A new study shows links between pre-pregnancy obesity and lower test scores in students between 5 – 7 years old. Compared to mothers with a healthy pregnancy weight, those who were obese before conception are found to be at a higher risk of producing spawn with lower cognitive functioning. Cognitive functioning was measured through commonly used math and reading tests. Those produced in obese pregnancies had a three-point reduction in reading, and a two-point reduction in math.

The score differences may seem small, but they are equivalent to a 7 year decrease in the mothers education, as well as significantly lower family income, two other risk factors known to negatively effect childhood cognitive functioning.

Maternal obesity is suggested to effect the organs of a foetus such as the liver, heart and pancreas. With that in mind, it’s logical that it may also effect the babys brain. Obesity is a huge problem in the US. It is predicted that obesity will cost $550 billion in health expenses by 2030.

If you’d like to read more on the study, click here. In the meantime, here’s some advice on how to combat weight gain:

Introduction to personal privacy and the internet
Personal privacy, as in, the ability to seclude information and reveal ones’ self selectively, is becoming an increasing concern with the swift takeover of new communication technologies replacing old mediums. Instead of old fashioned snail mail, email has caused the boundaries of time and space to shift. No longer do we even have to make telephone calls to people in their homes, we can reach anyone instantly with a simple text message, IM or email.

The internet plays a huge role in everyday life. Without the internet I would not have been so easily able to uproot myself and move 17,000 kilometres away from my friends and family. Because of Skype, I was able to constantly stay in contact with my friends and family, an achievement which is pretty impressive given the geographic distance and time difference. While it is not the same as physical contact, my family is still very much involved in my day-to-day happenings. It therefore quite literally brings the words of Negroponte true: “A family stretched far and wide can become a virtual neighbourhood”. But this excess of digitised personal communication forced me to wonder; is anything truly private anymore?

While these new methods of communication provide cheap, quick and simple ways for us to keep in contact with one another, there are several concerns regarding personal privacy that envelop their use. Trepidations about privacy have been raised in the academic community even before the turn of the millennium, with concerns about cookies, spam and geo-location being highlighted. If such fears were already raised long before new technologies enabled the internet to become omnipresent in daily life, then we must consider why there has not been intervention or extensive regulation on such data gathering, if personal privacy is something to be valued.

Presently, internet privacy has been researched as a social construction, where the perception of privacy is effected by technological skill and literacy. It seems that those who have high internet literacy yet low social awareness are least concerned about privacy. However, those with high social awareness regardless of their internet literacy (especially “soft science” intellectuals) are the most concerned with privacy; personal and collective. Therefore, the youth of today could be categorised as “highly literate”, with little concern about personal privacy. These findings could begin to explain the myriad of information most individuals willingly upload and share with the digital world.

This essay aims to prove that because of networked digital data, personal privacy in its traditional form is no longer existent. Firstly online “stalking” will be discussed, pointing out how easy it is to follow someone’s daily activities online, namely where they are going and what they are doing. Secondly, data storage and retrieval will be touched upon; where it is demonstrated how easily it is to retrieve personal information despite the owner believing it has been deleted. Lastly, the use of personal digital data will be examined with special focus on the use of sensitive data to generate profit. For each of these sections, there are both positive and negative aspects to consider; overall however, I believe that the implications of the negative consequences loom far greater for personal privacy in the future.

Currently, there has not been much academic research conducted about the recent technological developments that increasingly invade personal boundaries. Instead most research focuses on the perception of privacy and how it affects consumer behaviour – indicating a strong commercial focus rather than a social or moral concern. Since most research takes a while to be published in peer-reviewed journals, this process is slow in comparison to the rapidly changing technological world as people are constantly reshaping and changing the way certain technology is used. In fact, the changes are so prompt that I had to edit this essay several times due to recent developments during the writing period. Most recent articles regarding online privacy stem from the media, which is why this essay shall raise questions about the necessity of such intrusions in our lives – is it positive or negative?

I know where you are
While the title of this section may lean towards the darker side of being able to share information online, there are actually some positive aspects. Applications for popular social networking websites (namely Twitter and Facebook) such as Four Square and Gowalla allow a user to update their entire friends list on where they are at any given time. For those with a small online network of close, personal friends this is fantastic because it allows your friends to spontaneously meet up with you. This is also great for parents of rowdy teenagers, since they are able to know the whereabouts of their children at any given time, as this information can now be automatically submitted from a smartphone via GPS coordinates, with permission of the user. Therefore people are unable to lie about where they are.

