Category Archives: Jon

We Become Five

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I went down to our postbox earlier this afternoon, to fetch the latest addition to the family: a Thorny stick insect.

Freya has been interested in having a pet for a few years, now. A stick insect was decided upon, after giving her a choice of pets that would fit our lives and livestyle: Mum is allergic to the fur of some animals, and we live in a flat near the centre of town. Dogs and cats were immediately out of the equation, and whilst a degu had a lot going for it, we still did not know if Jo’s allergy would allow it. So, a stick insect it was.

We encountered a further moral issue. Since most stick insect are parthenogetic, we had to track down species that required two to tango. Our qualm was that we did not feel comfortable with crushing or freezing any fertile eggs produced. Luckily, we found a place just a stick insects throw away that was able to find something that required a partner to reproduce. Unfortunatelt, we could not go and pick up our friend: it had to be sent by post.

We will not know which sex it is until it has grown a bit bigger, when the differences between the sexes will become apparent. For now, it is called Spiken.

When Spiken first saw the light of day since being unceremously placed in a plastic jar and shived into a postbox, it was most lethargic. When we furnished its net and plastic vivarium with oak twigs and a spraying of water, it seemed a little happier, seemingly drinking water like it was going out of fashion.

So now, a few hours after its arrival, Freya has already played hide and seek with it, and is very excited about finally having a pet.

 

Video Games and Violence – It Makes Me So Angry

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One of the usual arguments against video games is that they lead to violent behaviour. Several well-known cases of copycat killings do not make the rule. But is there a rule?

A 2004 article in The Guardian shed a little more light on the subject:

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) said there was no evidence directly linking the playing of games with violent behaviour.

But some disagree, most notably Craig Anderson, a psychologist at Iowa State University who has published a succession of studies making that link. “Violent video games are significantly associated with increased aggressive behaviour,” he says. “High levels of violent video game exposure have been linked to delinquency, fighting at school and violent criminal behaviour.”

I am not particularly keen on using statistics in arguments. Statstics can be found, used and abused in any discussion: Statistics can support any argument. So, with some hesitance, I enter the discussion.

A (perhaps too) simple question to ask is: If violence in video games is making people more violent, then shouldn’t violent crime rates have increased in tact with the growing number of people playing (violent) games?

According to the Home Office Statistical Bulletin – Crime in England and Wales 2008/09 (page 23), a summary of trends in crime shows this not to be the case. Violent and vehicle-related theft hit a peak in 1995; Since then both of these crimes have decreased year by year, until 2008, where they levelled off. Interestingly, one of the video game industry’s most influentual consoles hit the market a year before the violent crime peak: Sony’s PlayStation.

Perhaps my short time looking into this entry has meant that I have missed something major, or that I am misinterpreting the figures. There is surely some counter argument to my counter argument, and I am just as sure that there is a counter argument to the counter argument to my counter argument. I imagine that people will continue to have their opinions about video games, and it will take a long time – if it ever happens – to change public opinion.

Our earlier quoted Dr Craig A Anderson has some words to the wise, to help protect us from video game hell:

How can you tell if a video game is potentially harmful?

1. Play the game, or have someone else demonstrate it for you.

2. Ask yourself the following 6 questions:
* Does the game involve some characters trying to harm others?
* Does this happen frequently, more than once or twice in 30 minutes?
* Is the harm rewarded in any way?
* Is the harm portrayed as humorous?
* Are nonviolent solutions absent or less “fun” than the violent ones?
* Are realistic consequences of violence absent from the game?

3. If two or more answers are “yes,” think very carefully about the lessons being taught before allowing your child access to the game.

N:B: At the end of writing this entry, I found a scarily similar article on GameRevolution, the difference being that figures and statistics were taken from the mighty U.S.A.

The Dichotomy of Being Human

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I was intending to continue yesterday’s blog about the world population reaching seven billion with a general rant about the human race and its inability to look after the very place that sustains its existence. I declined, partly because I lost interest in writing a long entry, and also because I had a slight change of heart. You see, whilst I still hold the opinion that we are responsible for many of the problems we encounter, there is another side to the argument.

Humans, both individually and collectively, are capable of the most incredible things. We work tirelessly towards a better world, for ourselves, others, the environment and other species. There is doubtless much progress being made. The problem is that we do not get to hear about it.

Or rather, we DO get to hear about some of it, but it is overshadowed by the negativity that permeates all form of news reporting.

About four years ago I stopped taking notice of the news. I used to pick up a free newspaper on the way to work, and spent the whole journey on the underground reading about murders and other forms of violence, natural catastrophies, corrupt governments using their power for their own ends, rising unemployment and interest rates, recessions, depressions, invasions…, rarely an article that made me feel good.

Today on BBC news there is an article about what Britons think of their children (not their own: children in general). WIth the eye-catching headline, “Children behaving like animals, Barnado’s survey finds”, it seems that forty nine percent of the 2000+ people asked thought that children were “beginning to behave like animals”, beoming “feral”. In reply, Natasha Cripps, who commissioned the research, said:

So many young people do positive things but they’re not advertised because we live in a society where we do look at the negative side of things in every walk of life.

So it’s very easy to demonise young people and use them as a scapegoat for the social difficulties that we’re having right now.

Exactly, Natasha, exactly.

If I had untold wealth I would love to start up a newspaper that concentrated on the good things that are happening. With so much negativity out there, I think it’s about time that we gave ourselves a “good” kick up the arse. So come on, media people, give us encouragement. We don’t need it – our convictions are enough to fuel us – but it would make the journey to work for milllions of people around the world a more pleasant one.

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3,515,596,868th

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As world population reached seven billion the other day (7,000,000,000), BBC news has worked out that I am the 3,515,596,868th to be born on this planet. That means that since the time of my birth the population of the world has doubled.

These figures are an estimate, of course. It cannot be possible to work out the real figure, even with the best census in the world, but I suppose someone, somewhere, has to make the claim, if only for entertainment porposes (Danica May Camacho, born in  The Philippines, will appreciate the estimate, one of a few children symbolically celebrating the honour of being number 7 billion).

The American Census Bureau, meanwhile, claims that we are 28 million shy of the given figure, and expects the real seven billion to be reached in March, next year – Danica will grow up hating the U.S.A. And then, The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, an Austrian group that studies world population, thinks that we might have to wait until 2014. No one listens to them, though, so we can safely discard their cry for recognition.

Whatever the real population is, it has brought just concern about the general state of the Earth. Some science guy was on TV, saying that we are still in a state of growth, for sure, but by 2100 the population will level off. Apparently, people will start to conceive two children at the end of the century. His reasoning was undoubtedly simplified to fit the two minute slot he was given, though I remain unconvinced that this will happen. Science guy vs pessimist? Who will win. Luckily for him, he has chosen a year well past his lifespan, so he is safe, whatever the outcome.

 

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No Meds

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Today is the first day for a long time that I am without my usual medication. Today I am clean.

I was given anti-depressives for stress about two years ago. After a short course I stopped taking them, only for the stress and a few panic attacks to creep their way back into my life. After talking to the doctor about the problem, we decided that I should go back to taking medication. About a year later, I have slowly decreased the amount. Today I stopped completely.

It is difficult to know if I can live without pills, but I imagine things will be ok. My life situation has changed a bit since first dosing myself, for the better: The girls are older, and more self sufficient; I am happier and more confident at work: I have slightly different routines, ones that used to cause stress.

At worst, I know that the medicine I took works wonders. At worst I could always go back to taking it. I do not want to, and, with some confidence, I do not think I will need to.

Posted in Jon