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"... although they might mediate the potential harmful effects of violent games ... Several ... authors have concluded that there is a causal relationship between violent video game play and aggressive behavior, cognitions, and affect ... Violent games may elicit not only self-reported aggressive affect (i.e., feelings of anger or hostility) but also anxiety"

I wonder how much of these effects would be evident if, say, sport (e.g. football or ice hockey) were studied in the same way. Or even any other games, like chess (many people can get angry from just about any type of game). Are so-called "violent" video games really "violent" in any sense other than being a simulation of what would in reality be violence? There is nothing violent about using a mouse/keyboard while looking at a screen. "Dying" in a video game is no more like "dying" than time-out on a bench in sport, should that be called "dying" too and studied as if it was something drastic? Surely running on a field where you physically bash into and tackle other people is far more of a "violent game" than any computer game. It seems to me that people are irrationally scared of computer games and anything 'computer-y' or even technological, if you ask me as an emerging 'tech society' we'd be better off doing studies to uncover the reasons for these irrational fears, than wasting money on silly studies of all the "harm" computer games are causing (seemingly not, since millions of people play them now and there hasn't exactly been a sudden spike in violent crime - in fact, the rise of computer games has generally coincided with a steady drop in violent crime).

With apologies to Billy Joel

Green Cards, Spamford, Snake Oil, these guys,
Michael Lindsay, Nigeria, Get Rich Quick Today.

CHORUS
We didn't start the fire...

The GP poster was making a subtle political point. Of course the founding fathers of the US weren't terrorists. But under the definitions of the present US government, they would indeed be classified as such. Resistance groups fighting uniformed militaries are routinely described as "terrorists" by the US State and Defense Departments, even though the nearly-universally accepted definition of terrorism is the act of using violence or the threat of violence against civilians for political ends.

Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, declared a wide range of non-violent groups to be terrorist threats to the United States, including Reclaim The Streets, Carnival Against Capitalism, and others. Never mind about the distinction between violence against civilians, and violence against uniformed troops: the FBI has gone on record to declare that Dancing Is Terrorism.

My Massachusetts license doesn't have my social security number.

It was a known scam for some time to cause an accident on purpose (swoop and squat scam http://www.fbi.gov/page2/feb05/stagedauto021805.htm ) on a very nice vehicle perceived to have a high value. They would jott down your info including the license # which was your social security # and go on spending sprees with the victims credit info, while also collecting from the insurance company.

And I am fairly sure that Grand Theft Autos happen no more often that once every three months per state.

Wrong. Auto theft statistics as FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report shows, more than 1 million vehicles are stolen each year. Using 1 million, if the same number are stolen in each state that's 20,000 per state, that's more than 1000 a month. The odds of a vehicle being stolen were 1 in 190.

82,188 were murdered in the United States in the years ranging from 2001-2006. 2,883 have been kill on US soil since on 2001. Because those 2,883 got more media attention than those 82,188, we have to surrender our privacy to overreacting government. The irony is that none of this will work actually stop terrorists. If they can't keep 3.7 million illegal aliens out of this country entering since 2000, they certainly can't keep a hand full of terrorists from crossing illegally and not reporting a thing. Statistics tell a different story. I question my government's priorities and their methods.

It's true all right. Here is the FBI's letter. "neither scientists nor bullet manufacturers are able to definitively attest to the significance of an association made between bullets in the course of a bullet lead examination."

I thought the images were of monkeys at first, however when I went to have a look at MRI images of a human head was thankfully proven wrong (some of us have our monkey origins hidden better than others).

So, for comparison here is a page with images of human heads in a normal MRI.
(single image here)

I hope they get the focusing better (which is what I understand the power is used for) because this will be a good progression.

I thought the images were of monkeys at first, however when I went to have a look at MRI images of a human head was thankfully proven wrong (some of us have our monkey origins hidden better than others).

So, for comparison here is a page with images of human heads in a normal MRI.
(single image here)

I hope they get the focusing better (which is what I understand the power is used for) because this will be a good progression.

I recently watched a video on YouTube about the impact of the Internet. And before we go any further, I will answer the question of everyone under the age of 25. Yes, those of us over a certain age are allowed to access YouTube.

In June of this year, we initiated Operation Bot Roast.