However it is quite rare nowadays that people keep their online contacts to their close and personal friends. In this Information Age, the larger ones online social network, the more important and valuable one is. Therefore someone who may have an unhealthy interest in a person could use this information to stalk them. It is common for jealous people to obsessively check the whereabouts of the person of interest, such as a boyfriend or girlfriend. While such “stalkers” could easily be removed from a social network, it is not difficult for them to gain access once again. For many people, if they see someone who is unfamiliar, but notice that they have some friends in common, they will accept a request from an unknown person simply to grow their social network. Consequentially, it is easy to create a fake online persona and once again gain access to the information.

“Checking In”
It is also easy to uncover the whereabouts of someone at a certain time; if they have indicated they were going there either through “checking in” or virtually RSVPing to an invitation. To illustrate this point a little more clearly, recently a friend and I were discussing party we attended, and she wanted to find out the names of a few guys she had met. It was as simple as looking up the event on Facebook, finding the list of those attending and scrolling through until she found the guys she was looking for. As soon as the name was known, a quick peek at their profile page followed by entering the name into Google search revealed a deluge of personal information such as location, where he studied previously, where he grew up, where he works, his relationship status, his birthday, personal photographs and so on. So by simply declaring you were at an event, you have voluntarily opened yourself up to the access of any such information you have put online. You do not even have to use your real name, as you can be recognised from your profile photograph.

A Target for crime
Not only do those types of applications feed an unhealthy interest in people, but they also pave the way for criminals to target places for burglary much easier than ever before. In early 2010, these location-based services grew in popularity and sparked the release of a new website titled “Please Rob Me“. This website is designed to bring the issue of privacy invasion from using such websites into the spotlight. A program will automatically scan Twitter for those who have posted their whereabouts (or “checked in” to other places) on the social networking site, leaving them a friendly yet humorous reminder:

“Hi @NAME, did you know the whole world can see your location through Twitter? #pleaserobme.com”

Moreover, all the location updates retrieved are posted to the PleaseRobMe Twitter feed, displaying just how easy it is to let the world know that you are not home, inadvertently creating opportunities for burglars. Inherently, putting your address anywhere online is dangerous and people should be aware of the possibility to be targeted for theft.

Your friends may also be unintentionally creating such opportunities for criminals; by “checking in” to your house, they are then putting your address on the internet for their friends to see, as well as their friends of friends and so forth. So the point of websites like PleaseRobMe is not to actually assist burglars, but instead to bring awareness to the issue of personal privacy in a realistic yet humorous way.

Data is easily stored and retrieved
Conversely, the reason that most people are choosing to “go digital” with private areas such as banking is because of convenience. It is far easier to make payments online. Some people in Generation Y may not even remember the use of cheques as a payment method, nor waiting in line at the bank to make a transfer. Now, one can see their statement, make transfers, purchase shares and even apply for loans without leaving the comfort of their home. Furthermore, one could argue that digital banking is good for the environment. No longer do we receive statements and bills in thick stacks every month as they are conveniently accessible online. According to The Daily Green, 16.5 million trees could be saved by online banking, if all of America were to participate in the option. With increasing concerns about the wellbeing of our planet, conversion to digital data is not only convenient but also contributes to helping the environment. Consequently, digital records of all your purchases can be stored on very little hard drive space.

With the avalanche of personal information that is being put online, the question is then raised; what happens to all this data? Most of the time, it is outlined in the terms and conditions of the website that you are using. Facebook for example store all your pictures and are allowed to use them in advertising since users grant permission by agreeing to the terms and conditions. Moreover, once you delete photos from Facebook, they are still stored on a separate server. In laymen terms, your profile and your photos are stored at two different locations. It may not be different geographic locations (like two different towns in the same country), but simply physical locations, such as two different hard drives on the same computer. This incongruence causes a delay from when you delete the photo to when it is actually removed. Thus deleting them is only removing their visibility from the profile, but if someone keeps the permalink to the image, they will be able to see it after you have seemingly deleted it.

