This rumour recently got more or less debunked by the director but after going to all the trouble of resizing the images and linking them in I thought I might as well post it anyway.

Now I don’t think anyone is worried about Jon Hamm being able to convince us that he can fly.

What I was more concerned with was his ability to make us think he was a goofy reporter. Then I saw this picture and it just fell into place

What do you think?

Just a short one today.

It’s my last day of work in a job that has been very enjoyable. It’s really the people that I’ve worked with that have made it so nice. It was always going to be sad when I left but then this was what I found when I arrived at work this morning.

A nice place to work indeed.

It’s almost like they knew.

Earlier this week I blogged and twittered about a study that was actually focusing on adult video gamers rather than the usual teenagers and youths. Now, mere days after that article comes another about how video games are leading our kids into the dangerous world of gambling.

TEENAGERS who play video games regularly are more likely to develop obsessive and antisocial tendencies that lead to problem gambling.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide surveyed 2669 teenagers aged between 13 and 17, and found 56 per cent had gambled in the past year. They also found 2.4 per cent became pathological gamblers by the time they were 18.

That was higher than the 2.1 per cent of adults found to be problem gamblers by the Productivity Commission in 1999, although the level of harm – such as losing a house or a relationship – was much lower for adolescents.

The paper, to be published in the Journal of Gambling Studies next month, found that teenage problem gamblers played arcade games three times more often than non-gamblers, and on average they played hand-held games and internet games more than twice as often.

One of its authors, Associate Professor Paul Delfabbro, said teenage boys were more likely to play video games and gamble regularly, which was one reason for the correlation.

”The other reason is that the sorts of kids who are playing video games probably do so because they’ve got less parental supervision,” he said. ”They’re probably bored; they probably don’t have a lot of structured activity in their life.

”So the physical act of playing video games doesn’t increase the risk of gambling but it is indicative of a pattern of leisure activity, which probably means you’re going to find gambling an entertaining activity.”

Associate Professor Delfabbro said the levels of internet gambling and access to poker machines among adolescents had been kept relatively low compared with Britain and the US.

But a high proportion of teenagers who played video games went on to take part in some form of gambling, most commonly buying scratchies, playing card games, and playing poker machines.

A separate study by Associate Professor Delfabbro found that children who had gambled on a poker machine by the age of 16 were four times more likely to be regular gamblers by 19.

”They’re putting money on private card games, they’re betting on sporting events, they buy scratch tickets from newsagents,” he said.

Dean Bryden, 22, said he began gambling at 14 and soon developed a habit of playing card games at home and on the internet.

His habit increased until he spent $180,000 in a single year, mainly playing blackjack and poker.

”It’s an adrenaline rush for people,” he said. ”I think the internet poker is a big thing because you don’t have to be over the age of 18; it doesn’t matter how old you are.

”You start off having some fun with your mates online and you end up at the casinos spending money.”

Liem Dang, 19, of Canterbury, has been playing video games since he was 12 and is also a gambler.

He said he saw the correlation between the two, as each could be social and competitive.

”I agree with the study,” he said. ”I game for the social aspect and to put my abilities up against someone else and for gambling that happens as well. The sense of humiliation involved is also the same.”

Despite spending much of his time playing online games, he preferred not to gamble over the web and only used Facebook poker. ”I go to Star City around once a month. I would rather spend my money in the real world, I guess.”

I agree, kids gambling is bad. But, and please excuse the language here, why the fuck are the parents of these kids letting them fucking gamble!?

Seriously, there is not a single mention of a parent anywhere in this article.

Now I was recently out of the country but I’m pretty sure the government didn’t pass any legislation legalising underage gambling. So why is it the fault of online gaming that over 50% of kids between the ages of 13 and 17 are gambling?

Today The Australian newspaper reported on a study run by the CDC.

ADULTS who play videogames may suffer higher levels of depression and weigh more than non-gamers, according to a study released today.

The study, conducted by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Emory University and Andrews University, found “measurable correlations between video-game playing and health risks”.

The study – “Health-Risk Correlates of Video-Game Playing Among Adults” – is being published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The researchers surveyed 562 adults ranging in age from 19 to 90 in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington state. A total of 45.1 per cent of those surveyed reported playing videogames.

The Seattle-Tacoma area – home of Microsoft and Amazon – was selected because it has the highest internet usage level in the country.

Female videogame players reported greater depression and lower health status than female non-players while male videogame players reported a higher body mass index (BMI) and more internet use time than male non-players.

“The only determinant common to both female and male video-game players was greater reliance on the Internet for social support,” the study said.

“As hypothesised, health-risk factors – specifically, a higher BMI and a greater number of poor mental-health days – differentiated adult video-game players from nonplayers,” said Dr James Weaver of the CDC’s National Centre for Health Marketing.