Most non-white terrorists that have attacked the US were Saudi's not Persians, but the media world seems strangely blind to that, even kow-towing to Saudi Princes.

If you want to spread democracy, try it on the trading partners you sell War to.

The FBI's most wanted page has 24 members.

Usama Bin Muhammad Bin Ladin - Place of Birth: Saudi Arabia
ADAM YAHIYE GADAHN - Place of Birth: United States
ABDELKARIM HUSSEIN MOHAMED AL-NASSER - Place of Birth: Al Ihsa, Saudi Arabia
ABDULLAH AHMED ABDULLAH - Place of Birth: Egypt
AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI - Place of Birth: Egypt
ALI ATWA - Place of Birth: Lebanon
ANAS AL-LIBY - Place of Birth: Tripoli, Libya
FAZUL ABDULLAH MOHAMMED - Place of Birth: Moroni, Comoros Islands
HASAN IZZ-AL-DIN - Place of Birth: Lebanon
AHMED MOHAMMED HAMED ALI - Place of Birth: Egypt
IMAD FAYEZ MUGNIYAH - Place of Birth: Lebanon
SHEIKH AHMED SALIM SWEDAN - Place of Birth: Mombasa, Kenya
ABDUL RAHMAN YASIN - Place of Birth: Bloomington, Indiana
MSALAM - Place of Birth: Mombasa, Kenya
AHMAD IBRAHIM AL-MUGHASSIL - Place of Birth: Qatif - Bab Al Shamal, Saudi
ALI SAED BIN ALI EL-HOORIE - Place of Birth: El Dibabiya, Saudi Arabia
SAIF AL-ADEL - Place of Birth: Egypt
IBRAHIM SALIH MOHAMMED AL-YACOUB - Place of Birth: Tarut, Saudi Arabia
RAMADAN ABDULLAH MOHAMMAD SHALLAH - Place of Birth: Sajaya, Gaza Strip
ABD AL AZIZ AWDA - Place of Birth: Jabaliyah, Gaza Strip
ISNILON TOTONI HAPILON - Place of Birth: Republic of the Philippines
MOHAMMED ALI HAMADEI - Place of Birth: Lebanon
JAMEL AHMED MOHAMMED ALI AL-BADAWI - Place of Birth: Al-Shargian, Makiris, Yemen
JABER A. ELBANEH - Place of Birth: Yemen

You actually think they will care or even have the knowledge and know-how to do anything about it? There is, however, the Internet Crime Complaint Center and here just down the street from me (10 min).

http://fbi.gov/ works for me. Looks like big brother is reading slashdot. BTW gov.ca is also opening no problemo.

Who says they didn't? Here, try FBI for example: http://fbi.gov/

Here:

http://newark.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2006/nk060706.htm

Your source is the "Officer Down Memorial Page." Try sourcing the FBI instead.

2005 accidental deaths, total of 67 deaths for the year. 39 in automobile accidents, with another 11 struck and killed by vehicles and another 4 killed in motorcycle accidents. That's 54 out of 67.

Felonious deaths? 55 TOTAL.

When one specific cause of accidental deaths matches the entire category of felonious deaths, yeah- I'd call that "overwhelming."

http://losangeles.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel06/l a012506usa.htm

The FBI doesn't agree with you. They put AGFA 200 ASA film as the equivalent of a 16 megapixel camera. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/april2002/s wgitfield1.htm

Willie "The Actor" Sutton

Codename "Summer Solstice" - no, not a porn film, but the name of the FBI operation encompassing multiple copyright investigations - including the one in question.

(link is to the FBI press release for this case).

Yes, privacy is very important -- unless you are dead, that is.

Well, when I'm dead I'll stop worrying about my privacy. Note I didn't say "IF" I die. The fact of the matter is that you will die. And the odds aren't that bad you'll die tomorrow; my friend's mother just passed away the other night, from cancer. She was only a year older than me.

In this entire century, there were fewer than 3,000 deaths by terrorists on American soil. In 2005 (the most recent year with data) there were 16,692 Murders and nonnegligent manslaughters. Meanwhile, in 2005 (again the last year the gov has published data for, there were 39,189 motor vehicle crash fatalities - twice the number of homicides.

