According to a new study by the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, sitting in front of the tube for an extended period of time increases your chances of dying from heart problems, and also raises your risk of dying sooner from any cause. NPR's Ira Flatow interviewed Dr. David Dunstan, who conducted the study:
Dr. DUNSTAN: [A] key finding was that when we compared people who watch less than two hours of television per day, people who watch more than four hours a day had a 46 percent higher risk of death from all causes and an 80 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease. So it appears that the higher amounts of TV significantly increase the risk.FLATOW: Forty-six percent, four hours a day. That - you know, the statistics in the United States are showing that the average person watches about five hours of TV a day here.
Dr. DUNSTAN: Yeah. And within Australia, our average is around about the three hours per day. So it does have serious implications, particularly for the U.S., for the population where, you know, TV viewing is substantially higher than what exists here in Australia.
Fortunately, there's hope for the couchbound. According to Dunstan, just getting up and walking around can help keep that heart pumping.
Dr. DUNSTAN: When we're sitting for prolonged periods, we're not burning up much energy. And it appears that television contributes to an overall reduction in the amount of calories that we burn throughout the day. ...The other consequence that we're starting to understand now is that when we're sitting for prolonged times such as, you know, in front of the television or long hours in front of the computer screen at a desk, there's an absence of muscle contractions. And there's extensive evidence that indicates that muscle contractions are so essential for many of the body's regulatory processes - for example, the breaking down and using of glucose. So when we're remaining idle for prolonged periods, we're disrupting those body's typical regulatory processes.
FLATOW: So get off your chair and get up and move is what you're saying. Get out of the car, take a walk.
Sounds about right. Does walking from the living room to the kitchen to grab another bag of chips count?
Watching TV Could Shorten Your Life [NPR via PSFK]
]]>]]>My wife and I and I live in New Mexico and just got married in December 2009, and we took our rings to Kay Jewelers in the local mall to get re-sized. First off they were family heirlooms so they were very important to us and irreplaceable. Mine was my grandfather's and hers was from her great-grandfather.
Well they took the rings, gave us our receipt and told us they would be ready on January 9th. On January 8th they called my wife and told her that the the warehouse was running a little behind and they the rings would be in the following Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (that is literally what the message said). So we called them back that Monday and the manager said that the package was shipped and that it would be in in a few days.
That Wednesday the manager called my wife again and said that UPS was holding the box for an investigation but that our rings were there and everything was fine. The manager also said that we would need to provide proof that the rings were actual heirlooms, which would be hard to do since both the rings from the late 1940s. For the next week the manager kept telling us that UPS was still holding the box and that they weren't saying why or giving out any form of information.
She also then decided to tell us that Kay was not supposed to take heirlooms in the first place because there was a risk of them being lost. I found that odd because that is something she should have told us a week ago when she found out they were heirlooms.
The next week my wife and I went to the actual store where the same manager told us that the rings were now totally gone and asked us what a suitable replacement would be. My wife then tried to tell her what a suitable replacement would be for us but the manager kept interrupting saying she couldn't do that and that they would only replace the rings up to $500 (all we asked for was two bands and a $100 engagement ring all of which was below $500). Since the manager refused to cooperate and help us out, we decided to call the Kay Jewelers corporate office and see what they can do.
They, of course, told us the same thing the manager did which was basically your rings are lost and to deal with it. My wife then asked the man at the main office that answered, if he can have a copy of the investigation report UPS made. He said no because other people's info was on it but he can find out what happened for us. About 30 minutes later he called us back and told us that the UPS report said there was a hole in the box and all the rings fell out.
A few days later we called back to the local store and asked the manager if they took pictures of the rings at the warehouse before or after the resizing to which she said yse. We then asked if we can get copies of the pictures, she said she would have to call the main office and ask. Fifteen minutes later she called back and said that they will be mailing out the pictures and that they should be in in a few days. Well 4 days later my wife and I went back to the store to see what was up with the pictures to which the manager said that now we can't have pictures and if we want to do anything else besides replace the rings we would have to get a lawyer. Which is interesting since she already said that the main office was mailing out the pictures.
It has been week since we were told we now need a lawyer (which we are now getting). All in all I, personally, feel as though Kay is being very very irresponsable about all of this and rather carefree. As for the manager, both my wife and I think that she has been lying to us about this whole thing since she kept contradicting her self every time we spoke to her.
