Children in the United States watch about four hours of television every day

Despite warnings, most U.S. babies watch TV

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - About 90 percent of U.S. children under age 2 and as many as 40 percent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers

They said the number of young kids watching TV is much greater than expected.

"We don't know from the study whether it is good or bad. What we know is that it is big," said Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington, whose research appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

A second study suggested excessive TV viewing can lead to attention and learning problems down the road.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that children in the United States watch about four hours of television every day. They recommend that children under age 2 should not watch any and older children should watch no more than 2 hours a day of quality programming.

But 29 percent of parents surveyed by Zimmerman and colleagues believe baby-oriented TV and DVD programs offer educational benefits.

"Parents are getting the message loud and clear from marketers of TV and videos that this is good for their kids. That it will help their brain development ... None of this stuff has ever been proven," Zimmerman said in a telephone interview.

For their study, Zimmerman's team conducted random telephone surveys of more than 1,000 families with young children in Minnesota and Washington.

They found 90 percent of children under age 2 and 40 percent of infants under three months watched TV regularly.

At 3 months, children watched less than an hour per day, but by 24 months, they watched more than 1.5 hours per day.

About half of the shows watched were in the educational category, with the remainder split evenly among noneducational children's content, baby DVDs/videos and adult TV.

TV IN THE BEDROOM

In a separate survey of 1,051 parents published in the journal Pediatrics, 75 percent of children aged 0 to 6 were found to watch TV every day, often in their own bedrooms.

"We don't know that it is bad but we don't know that it is harmless," Zimmerman said.

A second study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that teens who watch three to four hours of television a day are more likely to have attention or learning problems and are less likely to get a college degree.

"Even watching more than an hour of TV per day had some adverse consequences, but three hours was much worse than one hour, and two was worse than one," Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute said in a telephone interview.

Johnson and colleagues studied 678 families in New York state over more than 20 years.

"Kids who watched less than one hour of TV per day were twice as likely to go to college as those who watched three or more hours per day," he said.

Just 12 percent of the parents whose children watched less than an hour of television a day said their child "hardly ever does homework," compared to 21 percent of those who watched one to three hours a day and 27 percent of those who watched more than three hours a day.

Parents said 22 percent of teens who watched less than an hour a day were often bored at school, compared to 35 percent of the moderate watchers and 42 percent of those who watched three hours or more.

The result was the same regardless of socioeconomic status.

Johnson said he believes TV may be shortening teens' attention spans. "Over time, it could really dumb down society," he said.

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Students design, launch tiny satellite

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A group of students, former students and professors stood quietly in an electronics-filled room on a recent Tuesday, intently listening for contact from a 4-inch cubed satellite hurtling miles overhead.

Those gathered comprised the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment, or CAPE, and the small cubed bundle of electronics is CAPE1, a small satellite designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The project is part of a program called Cubesat, which allows universities to cheaply launch satellites, something that gives students world class experience, said professor Robert Henry, head of the Department of Electric and Computer Engineering.

CAPE1 is the first satellite designed, built and launched by a Louisiana university, and one of the first in the Southern region, Henry said.

CAPE1 was launched on April 17, along with six other university satellites from a site in Kazahkstan using a modified former intercontinental ballistic missile.

CAPE team members were waiting to make contact with CAPE1 while it passed from the North Pole south across North America, where it would be sliding into range of the antenna set up on top of Madison Hall on the ULL campus.

Amateur radio operators in Europe had picked up CAPE1's beacon as it flew over their area.

With CAPE1 approaching, the team gathered around the computer screens while a team member fiddled with the dials of a radio receiver, searching the frequency for the telltale beeps of CAPE1.

For a few minutes, the radio picked up only static, hiss and whines.

Conversations died down while the team waited, fiddled with the radio and waited some more.

Finally, a steady stream of beeps and chirps broke through the static.

"There it is," Henry said. The team exchanged handshakes and high-fives.

The beeps were Morse code that let everyone listening know the satellite's name and other technical information such as temperature, Henry said.

A second transmission sends data more quickly, more like a dial-up modem, which allows for more detailed technical data to be sent, Henry said.

CAPE1's signals told the team that its solar panels were charging its onboard batteries, which is good news, Henry said.

CAPE1's true mission is providing experience, not many engineering students get the real-world experience of building and launching a satellite, Henry said.

In the future, the CAPE team could build a satellite that does more than transmit information about itself, perhaps relaying data from sensors in the Gulf of Mexico, Henry said.

Google Earth can not into all computers to watch your own house

Google Earth is a broadband, 3D application that not all computers can run

• Desktop computers older than 4 years old may not be able to run it.
  
• Notebook computers older than 2 years old may not be able to run it.
  

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» China announces new anti-porn Internet campaign » Soft32.com News

» China announces new anti-porn Internet campaign »

China has launched its latest campaign against pornography on the Internet that will also take aim at fraud, illegal lotteries and “rumor-spreading,” the official Xinhua news agency said.

The campaign will crack down on “distributing pornographic materials and organizing cyber strip shows, and purge the Web of sexually explicit images, stories, and audio and video clips,” it added.