You are twice as likely to die from some nitwit in an SUV yakking on her cell phone while adjusting the volume on the stereo than to die from a murderer. And if you are indeed murdered, the most likely suspect is your spouse. Meanwhile, in Illinois alone, 62,010 people have died from cancer so far this year! (PDF). Stroke killed 275,000 people in 2002 and accounted for about 1 of 16 deaths in the United States. And fully half a million people die each year from heart attacks.

Your fear of terrorists and criminals is sadly misguided. The terrorists and criminals you should be afraid of are the ones who manufacture cigarettes and trans-fat based oils, and the criminal terrorists who sell you food cooked in this garbage. Unfortunately no amount of government power is going to stop THEM; they OWN the government.

You are a chump. You have been brainwashed. I feel very sorry for you and the millions of cowardly brainwashed fucktards like you who would willingly give up their privacy and freedom for an illusion of safety.

-mcgrew (the K5 articles are mine BTW)

You said, "(FBI) they're also supposed to be looking for people in the U.S. engaged in criminal activity that is not really supposed to be the province of the federal government?"

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is chartered by the USA Government to investigate all
interstate (physical/internet...) crimes, organized crime, terrorist activities ...
[ http://www.fbi.gov/hq.htm ] go to their website and read. The FBI has the lead in almost
all "Domestic Interstate and Federal" threats/crimes investigation and prevention.

The "Real Professionals" in Military and Government Service (especially field personnel) have my thanks and respect for all they are doing.

FBI politicized "executives/bosses" are among the biggest (Military "Career First" GO, State Department OJT, Homeland Defense popinjays, Justice Department Spinsters, Executive Department Story Tellers ...) failures of the USA Government. Chaos theory should apply to the politicized "executives/bosses" creating a critical avalanche of failures that could eventually overwhelm the proportionally few remaining real "executives/bosses" Professionals in the USA Government. Then the politicized "executives/bosses" will blame the "Real Professionals" and degrade the efforts further.

The "Real Professionals" in Military and Government Service (especially field personnel) are not failing our National Interest. Our Field Personnel are exceptional and would have prevented (I believe) 9-11 and the NOLA catastrophe, killed Bin Laden and all the top terrorist leaders .... The "Real Professionals" in Military and Government Service have been oppressed, fired, and forced to retire or accept political "Ass-kissing", "Dogma-sucking", and "Delusion-puking" as SOP in the USA Government.

It all started in Congress, now it is in the Whitehouse, and finally include the politicization of the Supreme Justice of the land. Just what we don't fycking need politicized "executives/bosses". In times of National Emergency our politicized "executives/bosses" are advocating Corporate-Welfare, Religious Mythology Policy, Plutocratic Fools' Doctrine ....

I you, in these times, believe any politician (including a parent) is telling the truth, working or the Public Good, and defending US Citizen freedoms, justice, and posterity for our grand-children, then you are a fool, uneducated, and/or mentally ill.

Why are slashdot readers more prone to going apeshit insane over a blog post? Here is the website of the actual FBI group that works to protect domestic research and technology. It is a good read and will communicate far more useful, accurate information than a blog post.

Okay, so check out the FBI Uniform Crime Report numbers for 2005.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_in formation/data/shrtable_07.html

I commend to your attention the number of homicides committed with hands and feet: 892

So, more people were beaten to death with hands and feet in the USA than were murdered with all weapons in England and Wales in 2005. Do you suppose that hands and feet are somehow more available in the USA than they are in England?

If you were hoping to imply that the increased availability of firearms in the USA is a cause of the increased number of homicides, you haven't convinced me.

Also check out the studies from professor Gary Kleck. He provides hard numbers that show that legal firearms in the hands of citizens stop more crimes than are committed using firearms; in other words, his numbers show that firearms are a net benefit to American society. If you hope to convince me that a total ban on firearms is a good idea, you will need to explain why professor Kleck is wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Point-Blank-Violence-America -Institutions/dp/0202304191

You're right. The DHS leaves the effort to turn citizens against each other into an auxiliary secret police to a separate agency: the FBI. So since the FBI falls under the "Justice" Department, instead of fatherland security, technically, you're right.

