8/9/2009

Chinese teen dies at Internet addiction rehab camp

Filed under: — Aviran

China is investigating the death of a teenager who was allegedly beaten to death in a camp designed to treat Internet addiction, state media said.

Deng Senshan, 15, died Sunday, less than a day after his parents sent him to the camp in southern Guangxi province, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The case has led medical experts to call for laws regulating centers that treat obsessive Web surfing. Concern over such behavior is so widespread in China, and demand for rehabilitation is so great, that some camps now advertise on television, the report said.

Deng was found vomiting and was taken to a clinic where he died. Fellow students said a teacher beat him, Xinhua reported.

The report quoted the local government as saying several marks were found on the boy’s body. It said four trainers from the Qihang Salvation Training Camp in Nanning city have been detained.

Odd tricyle mapping Paris streets for Google

Filed under: — Aviran

Parisians and tourists, relax. That goofy-looking tricycle equipped with loads of high-tech equipment roaming the streets is not some mad scientist’s invention on the rampage.

The three-wheeler is quite a sight with its long pole holding nine cameras, a GPS, a computer and a generator. But the contraption tooling around the French capital needs all that gear to do its job - adding three-dimensional images to Google’s Street View Maps.

The U.S. company has hired two young cyclists to ride through gardens, historical sites and other pedestrian-only areasto take thousands of digital photos.

“The idea is to be able to offer 360-degree images of places that were inaccessible before,” Google spokesperson Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce said in an interview.

The riders, wearing Google tee-shirts and white helmets, are visiting well-known sites such as the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris, the Jardin du Luxembourg on the city’s Left Bank and Les Halles, in the busy center of the French capital.

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