In brief: Woman wolfs down 9 pounds of beef

AMARILLO, Texas – A Nebraska woman celebrated breaking a Texas steakhouse’s speed record for eating a 41/2-pound slab of beef by polishing off another one.

The Amarillo Globe-News and the Big Texan Steak Ranch’s Twitter page said competitive eater Molly Schuyler finished her first steak in 4 minutes and 58 seconds. The previous record was 8 minutes and 52 seconds.

The 5-foot-7, 125-pound mother from Bellevue, Nebraska, ate her second 41/2-pound steak in 9 minutes and 59 seconds.

The restaurant foots the bill for anyone who can eat one of the steaks, a baked potato, shrimp, a salad and bread roll in under an hour, so Schuyler ate those side dishes as well.

Google making cars sans steering wheels

LOS ANGELES – Google is building a car without a steering wheel.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of the technology titan, told a Southern California tech conference Tuesday evening that Google will make 100 prototype cars that drive themselves – and therefore do not need a wheel. Or brake and gas pedals.

Instead, there are buttons for go and stop.

A combination of sensors and computing power takes the driving from there.

To date, Google has driven hundreds of thousands of miles on public roads with Lexus SUVs and Toyota Priuses outfitted with the special equipment.