With elections due in many key countries, the shifting sands of national power and global influence will be making headlines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/30/world-news-2013-stories
Monday, December 31, 2012
Research on Video games
Are video games really the villains in our violent age? | Technology | The Observer
The number of aliens you kill may directly contribute to an improvement in your brain. This may not sound like a typical scientific discovery, but it has come from some of the world's finest neuroscience laboratories. In fact, it is the genuine outcome of studies on how action video games can improve your attention, mental control and visual skills.
The studies use randomised controlled trials. It is a method normally used to test medications, but it can be applied to anything. In this case, a group of people are randomly assigned to one of two groups. Half get the "treatment", perhaps blasting away at enemy combatants in Medal of Honor, while the others get the "placebo" – for example, managing a digital family in The Sims 3. Reliably, those assigned to play the fast-moving action games show improvements on neuropsychological tests that measure the ability to process quickly and react to visual information. It's worth saying that these conclusions were thrown into doubt in 2011 when several scientists, led by Walter Boot from Florida State University, suggested that these findings may be due to poor experimental design, but subsequent and better planned studies have continued to find a positive effect.
Also using randomised controlled trials, research has found that violent video games cause a reliable short-term increase in aggression during lab-based tests. However, this seems not to be something specific to computer games. Television and even violence in the news have been found to have a similar impact. The longer-term effects of aggressive gaming are still not well studied, but we would expect similar results from long-term studies of other violent media – again a small increase in aggressive thoughts and behaviour in the lab.
These, however, are not the same as actual violence. Psychologist Christopher Ferguson, based at the Texas A&M International University, has examined what predicts genuine violence committed by young people. It turns out that delinquent peers, depression and an abusive family environment account for actual violent incidents, while exposure to media violence seems to have only a minor and usually insignificant effect. This makes sense even in light of horrifying mass shootings. Several of the killers did play video games, but this doesn't distinguish them from millions of non-violent young men. Most, however, had a previous history of antisocial behaviour and a disturbed background, something known to be much more common in killers.
Perhaps the most telling effect of video games concerns not what they involve but how much time someone spends playing them. A helpful study on the effect of giving games consoles to young people found that, while the gaming had no negative impact on core abilities, school performance declined for those kids who put aside homework for screen entertainment. Similarly, a significant amount of research has found that putting aside exercise for the physical inactivity of video games raises the risk of obesity and general poor health.
And while "addiction" is now the pop psychology label of choice for anything that someone does to excess (sex, video games, shopping), the same behaviour could just as easily, and more parsimoniously, be described as a form of avoidant or unhelpful coping. Rather than dealing with uncomfortable life problems, some people avoid them by absorbing themselves in other activities, leading to an unhelpful cycle where the distractions end up maintaining the problems because they're never confronted. This can apply as easily to books as video games.
The verdict from the now considerable body of scientific research is not that video games are a new and ominous threat to society but that anything in excess will cause us problems. The somewhat prosaic conclusion is that moderation is key – whether you're killing aliens, racing cars or trying to place oddly shaped blocks that fall from the sky.
2012 review: it was the best of times. It was the worst of times …
Who emerged with their reputation enhanced in the last year? And whose took a hit? And then there was Boris on that zipwire … Euan Ferguson looks back on the winners and losers in culture, sport, science and politics
2012 review: it was the best of times. It was the worst of times … | UK news | The Observer
Friday, December 28, 2012
Syrian rebels sidetracked by scramble for spoils of war
Syrian rebels sidetracked by scramble for spoils of war http://gu.com/p/3cmey
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Steve jobs on TV (1998)
This Is Still The Best Thing To Watch If You Want To Know How Tech Companies Should Try To Fix TV - Business Insider
here's a loose transcription of his conversation: "Your television is going to make toast. What is the most successful consumer product in the last 10 years? It's the PC. Here's all these PC companies running around looking for a consumer product when that's what they make! Right?
It's the most successful consumer product of the last 10 years, so naturally we want to combine it with the television. I've spent enough time in entertainment now with Pixar, and with Disney, who's just a terrific company to work with, by the way, is that people go to their television primarily to turn their brain off. I used to think like many of you might have thought that there was this giant conspiracy from the networks to but mediocrity on television and dumb us down, did you ever think that? I thought that. It thought that was giant conspiracy to rob the American populace of their mind if not their soul. I then found out the truth which is far more depressing. The networks give people precisely what they want. The reason people want this stuff. They come home from a long day. They have dinner with their kids and they're fighting and they get them into bed and they just want to turn their brain off for half an hour. Do you ever do that? I mean, I must admit I don't watch much TV, but I can admit I will turn on the TV for a half hour, and it really does turn your brain off. People got to their TV to turn their brain off. People go to their PC to turn their brain on. These things aren't going to be together, they perform completely separate functions. So I think it's as crazy as other combinations you can imagine. And I don't think it's going to happen, you know.
I also think people want to interact with their computers. Keyboards, mice, up close better resolutions, they want to sit back from their televisions. Web TV has been an utter failure so far, so I just don't see it happening. Now, sure, everybody would like a better online TV guide, ok. Sony should build in an online TV guide to their TV sets, I grant you that. But is this digital convergence? So, that's what I think of it."
Monday, December 24, 2012
Tooth fairy quantum mechanics
Tooth fairy quantum mechanics | Jon Butterworth | Life & Physics http://gu.com/p/3cheq
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Will the internet end up controlled by big business and politicians?
Will the internet end up controlled by big business and politicians? Its birth heralded a new age of intellectual freedom. Now the internet is under seige
Will the internet end up controlled by big business and politicians? | Comment is free | The Observer
Saturday, December 22, 2012
2012 in infographics: how Graphic News saw the world
2012 in infographics: how Graphic News saw the world http://gu.com/p/3ckdg
Monday, December 17, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
National Intelligence Council also sees water and food shortages and suggests world is at a 'critical juncture in human history'
China's economy to outgrow America's by 2030 as world faces 'tectonic shift' http://gu.com/p/3cev4
A decade of western folly has erased hope from Afghanistan | Jonathan Steele
A decade of western folly has erased hope from Afghanistan | Jonathan Steele http://gu.com/p/3cdt4
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Asperger's syndrome dropped from psychiatrists' handbook the DSM
Asperger's syndrome dropped from psychiatrists' handbook the DSM http://gu.com/p/3c8gq
US scientists challenge scares about food links to cancer
US scientists challenge scares about food links to cancer | Science | The Observer
American research finds cancer food scares don't stand up to scrutiny with most culprit ingredients showing little or no increased risk of disease
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)