Hello I Dasha

Just when I thought the love of my life has found me via an unsolicited email, a Google Search says its a scam. Oh, and I’m taken!

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From: “Darya” info@SYNONYM.com
To: [redacted]
Subject: Hello I Dasha.
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:50:37 +0400
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Hello I Dasha. My friend I looked your structure. It has very much liked me. I want To correspond with you letters. I wish to inform directly on myself: My name is Anna. I was born in the city of Samara, Russia. I here live since a birth. I was born in 1985. To me of 28 years. At me Brown eyes (beautiful.) I the blonde. I have no children, but I very much I wish to have the girl and the boy. I think, that children in live-this most Happy. I love various cultures. I like to study history, it to me Very much it is pleasant. I work as the bookkeeper in firm. Mine Work very much is pleasant to me. At leisure I like to visit Library to go to cinema, to watch TV, go in sports Hall. Most my hobby is fitness. I very much like to go in for sports, I Much I run in the mornings. I The formed woman, has left school on 4 and 5. Has then acted in University. Has finished it too well. Then I have gone to work. I studied as the bookkeeper. I know English language well enough. I think, that problems at us with dialogue will not be. I hope, that our dialogue will make sense. It would be fine, If I and you could do Friendship or more than simply friendship. I search Serious attitudes, and I shall be happy To study you more close. Will be It is fine, if we can exchange some letters and photos. Write to me what your purposes and plans during the future? That you search in To the woman? Inform more on a place Where do you live. I shall look forward to hearing from You.
Write back on e-mail: Eltasina82@yandex.ru

Ask any questions which interest you. Write to me back, and I I shall inform more on me, my life. Also send my photos.
Kiss from Russia, Dariya

Reports of Bosch dishwasher fires pour in

I did a search of the CPSC website, SaferProducts.gov, to see if my Bosch dishwasher report had been posted yet. What I found was a shocking number of similar reports, many of them of full-fledged fires that started in Bosch’s defective control board. Many of these reports are for the recalled models, but not all of them! It seems my problem is not unique.

Over just the past 12 months there have been 26 reports filed on Bosch dishwashers.
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Bosch dishwasher update

A Bosch dishwasher control board that caught fire. From CPSC website.

So as I posted earlier I discovered that Bosch had a voluntary recall on its dishwashers to fix the defective control board. I felt so sure this was my issue that I told all my neighbors. The homes in our neighborhood were all built by the same builder so our dishwashers are likely to all be Boschs.

Then I got home, punched in my model’s serial number and was surprised to see it wasn’t included in the recall. How could this be? My dishwasher’s control board clearly malfunctioned, with the heater relay melting itself off the board, yet it wasn’t recalled?
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Social grouping and crime

On my sleepy walking of the dog early this morning, I thought about the adolescence article in my previous post and also about Reggie Gemeille. It made me wonder if I had found the answer to my question as to what makes good kids turn bad.

The theory I’m working with goes beyond the fact that kids drop out of high school. The adolescent article talks about how schools are like big boxes where people with little in common are thrown together. People naturally sort themselves into groups and cliques, teenagers especially. What happens if you don’t find your group or clique? What if you aren’t a jock, or a rich kid, or a brainy kid, or a druggie, or whatever? What if the only tribe you’re left to identify with is that of a gang? What if that’s your only source of self-respect?
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Reggie Gemeille charged again with murder

Wedjunald “Reggie” Gemeille


Reggie Gemeille was charged again yesterday with first-degree murder, this time in Sunday’s death of Angel D. Irby, 29. From Raleigh Police’s Facebook page:

On Sunday, at approximately 10:15 a.m., Raleigh Police Department officers conducted a check-on-welfare at 201-20 Loft Lane. Upon arrival, the officers located a deceased female, Angel D. Irby, 29. Irby, who resided at the call address, was located inside the apartment.

A suspect, Wedjunald Gemeille (DOB 8/28/91), is in custody and has been charged with murder in connection with the death of Irby. Gemeille has been transported to the Wake County Jail.

The suspect and victim were known to one another, and the crime was not a random act.

The investigation is continuing.

Here’s Gemeille’s inmate record at Wake County jail.
Curiously, I can’t find any record of him being tried in the 2010 death. It would be nice to know how he once again slipped through the cracks, this time in the hands of the criminal justice system.