Building a digital library
Taking note of the permalink is not the only way to retrieve photos that were thought to be deleted. Software is in existence which is able to crawl (scan) the internet, retrieving and storing information from websites. Google keeps a cache of every single website that it has crawled, stamping it with the date that it was last viewed by the software. Essentially this means that anything that has ever been online and it has been reached by Google.s crawling software, there will be a “snapshot” of this stored on a Google server from the day it was accessed. Therefore if there is any sensitive information about yourself on a website that you do not own, it is a long and difficult process to get it removed from Googles cache. Interestingly, it is unknown how long Google store this cache for. Google is not the only site to keep track of old information on the internet. Archives.org keeps a record of things that have been published online dating back to 1996. Intended to be similar to a library, sites like Archives and Google cache will make it very easy in the future to gather personal data about any individual that ever had an online presence.

Web-optimists may question; what may be the use of this? Why would it matter if anybody could discover old information about someone? In one way, this may remain true for those who believe they “have nothing to hide”, but the most innocent things may be taken out of context, or discovered accidentally. For example, once upon a time you were a pimply-faced teenager, trolling internet forums and making lewd comments, thinking you were completely anonymous. Ten years down the line, you are applying for a job and somehow this mischievous side from your teenage years comes back to confront you. Another example could be; when looking at family history for a school project, children may uncover publicised information about their relatives which they are not ready to see. For example, if an older relative ever took photos of themselves disrobed, these pictures could have been spitefully published online and never removed. Websites exit specifically for the vengeful release of X-rated photographs (for example: exgfpics.com). Therefore, it is difficult to censor anything from children anymore. Moreover, such data could already be used to create an alibi in court cases. If a criminal is not only witnessed in a certain place but also .checked in. online there, it may be substantial evidence to clear them from a crime they are accused of.

Location data
Furthermore, those who already disliked the idea of telling the internet their physical whereabouts may be being tracked without even realizing it. Users of smart phones, specifically iPhones, may unknowingly be keeping record of where they go . just waiting to be discovered by anybody with access to their computer. According to Charles Arthur (2011, 20 April), security researchers discovered that the latest iPhone update keeps track of the owners location and transfers the data to their computer once the phone is synchronised with it. While the production company Apple do not get this data, it is very easy for anybody with access to the owners. computer . for example, a jealous spouse or private detective . to access this data. Location is one of the most sensitive factors of ones. life and for this data to be kept without the knowledge of the users, shows the failure of Apple to take the privacy of its customers seriously (Arthur, 2011).

The storage of this sensitive data like a persons. location history has certain implications that need to be considered. Firstly, if someone were to steal an iPhone which is currently in use, they could see exactly where the previous owner worked, lived and frequented. This may put this person in danger for future targeting of crime. Secondly, if Apple themselves are able to access this data, this could have implications for users being targeted by location-based advertising. In fact, Arthur claims that Apple have stated in their 15,000+ word terms and services that they may “collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device” (2011). Therefore, simply by signing the terms and conditions of using the iPhone, users are willingly allowing themselves to have their personal data sold to advertisers. This can translate into location based advertising, further pushing the consumerism ideology on iPhone users.

However, within days of this information being published in the media, Apple reacted swiftly, and released a new update which made retrieval of the location data anonymous. Both Apple and Android clarified that the location data that was retrieved was based on cell phone towers which the phone connected to, not the „pinpoint accuracy. satellite-based location data that people originally thought was being recorded. Additionally, US senator Al Franken requested that application developers be more transparent with their retrieval of geo-location data, due to increasing concern regarding personal privacy.

On the more positive side, this location tracker would be useful if your phone was stolen as you would be able to discover in real time exactly where it is and retrieval will be easier. Moreover, if you need to prove that you have been at a certain location at any given time, there will be record of it. Or if someone asks where a good restaurant is, you can simply look up the name and location of a recent establishment that you can personally recommend. This may change the way people think, as they no longer have to remember small details such as place names, perhaps birthing a “lazy memory” generation. (Note: if you’re interested in what the internet is doing to our brains, read ‘The Shallows’ by Nicholas Carr).

But other than that, is it really useful for anybody to know exactly where you were at any given time? It raises the question for the future of society, where personal privacy will no longer be existent. If you are able to track someone.s current position at any given time, it greatly limits the amount of personal privacy one can attain.

Location data is not the only sensitive personal information that people could be able to access with new communication technologies. Many people are unaware of what happens to their digital waste once they are finished with it. Old computers, especially hard drives, are not disposed of but instead shipped to a developing nation such as Nigeria, despite people believing they are being recycled. Instead of using the computers as donations to bridge the digital divide, a new market was created: the selling of used parts, especially hard drives – the component of the computer which contains every piece of data you save on it. Even though these hard drives were formatted before disposal, it was not difficult for any slightly tech-savvy Nigerian to retrieve the data that was supposedly deleted. Then, it is clear that it is pretty dangerous to dispose of hard drives that ever contained any sensitive data – which they will if you have ever used online banking or used your credit card to make a purchase online. According to PBS, the best way to dispose of an old hard drive is to smash it with a hammer, so no data can ever be retrieved. This method may seem extreme but those who running most aspects of their everyday life digitally (such as bank accounts and personal documents); it would be in one.s interest to seek protection from this data potentially being discovered.

