Archives June 2017

Sunday, July 17, 2005

The Grand Theft Auto (G.T.A.) game series, based on the underworld, pushes social limits on violence and sexual content in the video gaming industry. The newer Grand Theft Auto 3 release sparked controversy when it came to light the plot was based on an unnamed character’s mission to destroy and slaughter his way to the top of the local crime scene. Since that release, further games were developed: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Thursday, according to a report filed by Gamespot, congresswoman Hillary Clinton called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “take immediate action to determine the source of graphic pornographic and violent content appearing on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game.” Clinton also wanted the FTC to determine if an “AO” rating would be more suitable for the game than current “M” rating.

Clinton said she would work quickly to create a bill for a federal law that would “put some teeth into video game ratings.” The federal legislation by Clinton would follow similar state initiatives. California assemblymen Leland Yee introduced a bill in his state, as did Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The purpose of the state and federal bills would be to “prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors.” The passage and enactment of the proposed bill by Clinton would make it a federal offence to sell video game content to persons under the age of the games’s rating.

Like many Grand Theft Auto gamers, the Entertainment Software Rating Board(ESRB) is cautious over Clinton legislative proposal. Patricia Vance, the president of ESRB, issued this statement: “We urge all parties not to rush to judgment until all of the relevant facts, some of which are highly technical and complicated, have been established. Any second guessing at this point would be premature and inappropriate as this investigation continues.” Vance said amongst the ESRB’s top interests were to protect children, to educate parents, and make sure parents make good decisions on what video games their children be allowed to play.

Jack Thompson, the subject of beefs with Grand Theft Auto in the past, is a Republican attorney from Miami. Thompson sent out an email to major gaming outlets (Gamespot for example). The letter at first stated “I, as a lifelong Republican, am going to thank Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton,” and offered admiration for Clinton’s campaign against violence and sexual content in video games. The email then went on to criticize Doug Lowenstein, who helps manage ESRB and is the president of the Entertainment Software Association. Thompson wrote, “Doug Lowenstein could have prevented what is going to happen today, but he preferred to shoot the messengers.” Thompson also mentioned the Columbine High School massacre, and claimed it was the fault of the developers of games (specifically id Software, the maker of Doom). He claims the U.S. Constitution first amendment right to freedom of speech in no way protects the gaming industry from censorship.

Lowenstein issued the following statement regarding the current video game/Hot Coffee issue: “Retailers should not sell Mature games to minors, parents should watch what their kids watch, and parents should and can rely on the ESRB ratings to make the right choices for their families. We hope that… Senator Clinton will abandon the bill and work cooperatively with industry and others to ensure that parents take advantage of the effective tools on the market to regulate the games their kids play.”

Although some of the statements mentioned are related to video games in general and not so much GTA, a majority of all of this recently publicity did indeed start with the Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto. ESRB has never been pressured any harder in the past than they are now, and Rockstar still denies that they put the sex scenes in the game; although it has been recently demonstrated that Action Max-Replay (a cheat/feature-unlocking system for the Sony PlayStation 2) allows the user to play the “mini sex games” – the exact same thing the Hot Coffee mod unlocks for the PC version of GTA San Andreas.

Friday, May 25, 2007

United States President George W. Bush received an unwelcome gift from an overhead-flying sparrow, which deposited a fresh batch of its feces on the left sleeve of Bush’s suit.

Bush was addressing the American press on Thursday in a nationally televised broadcast outside the White House in the Rose Garden. The incident occurred just as Bush said, “I’ve got confidence in Al Gonzales doin’ the job,” referring to a question asked by a reporter about the controversial dismissal of several U.S. attorneys. Bush then tried to remove the offending material several times with his hand.

Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said the ‘poo-drop’ signified good luck saying, “It was his lucky day…everyone knows that’s a sign of good luck.” On the whole the media coverage of the incident has been lighthearted and humorous.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Visual Arts Brampton has announced the winners of its Second Annual Snail Mail World Postcard Art Show. Currently on display in the Fridge Front Gallery in Shoppers World, The Snail Mail Show features well over 350 entries from 14 countries around the world. This is up from the previous year’s approximately 300 from 6 countries.

