Screen Time Linked to Psychological Problems in Children
October 12th, 2010Via: University of Bristol:
Children who spend longer than two hours in front of a computer or television screen are more likely to suffer psychological difficulties, regardless of how physically active they are.
The PEACH project, a study of over a 1,000 children aged between ten and 11, measured the time children spent in front of a screen as well as their psychological well being. In addition, an activity monitor recorded both children’s sedentary time and moderate physical activity. The results showed that more than two hours per day of both television viewing and recreational computer use were related to higher psychological difficulty scores, regardless of how much time the children spent on physical activity.
The authors of the report, published in the November edition of the American journal Pediatrics, conclude that limiting children’s screen time may be important for ensuring children’s future health and wellbeing.
According to the activity monitor, the children in the study who spent more time sedentary had better psychological scores overall. Those children who did more moderate physical activity fared better in certain psychological areas, including emotional and peer problems, but fared worse in some areas related to behaviour, including hyperactivity.
Lead author Dr Angie Page from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences said: “Whilst low levels of screen viewing may not be problematic, we cannot rely on physical activity to ‘compensate’ for long hours of screen viewing.
“Watching TV or playing computer games for more than two hours a day is related to greater psychological difficulties irrespective of how active children are.”
Children’s psychological wellbeing was assessed on the basis of a strengths and difficulties questionnaire which rated their emotional, peer, conduct and hyperactivity problems.
The children were asked to rate a series of statements as true on a three-point scale, varying from not true, to somewhat true to certainly true. Statements to assess their emotional wellbeing included; ‘I am often unhappy, down-hearted or tearful’, while statements to assess their peer problems included; ‘I am usually on my own’, ‘I generally play alone or keep to myself’.
The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy?
October 12th, 2010Via: Gonzalo Lira:
Brian and Ilsa—the nice upper-middle-class retired couple, who always follow the rules, and never ever break the law—who don’t even cheat on their golf scores—even when they’re playing alone (“Because if you cheat at golf, you’re only cheating yourself”)—have decided to give their bank the middle finger.
They have essentially said, Fuckit.
Incarceration’s Impact on Society
October 12th, 2010Via: McClatchy DC:
You won’t need a calculator, but get ready to decipher a bunch of numbers — data that ought to make Americans feel both sadness and shame.
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While the costs of housing prisoners — $50 billion annually for state correctional costs alone — should be enough to cause us to rethink our way of doing things, the overall societal and human costs should be even more convincing.
The study shows that “One in 87 working-aged white men is in prison or jail, compared with 1 in 36 Hispanic men and 1 in 12 African-American men. More young (20-34) African-American men without a high school diploma or GED are currently behind bars (37 percent) than employed (26 percent).”
Perhaps most disturbing is the 2.7 million American children who have a parent behind bars, a massive increase from 25 years ago when 1 in 125 kids had an incarcerated parent compared to 1 in 28 today. And, “two-thirds of these children’s parents were incarcerated for non-violent offenses,” the report says.
Research Credit: JA
New Book Looks at Connection Between Mobile Devices and a Host of Health Problems
October 12th, 2010Is this partially why so many men are shooting blanks?
And what is the compelling evidence to suggest that cellphones might be tied to sterility in men?
In 2008, researchers found that men with the lowest sperm counts were significantly more likely to keep their phones on their bodies all the time. And it’s been found that the sperm exposed to the highest level of radiation from the phone were the most deformed and the worst swimmers. An Australian team led by a fellow named John Aitkin believes that cellphone radiation weakens the ability of the sperm cell to swim because it’s affecting mitochondrial DNA (mitochondria are basically the engines of the cell). Very similar work was done at one of the top research institutions in Turkey, and in Poland, Hungary and India.
Via: Salon:
Strange how hard it is to remember a time before cellphones. Mobile phones have changed the way we spend our leisure time, the way we work and how we consume everything from groceries to news stories. Some countries even set up centers to treat those “addicted” to iPhones or BlackBerrys. But, as a new book shows, cellphones may actually be doing damage to far more than our attention spans — and could, in fact, be killing us.
