ParticipACTION is a Canadian nonprofit which encourages exercise and receives government support.

The organization has released a video suggesting that too much video game play and not enough exercise may lead to adverse health consequences.

Via: gax online

An airman assigned to guard a North Dakota base for US nuclear bombers was found to be playing a video game on his mobile phone, according to a recent inspection.

As reported by the Associated Press, the guard's inattention to duty was one of just a number of violations which caused Minot AFB to receive sub-par marks on the inspection, which must now be repeated in 90 days.

From the AP report:

The Air Force Times, citing a copy of the [inspection] report, said the base received an unsatisfactory grade and inspectors found security breakdowns during mock attacks at the base.

 

The Air Force Times said inspectors saw a security forces airman playing video games on his cell phone while standing guard at a restricted area. Another airman nearby was "unaware of her duties and responsibilities" during the exercise, the newspaper said.

Last year, an aging B-52 bomber leaving from Minot was mistakenly armed with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles for a routine flight to Louisiana.

The San Jose Mercury-News reports that ESA CEO Michael Gallagher (left) has received a vote of confidence from Microsoft entertainment exec Robbie Bach:

"Mike's doing a great job. . . . I think he was the right hire; I think he was a good hire," Bach said. "But he's had to deal with a lot of change all at once, so that just makes his job harder than it probably needs to be."

 

Bach said he interpreted the withdrawals of Activision and Vivendi as largely a side effect of the distractions of their pending merger. But given their importance, he also noted, "Certainly we have to assess the impact of not having them as dues-paying members. That does have an impact."

Bach is Microsoft's representative to the ESA's board of directors, and was chairman when Gallagher was hired in May, 2007. Gallagher and Bach share a connection of sorts with the George W. Bush administration. Prior to joining the ESA, Gallagher worked as an Assistant Secretary of Commerce, while Bach was a contributor to Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.

Bach's vote of confidence follows questions about Gallagher's leadership of the game publishers group in recent weeks. As GamePolitics has reported, four member companies (Activision, Vivendi, LucasArts and id) have dropped out since the beginning of May.

GP: Bach's vote of confidence would be more meaningful if it were echoed by the entire ESA board.

The lawyer for a 25-year-old New Zealand man who pleaded guilty to beating a police officer and stealing a patrol car has blamed his client's crime in part on playing Grand Theft Auto - and the judge apparently agreed.

As reported by the Dominion Post, attorney Cris Nicholls argued at the sentencing hearing for Tim Reid that his client's behavior was influenced by the game.

From the news account:

[Reid] committed violent offences and compulsively played Grand Theft Auto. Mr Nicholls said a video game that showed violence toward police was a public safety concern, with the game promoting the behaviour...

 

Wellington District Court judge Denys Barry jailed Reid for five years... He said Reid was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits.

GP: Reid, according to the report, began smoking pot at age five. He had been physically and sexually abused while growing up, and continues to abuse drugs and alcohol. He has priors for assault and robbery. Moreover, he is a 25-year-old man, not an impressionable adolescent.

Yet a video game is to blame?

UPDATE: The SITE Intelligence Group has issued a press release which says, categorically, that the article in the Telegraph (upon which this story is based) is wrong. From SITE:

On May 30, 2008, the Telegraph newspaper ran a misleading story... which incorrectly and falsely described analysis provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

 

Discussing a computer-generated image of a destroyed Capitol Building in Washington that was posted to a jihadist forum, the Telegraph claimed, without any basis, "The SITE Intelligence Group said that the image, showing a ruined Capitol Building in Washington, was created by extremists as part of discussions about the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain."

 

This claim is entirely false, as is the characterization that SITE is "embarrassed" or "red-faced." SITE rejects the claims by the Telegraph and stands fully behind the accuracy of its information and analysis. SITE at no time maintained that the image "was created by extremists."

(original story follows:)

A US defense contractor has mistakenly identified a screenshot from the upcoming Fallout 3 role-playing adventure as an al Qaeda-created graphic.

As reported by the Telegraph, the SITE Intelligence Group claimed that the image (seen at left) was created by terrorists as part of an al Qaeda investigation as to the feasibility of launching nuclear attacks against the US and UK.