How can your data be put to use?
This final section covers the use of the personal information that people store online. It can generally be assumed that most people do not read through the lengthy terms and conditions of use for most applications, and thus do not know what actually happens to all the data that they are transmitting through the program. For all you know, you could have signed away the rights to your next amazing invention, simply because you spoke about it through an online messaging program.

Slander and Libel
I recently noticed something a little alarming about software progress in facial recognition. Because people are able to „tag. (as in, highlight the face of an individual and link it to their online profile) one another in photographs, this somehow “trains” the software to recognise the people in the photograph, especially if they are frequently pictured together. The more photographs of yourself that have been “tagged”, the more accurate the program is in recognising who you are. This can invade privacy as many people may upload images of yourself that you do not want broadcast to the world (like the time you got food poisoning, or accidentally flirted with that transvestite) and find it funny to make sure all your friends and family know about it. When people are uploading such images for their own use, this can have some pretty devastating results for someone. Rather than a picture saying a thousand words, images often need several words to interpret them, something which may not be provided. Thus, pictures can be taken out of context and could adversely affect ones opinion on you, such as a potential future employer.

This can be further exemplified with a recent candidate in the Singaporean governmental elections. This candidate was heavily criticised by the media for being too young and inexperienced to run for parliament, and a blogger uncovered and published personal photos and screenshots7 of conversations which the candidate had on her Facebook. These were then entered into context which could be used to slander the candidate. There were several images of her with different men (not really sexual, they could easily have just been friends) and some “flirty” conversations she was having on her public page. These were then skewed and painted her in the light of being somewhat promiscuous as the images contained her holding hands with different guys, receiving flowers and a guy with his arm around her. Furthermore, there were some posts which she made then deleted, but the blogger had already taken a screenshot of them. Despite the candidate being single, much work was dedicated to painting her in a negative light. It should also be noted that things such as screenshots and are very easily edited and changes can be made with little technical skill. Thus, one should be wary of any kind of “photographic” evidence they are presented with.

You are the cash cow
But perhaps the most worrying thought is what the corporations are doing with your data. TwitPic, an image uploading website aimed at Twitter users, have recently been found selling their users images. In fact, this has been outlined in their terms and conditions from the beginning, where the company has claimed copyright of all the images, videos, messages, graphics, comments text, tags and other materials uploaded by the users. The company recently signed a deal with the WENN photo group for image representation. Therefore, any photo that you upload can be sold by these companies for profit, none of which you are entitled to. Not only are you relinquishing your rights to the image, it may be used for a news article, promotion or advertising campaign, whether you like it or not.

Google base their profit-making strategy on selling your data. Several “scare-tactic” videos have been made naming Google an evil corporate giant, out to spy on the world. This radical view may however, not be far from reality. Obviously, Googles’ main goal is profiteering, which they achieve by selling targeted advertising. How do they target specific advertising? Because of their abundance of websites and products, I will specifically look at their email service, Gmail. Outlined on their “help” page, it is noted that “ads are related to the content of your messages”. It is true that humans do not eye the content of your messages, but rather they are scanned by software. So in one way, it is positive as we are only exposed to things which may be relevant to our interest. No longer must we be bear the burden of wading through a river of irrelevant information. On the other hand, this software is poised to create large databases about what people mostly converse about and with whom. As noted though, “Google does not and will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission”. But before you breathe a sigh of relief, perhaps you have already given permission when you agreed to the terms and conditions of the website. Also, even if the advertisers do not have access to your personal interests, Google does. What can they do with it though? Not much, but one should begin to question the power that is bestowed upon a company with the sensitive information of millions of users. Accordingly, a thorough examination of the terms and conditions may force you to rethink telling your life story over Gmail, and other such websites.