Looks like Gemeille was arrested on Nov 24th, 2012 [PDF] for assault inflicting serious injury (m), assault on a female, disorderly conduct, and reckless driving – wanton disregard. The address of the altercation was also 201 Loft Ln. I wonder if Irby was the victim in that case, too.

Home invasion shocks neighborhood

Monday’s home invasion and shooting in Oakwood has left Raleigh’s downtown neighborhoods in shock. It has also shocked me as well. This took things to a new level and as good as the Raleigh Police Department is, there was little they could’ve done to stop it. As the saying goes, shit just got real.

Fortunately, the perps picked the wrong neighborhood to mess with. Oakwood is as close-knit as neighborhoods come, and residents spotted the suspects immediately. Brothers Shabar Marshall and Jahaad Marshall were arrested shortly afterward.

I learned this morning that the rumored neighborhood home invasion did, in fact, occur. A neighbor shared the details today and this previous crime was just as scary as the one this week. The evening of November 19th, a burglar broke into a home on Wake Forest Road in Mordecai and held the daughter at gunpoint there for 10 minutes while he looked for cash. The suspect escaped before anyone was hurt but it shook the family up so much that they moved away. No mention of this incident was made in the media, nor did RPD make any announcements. If it weren’t for the chat I had with the man at the local restaurant over the holidays I wouldn’t have known about it at all.

The good news is that the victim of the previous home invasion believes that Shabar Marshall was the perpetrator of the previous crime. He’s now behind bars, but for many neighbors that’s not good enough. This serious escalation deserves an escalated response from the community. The question is, what do we do?

Couple tied up during Raleigh home invasion

WRAL says a home invasion took place in the city early this morning:

Two Raleigh homeowners were tied up during a home invasion early Sunday, police said.

Two armed men broke into the house at 3105 Sherry Drive around 4 a.m., woke up the couple who live there and demanded money from them, police said. The men tied up the couple and left after about 30 minutes, taking an unknown amount of money and a few other items.

This caught my eye as a man we met at a neighborhood restaurant last week told us that a home invasion had taken place in Mordecai last month. He said it wasn’t well-publicized. I’m trying to track down the police report on the incident in case there’s anything to it.

via Couple tied up during Raleigh home invasion :: WRAL.com.

Never doubt that a small quote can be misattributed

Today a Facebook friend posted a quote she attributed to Gandhi:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Gandhi didn’t say that, I thought to myself, that’s Margaret Mead’s quote.

Except that it isn’t Margaret Mead’s quote, either. One of the earliest print references the is on page 79 of the book Earth at Omega: Passage to Planetization, by Donald Keys. Another item on Wikiquote says it was on T-shirts seen at a 1960s protest, though I haven’t seen any proof of this.

A bit more searching on The Internets brings one to the Institute for Intercultural Studies, where question 1 on the FAQ is about the source of this quote:
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The shifting sands of food deserts

There was much hand-wringing among Southeast Raleigh residents when Kroger recently announced the imminent closing of two of its grocery stores in the area, citing disappointing sales. What many folks don’t know is that one of the stores that many now turn to for their groceries was also on the verge of closing just a few years ago.

The shopping center that the Raleigh Boulevard Food Lion occupies was once plagued with crime. Residents were getting mugged in the parking lot, sketchy individuals were hanging out, stores were struggling, and there was zero investment in the shopping center from its owner. Inside the grocery store, more food was walking out than money was going in. Something had to be done.
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ReadWrite – Have You Or Someone You Know Ever Fake-Liked Something On Facebook?

ReadWrite says its fake Facebook Likes story really struck a nerve. The magazine is asking others for their stories:

Meanwhile we’re looking for more examples of fake likes. Our writer, Bernard Meisler, put his story together by asking people he knew on Facebook to look out for fake likes and send him examples. Now we’d like to find even more.

Apparently this is happening a lot, and nobody seems to know why.

Facebook told us it must be people accidentally pressing a “like” button on their mobile app. But can there really be that many people pressing the wrong button, all the time?

If you have a theory, we’re all ears.

via ReadWrite – Have You Or Someone You Know Ever Fake-Liked Something On Facebook?.