom on flights lasting an hour or less. The coin-operated lavatory
will cost either 1 euro or 1 pound. The airline also plans to reduce
the number of restrooms. “By charging for the toilets, we are hoping to
change passenger behavior so that they use the bathroom before or after
the flight,” Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said. “That will enable us to
remove two out of three of the toilets and make way for at least six
extra seats.” (Britain’s Daily Mail)

Reasonable

Explanations

Police said Hope L. Neff, 35, admitted setting a fire that destroyed
an apartment building in Juniata, Pa., explaining she was curious to
see “how fast a mattress would burn.” Fire officials estimated the
damage at between $350,000 and $500,000. (Altoona Mirror)

After four people reported they were shot with blow darts from a
passing van while walking in downtown Stevens Point, Wis., police
arrested Paula Wolf, 41, who explained “she liked to hear people say
‘ouch.’” (Wausau Daily Herald)

Schoolwork

in Later Life

After a camera caught his wife running a red light in Collier
County, Fla., math tutor Mike Mogil insisted the ticket was illegal
because the yellow light didn’t last long enough. County guidelines
state the yellow light should be 4.5 seconds, but Mogil tested it 15
times and found it averaged only 3.8 seconds. He challenged the ticket,
and a special magistrate dismissed it. Not content to stop there, Mogil
said he checked 65 of the county’s 200 intersections with red-light
cameras and found that only seven yellow lights are long enough.
(Southwest Florida’s WBBH-TV News)

E.T. Stay Home

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, 68, warned that communicating with
aliens could be “too risky.” He explained that a visit to Earth by
extraterrestrials would be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the
New World, “which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
(Discovery Channel)

News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To
contribute, submit original clippings, citing date and source, to
Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.