We all know TV can be harmful for kids. But how much is too much? Yet another study has weighed in on this grey area. The University of Montreal has concluded that just an extra hour of television can seriously impact a child's performance in kindergarten.
According to an article in Science Daily, the study has found that for every extra hour of television watched beyond the recommended amount, children's motor skills are compromised. They are also more prone to "psychosocial difficulties" such as victimization and bullying.
As part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, the viewing habits of 991 girls and 1,006 boys in Quebec were logged for the study.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) currently suggests no more than two hours of screen time for children over the age of two, and no screen time whatsoever for infants.
Professor Linda Pagani's latest findings are unequivocal and damning. Too much TV can not only compromise emerging skills in vocabulary, math, attention, and physical ability, it can also increase the likelihood of your child being 'picked on' by peers.
Thoughts?
She may be a household name, but even one of Forbes' 100 most powerful celebrities isn't immune to racism, it seems. While shopping in Switzerland, the mega rich and successful US talk show host was apparently snubbed while handbag shopping.
According to an article in the Independent, the 59 year old was in Zurich attending none other than Tina Turner's wedding. When she entered an upmarket store, she was told by a shop assistant that the bags on display were “too expensive” for her.
By all accounts she left the store without a fuss, but later expressed her dismay about the incident on Entertainment Tonight:
"I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had my little Donna Karan skirt and my little sandals. But obviously The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Zurich.”
When Winfrey politely asked once more to see the bag, the assistant added, "No, no you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that."
Which is laughable, really, considering Winfrey is a billionaire... Yet the fact of the matter is, her wealth is irrelevant. Even if she wasn't a famous wealthy person, she should have been treated with respect.
Kudos to Oprah for going out "without her eyelashes on" as well as the fact that she went public with her story.
No one is immune, but was the incident racist or simply elitist? We all know that fancy shop keepers look down on you if you are not dressed the part... No doubt race was a factor in the skirmish, though I'll bet that unchecked snobbery also played a part, too.
And no doubt that little shop is now tripping all over itself in an ingratiating display of butt-kissing, shipping Oprah ten of the bags she was eyeing up.
Of course the incident has opened the can of worms for Switzerland, which hosts a huge number of asylum-seekers, and isn't exactly thrilled about it.
What's your take on the story—racist or elitist or both? Ever been snubbed by a shop assistant? See what happened when our own Erica Ehm was in the same room as Oprah the great.
For those of you who are constantly told you are a double for your mother/father/sibling/cousin, this post is for you. Genetics have long been a fascinating topic, one that a 34-year-old Quebec City artist has explored in trippy detail in an installation over the past few years.
'Genetic Portraits' morphs the images of a various blood relatives, revealing an amazing melee of the gene pool and its various outcomes.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, Ulric Collette's seven year old was the starting point for the series of remarkable photographs.
"After the first one of my son and I, I was pretty sure it would work for other people too. A couple of days later, I contacted my brothers to try it out," said Collette. "I'm usually more shocked with the brother and brother, or the sister and sister ones ... sometimes the two subjects don't look a lot alike, but when I catch the right expression, they're a perfect match."
Perhaps most astonishing is the artist's own portrait, taken with his brother Christopher. He began taking the photos in 2008, and hopes to compile the images in a book once he hits the 100 mark.
Portrait génétique from Ulric Collette on Vimeo.
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