In “Disconnect,” Devra Davis, a scientist and National Book Award finalist for “When Smoke Ran Like Water,” looks at the connection between cellphones and health problems, with some disturbing results. Recent studies have tied cellphone use to rises in brain damage, cheek cancer and malfunctioning sperm. She reveals the unsettling fact that many new cellphones now come with the small-print warning that they are to be kept at least one-inch from the ear (presumably for safety reasons) and many insurance companies refuse to insure cellphone companies against health-related claims. Most troubling of all, science has shown that children and teenagers are particularly susceptible to cellphone radiation, raising questions about its effects on coming generations.
Salon spoke to Davis, via land line, about the real dangers of cellphone use, the industry’s coverup and what we can do to protect ourselves and our children.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
Michio Kaku: “These Are the Terrorists”
October 12th, 2010Increasing Use of RFID Tracking for Students
October 12th, 2010Can we get these kids some breakfast sticks?
Via: Houston Chronicle:
Radio frequency identification — the same technology used to monitor cattle — is tracking students in the Spring and Santa Fe school districts.
Identification badges for some students in both school districts now include tracking devices that allow campus administrators to keep tabs on students’ whereabouts on campus. School leaders say the devices improve security and increase attendance rates.
“It’s a wonderful asset,” said Veronica Vijil, principal of Bailey Middle School in Spring, one of the campuses that introduced the high-tech badges this fall.
But some parents and privacy advocates question whether the technology could have unintended consequences. The tags remind them of George Orwell’s Big Brother, and they worry that hackers could figure a way to track students after they leave school.
Opium Fields Surround Main Australian Base in Afghanistan
October 11th, 2010Via: The Age:
MORE than half the fields surrounding the main Australian base in Afghanistan are being used to grow opium poppies, as coalition forces struggle to ween locals off the lucrative crop.
Locals question why troops and police have failed to crack down on the semi-open sale of the poppies, according to the report of a respected non-governmental organisation.
While the allied forces in Oruzgan province have had some success in convincing locals to grow wheat, fruit and saffron, opium poppies are still the province’s biggest cash crop.
”Locals find it hard to comprehend why military forces or Afghan National Police have not intervened into poppy cultivation or sale so close to the district centre of Tarin Kowt, and blame it on corruption,” The Liaison Office says in its report, which analyses the four years of Dutch control of the province.
”There are indeed allegations that several pro-government strongmen, and not just the insurgency, are involved in the drug trade.
”Furthermore, the fact that there are semi-open poppy bazaars in both Deh Rawud and Tarin Kowt adds to the perception of impunity.”
Russia’s State of the Art Inflatable Weapon Decoys
October 11th, 2010Via: BBC:
The Russian military has come up with an inventive way to deceive the enemy and save money at the same time: inflatable weapons.
They look just like real ones: they are easy to transport and quick to deploy.
You name it, the Russian army is blowing it up: from pretend tanks to entire radar stations.
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They are made of a special material that tricks enemy radar and thermal imaging into thinking they are real weapons.
The inflatables are stitched together at a former hot-air balloon factory.
Related: Military Deception
Surprise — The Very Dark Side of U.S. History
October 11th, 2010Via: Alternet:
There is a dark — seldom acknowledged — thread that runs through U.S. military doctrine, dating back to the early days of the Republic.
This military tradition has explicitly defended the selective use of terror, whether in suppressing Native American resistance on the frontiers in the 19th Century or in protecting U.S. interests abroad in the 20th Century or fighting the “war on terror” over the last decade.
The American people are largely oblivious to this hidden tradition because most of the literature advocating state-sponsored terror is carefully confined to national security circles and rarely spills out into the public debate, which is instead dominated by feel-good messages about well-intentioned U.S. interventions abroad.
Over the decades, congressional and journalistic investigations have exposed some of these abuses. But when that does happen, the cases are usually deemed anomalies or excesses by out-of-control soldiers.
But the historical record shows that terror tactics have long been a dark side of U.S. military doctrine. The theories survive today in textbooks on counterinsurgency warfare, “low-intensity” conflict and “counter-terrorism.”
Trading Alert: DBA
October 11th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Consider shortside plays on PowerShares DB Multi-Sector (NYSEArca: DBA). Stop $29.10. Currently $28.75x$28.76.
Premise: Possible double top. Multiple bearish divergences on the oscillators, also, the daily and weekly OBV. But if it breaks higher, cut it loose fast. That might mean “it” knows that the dollar isn’t going to catch a bounce.