Myself, I don't care about the specifics of the org chart. The government trying to turn the citizens into spies against each other is QUITE Stasi-esque in my book. And they all fall under the umbrella of the executive branch, (As Harry Truman once said about the presidency: "The buck stops here.".) anyway.

cya,
john

Check out this FBI summary (warning, XLS file) from 2003 on murders committed by weapon type. Of the 14,400 or so murders in 2003, gun murders numbered about 9,600. Sure, guns are responsible for about two-thirds of all murders, but the remaining numbers of murders are still non trivial. Guns are (arguably) just easier to dispatch someone with, but, as the numbers show, where there's a will, there's a way. If guns suddenly vanished under civilian ownership, I seriously doubt we'd see an immediate 2/3 reduction in the murder rate.

(For fun, note that "personal weapons" (hands, feet, etc.) outnumber "blunt objects" in number of murders.)

I speak for anyone else, but 14,400 murders in a country of about 300 million? That really doesn't seem so bad to me. Other countries tell us how violent we are as a culture, but I just don't see that in the above numbers. Does media scare mongering have more to do with the US's bad image than reality?

The problem is, there'll probably be too many jurisdictions involved. What happens when the controlling computer is in China, Russia, etc.

Did you read the article? The three people cited as running massive botnets all lived in the United States.

From the FBI press release cited above: "To date, the following subjects have been charged or arrested in this operation with computer fraud and abuse in violation of Title 18 USC 1030, including:

• James C. Brewer of Arlington, Texas, is alleged to have operated a botnet that infected Chicago area hospitals. This botnet infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide. (FBI Chicago);
• Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Kentucky, is charged with an Information [sic] with using botnets to send a high volume of traffic to intended recipients to cause damage by impairing the availability of such systems. (FBI Detroit); and
• Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle, Washington, is alleged to have used a large botnet network and spammed tens of millions of unsolicited email messages to advertise his website from which he offered services and products. (FBI Seattle)"

I don't disagree that the global nature of the Internet makes investigation and prosecution of such actions difficult. But there are probably enough botnet operators here in the States to keep the FBI busy for some time to come.

Skipping the ad-heavy page linked in the article, here's the FBI press release.

As usual, no mention of Microsoft.

and go straight to the source
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/botnet06130 7.htm

What do you know that the FBI doesn't? According to them http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/clearances/ index.html#figure the clearance rate for Murder across the entire country is 62.1%.

The database for domestic violence offenders is available. It's used by gun dealers. If we're going to have those restrictions for sex offenders, they should also apply for criminals.

This is incorrect.

The FBI, likes all other government agencies, has a CIO with an office of security under him responsible for securing their IT systems.

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/ocio/ocio_home.htm

I'm wondering if the techniques they are using are "improved" over the old techniques- which, as of 1 September, 2005, has been declared unreliable by the FBI. The whole technique has been declared "flawed."

For years, comparative bullet lead analyses were considered accurate and good proof; I remember reading the neutron activation analyses when I was in college as an undergrad, and thinking it was a fantastic technique. But now it looks like 40 years' worth of convictions are at risk- 2,500 analyses, with 20% of these being introduced as evidence at trial.

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/bulger. htm

You can find a patch for this problem here.

I think Apple and Microsoft have a patch for your patch here and here. :)

They may be true to some extent, but there is still positive news of substantial import that goes unreported.

For example how often do we hear that the murder rate in the US is the lowest since 1966?
Or that the robbery rate in the US is the lowest since 1968?
Or that the rate of vehicle theft in the US is the lowest since 1968?
Or that the rate of rape in the US is the lowest since 1977?

It must not be reported very often since most Americans seem to believe that they are living in some kind of unprecedented Mad-Max dystopia that requires their children to be on lockdown 24/7.

Stats from: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

You seem to be employing a form of primitive animist belief: that an inanimate object will someone affect your future behavior.

It is NOT just as likely that a gun-carrying student will flip out as use a gun in their own defense. Good estimates are that there are about 2 million legitimate defensive uses of firearms per year, most of which do not involve the weapon being fired. If your assertion was even 10% correct, there would be 200,000 illegitimate homicide shootings per year. In fact, in 2005, the number unjustifiably killed by firearms was 14,860, most of which was committed by those already barred from firearm ownership. If we assume that every one of those was a otherwise peaceable person that "flipped", you would be about 0.7% to 1.8% right, at best.

It is significantly likely that a criminal person, who may not legally possess a gun, but has come into possession of one, will "flip out", i.e. commit a crime, as soon as use it in their own defense.

