Word: contentment
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...cell phones, the viral circulation rate of cultural memes never ceases to amaze (within four days, no less than 21 million viewers had paid witness to Susan Boyle’s on-stage coup d’état). The more fundamental change, however, has come in the content, volume, and sources from which we glean our information. The scope and depth of answerable academic questions has broadened dramatically with the advent of digitized databases. Indeed, it is inside the classroom that the Harvard student has most directly experienced the much-celebrated “democratization of knowledge...
Christakis argues that regardless of what is playing on the screen - whether it's baby-friendly content or shows geared toward adults - television by nature is a passive medium that hampers rich social interaction. Even when parents and children interacted actively while watching TV together, the net effect of having it turned on, for a few minutes or hours, was a drop in vocalizations. On average, the study found, when the TV is switched on, youngsters spend more time in silence and solitude than they do in active social interaction. "At minimum, the findings should give parents pause," says Christakis...
...major weakness of the study, however, is that it fails to determine a specific association between programming content and infant development. Because the recorder documented only the sound of the television and not the content of what was playing, Christakis can't say for sure whether kid-targeted programming could actually lead the youngsters to vocalize, talk and interact with their parents more. "It is possible to put on the TV and really engage with a child verbally," says Christakis...
...case study (no pun intended) in dysfunctionality. And once again, it was Case who saw this. In fact, he argued in public in early 2004 that AOL ought to be spun off. (He actually did a pretty good job of predicting the future then too, pointing out that online content would consolidate around powerful verticals.) (See the 50 best inventions...
...structure is flawed, so is the content. The Parliament is often seen as a retirement home for washed-up national politicians. Its debates often drift towards a pomposity that is only amplified by translation into 23 official languages. The body's monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg, a nonsensical legacy of French pride, merely reinforces suspicions that MEPs spend lots of money to scant effect. (Read: "Brussels Beats Up On Bulgaria...