The Virtual War on Terror: Counterterrorism Narratives in Video Games

Over the past decade, a great deal of research has been done to analyze the ways in which popular media, especially movies and television shows, construct fictional terrorist threats. However, little attention has been given to the extremely popular genre of counterterrorism video games and how they fit into the War on Terror media narrative. Counterterrorism video games reflect many of the themes of other media about terrorism, such as the demonization of terrorist enemies and the exaggeration of terrorist threats. However, video games strengthen these themes to make the threat of terrorism appear more pervasive and imminent. Consequently, counterterrorism games display an intensified vision of the War on Terror narrative, in which the entire world is a war zone. This leads game narratives to simulate and justify more extreme state responses to terrorism.     

The Trafficking in Persons Report: a game of risk

The State Department ranks countries on adherence to minimum standards set forth by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000. The Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) is updated annually and failure to enact changes to combat trafficking results in higher tier rankings. This paper evaluates the TIP by situating this tool in light of special features of the modern era, such as globalization and risk. Through a survey of the theoretical literature on risk and on trafficking risk factors, we devise six preliminary risk clusters and discuss how the TIP could incorporate governments’ response to trafficking risk factors into the ranking system. Our intentions are to spark debate about how risk factors could be incorporated in the TIP, to provide a preliminary model and to encourage further research in this area.     

MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd: The Practical Benefit Doctrine Marches On

In MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd v Rock Advertising Ltd the Court of Appeal held that when an ongoing contract is varied so that one party's obligation to pay money is reduced, the variation is binding as long as the other party receives a practical benefit. In doing so, the Court of Appeal effectively confined the rule in Foakes v Beer to one‐off payments. This raises serious questions about the continued survival of Foakes v Beer. On the other hand, the Court of Appeal ensured that Foakes v Beer would not be killed off via equity by moving away from the suggestion in Collier v P & M J Wright (Holdings) Ltd that an agreed part‐payment of a debt by a debtor will always raise an estoppel preventing the creditor from demanding the remainder of the debt.     

Characteristics and Prediction of Cranial Crush Injuries in Children*†

Abstract: This study documents four clinical cases of fatal crush injuries to children between 1.5 and 6 years of age with correlations between modeled stress and clinically observed fracture patterns. The clinical case fractures were concentrated in the basicranium, bridged the impact sites, and traversed the middle cranial fossa in the area of the spheno‐occipital synchondrosis. The crushing forces from these cases were recreated on a simplified finite element model of a cranium by applying bilateral pressures to corresponding regions. Numerous trials were run to develop a representative pattern of principal stress directions. In all cases, the highest tensile stresses were located on the basicranium and corresponded to the observed fracture path(s). These results suggest that prefailure stress field diagrams may predict fracture propagation paths, although these will not be exact. Also, these analyses indicate that quasi‐static bilateral loading of the cranium may lead to predictable fracture of the basicranium.     

Ruptured cerebral artery aneurysm and bacterial meningitis in a man with osteogenesis imperfecta

This report describes a 38-year-old man with osteogenesis imperfecta who died of a ruptured cerebral artery aneurysm and bacterial meningitis. He had multiple long bone fractures in the past, and approximately 4 months before death, he had surgery to relieve symptoms of basilar impression. The surgery was complicated by a postoperative wound infection. For the next 4 months, he had intermittent headaches and vomiting. He was found dead in his bed at home. At autopsy, he had a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm and bacterial meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid and blood cultures had growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Osteogenesis imperfecta is a disorder of type I collagen. Type I collagen is present in many tissues, including blood vessels. The etiology of cerebral artery aneurysm formation is multifactorial. Some patients with cerebral artery aneurysms have been shown to have abnormalities in type III collagen. There has not been a reported relationship made between abnormalities in type I collagen and aneurysms. Meningitis can also result in cerebral artery aneurysms, but they are usually due to Aspergillus or Mycobacterium species. The case we report is unique; cerebral artery aneurysm formation may have been due to osteogenesis imperfecta and/or bacterial meningitis.     

Does “Real-Freedom-for-All” Really Justify Basic Income?

We here examine Philippe Van Parijs's concept of "real freedom" which justifies in his view the introduction of a basic income. What we call into question is whether this concept can be understood, as Van Parijs argues, as the counterfactual freedom to do what one might want to do, that is as a notion of freedom based on the idea of potential desire. We oppose to it an alternative conception of "real freedom" related, first, to a notion of basic needs which a well-ordered society can satisfy by means of compensation, second, to a notion of social mediation in the evaluation of individual preferences. In this way we restore the relationship between freedom and desire, which allows us to take into account the conception the social actors have of their own freedom, more than does the too abstract conception of freedom based on the idea of potential desire.     

Data security: Past,present and future

The loss by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of two CDs containing 25 million child benefit details has changed the data security landscape forever. No longer is data security the exclusive and rather arcane preserve of spotty technology professionals or data protection lawyers. HMRC has thrust data security onto the front pages of the mainstream media and brought it very suddenly to the top of the political and commercial agendas of senior politicians and boards of directors. In this article, the author will outline the reasons behind the rise of data security as a front line issue and examine the lessons to be learnt from HMRC. He will analyse the different facets of data security risk and explore ways in which organisations can go about managing it. He will outline the attitude of regulators to data security and where regulatory developments are likely to take us. The final part of the article looks into the future, with particular focus on the emergence of privacy enhancing technologies.