Well I just thought people would like to know how Kay handles things.
"Toledo strip club puts cover charge into quake relief" [Toledo Blade via Boingboing]
]]>The CPSC says you should contact the store where you bought the crib, and you should receive either a refund, a replacement crib, or a store credit. If the store refuses to cooperate, call the CPSC's hotline at 800-638-2772 and report it.
"Generation 2 Worldwide and “ChildESIGNS” Drop Side Crib Brands Recalled; Three Infant Deaths Reported" [CPSC]
"Generation 2 crib recall: Stop using your crib now, CPSC warns" [Christian Science Monitor]
"At this point, due to financial reasons, I am going to have to go back to my now 11 year old television and use that, until I can afford to purchase a new LCD TV," writes Jeremy, "Which, given my understandable disappointment with Vizio, will be another brand."
They don't make 'em like they used to.
An Open Letter to William Wang, CEO of Vizio TV [Somewhat Daily Words]
]]>Matt says:
As a long time reader of the Consumerist, I have seen a lot of posts about the annoyances of Walmart greeters insisting on checking receipts. I have detested this practice as well, and Consumerist articles are what started me on my road to refusing to show receipts. I have learned a few tips from experience that I thought I’d pass on.What do you think of Matt's method? ]]>
First, is that your significant other probably won’t be pleased. My wife always pretends she doesn’t know me whenever I refuse to show my receipt. She thinks it’s kind of funny, but she won’t back me up ever. She just keeps walking as if I were a stranger.
Second, and most important, is to be polite. I’ve found that being confrontational or refusing on almost any grounds turns it into a messy experience. I’ve found that what works best is when someone asks to see my receipt, I just smile cheerfully and say “No Thanks”, and keep walking. A majority of the time the greeter will just get a befuddled expression on their face as they try to figure out what to do. After all, they haven’t been trained to handle this situation, and because you aren’t really confronting them or doing anything to get their hackles up, they aren’t very likely to really stop you. Besides, how can you stop someone and be rude to them when they just smiled at you and were polite?
The other thing is to just keep on walking. Don’t try to avoid the greeter, don’t speed up, don’t slow down. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do if the greeter hadn’t been there. If you don’t do anything to trigger basic responses in them, then the confusion over your courteous refusal will have you out the door before they know what to do about it. After all, confrontation doesn’t accomplish anything and the wasted time of a confrontation defeats the purpose of not showing your receipt in the first place.
I’ve found that it is far more satisfying to be super polite when refusing to show a receipt. Once you start to be at all rude, the greeters will become far more confrontational and things can spiral out of hand. The only time I have ever had a confrontation was one of the first times I ever refused to show my receipt. I hadn’t learned any of these tricks, and it wasn’t a very enjoyable experience, even though I did win out and didn’t show my receipt.
According to a report from Kantar Media that documents all of the ads and advertisers from Sunday evening, CBS ran just under 48 minutes of commercials (not counting their own promo pieces) during the game, several minutes more than last year's record-setting telecast.
While some might argue this exhibits a willingness on the part of advertisers to once again spend big bucks on high-profile TV spots, Kantar also points out that Super Bowl XLIV featured the highest number of cheaper, shorter 15-second ads in almost a decade.
Additionally, this year saw the top four ad buyers (Anheuser-Busch InBev, Hyundai, Coca Cola, PepsiCo) dominate the night, accounting for 25% of all purchased ad time. Of note, though PepsiCo was a top-4 advertiser, none of their Super Bowl ads were for Pepsi beverages. The company ceded the floor to Coke and opted instead to spend their cash on pushing Doritos to the munching audience.
Also worth mentioning from the Kantar report is that 63% of the Super Bowl XLIV advertisers are not currently listed as Top 200 ad buyers, a 5% increase over last year and nearly double the 2001-2005 average, meaning that smaller companies chose to take advantage of the visibility the Super Bowl affords while the bigger names decided to stay home and watch the game (and the ads) on TV like the rest of us.
Kantar Media Provides Full Analysis of 2010 Super Bowl Advertising [Kantar Media]
]]>In a statement released by Netflix, the company clarified that is does indeed intend to bring customers HD movies (at 720p) in glorious 5.1 surround sometime this year, there is no definite plan to unleash 1080p Watch It Now films in 2010.
Xbox 360 users hungry for a taste of streaming 1080p movies can currently feed their HD beast through Microsoft's Zune store, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight player.
