For the people in the back: Video games don’t cause violence

Video games do not cause violent behavior. There is no scientific, consensus-backed research supporting the idea that playing video games — even bloody, realistic shooters — leads to real-life acts of brutality.

However, this misguided theory prevails. After a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, left 17 people dead on February 14th, a handful of politicians decried video games for corrupting young minds and inciting violent behavior. Days later, President Donald Trump said during a meeting about safety in schools, “I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”

Tomorrow, video game industry leaders are scheduled to meet with Trump to discuss the (non-existent, completely imaginary) problem. The Entertainment Software Association will be there and it has a clear message for the White House: “Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation.”

This isn’t a new setting for the ESA. The trade association represents due-paying titans including Sony, Microsoft, Activision and Nintendo, and it’s the industry’s first line of defense against federal attempts to regulate video games. For example, the ESA established the Entertainment Software Rating Board in 1994, at the height of video game panic in Congress. The ESRB’s promise to put ratings on all games placated politicians who were calling for the government to step in and censor.

It’s expected for the ESA to fight against a negative image of the video game industry. However, it isn’t the only organization that argues against the link between video games and violence — academics, the US Supreme Court and most Americans recognize there is no correlation between on-screen cruelty and actual violence.

“The statistical data are simply not bearing out this concern and should not be ignored.”

First, the scholars. Numerous studies have found no connection between playing video games and actual expressions of violence. The US Secret Service conducted a review in 2004 aimed at identifying causes of school shootings, and it found just 12 percent of studied attackers — that’s just 5 out of 41 — expressed an interest in violent video games. That’s much lower than the national average: In 2010, 85 percent of boys age 15 to 18 reported playing violent games.

In fact, video games are tied to a decrease in actual violence. An economic study published in February 2016 found a reduction in crime in the weeks after major video game releases. A handful of similar studies conducted from a range of perspectives have come to the same conclusion.

A 2013 review conducted by the American Psychological Association noted a link between violent video games and short-term spikes in aggressive behavior — but this study was quickly rebuffed by many experts. More than 230 psychologists, media scholars and criminologists signed an open letter arguing the APA used faulty methodology and relied on bias to reach its conclusions.

“This decline in societal violence is in conflict with claims that violent video games and interactive media are important public health concerns,” the group wrote. “The statistical data are simply not bearing out this concern and should not be ignored.”

There’s little scientific evidence to support the connection.

Division 46 of the APA

In 2017, the APA’s Media Psychology division advised officials and reporters to stop suggesting there was a connection between violent video games and real-life acts of brutality: “Journalists and policy makers do their constituencies a disservice in cases where they link acts of real-world violence with the perpetrators’ exposure to violent video games or other violent media. There’s little scientific evidence to support the connection, and it may distract us from addressing those issues that we know contribute to real-world violence.”

The US legal system agrees. In 2011, the US Supreme Court struck down a California law that banned the sale of violent video games to children. It was a 7-2 decision and the majority opinion was written by Justice Antonin Scalia, a legendarily conservative voice on the bench.

“Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively,” he wrote. “Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media.”

This view is held by most Americans, too. A 2015 study by the Pew Research Center found 53 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement, “People who play violent video games are more likely to be violent themselves.”

However, 40 percent of people agreed there was a relationship between video game violence and violent behavior. That’s high, considering the ridiculous amount of evidence to the contrary. This theory persists, in part, because it’s an enduring component of some politicians’ predictable post-school-shooting talking tour.

After the Parkland shooting, Florida congressman Brian Mast told NPR stronger gun laws were not the answer, despite calls for such legislation from student survivors. Instead, Mast said, “What do we do with the biggest pusher of violence? The biggest pusher of violence is, hands down, Hollywood movies, hands down, the video game market.” Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin shared similar sentiments, while Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem refused to vote on a bill banning bump stocks, arguing violent video games were the real concern.

The National Rifle Association is another loud voice in this conversation, and its leaders have long blamed mass shootings on video games. In 2012, after a shooter killed 20 children and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School, NRA president Wayne La Pierre said, “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people.” He was talking about video games, not the gun industry.

The NRA has donated to Mast’s campaign and Bevin is “proudly endorsed” by the organization. Trump has an A-plus rating from the NRA.

“There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people.”

Which brings us back to this week’s White House meeting with the ESA. One week after the Parkland shooting, Trump floated the (unscientific, largely disproven) theory that video games can incite real-world violence, and questioned whether stricter regulation was necessary. These are sentiments designed to grab the attention of the ESA and video game fans alike, and they steer the conversation away from topics like gun legislation — which is generally how the NRA prefers things.

