Dorm Room

UC Berkeley student Derek Low has created what might be the most awesomely automated dorm room in America. He calls the room "BRAD," which stands for "Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dormroom" and he's programmed it to do everything from waking him up in the morning to turning out the lights for him at night. That includes an instant party mode -- with laser lights, strobe lights, dance music and even a fog machine -- whenever he hits a wireless emergency party button. When a different mood is required, he can tell the room to go into "romantic mode," and the shades will close, the lights will dim, a disco ball starts to shine and some classic Elton John will automatically start playing.

Here is a piece of concrete advice for parents who will be bringing their sons or daughters to college this fall: Let them set up their own dorm rooms. That came from college junior Sam Landsberg, who talked Wednesday in a Spreecast chat with Times reporter Mary MacVean (also his mother) and John Harshbarger, the head of counseling at Oberlin College in Ohio. The weekly 4Moms talk this week was about letting go. Letting them put their own things away might seem a small gesture, Harshbarger agreed, but it sends the message they can set up their own lives at school too. Harshbarger said it's important for parents to give their children a chance to fail, to learn from those failures and move on. Parents generally have good intentions, he said, but they need to consider the right amount of contact during college.

SPENDING an average of $600 per person, the back-to-school set amounts to a $2.6-billion dorm-furnishings goldmine, according to the Container Store. While JCPenney hawks its MTV Cribs furniture collection and Sears has TYU, Ty Pennington's Extreme Makeover: Dorm Edition, the Container Store gives shoppers a chance to define their style through three multiple-choice questions at www.thecontainerstore.com.

A federal magistrate released a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from jail Monday on strict pretrial conditions that include 24-hour home confinement and $100,000 bail. The friend, Robel Phillipos, a 19-year-old Boston native, is charged with making false statements to the FBI related to the April 15 explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. After a hearing before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler, Phillipos quickly left the courthouse in street clothes and a baseball cap, surrounded by family and friends.

Serious thoughts of a college freshman's first home away from home often get lost in the rush to shop for campus clothes and to crowd in one last summer with childhood pals. Too bad, because you'll have to squeeze a lot of living--and studying--into a dorm room that is at best probably a minuscule single or barely big enough to share with another newcomer. Most dorm rooms are initially Spartan, furnished with bed, bureau, desk and chair and, maybe, a desk lamp.

A black professor at Chapman University has protested he was mistreated last month by campus security officers, university officials confirmed Wednesday. The professor, Francisco Newman, who teaches film and television, has reported to campus officials that he was rudely treated by two security officers who last month burst into the dorm room where he was staying overnight, woke him and questioned him.

Like most college students heading off to the dorms, Chris Eggleton wanted something that would put a personal stamp on his allotted living space. So he went shopping for bedding and came home with blue satin sheets and a yellow tone-on-tone comforter.

UCLA police have arrested a student on suspicion of attempted rape and related crimes after an attack on a female student who was making a predawn cellphone call outside a residence hall on campus. The suspect was identified as Thaddeus Staniforth, 25, a UCLA student from Fullerton. He was being held in lieu of $1-million bail at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, UCLA officials said in a statement. Staniforth was arrested Friday night at his dorm room at the Delta Terrace residence hall, police said.

Pick-up artists -- you've got your own app now. Neil Strauss, author of the best-selling books on the modern art of seduction -- "The Game" and "Rules of the Game" -- has launched A Better Man, an app that turns hitting on women into a secret-agent-style, real-time-playable adventure. "By purchasing this app, you're accepting a challenge. A challenge that will take you on a journey," the creators of the app write on iTunes. "You will receive missions. As you move through the missions, you will require more and more skills.

When decorating a dorm room, think small because most student housing rooms are 185 to 230 square feet, and you have to share that with a roommate or two.