Conclusion & recommendations
New communication technologies play a prominent part in everyday life for many people. These cheap, fast and easy technologies make contact with another human being possible within seconds, forming the basis of my curiosity for this essay. This essay has covered three main concerns with personal privacy, starting with the danger of the knowledge of your whereabouts. Websites like Facebook are starting to do this automatically, using your phone to pinpoint your location data. Secondly, any data that you upload can be stored on not only the server you are using but in other places you may be unaware of, such as Googles cache. Lastly, data use was discussed, where companies like TwitPic are able to sell your uploaded photographs, a condition most people are unaware of when using their photo upload service.

At the end of the day, the question is raised; how can we maintain personal privacy in a digital information age? In the light of self-censorship, there are several recommendations which can be made:

1. Do not put any location information online

Facebook and other social networking sites provide wonderful tools that allow your friends and stalkers to police your every move. However, from this information, companies can build an extensive profile on you, such as where you like to eat, where you prefer to shop and where your private address is. So the easiest way to get around this privacy invasion is to not allow these applications to track your location data. Most websites have a slightly hidden ‘privacy settings’ page and from there you can unselect the option. However, this might not be so easy with new-generation smart phones and some of their applications, which automatically track your location without your knowledge (It is probably outlined in their End User Terms and Conditions, but who often reads those?). Therefore, if this dimension of privacy is of paramount concern, you should use a smartphone where you can switch off the geo-location option, or one which tracks such data anonymously. This way, you can use all the wonderful benefits of the tracking, such as the satellite navigation system, and not worry that you will be listed in a database of someone who (for example) frequently enjoys sushi, or exclusively shops at the most expensive clothing outlets.

2. Un-tag yourself from all photographs

If you do not want those sloppy photos from the staff party last weekend to suggest your mug shot, simply do not tag any photographs of yourself (and remove those that have been tagged by others). This way the photo recognition software will just suggest other people who may look like you as the person in the photo, as your face will not be in the database. This of course has drawbacks as you may wish to share personal moments with your close friends and family, but for the truly paranoid it is something which may come in handy. Furthermore, one could also switch to photo sharing applications that give the users the ownership of the images instead of claiming copyright for the corporation. Or, the safest option would be to upload images on your own server, thus ensuring complete control. You never know when these websites may change their terms and conditions.
NOTE: Within days of completion of this essay, Facebook released a new update where you can disable the option for your face to be suggested as a tag in a photograph.

3. Keep personal conversations to voice rather than text

Digital conversations you have over text can be easily logged and stored on either servers of the application that you are using, or by the person receiving the text. Therefore, to add a further obstacle in the way, if you have most of your conversations over voice, it is more difficult to keep a record of them. For one, there is nothing stated in the terms and conditions for the two most popular messaging services (Windows Live & Skype) that your voice conversations will be recorded. The same goes for cellphones, however it is not difficult for the person on the other end to record what you are saying. By revealing your innermost thoughts over voice, this can secure you a little more personal privacy.

To conclude, there are several ways in which one could mitigate the current lack of personal privacy with digital communication. However, in an increased surveillance age, one must wonder how long it will be possible to do such things. Personally, I am uncomfortable with putting my life on display online, much in the way that celebrities feel their privacy is invaded by the hordes of following paparazzi. But it is my friends who are the paparazzi, as they have the ability to publish defamatory images and slanderous texts to my online profiles. As long as people are aware of what is being recorded and how such data is being used, it is up to you how to live your digital life. Corporations and governments have the ability of surveillance at their fingertips, and it is not the technology which is causing the shift in personal privacy, but instead how society chooses to use it.

Porn star Bree Olson did her part to save breasts by promoting the campaign along with her leather-clad Boob Bus Nurse Brigade. A plastic surgeon was on board for free breast exams as well as educating women on performing self-checks at home.

Apparently, plastic surgeons were the doctors giving the checks because they play an important role after a women has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As sweet as the intentions of the porn-peddler may be, I wouldn’t trust getting on a Porn Hub sponsored bus to get my boobs examined by plastic surgeons. I’d be afraid that I would really be getting on the bang bus with some doctor dressup.

That or, in the first place, you’re confronted by ample-busted Bree Olson followed by speaking to a plastic surgeon about your breasts. I don’t know if it worked, but I guess a lot of women who dared enter wouldn’t be feeling too confident about themselves and conveniently can speak directly to a plastic surgeon. Boob jobs aren’t uncommon, so maybe PH succeeded in increasing the average cup size of NYC.

On the surface, it seems to be a win-win situation for both boob lovers and boob owners. But it should be noted that implants are thought to make the detection of breast cancer more difficult, and thus one should be extra cautious if you do decide to pick up some new boobs after a visit to the boob bus. That and there might be hidden cameras.

