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Ben Walters

Jail for couple whose baby died while they raised online child - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...south.korea.virtual.baby

Addiction Death Gaming Child Obsession Couple Games Jail Malnutrition

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Jail for couple whose baby died while they raised online child
  • Seoul, South Korea
  • sought a five-year sentence for negligent homicide, but the court handed out a two-year sentence.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • A couple whose baby starved to death while they raised a virtual child in an online fantasy game
  • "This is the first legal case regarding Internet addiction in Korea,"
  • Three-month-old Kim Sa-rang died of malnutrition in September while her parents were engaged in 12-hour sessions of Prius Online. In the 3-D fantasy game, players nurture an online girl who gains magical powers as she grows.
  • During their trial, the court heard that the toddler weighed 6.4 pounds (2.9 kgs) when she was born, but was only 5.5 pounds (2.5 kgs) at the time of her death.
  • Internet gaming is hugely popular in South Korea, with some 21,500 'PC Bangs' -- or Internet cafes -- offering ultra-high speed Internet connections nationwide.
  • The case has highlighted the dark side of the nation's Internet, an industry touted by South Korean officials as cutting edge. A public debate is under way in the nation over online privacy and regulating Internet rumors.
  • There is particular concern about gaming addiction and its effects on teenagers and those estranged from mainstream society.
  • "Consequently, it comes as no surprise to me that two people who were disconnected from society in general found a common psychological space that kept them physically and socially divorced from reality,"
  • Suwon, the satellite town south of Seoul where the tragedy occurred, was named "Intelligent City of the Year" this month by a New York-based think-tank Intelligent Community Forum.
  • The honor was awarded because of the town's investment in broadband infrastructure and its push to increase connection speeds to 1 gigabyte per second, according to reports.
Ben Walters

Video-game sales overtaking music - MSN Money - 0 views

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/...oGameSalesOvertakingMusic.aspx

Economy Games Money Sales Music Growth

shared by Ben Walters on 15 Nov 10 - Cached
  • 6/26/2007
  • video-game sector will remain one of the above-average growth segments of the global entertainment industries through 2011, with global games spending set to exceed music spending this year
  • Key growth engines will include online and wireless games, new-generation consoles and the burgeoning in-game advertising business.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • 2011, the worldwide gaming market will be worth $48.9 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1%
  • ith gains slowing every year because of the maturation of the current generation of consoles,
  • exceed the 6.4% advance that PwC foresees for the overall entertainment economy during the period.
  • Its data include consumer spending on games, but exclude spending on hardware and accessories.
  • For the U.S. gaming business, PwC projects 6.7% compound annual gains for the five-year period, to $12.5 billion. Asia-Pacific should remain the region with the highest overall spending on gaming during the period and reach $18.8 billion in 2011, PwC forecasts.
  • Despite its leading size, its 10% average annual gains will only be exceeded by the combined region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which is pegged for a 10.2% compound annual gain and is set to remain at No. 2 in terms of worldwide gaming.
  • In the U.S., online and wireless games should see the biggest gains through 2011
  • online will expand from an estimated $1.1 billion market last year to $2.7 billion in 2011
  • Consumer spending on console and hand-held games will go from $6.5 billion in 2006 to $7.9 billion in 2011
  • However, the U.S. PC games market will continue its decline, with PwC eyeing a contraction from an estimated $969 million in 2006 to $840 million in 2011.
  • growing from an estimated $80 million last year to $950 million in 2011
  • this estimate could prove conservative as "advertisers like to reach the younger males" that many games tend to attract.
  • He also said that the overall gaming audience continues to expand and become somewhat more female and older than in the past thanks to casual games and the arrival as games as an "important part of culture."
Ben Walters

Chinese suicide shows addiction dangers - News - play.tm - 0 views

play.tm/...uicide-shows-addiction-dangers

Games addiction Suicide Entertainment Chinese China Online

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • The suicide of a young Chinese boy in the Tianjin province has highlighted once more the growing dangers of game addiction, when those responsible don't understand or notice the risks of unhealthy play. Xiao Yi was thirteen when he threw himself from the top of a twenty-four story tower block in his home town, leaving notes that spoke of his addiction and his hope of being reunited with fellow cyber-players in heaven. The suicide notes were written through the eyes of a gaming character, so reports the China Daily, and stated that he hoped to meet three gaming friends in the after life. His parents, who had noticed with growing concern his affliction, were not mentioned in the letters.
  • My kid was like someone taking drugs who could not control himself,"
  • "His mother and I were very worried about him. But we knew little about the Internet and we did not know how to save him." Previously, Xiao's parents had found him starving after two days and nights in an internet cafe playing online role-playing games. When questioned about his bizarre behaviour, his father said that a tearful Xiao had told him that he had been poisoned by games and could no longer control himself.
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  • "In the hypothetical world created by such games, they become confident and gain satisfaction, which they cannot get in the real world."
  • Foreign influences in games played by Chinese youngsters (most of which are imported) were accused of having a negative influence, of promoting 'demon worlds', to their impressionable audiences
  • it seems more likely that it was issues in the victims own life which drew him to seek such extreme escapism.
Ben Walters

