Around the Solar System - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Around the Solar System - The Big Picture - Boston.com

VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOU BETTER AT LIFE

September 13, 2010
by JAMES TENAFLY

Looks like those four months you spent bingeing on coke and playing GTA IV weren’t a total loss after all! Bludgeoning all those pretend hookers actually made you better at making snap decisions, and no less accurate than those real-life having schmoes:

“Cognitive scientists from the University of Rochester have discovered that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster. The researchers found that video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, and this benefit doesn’t just make them better at playing video games, but improves a wide variety of general skills that can help with everyday activities like multitasking, driving, reading small print, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town.”

Ha! See that? Getting rejected from the Marines and subsequently spewing three years of rage, anxiety, and insecurity over XBox Live actually made you a better person. Navigating? Check. Keeping track of heads in a crowd? Got that. Marksmanship? You better believe it. It’s time to show the world what you’re made of, highly-trained potential mass murderers and mercenaries!

Banned Exit Euthanasia Ad

Exit pro euthanasia ad banned by regulating agency CAD from Australian television. The script was approved and a CAD number issued before commissioning the $50,000 project. Screening premission was withdrawn immediately before the first planned screening on Ch 7 Sun12 Sept10 at 8.30pm.

Reasons provided: "CAD has withdrawn the CAD number for the Voluntary Euthanasia TVC on the basis that it does not comply with section 2.17 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Section 2.17.5 provides that a realistic depiction of methods of suicide, or promotion or encouragement of suicide is material that will invariably be unsuitable for television.

We have considered that an advertisement for voluntary euthanasia is a promotion or encouragement of suicide as voluntary euthanasia would be considered to be a subset of suicide."
Alison Lee
Lawyer - Commercials Advice
Free TV Australia

Exit International will mount a legal challenge to this flawed legal reasoning.

Is Apple trying to outdo the Catholic Church?

I rolled my eyes this week as I heard the news that the Catholic Church is banning modern music at funerals but it got me thinking about how the powers that be try to control us. Not much of a leap to draw lines to Steve Jobs and his arbitrary Apple App Store "guidelines".

Is it wrong for an Archbishop or a CEO to lay out what is expected if you play in their yard? Probably not but as a sustainable business proposition - how far is too far? Is the Church just trying to maintain a level of what they deem as acceptable behavior within their walls? Scary hey cause isn't that what Steve is doing? I know it's boring but take the time to read the App Store Guidelines - they are so righteous it makes me squirm.

A funeral should not be a "celebration" of the deceased's life, Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said in the rules, but a final sacred farewell. "The wishes of the deceased, family and friends should be taken into account ... but in planning the liturgy, the celebrant should moderate any tendency to turn the funeral into a secular celebration of the life of the deceased," the guidelines state.

By now my eye roll had progressed to a full 360 and were getting ready for the next lap. I have no religious background except for Sunday School where my parents took advantage of the fact that the Sunday School bus pulled up outside our house and took 4 kids away for 3 hours on a Sunday morning. I'm sure there were a lot of "Oh God's" coming from our house after we left. So pardon my ignorance but isn't a funeral supposed to be a celebration of their life? Apparently not if you are Catholic and live in Melbourne, Australia. So that's your choice Catholic Victoria - boring funeral in the church of your beloved or use a funeral home.

So will the Apple developers (and users) move to the a new funeral home or are Apple and the Church just clearly laying out what the rules are in their yard? Lots of traffic this week on projected Android sales so it's clear there are plenty of funeral homes for us to go to. Personally I'm not an Apple fan girl anymore than I'm a church girl which is perhaps why I can draw these two together. I understand what both camps are trying to achieve here. There are certain types they don't want in but are those left enough to keep them going?