August 2011

The competitive nature of some video games -- not the violence in them -- leads to aggression, a new study suggests. This offers a twist on the typical research finding that violent games may increase aggressive behavior in some players. A pair of experiments conducted at Brock University in Canada found that head-to-head fighting games.

Attorney General Eric Holder made another pitch for setting aside airwaves for emergency services. Police and fire chiefs and other public safety officials have been pushing Congress to pass a Senate Commerce bill that would reallocate a chunk of spectrum known as the D-block to public safety for their network and authorize funding to build it. Telecommunications mostly held up during Hurricane Irene, even if power grids didn't. But a quake last week caused wireless congestion. AG Holder mentioned both. "I'm proud of the pivotal role that our nation's Department of Justice continues to play in these advancing efforts, and of the essential work we are leading to ensure an effective response to emergencies ranging from industrial accidents, to natural disasters - like the earthquake and hurricane that put East Coast responders to the test just last week - and, of course, terrorist acts," AG Holder said in a speech to the Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference being held just outside Washington.

He said the communications and detection technology used by first responders have advanced dramatically in the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission made the creation of a national, interoperable public safety communications network one of its top recommendations because first responders couldn't communicate in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. AG Holder recalled the difficulties experienced by emergency personnel on that day during his speech but said the Justice Department has taken an active role in ensuring things have improved.

As authors and publishers wait to learn the final fate of the Google Books settlement, a group of universities has quietly launched a major initiative that could reshape the future of copyright law.

As part of its quest to digitize the world’s books, Google has scanned millions of titles. But it can't make them available to the public until a judge gives his blessing to a troubled settlement the company has reached with authors and publishers. One of the sticking points has been what to do about books that are still in copyright but whose owners can't be found. Now, the universities, which include Cornell, Duke and Michigan, have decided that they aren't going to wait for the judge’s OK to make those e-books available. They have announced they will allow library users to have full access to the digital text of those so-called orphan works, which are estimated to number in the millions.

An Internet super highway is under construction in Southwest Alaska this year, but will the average household be able to afford access?

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission toured Alaska to explore this issue. The last time an FCC Chairman was in Alaska was 2003. And a lot has changed since then. Sometime this year, 65 communities in Southwest Alaska will get high speed Internet access through “Project Terra,” an 88 million dollar effort funded by a combination of grants and loans to GCI, an Alaska telecommunications company. The money comes from the federal stimulus program. One of the reasons FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski came to Alaska was to check on the progress of “Project Terra.” He says it fulfills the Obama administration’s goals of job creation in more ways than one. First, more than 200 people were hired to build Project Terra’s network of fiber optic cables and microwave relays. And then, says Genachowski, there are also future jobs that broadband access will generate in Rural Alaska. He told a group that had gathered at a celebration in Dillingham that government can't do this job alone – and GCI’s “Project Terra” is a good model for building telecommunications infrastructure in Rural Alaska.

“Public-private partnerships are necessary to achieve that goal. It won't happen by itself,” said Chairman Genachowski. From Dillingham, the FCC Chairman flew to New Stuyahok with Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska). “I think it was an eye-opener,” said Sen Begich. “I don't think he’s ever seen a village. When he thinks of rural, he thinks “traditional” rural. You get to drive from one city to the next.”