The ESA has plenty of experience defending the reputation of the video game industry and its ability to regulate itself, and its arguments are backed up by decades of research into on-screen and real-world violence. It’s highly likely that this week’s meeting with Trump won’t result in new federal regulations for the video game industry — and besides, any attempts to censor would be challenged on First Amendment grounds, just as they have been (quite successfully) in the past.

It’s also likely the Trump administration is aware of this stalemate. The desired outcome, in this case, is the conversation that draws energy away from a much more complicated, politically charged and emotional debate about gun control in the US — a conversation that includes the 1,100 words above.

Images: Joshua Roberts / Reuters (Hillary Clinton); Jessica Conditt / Engadget (Overwatch tournament); Jonathan Ernst / Reuters (Joe Biden meeting video game executives)

Google’s productivity suite now shows who viewed your files

If you’ve ever worked on shared documents, you know the potential for confusion: a coworker may harangue you over an old file without realizing that you made changes hours ago. That shouldn’t be a problem with Google’s G Suite in the future. Google is introducing an Activity dashboard for Docs, Sheets and Slides that lets anyone with edit access see who has seen a file and when. You’ll know if your manager actually read that updated spreadsheet before giving you grief.

G Suite administrations have control over the Activity feature as of March 7th and can decide who’s allowed to see it and where (only within your domain, for instance). End users won’t start seeing it until March 21st. This won’t do much for collaboration outside of G Suite, but it could be particularly helpful if you’re tired of miscommunication at the office.

Source: G Suite Updates

SEC issues stern warning for potential cryptocurrency investors

The SEC has been zeroing in on cryptocurrency since the beginning of the year. The agency announced it would scrutinize companies generating hype by pivoting to crypto before delving deeper into initial coin offerings with subpeonas. But today the agency turned its attention to people buying cryptocurrencies, warning consumers against trusting so-called ‘exchanges’ that state or imply that they’re protected by federal law. Spoiler: They aren’t, because the cryptocurrency world remains an unregulated mess.

It comes down to semantic wording. Whether or not these online trading platforms consider the ‘digital asset’ cryptocoins they’re trafficking to be ‘securities’ under federal law, the SEC likely does. That means they satisfy the agency’s definition of ‘national security exchanges’ and should register with the SEC. If they don’t, they remain outside of government scrutiny and regulation, meaning the agency can’t protect individuals from any manipulative or fraudulent practices.

“Many platforms refer to themselves as “exchanges,” which can give the misimpression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of a national securities exchange. Although some of these platforms claim to use strict standards to pick only high-quality digital assets to trade, the SEC does not review these standards or the digital assets that the platforms select, and the so-called standards should not be equated to the listing standards of national securities exchanges,” the SEC stated in a post.

If consumers continue using an unregistered ‘exchange,’ all the SEC can do is offer an extensive list of questions individuals should ask to protect themselves. These include discovering how the platform selects digital assets for trading, who can trade on it, how its prices are set and whether the platform is treating users equally. The SEC also urges users to evaluate the trading platform’s security for data and assets, which is important in the wake of several successful incidents this year of hackers robbing exchanges and initial coin offerings.

Source: SEC

Juno gives us a look at what’s happening beneath Jupiter’s surface

The Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 and it has already provided us with a wealth of information about the gas giant. Today, four Nature papers describe new observations about Jupiter that give us a look at the planet’s poles and a much better understanding of what lies underneath its surface.

Starting at the surface, one of the Nature papers describes some peculiar activity going on at Jupiter’s poles. While we’ve known that the northern- and southernmost regions of the planet play host to rather large cyclones, new images taken by Juno show that these cyclones are arranged in a rather strange pattern — eight cyclones surround one large one in the north while five surround a central cyclone in the south. You can see the southern arrangement in the image above. They’ve been situated this way throughout multiple Juno orbits, but how they became arranged that way or why they haven’t merged aren’t yet understood.

Two other papers took a look at the hallmark bands on Jupiter’s surface and set out to determine whether the activity going on within them was related to what’s going on beneath the planet’s surface. Jupiter has a very distinct surface pattern with its bright and dark bands of gas, each featuring strong winds flowing in opposite directions. But scientists haven’t been able to say whether that activity extends below the surface. However, by measuring small differences in the signals Juno sends back to Earth as it travels around Jupiter, researchers were able to determine that Jupiter’s gravitational field isn’t the same across its north and south hemispheres. And that lack of symmetry suggests that what’s going on at Jupiter’s surface extends deeper.

For surface winds to affect something as significant as a planet’s gravitational field, they have to run deeper. And building on that observation, another group was able to show that Jupiter’s surface jet streams extend around 3,000 kilometers deep — much deeper than expected — and make up around one percent of the planet’s mass. Together, these two papers answer the long-standing question of whether Jupiter’s surface activity continues below — it does.

