Police: Craigslist ads
still plying s#@ trade
Other shorts: Star-Leger driver accused of toxin hoax
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Feb 23, 2010
Police: Craigslist ads still plying s#@ trade
When Craigslist pledged to purge its pages of sex trade ads in the aftermath of the murder tied to the site, there was a certain amount of skepticism from the law enforcement community. Would the site really be vigilant in expunging the ads? Wouldn't people simply find a new way to post them in the absence of an "erotic services" section? Looks like the answer to those questions is no and yes. Boston police claim that a recent prostitution bust in the city tied to Craigslist is proof that the site is still running escort ads, despite last year's promises of a crackdown. Two women, 22-year-old Whitney Bagley and 23-year-old Katheryn E. McNew, were arrested last week at a Boston hotel after allegedly using Craigslist to place ads for customers, reports the Boston Globe. Two more women were arrested last week in Framingham for similar Craigslist-related offenses, which is sure to rile up those who criticized Craigslist's response when a man was accused of murdering a woman he met through the site. The sheriff in Cook County, Illinois, is actually suing the site over the erotic service ads.
Star-Ledger driver accused of biological toxin hoax
These days most people just diss their boss on their Facebook page to blow off steam. A truck driver for the Newark Star-Ledger allegedly took a more proactive approach. The FBI says that 53-year-old Paul Meyer sent an envelope filled with yellow powder to his boss at the newspaper's main office last week after the supervisor demanded he account for the hours that he had claimed to work. The Star-Ledger understandably went into panic mode at the appearance of what staffers imagined to be an anthrax-like substance. Authorities later determined that it was merely protein powder. Suffice to say, the FBI was none too happy about the hoax, which comes as the agency investigates a series of white-powder mailings to businesses around Newark. Meyer faces up to five years in jail if he's convicted of intending to convey false or misleading information involving the illegal transfer of a biological agent or toxin.
Programming notes: FX renews 'Archer'
Boozy master spy Sterling Archer will be saying wildly inappropriate things for at least another season. FX has ordered a 13-episode second season of the animated spy comedy “Archer,” which has averaged 1.2 million total viewers through seven episodes this season, according to Nielsen. The new season will air sometime in 2011. Meanwhile, in other programming, Speed will premiere “Fast Track to Fame” on March 1 at 9 p.m., in which NASCAR fans will compete in a talent competition. The show will be hosted by NASCAR owner and driver Michael Waltrip. On March 17 Comedy Central will roll out “Ugly Americans,” an animated horror/comedy series about a group of creatures who invade New York City. And TLC has ordered a 20-episode third season of “The Little Couple,” which follows the under-four-foot couple Dr. Jen Arnold and Bill Klein. The finale of the second season airs on TLC tonight at 10 p.m.
OMG: College kids prefer texting to talking
Face-to-face communication is so turn of the century. These days, college students prefer one-on-phone interaction to one-on-one. Almost half of students say that text messaging is their most common method of communication, while just 29 percent prefer face-to-face, according to a University of Media study released yesterday by Mindshare. The study found that the average college student sends 52.4 text messages each day, with women sending 12.6 more messages daily than men. Technology is also replacing tradition in other areas of college students' lives. According to the Mindshare study, 92 percent of college students have watched at least one full TV program on a computer in the past 12 months. The most common way to watch a show online is on a TV network’s web site, with 83 percent doing so, followed by sites such as Hulu or Joost (63 percent) and sites such as YouTube (54 percent).
Study: Web could make you smarter. Or dumber.
After seeing your friends' monumentally stupid status updates 365 days a year ("Junior burned his hand; should I call 911? Please let me know before he passes out."), it may seem as though the internet is making us dumber. Au contraire. A new study by Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center and the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that 79 percent of web users and web experts believe that using the internet will help make us smarter in the coming decade. They believe that our collective reading and writing skills will improve by 2020 thanks to the net. Still, some 21 percent -- most likely those who know their friends are playing FarmVille all day long -- believe that the web will actually lower our IQs over the long haul. The study was meant in part to determine whether our focus and concentration are being negatively impacted by the web, which delivers entertainment in short bursts.
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