According to WCBS, 15-year-old Alexa Longueira was walking in Staten Island, New York last week, texting on her phone when she fell into an open manhole, recieving minor injuries.
She also lost a shoe in the sewage. Speaking of the incident Alexa says her fall was “really gross… shocking and scary.”
Now obviously, the accident was not entirely the girl’s fault. There were no warning signs around the unattended manhole. A nearby Department of Environmental Protection worker pulled her out and continued his job of flushing the sewer after. The Department then issued an apology for the lack of orange cones or warning signs.
Despite the lack of warning signs however, many observers almost completely blame Longueira for not seeing an open manhole and being completely detached from her surroundings.
The problem of texting has been in the news of late especially in regards to driving, where a string of accidents have been attributed to distracted drivers texting while behind the wheel.
Result for: signs
Systemax, the new owner of the Circuit City brand name, has said the company will remain an online-only business for the time being, with the computer maker showing no signs of re-opening brick and mortar stores.
“It’s too soon to say whether Circuit City stores will appear,” adds Gilbert Fiorentino, chief executive of Systemax’s technology products group. “We’ve only owned it for two weeks, and we haven’t figured out what to do with it yet.”
Systemax currently has 29 CompUSA-branded brick-and-mortar stores. “We’re looking at additional real estate,” says Fiorentino however. “It’s an opportunity of a lifetime.”
The company acquired the name and branding for CompUSA and TigerDirect over the last year as the companies went bankrupt.
Result for: signs
A recently reported study that suggested large numbers of young gamers exhibit signs of addition to videogames has come under scrutiny from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The trade group sent a letter to Dr Robert Kail (editor of Psychological Science), citing a blog by ABC News’ director of polling, Gary Langer, which called into question the claim that the results can be applied to the broader population.
The study, carried out by Professor Douglas Gentile, used data from Harris Interactive through an opt-in online survey. The survey itself actually reads, “because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.”
Gentile responded to this discovery by admitting making a mistake. “I’d assumed they had gathered the population initially as part of a random probability sample, I missed that when I was writing this up. That is an error then on my part.” Michael Gallagher, CEO of The ESA, wrote in his letter to Dr Kail: “The concern arises from the fact that the sample group for the study was not randomly chosen… It was a ‘convenience’ sample of individuals who agreed to participate in the survey.”
“As you are likely aware, such a sample is not truly representative of a national population group. Thus the results cannot be projected onto the broader population of children in this country. And the sampling error of plus or minus 3 per cent that Dr Gentile cited in the study is also meaningless,” he wrote. “Based on the public comments of both Dr Gentile and Harris Interactive, we are requesting that any references to the study in your publication and on your website, clarify the methodological flaws in Dr Gentile’s study and inform your readers how those flaws affect the accuracy of the study.”
