Sunday, April 18, 2010

“Unlikely duo ended with fatal blows and questions” plus 2 more

“Unlikely duo ended with fatal blows and questions” plus 2 more

Unlikely duo ended with fatal blows and questions

Posted: 18 Apr 2010 12:31 AM PDT


"Maybe you work on a building as an electrician and it doesn't work. Then you try plumbing and that's no good," said his uncle Will Dabish. "Then you try being a carpenter. It works. Sometimes it just takes time."

These arcs entwined and crashed dreadfully March 11.

DeMayo was fatally injured in a downtown Detroit apartment, and Dabish is charged with first-degree murder and torture in her death. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Tuesday. Dabish's lawyer Domnick Sorise declined to comment.

A passion for adventure

To her friends in Miami, DeMayo said she had connected with someone who could help her set up a business in Detroit. DeMayo, who never saw a mutt she didn't want to save, thought a high-end doggy day care center could mesh her schooling and passion.

"Her dog, DaVinci, was a rescue dog that had been returned five times," said her mother, Linda DeMayo.

Diana DeMayo's parents divorced when she was a teenager. Her mom moved to Florida, and she stayed with her dad in Oakland County to finish at the all-girl Mercy High School.

She started college at Florida International University in the fall of 2005 and transferred to the University of Miami in Coral Gables in the fall of 2007.

In between, she studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic, for a semester, where she made two fast friends, Luis Gendron and Charria.

"She wanted to explore the culture and people," Charria said.

DeMayo pulled Gendron along, too: "Right away, you felt like family. She was my little sister, even though she's five days older."

She and Gendron also hiked the Inca Trail in the Peruvian Andes.

"She took a course about the Inca, and we decided to try it," he said.

DeMayo also had traveled in Egypt and Italy.

"Diana was always aware she was very lucky to be having these experiences," Gendron said, adding that she would roust him and others to enjoy Miami.

Charria agreed: "She wouldn't let you sleep in. She'd say, 'We have to go. Look outside, it's beautiful.' "

Professor Levit said DeMayo was eager to learn and push on with her dreams once she left school.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Rise of the Tele-Profiler: Pop Psychologist of the 21st Century

Posted: 18 Apr 2010 07:01 AM PDT

I'm beginning to feel inadequate for not either being part of some reality show or rising to the position of pundit in the infotainment ecosystem.

I can dream. There's one area I believe I can fit in, and my status as an upright sentient being makes me nominally qualified. This position is Profiler, someone who can apply pop psychology and intuition to a situation or person and project what they have done or will do in the future.

More and more television shows are using these very clever individuals to provide a sketch of a kidnapper, embezzler, or pedophile. They operate on as little as hearsay and audiotape; information including letters, 911 calls, and even body language is fed into the profiler's data mill and what comes out is composite sketch of the likely culprit. Sort of like a police sketch artist rendering, with none of the art but a lot of rendering.

On the one hand this sort of thing can be perfectly harmless, like some guy guessing weight at the state fair. At the other end of course there are the Army McCarthy hearings and the application of a communist profile to innocent bystanders. In between there is the grasping at anything that will assuage our fear of the possible, even if it is improbable. The Japanese-Americans during WWII were profiled out of their homes and communities into concentration camps.

Of course "profile" (a description of a person or group) is not the only noun in this suspect lexicon. Stereotype (an oversimplified image of a person), typecast (assigning someone to the same role they seem to be made for), and social classification (as in British classification through heredity or or by manners, education and community status) are terms that bring on similar attacks on a victim's quality of life. But the problem with any such profiling is many of us still bear the ethnic imprint of a hereditary homeland.

It is possible to construct a basic profile for every nationality. But what is the point of doing so in a crime-solving effort? Whether it is a kidnapping or a terrorist plot, we are looking for the edge cases, not someone fitting the nominal profile. The profile, which is the equivalent of raw data, does little to inform us about people at the fringes. Actual knowledge of culprits and threats can only be acquired through hard work aided by appropriate technology. Since kidnappers and terrorists are rarely career practitioners of their adopted crafts, they are usually sloppy at it. It is often the most single-minded desperadoes with laser focus who are willing to martyr themselves for some self-righteous cause. Knowledge of their emotional state or intent can only be determined by those who know the suspect — and that only points them out as individuals to be watched.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Prince George's students take a star turn in musical

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:00 PM PDT

But this week, they were among 55 students singing and dancing on stage during the Springdale school's rendition of the Broadway production "Dreamgirls."

"I am using talent that I didn't know that I had; this has given me a new perspective on everything," said Barnes, 17, who spent the past six months learning lines for the school's version of the 1981 Broadway show that won six Tony Awards and became an Oscar-winning movie starring Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, Jamie Fox and Eddie Murphy.

The student actors played characters that they are too familiar with in life.

Quincy Vicks, 17, said his character, Curtis Taylor Jr., is abusive to women, something he never wants to be. "Curtis is a pretty different character from me. He is disrespectful. I really try to treat girls with respect."

Shanelle Ingram, a drama teacher at Flowers, directed the play, pushing students for long hours and demanding that they find a way to also keep up with their homework assignments.

"Sometimes we didn't got out of rehearsal until 10 p.m.," Ingram said. Students understood, she said, that what they were doing was important. The play follows a black singing group through struggles from the ghetto to stardom in the 1960s.

"This play has really shown me how much African Americans had to really struggle to make it back in the 1960s," said Adeboyeku, 18, who plans to go to medical school after college.

The production has turned 16-year-old Marcus Briddell into a campus heartthrob because he plays the role of James "Thunder" Early, who has plenty of dance moves and sweet talk for the ladies. But Briddell said his life is so different.

"If I were not on this stage, I would be home doing my homework," Briddell said. "Being in the production rejuvenates me. It feels good. I never heard of any other school doing 'Dreamgirls' because it is so complicated."

Sporting press black trousers, a white shirt and a razor-thin tie, Barnes, who plays C.C. White, said, "I really like how they dressed snazzy back then. They had that old-school style. I like to dress in form-fitting smooth clothes."

Mia Russell, 16, has the the role of Effie, whom she called "a free spirit."

"Playing the role really teaches you to be yourself," she said. "This part has really helped me to come out of myself."

She said she won't forget the experience. "Everybody keeps coming up to me and saying, 'I knew you could sing but I didn't know that you can act.' Being in this cast has been one of the most positive experiences in my life."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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