Los Angeles prosecutors have declined to file charges against a UCLA water polo player arrested on suspicion of raping another student, but they said that may change. Hakop Jack Kaplanyan, a redshirt freshman, was suspended from UCLA after his arrest earlier this month.  "All we can say is the matter is under review for filing consideration," said Shiara Davila-Morales, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. Kaplanyan, who is at home in Glendale and out of jail on $200,000 bail, said the future of the case is uncertain.

A University of Central Florida student who was plotting an apparent massacre at his dorm managed to amass guns, explosives and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, with his roommates oblivious to his plans, police said Tuesday. James Oliver Seevakumaran's body was found in his dorm room early Monday morning with a .45-caliber handgun and a .22-caliber tactical rifle that had a 110-round drum magazine attached to it, police said. He also had a checklist of plotted actions leading up to a massacre that he never completed, police said.

Steroids were found in the room of Garrett Reid the day he died of a fatal heroin dose at Philadelphia Eagles training camp this summer, a Pennsylvania prosecutor said Monday. Reid, the son of Eagles Coach Andy Reid, was helping the team's strength and conditioning coach at the time of his death, prompting speculation that the anabolic steroids could have been meant for players. Northampton County Dist. Atty. John Morganelli said there was no evidence that Reid was providing players with the steroids and that investigators could not determine if the drugs were for Reid's personal use or distribution, according to the Associated Press.

An accidental heroin overdose killed Garrett Reid, the son of Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid, a coroner said Thursday. Northampton County (Pa.) Coroner Zachary Lysek said a toxicology test confirmed the presence of heroin in Garrett Reid's body. Investigators revealed they found a used syringe and spoon in his room, along with a gym bag filled with dozens of syringes and needles, many of them unopened. "We are confident today that Mr. Reid's death was the result of a self-injected lethal dose of heroin," Dist.

Garrett Reid, the late son of Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid, died of an accidental heroin overdose, Northampton (Pa.) County Coroner Zachary Lysek said Thursday. The coroner said a toxicology test confirmed the presence of heroin in the body of the 29-year-old recovering drug addict who had been trying to turn his life around. Reid was found dead Aug. 5 in a dorm room at Lehigh University, where he had been assisting the Eagles' strength and conditioning coach during training camp.

The parents of Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers University student who committed suicide after learning that his roommate had spied on him during a date with a man, have rejected the apology delivered by the roommate as a public relations stunt that showed no sign of genuine remorse. Joseph and Jane Clementi issued their statement Thursday as Dharun Ravi, who had shared a dorm room with Clementi in the fall of 2010, reported to the Middlesex County sheriff's office in New Jersey to begin a 30-day jail term for having spied on Clementi in September 2010.

University of Cincinnati linebacker Andre Sherrod died of a gunshot wound to the chest after being found in his dorm room. University police refused comment.

Some people can't stand the word "irregardless." A close friend of mine cannot stand hearing the word "panty" used in the singular. My pet peeve is the misuse of the words "panic attack." My cohort of grad school classmates frequently drop the phrase when they've had a mildly difficult night putting the finishing touches on a research paper: "Oh my God, I had a panic attack when I couldn't find that 2007 Caplan article I needed to cite!" I've heard others throw it around in other trivial ways: "Oh, I'm going to have a panic attack!

UNDERRATED 'The West Wing' : As we careen into election season, there was something so soothing about seeing some of President Josiah Bartlet's Cabinet reconvene for a wittily self-aware PSA about walking (and, if possible, talking, in keeping with series creator Aaron Sorkin's signature style). Though there are laughs in the pointless political jockeying of "Veep" and its predecessor "In the Loop," we could use more of the Bartlet administration's ambition and good intentions.

Yelp Inc.'s first quarter as a public company was, if nothing to yelp home about, not worth a bad review either. The online business review website brought in $27.4 million in revenue during the quarter, a 66% jump from $16.5 million during the same quarter last year. Yelp's 2012 projected revenue also beat analysts' expectations, with the company predicting it will make $128 million to $132 million -- higher than the $124.4-million average from...