Shown in the exhibit is original works from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia.

Juror Alicia Mitchell BA viewed the show on August 18 to make her selections from the entries received.

Surprisingly, in the process of identifying her choices for each award, Mitcell ended up awarding two sets of relatives. Sarah Baptist won the Juror’s Choice Award for Purple, while Ann Baptist won Best Photography for Tires. Nicholas Moreau won Best Snail Art for Albert Einsnail, while his mother Janice Moreau won for Best Use of Medium for Bird Days of Summer.

Best of Theme (Remember) went to Beek’s Remembrance of My Father. Brampton Guardian Arts editor Tina Depko awarded the Media Award to child entrant Jessica Taylor’s Cat love. Toni DiSano of Ballwin, Montana won Best Fabric Art/Sculpture/Installation for her fabric art piece “Vortex”.

Honourable mentions this year were:

• Judith Bush’s photograph/mixed media “Los Baños & Surrounds” or “Altered Landscape/Last Vestiges” (Mountain View, California, USA)
• Betty Jean Evans’ watercolour “Snowy Afternoon” (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
• Julie Fina’s painting “Mona + Jeanne” (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
• Aaron Goulborn’s cartoon “The Classics play a classic” (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
• Lee’s “Brampton” (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
• Paulina Su’s scratchboard “Type of Wading Bird” (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
• Gina Turner’s vector art “Who are you looking at?” (Pefferlaw, Ontario, Canada)

A complete list is available on The Snail Mail Show’s website.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Oldbury nuclear power station in South Gloucestershire, England caught fire today after overheating. No-one was injured in the blaze which is believed to have been an accident and was extuinguished within minutes by an automatic sprinkler system.

The fire took place on the non-nuclear side of the plant, in an electricity transformer, but prompted shutdown of the reactor for the foreseeable future in “accordance with standard procedure,” said Dan Gould, spokesman for the British Nuclear Group. He also stressed that there was no release of radiation. There were also reports of an explosion in the transformer.

The BBC reported that 12 fire trucks attended the scene of the fire, but ITV stated ten crews were involved and tvnz.co.uk quoted a spokesman for Avon Fire and Rescue as saying that ten trucks were sent.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

After an early morning fire began, four out of the nine people living at the Riverview Individual Residential Alternative group home located in Wells, New York were killed by the blaze. The Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Services Office, which supervises the home, told the media that the fire started at approximately 5:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Two staff members were at the home at the time, who safely evacuated four of the five survivors.

The names of the residents killed in the fire were not able to be released due to New York’s Mental Hygiene Law, but are able to be identified as two adult men, aged 32 and 52, and two adult women, aged 43 and 60. A 71-year-old male was injured in the fire, and was taken to a hospital in Utica, a nearby city. The other four residents have been relocated to an unnamed group home. Both staff members are also being examined at the hospital.

“On behalf of all New Yorkers, I wish to extend my heartfelt condolences to the families, loved ones and friends of the four victims and to continue to pray for the full recovery of those five people and two staff members who survived this incident. I also want to express my thanks and appreciation for the first responders and volunteers who worked swiftly and diligently to respond to this tragedy,” David Patterson, the governor of New York, said to the media.

The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined. However, the New York Civil Liberties Union stated that “the blaze appears to have been an electrical fire and the sprinkler system was knocked out immediately.” They also called for “an immediate investigation into the causes of and contributing factors of the fire.”

The New York State Department of State Office of Fire Prevention and Control is currently investigating the causes of the blaze, with help from New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the New York State Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The bestselling US novelist Tom Clancy died yesterday in a hospital in Baltimore, according to his publisher. The sixty-six year old is best known for a series of novels themed around espionage, military affairs and geopolitical intrigue, many of which have been adapted into movies and video games.