From the newspaper report:

The images appeared in a video, called Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror, posted on two password-protected websites... believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’eda. SITE also released translated several chatroom threads... discussing the possibility of nuclear attacks on the West.

 

However, it has transpired that far from being a detailed simulation created by terrorist masterminds, the apocalyptic vision is in fact lifted from the computer game Fallout 3, by US game designers Bethesda Softworks.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Australian was among news outlets which ran the story including SITE's claim that the graphic was an Al Qaeda product.

This isn't the first time that video game graphics have shown up in US intelligence reports on Islamic terrorism. As GamePolitics reported in May, 2006, footage from EA's popular first-person shooter Battlefield 2 and even a voice-over from the film Team America: World Police were presented to the House Select Committe on Intelligence as al Qaeda propaganda.

Commenting on SITE's bungling of the Fallout 3 graphic incident, Alex Jones Infowars takes the mainstream media to task, claiming that it helps spread terrorism fears:

Whatever Al Qaeda is, the American (and Australian) mainstream media is doing their job of spread the threat of terror for them, and making money at the same time utilising dramatic free content supposedly supplied by terrorists.

 

It doesn’t matter how absolutely crap and ridiculous the supposed Al Qaeda videos are, the mainstream media gives them all front page and lead evening news story exposure, almost seven years after the United States was last attacked.

Feel like starting an office pool?

MSNBC has unveiled an interactive online game which lets players make their best guesses about who Republican presidential candidate John McCain will select as his running mate.

Republican Veepstakes uses an NCAA Tournament-style bracket system that calculates player votes and advances winning candidates to the next round during weekly Tuesday updates.

32 candidates are listed for the starting round. These include well-known Republicans from politics (Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist), big business (Meg Whitman, Michael Dell) and the military (Gen. David Petraeus). We also note that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at E3, is paired against former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in Round One.

The game is hosted by MSNBC's Chuck Todd and David Gregory and will run through June 24th.

Note to self: Give Stockton, California a wide berth. The townsfolk there have apparently turned violent, thanks to Grand Theft Auto IV.

At least, that's the impression given by a report in the Stockton Record. Running under the headline Grand Theft Auto IV Criticized by Stocktonians, the story cites interviews with just two people and gives the clear impression that GTA has adversely affected their lives.

Parent Greg Within told the paper:

My son Peter was never really aggressive, but once he got into video games, 'GTA' being one of them, he started to push, hit, talk back, and just become a different person.

A GTA player blamed his bad behavior on the game as well:

Mark Wellis, 19, said he was involved in an altercation a week after he purchased "Grand Theft Auto IV." At the time he noticed that he had become less sensitive to violence. Wellis doesn't completely blame the game for his violence, but it did affect him.

The Associated Press is reporting that a 13-year-old middle school student in Framingham, Massachusetts menaced his teacher with a knife in an attempt to get money to purchase Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

From the AP report:

Police Lt. Paul Shastany says... the male student stayed behind after the other students had left the classroom, pulled the 11-inch knife and asked for $20. After [the teacher] refused, he lowered his demand to $1. The teacher took the knife from the student.

 

Shastany says the boy wanted to buy the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" but his mother refused to give him the money, so he came up with an alternate plan.

CNBC will air Playing to Win at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight.

The show features a look at the video game violence issue, a trip inside EA, a segment on Games for Health and more.

If you miss it, Playing to Win will be repeated on Sunday at 9 p.m.

Every gamer's favorite academic, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins, will be among the presenters at the 5th Annual Games for Change Festival which takes place June 2-4 in New York.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will deliver the festival's closing keynote. Other speakers include Ben Sawyer of the Serious Games Initiative, Dr. James Paul Gee of Arizona State University, Prof. Ian Bogost of Georgia Tech and Heather Chaplin, co-author of Smartbomb.

From the GFC press release:

The only festival... will explore real-world impact, the latest games and funding strategies... Expert practitioners -- academics, activists, non-profits, funders -- will be called in to examine the impact of current games, evaluations planned and the ongoing work to build the field.

 

You will have a chance to see a variety of new games in development first-hand, and at the Games Expo sponsored by Microsoft, festival-goers can play the latest state-of-the-art games.