'FarmVille' power user: 'I'm not obsessed' - Technology & science - Games - msnbc.com - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/35825112

Gaming Games Facebook Farmville Applications Obsession Addiction

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Cathy Hinz is really into “FarmVille.” But she swears she’s not obsessed.  “I can, you know, walk away and say, ‘I’m not going to worry about it.’ I don’t worry about it, but I will plan my farm around my life,” she says.
  • she has time to be online, fiddling with the farm simulation game as much as she wants. And she’s far from the only one.
  • Since its launch in June 2009, “FarmVille” has grown like an invasive weed, with 80 million players
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • It’s absurdly easy to get started:
  • It’s no “World of Warcraft,” but for non-gamers like Hinz, that’s exactly the point.
  • They were either too violent or too complicated or too ‘childish,’” she says.
  • She’s online a lot — spending two to three hours a day on “FarmVille,“ but usually not all at one time. Most of her family plays the game, including her eldest daughter (hooked), her three grandkids (hooked) and her husband, a hard-core gamer who reluctantly allowed his wife to rope him into virtual horticulture. Now, she says, he’s really concerned about his crops.
  • Hinz loves “FarmVille” because it’s something she can control.
  • Hinz loves tweaking her virtual plot of land, and her schedule affords her plenty of time to do that.
  • Some of the “FarmVille” updates are free, and some you have to pay for, but Hinz says the cost is negligible. “I would spend more than $10 to see a movie, and I’d get to sit there for two hours and that would be it. Whereas 10 bucks on this, I can get enjoyment out of it every day.”
  • She likes leveling up, and the competitive nature of the game. But Hinz also really likes the interaction on “FarmVille.”
  • “When I started my Facebook account, I had two friends — my daughters. At one point, while playing “FarmVille,” I had over 200 friends on Facebook,” she says.
  • Zynga dangled a Hot Rod Tractor for “FarmVille” players
  • play “Mafia Wars,” another Zynga game, to level 10.
  • At first, Hinz was indignant. “I’m 50 years old, and I’m not going to do something where you ‘ice’ people, or you rob banks or stuff like that, where that’s the objective.” But then she got to thinking. The Hot Rod Tractor can plow nine plots simultaneously. It’s got flames on it. “I figured, what the hell, I’ll just get to level 10 and do it. And now I’m a level 40 in ‘Mafia Wars’ as well,” she laughs. “It’s a lot funner than I thought it would be. It’s something I can do while I’m waiting for things to harvest.”
  • Still, Hinz says she’s got the games under control, and that they’re not controlling her. “If I started putting things off in order to do ‘FarmVille,’ if it becomes a priority over work, or spending time with my family, that would be an addiction.” Is she there yet? “No. I do it because I can.”
Yasmin Tandon

foreign aid definition of foreign aid in the Free Online Encyclopedia. - 0 views

encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/foreign%20aid

Foreign Aid America economy definition

shared by Yasmin Tandon on 11 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • economic, military, technical, and financial assistance given on an international, and usually intergovernmental level.
  • included at least three different objectives
  • rehabilitating the economies of war-devastated countries
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • strengthening the military defenses of allies and friends of the United States
  • promoting economic growth in underdeveloped areas
  • Aid may be given as a grant, with no repayment obligation, or a loan, and often comes with conditions that require that the recipient nation purchase goods or services with the aid from the donor nation.
  • In Recent Years
  • Although military aid continues to be provided
  • which finances the export of U.S. capital goods and agricultural products
  • Agency for International Development Agency for International Development (AID), federal agency created (Sept., 1961) to consolidate U.S. nonmilitary foreign aid programs. Originally an agency in the State Department, it has been a component part of the U.S...... Click the link for more information.  
  • Export-Import Bank
  • A large proportion of U.S. aid goes to Israel,
  • Egypt, and developing countries
  • U.S. foreign aid amounted to $10 billion (less than 0.6% of the federal budget)
  • gross domestic product (GDP) for foreign aid dropped from 2.75% in 1949 to 0.1%
  • Millennium Challenge aid program,
  • intended to target aid
  • toward poorer nations with good governance and open economies; the program places fewer restrictions on how participating nations use the aid.
  • Many nations in Europe and some in the Middle East and E Asia also have significant aid programs
  • Japan was the world's largest foreign aid donor, followed by United States, France, and Germany. Great Britain
  • 2001, the United States passed Japan as the world's largest donor as a result of Japanese cutbacks in foreign aid
  • 15% of foreign aid is provided by international bodies
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and its affiliates, the International Development Association, and the International Finance Corporation;
  • Food and Agriculture Organization Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945. The organization is governed by a conference composed of the entire membership (189 nations plus the European Union), which meets at least once biennially, and by..... Click the link for more information. .
golan elzur