The Hunt for Red October, Clancy’s first novel, sold over five million copies and was made into a movie with Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. President Ronald Reagan described the novel as a “perfect yarn”. The protagonist of Red October, CIA analyst Jack Ryan, starred in a series of Clancy adventures featuring wars, terrorist attacks and international political power games. Ryan has been played by Harrison Ford and later Ben Affleck.

Seventeen of his twenty novels have reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2002, Forbes magazine estimated Clancy’s earnings at US$47.8m. His final novel, Command Authority, is to be published in December.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

In an effort to ease complaints by the U.S. and Europe about a heavy influx of low priced Chinese goods, China will raise export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products in June. This follows plans from the U.S. to impose quotas on Chinese textiles and clothing.

Products likely to see an increase from the Chinese move include synthetic fiber shirts, trousers, knit shirts and blouses, cotton shirts, and combined cotton yarn. Last week, similar restrictions were imposed by the U.S. on cotton trousers, knit shirts, and underwear. Currently, a 2.5 cent charge per item is imposed; the new tariff will raise this to the equivalent of 12 cents per piece now. While this is a fourfold increase, it is not expected to affect consumer prices. Because of this, some doubt the tariff will have any effect on correcting the trade imbalance.

This move is in response to U.S. trade quotas imposed due to concerns that increased Chinese goods would put U.S. textile manufacturers out of business. According to Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, a textile industry group in the U.S., the move will preserve 10,000 U.S. jobs. The new U.S. trade quota will limit the growth of Chinese textile imports to 7.5 percent compared with shipments over the past year.

Prior to January 1, a global quota system helped regulate the trade. With the quota system gone, fears have arisen that a flood of Chinese goods could undercut U.S. competitiveness in the market. China is able to market its goods cheaply due to an artificially weak yuan. The U.S. Treasury criticized the China yuan policy as “highly distortionary”, posing a major risk to China’s economy itself and to global economic growth. They challenged China to revalue its currency to bring it to a level they believe will allow fairer competition between global manufacturers.

China has disputed the charges of the U.S. Treasury. Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said, “I believe they are not reasonable”.

Laura Jones, a representative of large retailers, also criticized the move, saying “These restrictions on imports from China will do absolutely nothing to help the U.S. textile industry — and the government knows it.”

China has seen a boom in economic growth in recent years due to growing trade surpluses with the West, but economists worry that the trade gap will cause longer term global economic problems. China’s textile and apparel exports are the most noteworthy example, with exports up over 1,000 percent in some categories this year and the rapid loss of marketshare and jobs by U.S. textile manufacturers.

Beginning in 1978, the Chinese economy has been transforming from a Soviet-style centrally planned economy to more of a free market style system, under the rigid political control of Communist Party of China.

To this end, the government has leveraged foreign trade to stimulate economic growth. The result has been a fourfold increase in GDP, making China the sixth largest economy in the world. By 2012 the People’s Republic of China may have the highest GDP in the world.

According to U.S. statistics, from 1999 to 2004 China’s trade surplus with the U.S. doubled to $170 billion. Wal-Mart is China’s seventh largest export partner, just ahead of the United Kingdom.

However, the gains from their “socialist market economy” have not been without problems. The Chinese leadership has often experienced the worst results of socialism and capitalism: bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption, and inflation. Inflation rates have been an on-going challenge, reaching as high as 17% in 1995.

Environmental deterioration is a longer-term threat to economic growth. In 1998, the World Health Organization reported that China had seven of the 10 most-polluted cities on Earth. Another concern among some economists is that China’s economy is over-heating, and due to its global economic expansion this could have major repercussions among other nations.

Typically, wages have been low and working conditions poor, with workers living in restrictive dormitories and working at boring factory jobs. However, recent labor shortages have started improving conditions, and raising the minimum wage towards the equivalent of 100-150 US dollars per month. The labor shortages are in part a result of a demographic trend caused by strict family planning.

• “Economy of the People’s Republic of China” — Wikipedia, May 22, 2005
• “China raises tariffs on textile exports. Beijing hoping to counter criticism from U.S., Europe.” — CNN, May 21, 2005
• “China to increase export tariffs” — CNN, May 19, 2005