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You are here: Home / Archives for united states

Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

October 8, 2008 by Paul Spoerry Leave a Comment

PBS has just released an essay on The Video Game Revolution which debunks several of the myths that continue to spread about video gaming. The list was compiled by Henry Jenkins who is the director of comparative studies at MIT. Most of us older gamers already know that most of the arguments against gaming are bunk. But it’s always nice to hear an egghead from MIT back us up. The PBS site also cites every source they use for each of the eight myths listed below.

1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.

According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It’s true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: Games, united states

VoteForTheMILF.com

September 29, 2008 by Paul Spoerry Leave a Comment

Intentionally or not, the McCain camp owns the domain name VoteForTheMILF.com. I dunno if that’s funny or sexist… or both. Probably both.

The site will redirect you specifically to a video intro by Gov. Sarah Palin at JohnMcCain.com if you are hitting it for the first time. Note that the redirect sends you first to JohnMcCain.com and THEN to Palin.htm (Palin’s Video Intro) if you’re visiting for the first time, or if your cookies are cleared, or if you’re not accepting cookies.

VoteForTheMILF McCain Campaign Domain

VoteForTheMILF McCain Campaign Domain

Since the story broke the domain WhoIs information has gone private, but I think the cat is out of the bag. There’s a full discussion along with breaking updates over at Govgap.com’s John McCain Owns VoteForTheMILF.com? article.

Filed Under: Politics, That's freakin hilarious Tagged With: barack obama, john mccain, united states

Colbert – The Repo Man is Gunna Miss Bush

August 29, 2008 by Paul Spoerry Leave a Comment

On last night’s Colbert Report, Stephen cut through all of the doom and gloom of the Democratic Convention by profiling someone who’s flourishing in the current economy: A repo man.

Others who are probably doing well these days include unemployment-office workers, squatters, pan-handle makers, trashcan-fire emporiums, tumble-weed manufacturers and super-villains.

Filed Under: Politics, That's freakin hilarious Tagged With: barack obama, united states

What do Atheists and Christians Really Believe?

August 1, 2008 by Paul Spoerry 1 Comment

According to a recent Pew survey, 21 percent of atheists in the United States believe in “God or a universal spirit,” and 8 percent are “absolutely certain” that such a Being exists. Sam Harris, author of Letter to a Christian Nation and The End of Faith, wonders if they were also “absolutely certain” they understood the meaning of the term “atheist.”

Since that really didn’t make any sense, he recently conducted a much more detailed poll of atheists and devout Christians through his website. Some of the results were as expected, others were a bit shocking. The results can be viewed via the links below. “For each statement the number of respondents averaged around 5000, 80-90% of whom were atheists. The numbers of Christian responses ranged from 254-787.”

Personal Data and Attitudes towards Science, Journalism, Politics, etc.

Psychological Beliefs

Religious Beliefs

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: believe, is, this, united states, what

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