Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Andrea Spencer said 10:50AM on 9-19-2007
I've been telling my 9 year old son for the past several years that playing too much Gameboy or PS2 rots your brain--so now I can prove it's true! (My son is a straight A student though and reads a lot, too.)
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deneseb69 said 10:58AM on 9-19-2007
Wow, no sh*t. We really needed Tim to tell us this. Parents blame yourself you buy the crap. AOL really needed to fill some space today. This was just the news worthy article I was hoping to read today. Another great job AOL.
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Bozzy said 11:02AM on 9-19-2007
Its almost like a DUH-uh in regards to devotion to such as vid-games kinda interferes and ergo kinda rots the brain..Wonder when a "study' will be done to correalte the LOSS of civilized behavior due to overused interaction with gadgetry such as the incessant Cell/pda that has all connected 24/7 to OTHERS not in the immediate presence who are then further DISCONNECTED and less able TO inter relate to others ...(It was irritating when call waiting interrupted/ignorred in the midst 'conversations" while the other call was being "checked on/etc...These days its done right in all our faces and getting worse and worser !!!)Less civility all around, less ability all around of folks ABLE to relate to others, loss of empathy for others and so very much more as so many are now hostage to such accrutrements that forces them to be connected while disconnecting via the gadgetry !!!
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Bozzy said 11:09AM on 9-19-2007
LOL, at least it is NOT OJ blathering drivelings !! As well, sure tis "parents" that provide the purchase power, but difficult too to have them (our kids) sweim against the peer tide..Keep it OUT of YOUR home, you will find often they simply gravitate to where it IS available or become so OUT of touch with what their peers are "into" they get isolated due to the ignorance (and NO, NOT advocating just letting them swim with the "pack", but interject some reaity to it as well or are you planning on locking them in some basement closet for their entire life or forever going to huddle and NOT let them be informed/enabled to put "things" into some form of livable perspectivity? A lol too, other studies have stated it HELPED increase "aptitudes"...like so much, MODERATION is likely the key and the code to embrace just like in diets of any other ilking!!!
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NeoWiccan said 11:09AM on 9-19-2007
Next week: pizza can make you fat LOL
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Tom said 11:13AM on 9-19-2007
The title of the article made me think that it was about physical damage done to the brains of people who play video games. It actually means to say that time spent playing video games takes away time from more productive activities.
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secnd2none76 said 11:19AM on 9-19-2007
Well the future holds more links to videogames, than some regular acedimics that are taught, so a greater need to tone their computer skills are more important. A need for robot remote drivers will come to a new age, and people who can play games well will have a better advantage to those who dont. Most of the militarys new vehiles coming out require troops that are trained on PS3 and Xbox 360 games.
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Anthony said 11:22AM on 9-19-2007
I've been a gamer for many years, and while video games may take away from study time, it has not been significant enough to lower my college GPA. Granted I am a Senior and have better study habits than a Freshman would. Most first-year students will waste as much, if not more, time drinking and going to parties than they do playing video games. Maybe that has more to do with lower than average GPA's, than playing Video Games. Did they think to follow these students around? Attend these "Extracurricular" activities with them? Perhaps they should take all the other things into account, before blaming video games.
For what it's worth, I have a 3.65 GPA and play Video Games for around 2 hours a day after class.
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Chiabone said 11:25AM on 9-19-2007
Just to edit my previous statements, it says that they did, in fact follow their other activities. I still believe that other activities have a bigger impact than just playing video games.
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Chiabone said 11:27AM on 9-19-2007
One last time, for clarification I am Anthony. The other comments are mine.
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Linda said 11:31AM on 9-19-2007
I have a 12 yr. old son that has been playing video games since he was about 3! He learned to read all on his own from playing Mario, Legend of the Seven Stars.......sure he asked us, what does that say?", a million times, but......he's been reading at college level for the past 3 years...since he was about 9! He still vigilantly plays video games at 12 and received a special plaque at school for having the highest GPA in his grade! He's a straight A student and playing these games has had ZERO effect on him.......if any. Any effect it may have had on him has been positive. I do believe though, that parents should explain occasionally that these games are a fantasy and that the things that can happen in these games are not what may really happen in real life if a certain situation occurred. I guess it all depends on the maturity of the child.
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hotboipnoiva said 11:48AM on 9-19-2007
Uh, for one thing, this is a study at one of millions of universities in North America. The other thing is college has so much more going for itself, for example binge drinking and excessive partying, to have video games ruin the fun.
If you're going to base your overall outlook on video games on an article ran by AOL, then that's plain silly. There's so many more respected colleges that have done research for both the negative and positive aspects of the genre, much more trusted than the crap AOL brings out.
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Keith said 11:49AM on 9-19-2007
I disagree with the title of this story. I played video games every day after coming home from school in high school, and I ended up as valedictorian of my class. Two good friends of mine, who were #3 and #8 in the class rankings, played video games with me frequently. The time spent on playing games obviously cuts down on study time, but it does not make you any less intelligent.
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josh said 11:55AM on 9-19-2007
Isn't the title of this article slanderous. No evidence was provided that video games cause any physical or biological detriment to the human brain. Anything that takes away from study time could cause a drop in test scores. Good thing the kids aren't in to origami these days, took me a week to make all of those cranes, God knows what that would have done to my GPA had I done it in while I was in school. Hey, I have an idea, let's fan political flames, YEA!! The only way this could have been better is if they said, "Predominantly in black students from low income liberal families who oppose the War in Iraq." Then everyone would pay attention and you would have a real story on your hands. Oh and include something about a former or fringe celebrity and that gaming led to all of their problems, that's it. Now I know why Britney's performance was so bad, stayed up all night playing HALO 2 and salivating over the release of HALO 3
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Len said 12:39PM on 9-19-2007
Ironically video games are more realistic than grades and probably more useful.
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Bob said 12:46PM on 9-19-2007
Anthony
You will find someday that the 2 hours/day on your video games has cost you most of your upward mobility in your profession. You can't network with a game. You need to get out and learn how to make friends with lots of different kinds of people. That is probably more important than your GPA. College is an important time for social development, and it only makes sense that if you focus on video games you are missing half of your education.
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Bob said 1:11PM on 9-19-2007
The author of this story didn't seem to understand this study. It wasn't a random sample of the general public. It was a study of first year college students who lived in dorms. The writer implies that "Video Games Rot Your Brains". This is not what the study implied. It implied that a video game present in the dorm room caused lower GPA's. There are way to many other contributing factors to come up with this conclusion. To say that just the presence of a game console in the dorm room caused less study time is absolutely ridiculous.
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Amy said 1:12PM on 9-19-2007
NO KIDDING?!??
Of course, video games can lead to lower grades (they can also lead to a messier home and the litter box not meeting your cat's standards for the simple reason that if you are playing a video game, you are not getting much else accomplished.
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wolf said 1:12PM on 9-19-2007
No surprise. Video games, "game boys," whatever, are just TOTAL time wasters. Little or nothing gained from hours spent with them, just mental junk food. I wasted time and money on pinball machines when I was a kid, but I only had so much money, and I had to go to a candy store or soda shop to play pinball. Glad my son is grown and doesn't mess with this stuff, but worried about my grandson.
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Christopher Buffa said 1:17PM on 9-19-2007
This is stupid. It it's not games in the dorm room, it's something else...maybe TV or the Internet. Distractions are everywhere. I played games all through college and graduated with high honors, both undergrad and a masters program. It's not the games rotting the brain the same way a disease does. College kids slack off allllll the time. It's natural. If anything, games promote social behavior.
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