Category Archives: World

Online gaming

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According to ComScore (via Techcrunch), 217m people play online games. That’s 28% of all people online, doesn’t including gambling sites and marks a 16.% increase on May 2006.

According to ComScore Europe managing director Bob Ivins:

With one in four Internet users visiting a gaming site, playing games online is extremely popular. The fact that these websites are pulling in over a quarter of the total worldwide Internet population shows what a global phenomenon gaming has become. The potential of the online gaming arena should be especially appealing for advertisers, as the average online gamer visits a gaming site 9 times a month.

The site gives a regional breakdown which shows certain gaming sites are favoured in certain regions. For example, Zylom attracted 10.3m Europeans but only 484,000 Asia-Pacific users (these two geographical regions had the most online gamers overall).

I haven’t done much in recent years, in fact I’m pretty sure the last time I played over the net it was either going head to head with a friend in Command and Conquer: Red Alert or getting my backside whipped by somebody at Quake II.

I feel so old…

Sacred Destinations

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For those of you with a more spiritual yearning, this may be the site for you (courtesy of Digg).

Sacred-destinations.com  is a guide to more than 1,300 sacred sites, holy places, religious buildings, religious artifacts, and pilgrimage destinations in 55 countries.

The site contains maps and travel guides, and is searchable by country or theme. It’s worth checking out even if you’re just interested in travel, architecture and humanity’s urge to discover or honour something beyond the physical realm.

A shot at redemption

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I respect Tony Blair for not taking the easy route.

He could have sat on the back benches for a few years then hit the lecture circuit, making a lot of money for relatively little effort. His post as Middle East envoy will be anything but easy.

Despite his successes in Kosovo and Northern Ireland — and his achievement there must be applauded — Iraq will overshadow his legacy as Britain’s prime minister. He authorised his country’s involvement in an invasion based on lies and an occupation that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, as well as shattering his international standing.

The Mideast post is his shot at redemption.

He failed to bring peace to the region as PM, but clearly feels he can now it’s possible to devote his full energies to the situation.

But he has a long way to go to convince the various parties in the region that he is a credible envoy.

He will represent the US, EU, UN and Russia; the European Union and United Nations have made enormous contributions of aid and humanitarian work, while Russia has historic trade relations with a number of Middle East countries. Various policy decisions ranging from total support of Israel to the invasion of Iraq have weakened US credibility.

In an editorial yesterday, The Guardian said Blair’s new role “could be a painful reminder of the most unhappy aspects of his premiership, as he encounters Arab suspicion that he is merely a lackey of George Bush, and Arab anger over Iraq and the Lebanon war of 2006″.

He came in for criticism over Lebanon for doing little to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, a path the US also took.

So this is the baggage he brings to the Middle East. It will take a lot of hard work on his half to become a man all sides can do business with or for this to be seen as more than a political goodwill job.

I believe it is possible for Blair to have some success. By adopting an even-handed approach and by really throwing himself into the job he can win over some — though never all — of his doubters.

The Quartet has said Blair’s first job will be to mobilise international support and assistance for the Palestinians, and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has promised to give all necessary assistance in this.

Starting small is the key.

The Hamas situation complicates things, but if Blair can work on getting aid to the people who really need it he may build the foundations for a more concrete solution.

This may be the start of a long road for Tony Blair.

There is no chance of a quick resolution to the many political and social problems affecting the Middle East. There is no hope at all of a lasting peace as long as the Palestinians are split in two. But there is a chance that what he does in the next 12 months can make a difference in the years to come.

One man’s road to redemption could change everything. Maybe Blair will make a difference, maybe he won’t. But good luck to him for at least having the balls to try.

Land of the giants

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ABC have an interesting piece up on how Americans are being eclipsed by the Dutch in the height stakes.

The average Dutch man is six-foot-one, while the average US male is five-foot-ten. The ABC report says America has the shortest population in the industrialised world, but then points out that the average height for a Japanese man is five-foot-seven.

What the story doesn’t make clear is that Americans are shrinking while the Japanese are getting taller.

The above link is worth following if only for the photo: Paul van Sprundel standing next to a life-size model of (five-foot-seven) Vincent van Gogh, who barely comes up to the man’s shoulders.

To illustrate the disparity between the nations, ABC sent a six-foot-three reporter, Jim Sciutto, to Amsterdam. There he was left looking up at the likes of van Sprundel, who is six-eleven (watch Sciutto’s story here).

However, I’m not convinced by some of the facts he cites. The study that Americans are coming up short is reputable: it was researched by teams at the University of Munich and Princeton University.

Sciutto says: “Historians have found height to be about the best single indicator of a nation’s success, reflecting not just wealth but overall health and well-being.”

That’s fine. It’s backed up by quotes from Professor George Maat of Holland’s Leiden University, who has been researching this kind of thing for years.

“Health, nutrition, living conditions, genetics — everything at the end goes down to one thing that represents all of that, and that is stature,” he said. “And I think that is the easiest parameter to use to follow the conditions people are living in.”

Fair enough. And the health link has been mentioned before; I have read of studies showing that the population of northern China is getting taller because of a higher meat content in the region’s diet.

But then Sciutto says: “And so, at the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans were the tallest in the world.”

Um, no. The Romans were smaller than members of various Celtic and Germanic tribes — one study claims they were as much as 4cm shorter. The same study points out that the average height did not increase while the Empire lasted but, paradoxically if going by Sciutto’s claim, did after the Empire’s demise in Western Europe.

Even the Egyptians in their heyday were only a whisper above five feet.

Have I sufficiently sucked the fun out of this story?

Palestinian politics

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Mahmoud Abbas has set up an emergency government, a move which should relax the Western embargo against the Palestinian Authority.

It comes as gunmen loyal to his Fatah movement capture Hamas bases in the West Bank.

This, in turn, is making a mockery of claims that the Palestinians will remain as one principality. Hamas says it does not intend to set up a state in Gaza, but that is the reality. Fatah’s offensive in the West Bank only consolidates the split.

The US is backing Abbas. This makes sense in the context of American foreign policy; the US is an ally of Israel and of the two main Palestinian groups Fatah is the only one which recognises Israel’s right to exist.

Hamas, on the other hand, wishes to destroy the nation.

The relaxation of sanctions could be an a major PR boost for Fatah and Abbas in particular. His party is largely responsible for its own downfall, but most Palestinians are willing to back whoever will get them food and the basic necessities. Thus, if Abbas is seen to have brought much-needed aid to his people his stock among them will rise.

However, he also exposes himself to claims of being a US puppet. This would be valuable propaganda from a Hamas perspective, but would not be of great significance among his citizens.

Gaza now seems fairly calm. But its future is uncertain; it is not a viable state by itself. The Gazan economy has been in freefall in the last six years, most of its industry is small-scale family operations and it depends on Israel for electricity.

An idealistic solution would be the disarmament of both Hamas and Fatah fighters by a strong international force under UN leadership. However, this is highly unlikely.

The political will just isn’t there for countries to send their troops to Palestine. The Gazans may only accept soldiers from Muslim nations, but this is a situation Israel would not tolerate.

This is not a scenario with an easy resolution on the horizon. Such a UN force would be stationed there for years; and given the difficulty the world body has had in forming a mission to Lebanon I can’t see it getting the numbers and resources it would need for a Gazan force.

Dialogue between the Palestinian groups is another possibility, although it may be some time for the situation to calm enough for this to take place. Even before the civil war numerous truces were called between the sides only to be broken hours later.

Do you think the crisis can be resolved?