The difference between pornography sites and regular sites is the amount of time spent on each site. According to Mashable, on average, people spend 15 minutes total per day on Facebook. This is similar to the time one would spend watching pornography during one visit, with YouPorn claiming that people spend between 15 – 20 minutes on the site.

Youporn, one of the webs largest pornography sites, hosts over 100TB of videos, serving over 100 million page views per day. The site recently shared some data with ExtremeTech:

The Redis server deals with 300,000 queries per second, and between 8-15GB of data is logged every hour (visitor logs, behavior data, and so on). We’re told that this software stack should be capable of scaling up to 200 million views per day.

[..]

To put that 800Gbps figure into perspective, the internet only handles around half an exabyte of traffic every day, which equates to around 50Tbps — in other words, a single porn site accounts for almost 2% of the internet’s total traffic. There are dozens of porn sites on the scale of YouPorn, and hundreds that are the size of ExtremeTech or your favorite news site. It’s probably not unrealistic to say that porn makes up 30% of the total data transferred across the internet.

Social networking sites mainly transfer text and images, which amount to way less data than what is transferred by watching videos on porn sites. Therefore, with the amount of data transferred taken into account, one could conclude that the internet really is for porn.

CNN blames gaming

These silly headlines were noticed immediately and accusations of fear pandering started. Soon after, CNN changed the headline ‘Killer Breivik trained on video games for massacre’ to something less sensationalist. But the damage was already done.

Breivik claimed that he used CoD: MW2 to help train for his killing spree. He also admitted to spending 16 hours a day for one year playing World of Warcraft, which was described as a violent game. I know many of my readers are avid gamers, so I’m sure you can agree that saying WoW is violent is ridiculous. It’s like saying Harry Potter is violent. Andrew Keen writes:

“Most troubling of all is Breivik’s obsession with the multiplayer role-playing World of Warcraft, a violent online game that he played “full-time” between 2006 and 2007. Indeed, one of the few times that he smiled this week was when the image of his World of Warcraft character was displayed in court.”

Of course such a man would smile when thinking about how journalists would jump at the opportunity to use video games as a scapegoat for his abhorrent crimes. However, I’m not an expert and have no idea why the lawyers would find it relevant to display his WoW avatar in this trial. But one thing is clear, the very mention of video games in any murder trial can be very damaging to the industry and its communities.

There is a huge gap between generations when it comes to video games. Those who have not grown up with digital gore may not understand that gamers are able to know the difference between fantasy and reality. WoW is clearly a fantasy game with fantasy combat.  The content in CoD is another story, but the most information I ever gleaned from the game was that most people on the server believe they have slept with my mother.

Does this look like a mass murder-breeding game?

It’s the same old debate that was once focused on violent television. Studies in this area produce different results, and the effects of such media are inconclusive. So why are people so keen to quickly assume causality? It is difficult to imagine that a human being would be capable of such pre-meditated violence without external influences, so perhaps blaming video games is a way to explain how people can perform terrible acts.

I’ve said it a million times already, but I’ll say it again. Gamers come from all walks of life. Some are academics, some are high school students, some are business professionals, some are factory workers and so forth. It is not fair to put such a diverse community in the spotlight just because of the actions of one fuckwit man.  I do believe however, that it does call for further research in the area of media effects. These questions come to mind: (1) Are violent people more attracted to violent games? (2) Do violent games stir hidden violent traits? (3) Are we no longer able to distinguish reality from fiction? (4) Do violent games provide catharsis to aggressive feelings?

We are just in the beginnings of such research,  and since results can not yet provide us with definitive conclusions (and may never), one should be wary of what they read in the news.

“Meet Omari. Two days ago he returned from the hospital after being hacked in the face by a machete defending an orphanage of 35 children by himself. Think we could raise the $2,000 needed for the remainder of the cement/barbed wire wall to keep both him and the children safe?”

This captured the hearts of many people, and together the internet community raised $65,000 and counting for Omari and his orphans. Omari was received as a hero, one who took a brutal attack right in the face to protect children. Also, according to the original poster, Omari had previously fended off the attackers, who intended to steal from the orphanage. It is believed that the machete attack was retaliation for when Omari threw a hammer into the face of one of the invaders. From the post:

Being the third time this happened that week, he had already stashed a hammer beside his bed. He grabbed it, and threw it at the first person who entered his room. He hit the person square in the head, and chased the rest out. The following night, the three thugs returned, presumably to avenge their friend. Omari put up a fight but was outnumbered. The last thing he remembers was being struck in the face by the machete.