]]>Unlike your usual hour of House, this week's show focused on his much-put-upon boss, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, as she tried to negotiate the hurdles of her gig as the hospital's dean of medicine.
One subplot featured a carpenter, Mr. Acevedo, who was attempting to sue the hospital because they had done too good of a job sewing his thumb back on after he severed it in an accident. The patient's lawyer explained that his client had asked the docs to do only the small amount of surgery covered by his insurance. But the surgeon, Dr. Chase, decided to go ahead and reattach the thumb anyway.
According to PoliteDissent.com, a blog that exists to pick apart the medical facts and fictions on House, the patient might have a pretty good case:
Both Cuddy and the lawyer are glossing over the key fact that the treatment Mr. Acevedo received was not covered by the informed consent he signed. Chase may have done what he thought was best for the patient, but he did it through lying and dishonesty. Sure, Mr. Acevedo kept his thumb, and this will probably restrain the jury’s and judge’s enthusiasm for a large payout, but there is clear written evidence that Chase was deceitful in his treatment of the patient. The hospital’s insurance company will pay this off long before it sees a courtroom. And as for Chase, skipping informed consent or lying on it is a good way to lose a medical license.
Now to the guy trying to get a scrip for mother's milk. A cancer patient had heard that breast milk could be used as a treatment for his disease but could not afford to pay for it himself, so he went to Cuddy with the misguided notion that his insurance will pay for anything, so long as there's a prescription. Unfortunately, as Scott from Polite Dissent confirms, "the insurance company will not pay for it, even with a prescription — they’ll consider it an experimental treatment."
So the moral of this story? Don't get your medical or insurance advice from TV. That's what the Internet is for.
Episode 13 (Season 6): “5 to 9″ [Polite Dissent]
]]>The WaPo breaks it down for us:
Google's "equipment recovery fee" applies to customers who break their two-year T-Mobile contract after a 14-day trial period and before 120 days. A $350 fee that applied to new T-Mobile customers was lowered to $150, while a $250 fee for existing T-Mobile customers upgrading to the Nexus One was cut to $50.Don't worry, this has "nothing to do" with the investigation, says T-Mobile. The companies are just doing it randomly on their own because they are awesome. Or at least... that's their story:Customers would still have to pay a separate early termination fee to T-Mobile USA Inc. That fee is $200 for customers who break a contract after the 14-day trial period and before 120 days. After that, it is prorated.
"We have been looking for ways to improve our customers' experience, so we were able to work with T-Mobile to find a better solution for our customers," Google said in a statement.
In other news, Google now has phone support for their phone -- sort of. You can now inquire about that status of your order at +1-888-48-NEXUS (63987) between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. Technical support questions should go to HTC.
Google reduces fee to break Nexus One contract [Washington Post]
]]>In a recently filed lawsuit, the good folks at Summit Entertainment, the folks behind the Twilight Saga, are sinking their legal fangs into the neck of a company called Topics Entertainment, claiming that Topics violated their trademark by producing and advertising a documentary about Fork that is too similar to a doc Summit plans on releasing later this year.
Topics has reportedly been attempting to get DVDs of their film, Forks: Bitten by Twilight, into stores like Best Buy and Target, but Summit has sought an injunction against any future sales of the documentary — along with damages — alleging that they used trademarked artwork and that their box design is too close to cover of Summit's movie, Twilight in Forks: The Saga of the Real Town.
Twilight and its sequel New Moon have already grossed over $1.8 billion in theaters. The third film, Eclipse, is due out this summer.
]]>"Any time there's even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer's life, the credit card company will raise the interest rate to the high 20s, or 30%," he says. "They'll do anything they can to make life as difficult as possible."
Of course, there are some drawbacks, for instance the loss of extended warranty and purchase protection that comes with most credit cards. The most significant cost is that it makes it much harder to build up a good credit profile, although the 24-year-old managed to still get a car loan by combining her income with her fiancé's credit history.
"More consumers just say no to credit cards" [USAToday]
]]>Your character, Commander Shepard, asks the shopkeeper why he's there if you don't actually buy anything from him. (It's all automated through a kiosk.) He replies:
"Customer Service. Sweeping up the store. Carefully explaining things to the technologically illiterate. It's stunning how many people think light moves faster through expensive fiber optic cables than it does through cheap ones."
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