“Video-game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns,” he said.

Most studies on videogame use and health have focused on adolescents. The study is one of the first to study the health-risk factors of videogame playing in adults.

Well fuck me! Who’d have thought that sitting on your ass all day staring at a TV would make you fat and leave you bereft of human contact?

Seriously though, it is good that they’re studying the effects of gaming in adults now because more adults than kids are gaming these days. Now if only we can get the Australian government to recognise that and give us a much needed R18+ rating for video games. Fingers crossed.

My fiance is looking at doing her PHD. Part of that is checking out what the various tertiary institutions around the world offer. This little ray of sunshine and happiness is something she found while checking out what Cambridge had to offer.

Most of our graduate students find their time here strenuous but rewarding. Most would accept that what they have got out of their course is in direct proportion to what they have put in. If the career of a graduate student does not go well it is usually because they either do not enjoy working for the majority of their time on their own, or because they arrive in the expectation of receiving a more directive form of education from us than we usually offer. Do not expect to be spoon-fed while you are here. You will spend long hours in the library working on a topic which on a black day might seem to be of interest to no one else in the world. You should bear in mind that you will probably be poor, and that you will almost certainly have to spend a great deal of time reading material which you find unappetising in order to master your chosen field.

How could you not want to study there.

Some of you may be aware that I went to San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) this year. It was part of my first sojourn overseas and I had an absolute blast. I will definitely be going back (if only to go to another iFanboy party).

I met loads of wonderful people and was exposed to a fantastic part of popular culture. There were also a couple of areas of unpleasantness but if you have that many people in one place it is bound to happen.

So without further ado here is my list of what I loved and what I did not love about San Diego Comic-Con.

The people. Coming into this I had horrible images of nerds and geeks and cosplayers all shoving and being aggro with each other in the melee that was the exhibition hall. Turns out that for the most part we’re actually quite a sedate and friendly bunch of people. It was only on Sunday that I started to noticed some tired and cranky people wandering about but that’s to be expected after four days of SDCC.

On the flip side of this though is a small group that I’m calling griefers. These are people that are just there to spoil other people’s fun. I mean there were plenty of things that I didn’t like at SDCC but I wasn’t running around like an spiteful idiot waving hateful placards and generally just being a tool. Thankfully they were a rare subset of individuals but they were sadly very vocal. This really disappointed me. 361 days of the year these people are probably subjected to similar treatment from people in their lives. “Oh, you like comics? Isn’t that a bit juvenile/stupid/sucky/etc”. So why, at Comic-Con, our Mecca, do these people feel the need to act like hateful assholes?

A big part of Comic-Con is of course the panels and I’d just like to highlight a handful that stood out, for better or worse.

Marvel runs a good panel. They’re all flash with their slideshows and funny gags when they introduce their panel members and they have a really good energy about them. They also had some good announcements which I dare say helped with the me liking them. Special mention has to be given to Joe Q and Kid Vision at the Dark Reign panel. That was some classic stuff right there people.

On the other side of the street we have DC and their panels. Sorry to say it guys but you didn’t exactly thrill me. Now some of the problem is surely that a lot of big stuff had just happened prior to SDCC, especially in the Batman books, so I can understand how there wouldn’t be much in the way of exciting announcements there. But seriously, some of these panels were just downright boring. DC just lacked energy and focus. I came out of every one of their panels with no sense of “holy cow this is gonna be awesome”. Upon reflection there was some cool stuff announced in the Superman panel but it was mentioned in such an off-handed way that I’m not surprised no one is talking about it.

Here comes my (and other people’s) biggest gripe. Comic-Con security. So Friday morning rocks around and after lining up for two hours to get into the exhibition hall I realise that I’d forgotten to get money out. Silly I know but that early in the morning surely there wouldn’t be much of a line at the ATMs. Sure enough there wasn’t but I never got a chance to savour my luck because as soon as I’d walked out of sight of the exhibition hall doors a security guard stops me and tells me to leave.

Me: But I was just inside. I came out to use the ATM.
Security Guy: I’m sorry sir but you need to go outside.
Me: Why?
Security Guy: Sir, you need to go outside now.

Never having been in that situation before and being in a foreign country I decided not to press my point of “but I was just inside” and walk calmly outside looking both bemused and rather annoyed. Half an hour later I was back in and the rest of the day proceeded quite nicely.

That wasn’t the only example of over-zealous security and while I’m sure all these incidents were the result of poor communication or edicts that had been passed down from higher ups it really left a bad taste in my mouth. Just like the griefers I mentioned earlier, the security people just seemed to be there to keep the fun to a minimum.

So that’s my post. There were dozens of things I could have mentioned here but I want people to read this, not cower at the size of the thing. Stay tuned for more ranting and raving from me. There’s gonna be plenty of geekiness going on so I hope you like that sort of thing.