As to your argument that "just because you're licensed to carry a gun does not make you mentally stable forever" is interesting, and it says more about you than it does anyone else. Do you think this of other people because you are concerned that if you had that kind of capability in your hands, you would be likely to flip out? Do you think everyone else has a inner seething cauldron of rage because you, in fact, have an internal rage? Psychologists call this projection.

Lastly, the people committing this kind of crime are rational, although they are rational in an abominable way. Having decided that he must kill someone, and being unwilling to face the death penalty in Virginia, the killer was instantly freed of all possible consequences of his actions by intending a suicide to follow his murder. And if you're going to do one, why not get all the people that pissed him off? Where should you do it? Somewhere his victims must go, be corralled in one place, and they cannot possess the means to stop him. The university is the perfect, rational place to commit an abomination, as would any victim disarmament zone, otherwise laughingly known as a gun free-zone.

In short, your facts are weak, your arguments unsupportable, you espouse a primitive belief system, and the policies you support make the problem worse. Bring a better game. And I agree, you should not possess weapons, but your choices should have no bearing on anyone else.

Hmm, I thought it was in the national news as well that the recent shooting in the Trollet Square mall in Salt Lake City was more or less stopped by a CCW holder, an off-duty police officer.

I never heard about that. I just searched Google News and live.com news for "Trollet Square" and came up empty.

There were 1,225 lethal gun accidents in 1995 (http://www.hpjc.org/issues_guncontrol.html, I couldn't find more recent figures quickly - I would be glad if someone could post a link for both more recent figures and a more authoritative source)

How about the Center for Disease Control, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control? The below link takes you to a form, and using that form I pulled up the numbers for 2004: 649 deaths.

http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy. html

I am strongly convinced that many of the "crimes of passion" murders (husband killing wife) would not happen if there wasn't a weapon around in the household.

Sadly, a firearm isn't the only way to kill somone, and there are lots of weapons in a household. You can check the FBI Uniform Crime Reports and find murders cross-indexed by weapons, murderer/victim relationship, etc. You will find that firearms were used in most murders, but also used were knives, "blunt instruments", "pushed or thrown out window", and "personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)". It's depressing reading, really.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_in formation/data/shrtable_10.html

Personally, I like to get them from the FBI...

http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/tesla.htm

You can submit a request to the FBI under the FOIA http://foia.fbi.gov/foia_instruc.htm They will then send you some paperwork and you can carry it down to the local police/sheriffs office where they will print you and send off the information. You will then receive the info on you. It has been several years since I have done this (pre 9/11) so some of this may have changed.

Race statistics on current Texas death row inmates:

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/racial.htm

Compare that to the race statistics for murders nationwide that *should* be available here:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/violent_cri me/murder_homicide.html

I say should be because I can't currently view the page...my office's content filter doesn't like it. It should show that roughly half the murders committed in the US were committed by blacks, the other half by whites. Hispanic is not considered a race by the FBI, and are grouped in with whites--you'll need to account for that when viewing the table in the first link.

It would appear that the death row in Texas fairly accurately reflects national murder trends, with blacks grossly overrepresenting themselves by commission of the crime.

Tangent: There are roughly six times as many whites in the US as there are blacks. According to the FBI statistics, they split the murder statistics equally...making a black person six times more likely to commit murder than a white person. Of course, some 85+% of their victims are black; as a white man, I'm six times more likely to be killed by a white person.

Right now some people who know me by a different name from a different web forum just figured out who I am :D

The last article was completely overblown, and this is even worse.

Need I even go into the many ways the US has violated our free trade agreement. How are different copyright laws even a violation?

Maybe because the copyright protections violate our basic copyright freedoms? There's no DMCA here.

In case you haven't noticed, we're lax in all areas of law. How has incarceration helped to reduce US crime rates? Why should copyright violation be a criminal offense? The last article was even so bold to say:

So camcording is a criminal offense, you just have to, shock, prove your case rather than assume guilt. I guess this article is *technically* right when it says:

What else did they complain about proving?

Is that 15th century thinking I hear? Are they going to blacklist every liberal country?

Please, the UK and Australia wouldn't even have these type of laws if the US and *AA and friends hadn't strong armed them into it. Are these the only shinning examples they can find?