Lastly, the final paper of the four looks even deeper. While Jupiter’s core is known to be fluid, mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, researchers find that from Juno’s measurements, Jupiter’s fluid core likely rotates as a rigid body. The scientists think that the gases within the core are electrically charged and are therefore moved around together by the planet’s massive magnetic field.

These studies provide a look below Jupiter’s surface and not only do they answer some questions about the planet itself, they give us insight into how gas giants like Jupiter function and evolve. The Juno mission hopefully has a few more years to go and we’re certainly in for more discoveries about this weird and wonderful planet if so.

Source: Nature (1), (2), (3), (4)

Volvo’s performance EV brand kicks off in Geneva

Volvo is flaunting its Polestar 1 to the public for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show. It will go 93 miles on a charge before the turbocharged gas engine kicks in, which will make it the longest range plug-in hybrid on the market. The two electric motors can also join forces with the 2.0 liter turbo engine to provide a much more powerful, much less eco-friendly 600 horsepower.

“This is the first and last hybrid that we’ll have,” Polestar COO Jonathan Goodman told Engadget. “As a coupe, and with the styling of the car, we’re expecting high mileage buyers who may be reluctant to go 100 percent electric. However, with 150 km (93 miles) of autonomy, for day-to-day driving and commuting, they could just use it just on electric if they wanted.”

Polestar is determined to carve out an identity that’s separate from its parent. The design is aggressive, yet sophisticated and tech heavy, with features like a smartphone entry system, orange-accented leather interior and design touches like borderless side mirrors. It looks even nicer in person than it does in these photos.

Rather than buying, you’ll “subscribe” to a Polestar 1. Customers will pay a yet-to-be-disclosed monthly fee, which includes insurance, maintenance, and other perks. For instance, when it comes time for servicing, you don’t have to lift a finger — someone from Polestar will come and get the car.

Polestar is also eschewing the dealership system to sell vehicles online, much like Tesla does. It will set up two retail centers in the US by the time the Polestar 1 goes on sale (or lease, whatever) with non-commissioned consultants available to help potential clients.

The Polestar 1 is also a production-ready vehicle, so most, if not all of the features on the two Geneva vehicles will be on the final cars. Still, it’s not due to arrive until mid-2019, and a lot can happen in 18 months or so.

Amazon Working on a Fix for Alexa Devices Scaring Users With Creepy Laughter

For the past couple of weeks, speakers equipped with Amazon’s Alexa voice-based personal assistant have been randomly laughing, scaring and creeping out speaker owners who have affected devices.

Complaints have been surfacing on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms over the course of the last few weeks, but the issue started receiving widespread attention this week after it was shared on BuzzFeed. From Reddit:

A friend of mine at work just a couple of days ago told me this very thing happened at his moms house. He was face timing with his her(he jokes she is jealous of Alexa, his dad just loves it) and out of the blue in the background Alexa started to laugh, he even heard it on his end. Said it was super creepy. I’m waiting the have the holy hell scared out of me one quiet evening…or even worse, awakened by the one a foot from my head while I’m sleeping.

Some audio examples of the Alexa laugh, with a humorous skit from Jimmy Kimmel included
In a statement provided to The Verge this morning, Amazon said that it is aware that some Alexa-enabled devices are randomly laughing and a fix is in the works. “We’re aware of this and working to fix it,” Amazon said.

So Alexa decided to laugh randomly while I was in the kitchen. Freaked @SnootyJuicer and I out. I thought a kid was laughing behind me. pic.twitter.com/6dblzkiQHp

— CaptHandlebar (@CaptHandlebar) February 23, 2018

Customers who have an Alexa-enabled device and are creeped out by the random and unprompted laughs may want to turn off their speakers until Amazon is able to locate the issue and push out a fix.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Echo, Alexa
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Apple Store Now Offering Exclusive Insta360 ONE Camera Bundle

Insta360, a company that offers a 360 degree camera, today announced the launch of an exclusive Insta360 ONE Camera Bundle that’s available only from the Apple Store.

The bundle, priced at $329.95, includes an Insta360 ONE camera, a selfie stick, a case, a mini tripod, a micro SD card, and a new bullet-time handle.

Designed to attach to an iPhone’s Lightning port or connect to an iPhone using Bluetooth, the Insta360 ONE Camera allows users to shoot and livestream 360 degree video and capture 360 degree photos.

Using a FreeCapture mode, the camera lets you shoot footage in 360 degrees and then go back and edit to a traditional 1080p format, so you can shoot an entire scene and then go back later to pick out what you want to highlight.

With the bullet-time handle, the Insta360 ONE camera can orbit a scene while suspended in mid-air, recording action in slow motion, hence the bullet-time name.

The new Insta360 ONE Camera Bundle is available from the Apple online store starting today, and it should be in retail stores later this week.

Tag: Apple retail
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