Even before the full story was told, people began to donate. Overnight (at least, for Europeans) it became clear that social media can make a difference.

The original post is touching, and one can feel the excitement of the guy who initially reached out to the online community when the donations began flooding in. Personally, this is my favourite series of excerpts:

Edit 8: Over $9,000 and I’m in a state of shock. I…… Just…………………Thank you.
Edit 9: Over $11,000. It’s 6am. In 45 minutes I will RUN to the orphanage. [...] This is the best news I have ever had to privilege to tell anyone, and you are all to thank for it. Also, I am too overwhelmed at the moment, but I will do my best to reply to as many comments/messages/questions as I can.
Edit 10: $44,000!!!!!!!!! REDDIT!!!!! I can hardly breathe. I refreshed the page at least twice to make sure it was real. I cannot believe this.

It’s super cool to see that true heroes are recognised, and to see that the combined effort of many people can lead to great things.

Edit: The amount of donations is now at the $80,000 mark. For those who are interested, the construction for the wall has already began (5 days after the original call for help was initialised) but will cost about $10,000, not the $2,000 originally estimated. The charity reasons that the original estimate was just for the raw materials and not including the labour.

Here’s badass Omari with his hammer:

If you’d like to keep up with the developments of Omari and the orphanage, you can do so through this blog.

This time, a gamer has saved a life, not taken it.

This past Sunday twenty-four year old Adam Mapleson rushed to the aid of a female security guard outside a railway station in Essex England, who was being robbed at gunpoint by two mask-wearing thugs, taking a bullet to the chest in the process. Now in stable condition at a local hospital, police are calling the young man a hero.

From the interests listed on his MySpace page (black metal, CS, GTA etc) he certainly does not fit the mainstream MO of a hero. However, there may be many gamers doing saintly things on a daily basis that we don’t know about! Do you have any stories of your own personal gamer “heros”?

If you want to learn more about gaming as a career, maybe this Guide to Online Schools resource may be of service.

A talented individual who is fluent in dinosaur is offering dinosaur-esque services in exchange for a property in Vansterdam Vancouver:

Hahaha! I hope this person found what they were looking for. On a side note, I also hope it was a mansion that was actually distinguishable from a crack house!

A higher level of education is associated with a greater risk of depression in China, for example — the reverse of the relationship in Europe and the United States.

This chimes with the latest results from the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative, published last week, which found that those with the lowest level of education in China and Japan had only one-fifth the likelihood of developing depression as those with the highest education levels. In other countries, a lower education level was linked to a similar or higher risk of depression than the most educated.

And whereas having authoritarian parents seems to increase the risk of major depression in the West, CONVERGE found that having an overprotective father actually reduces the risk of depression in Chinese women.
– Source: nature.com

This is very interesting to me as this seems to stem from the different cultural viewpoints. For instance, in the West, the more educated you are, the higher chance you have of achieving monetary stability, a secure lifestyle and thus have less to feel depressed about. However in the East, it is commonplace to simply “do as your told, no questions asked”. Therefore by gaining higher education in China, they may start to become critical and question things they normally would have just attributed to being “just the way things are”.

Despite these differences, the symptoms and patterns of risk factors remain the same across cultures.

Stressful life events, childhood sexual abuse and authoritarian parents increase the risk with about the same dose-response relationship. Earlier onset of depression makes patients less likely to marry, more likely to suffer anxiety and more likely to be chronically depressed.

But why China? The main reasons given for undertaking the study there is due to the large, ethnically homogeneous sample. Additionally, costs of conducting the experiments there are far lower.

If you wish to learn more about such things, you may be interested in taking online psychology classes.

“We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated. Frankly, we don’t like that kind of player either. So far as this event goes, it is an special event designed specifically for male gamers. Further, it is meant as a getaway designed to help said male contingent become better men both for themselves and for those who love us.”

At first, I didn’t think so much about it because it isn’t uncommon for a LAN to be male-only even without the explicit exclusion of females. I didn’t care that females were excluded for whatever reason. But when I read the comments they clearly highlight an issue which is far larger than a single sex LAN. One user commented with a video of ‘TheAmazingAthiest’ ranting about comments made by some women on TV who were laughing about a woman castrating her husband because he wanted a divorce:

It’s sad that Sharon Osborne was one of the ring leaders in making light of the situation as she has been viewed as an icon and role model for strong females. It is distasteful to laugh at the mutilation of any human being. This guy basically just points out the obvious that her remarks were disgusting, but it does remind us that sexism is still rife and comments like Sharon’s is like fighting fire with fire. Despite being from the same species, can males and females ever be truly equal? This hypersensitive topic is something which I’m confronted with more often than I’d like, mainly due to being part of a minority in normally boisterous FPS games.