Beauty brand tainted by US animal testing - Times Online - 0 views

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article3735999.ece

cosmetics animals testing

shared by golan elzur on 15 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } COSMETICS on sale in high-street shops were tested on animals years after the practice was banned in the UK.
  • A ban on live animal testing of cosmetics was introduced in 1998 when the government withdrew licences for testing ingredients in make-up and other beauty products.
  • Three popular products, produced under the leading brand Olay, contain a cosmetic preservative, butylparaben, that was tested on animals
Adya Saigal

'The sickening conspiracy that is the fashion industry' | Mail Online - 0 views

www.dailymail.co.uk/...nspiracy-fashion-industry.html

fashion industry conspiracy

shared by Adya Saigal on 15 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • British Fashion Council
  • ban very skinny models from being hired for London Fashion Week next month.
  • "We believe that regulation is neither desirable nor enforceable,"
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • "recommend that only models aged 16 or over are used".
  • equivalent of giving the models crystal meth, ashtrays, syringes and unlimited quantities of champagne.
  • putting big business before the health of all young women in this country.
  • The World Health Organisation considers anyone with a BMI of 18.5 or below to be underweight.
  • The Council of Fashion Designers of America is also backing an education programme to teach young models about healthy eating and nutrition.
Ben Walters

When Escape Seems Just a Mouse-Click Away - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2006052601960.html

Korea Stress Addiction Games Entertainment Psychology Teens School Pressure

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • "I guess I knew I was becoming addicted, but I couldn't stop myself," Kim recalled from a clinic where he was undergoing counseling. "I stopped changing my clothes. I didn't go out. And I began to see myself as the character in my games."
  • Last month, the government -- which opened a treatment center in 2002 -- launched a game addiction hotline. Hundreds of private hospitals and psychiatric clinics have opened units to treat the problem.
  • An estimated 2.4 percent of the population from 9 to 39 are believed to be suffering from game addiction, according to a government-funded survey. Another 10.2 percent were found to be "borderline cases" at risk of addiction -- defined as an obsession with playing electronic games to the point of sleep deprivation, disruption of daily life and a loosening grip on reality. Such feelings are typically coupled with depression and a sense of withdrawal when not playing, counselors say.
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  • The situation has grown so acute that 10 South Koreans -- mostly teenagers and people in their twenties -- died in 2005 from game addiction-related causes, up from only two known deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to government officials. Most of the deaths were attributed to a disruption in blood circulation caused by sitting in a single, cramped position for too long -- a problem known as "economy class syndrome," a reference to sitting in an airplane's smallest seats on long flights.
  • In one instance, a 28-year-old man died in the central city of Taegu last year after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks. He finally collapsed in a "PC baang " -- one of the tens of thousands of Internet game cafes that have become as common as convenience stores across South Korea. Users can pop in to these small, smoky dens -- with walls covered in gothic game posters -- for about $1 an hour, day or night.
  • "Game addiction has become one of our newest societal ills," said Son Yeongi, president of the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity, which offers government-funded counseling. "Gaming itself is not the problem. Like anything, this is about excessive use."
  • Experts are seeing more cases of game addiction in many industrialized nations -- particularly the United States and Japan. But sociologists and psychiatrists have identified South Korea as the epicenter of the problem.
  • That is in part because young people here suffer from acute stress as they face educational pressures said to far exceed those endured by their peers in other countries. It is not uncommon, for instance, for South Korean students to be forced by their parents into four to five hours of daily after-school tutoring. With drug abuse and teenage sex considered rare in the socially conservative country, escape through electronic games can be a hugely attractive outlet.
  • At the same time, South Korea boasts an unparalleled gaming culture. In 2000 in Seoul, the capital, South Koreans inaugurated the World Cyber Games -- a sort of gaming Olympics that now draws players from 67 nations. Professional South Korean gamers can earn more than $100,000 a year in domestic and international competitions.
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