Click here to see the original clip of the women talking about the castration.

Before I start, I would like to make it clear that it is impossible for me to withhold bias from this subject since I have experienced not only discrimination but also special treatment because of gender. Females have been seen as second-class citizens throughout human history, so feminist movements have gained momentum throughout the decades. Therefore it is understandable that many females feel very strongly about equal rights when encountering discrimination. I find myself in a constant conflict between my own ambitions and my view of the role of women in society. Sometimes I wonder “what’s the point” since it’s a constant uphill battle to gain impartial recognition for any achievement. [Most likely though, it's the drivel from internet trolls that has vastly contributed to my jaded view].

But it isn’t inaccurate to say that men and women are unequal even in the most liberal societies. It is difficult to often hear “you don’t need to be good at anything except sucking dick”, “it’s bullshit you’ve got what you have had in life, it’s just because you’re a girl” and so on. Many say just not to listen, but that is far easier said than done. After all, repetition is one of the most effective ways to learn. So instead of burrowing into the myriad of studies on the debate of gender inequality, it is better for me to speak about my personal experiences with misogynists since it’s impossible for me to check my bias at the door. Perhaps insight into such experiences can help contribute to understanding the plight that women face in male-dominated areas, such as gaming.

“Tits + Vag FTW”

I’ve been extremely lucky. With the gaming house, sponsorships and a spot on a CGS franchise; I’ve had a cushy career from gaming. While I may not agree with the segregation of gaming tournaments by gender, if the opportunity is presented of course I will take it. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt when I hear people who I consider my friends tell me that all the sponsorships I have received have been just because of gender, nothing else. Not only is that inaccurate, but one would expect their friends to be happy for their success. Recently a friend of mine said “You only got all that shit because you’re a fucking girl, you know” and seemed genuinely surprised when I tried to tell him how much work I actually had to do to get such things. He spent the next few minutes getting aggressive due to not being born a girl. Why so bitter? The time and effort that I’ve devoted to my passion seems to be irrelevant.

Almost every time I accomplish something I’m proud of, people immediately write it off that the only reason I was able to achieve anything is because of my gender. Mentioning looks is also often correlated with sexist comments. With the recent announcement of the 2011 Alienware Challenge, people remembered last years and these are some things that were said:

“The eventual winner was terrible [...]”

“[...] community voting should not have been as influential in the outcome because obviously a bunch of nerds are going to pick a marginally cute girl over you [...]”

“She won because she has tits who cares [...]“

…And so on. Never mind that I actually came 3rd in the community voting and it was because I won the majority of the Alienware vote that I won overall. Never mind that I travelled the furthest, spanning two continents. Never mind that I spent painstaking hours editing all the videos for the challenges, trying to portray the trip and atmosphere as much as possible. Never mind that I barely have tits! Forget all of that – it is automatically negated by my gender. Something which I should feel proud of suddenly became bittersweet. I started to question myself: if people really thought I was so terrible, then maybe I am.

I could sit and write all night about all the crap I get, but I think you pretty much get the picture.

You don’t need to tell me to just ignore those folk, if I couldn’t do that I would have bowed out of the gaming scene long ago. I think the bigger issue is that this is being said in the first place. I don’t believe that forums should be censored, but the amount of people that freely and continually say things like this (and worse) shows that gender prejudices are still very much alive. Perhaps such comments only reinforce misogynistic attitudes. As online and offline worlds are no longer dichotomous, one has to wonder if these people behave the same way offline.

Many guys I’ve spoken to believe that sexism is non-existent in most liberal societies. “Come on, it’s not like we’re in the Arab world” is a pretty common response when the topic is approached. Most also just pass it off as a joke. Sometimes it is, sometimes there’s a sharp grain of truth behind it. Either way, this is the kind of community one needs to prepare herself for. Not all girls look like actresses and supermodels, and most guys on gaming forums do not want to accept this. I guess to the majority, girls are only present on the internet as decorations at the self-service station.

People who want to develop non-misogynistic games could look into getting an online bachelor degree in video game design.