Diocia.com » Just Interesting

Average U.S. gamer overweight and depressed

diocia — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:51:27 +0000

It might not come much as a surprise that the average U.S. gamer is now 35 years old – studies commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association have confirmed this over the past few years – but 2006 research recently unveiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims video game players were more likely to be overweight, depressed and introverted.

Led by researcher James Weaver, this study focused on a random sampling of 552 adults, aged 19 to 90, from the Seattle-Tacoma area. Roughly 45 percent, or 249 people, were found to be video game players, with men accounting for 56 percent of this sampling.

The men who played games weighed more, on average, than the non-gamers, while the women were found to have greater levels of depression and had overall poorer health.

In a CDC statement, Weaver suggested gaming might be a form of “digital self-medication … and self-distraction” for this group.

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, this study also found adult video gamers were less social and less extroverted than their non-gaming counterparts.

Several experts have since weighed in – as video game site GamePolitics points out – to dispute the research, questioning the sample size used and the study’s timing.

Twitter’s trademark claim rejected

diocia — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:48:30 +0000

As it turns out, Twitter had applied for a trademark claim for “Tweet”, the popular term for the 140 character updates that Twitter is famous for. And to everyone’s surprise, the claim was preliminarily rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As for the reasons for the rejection, the Patent Office felt that several existing applications already use the phrase “Tweet” as a prefix for their various Twitter offerings – TweetDeck, TweetPhoto and the likes. If that was not all, some of these companies had already applied for such a trademark claim before Twitter itself did. Acting too late, Twitter?

As for Twitter, the co-founder Biz Stone had earlier made a blog post when they had first applied for the trademark claim. He said, “We have applied to trademark Tweet because it is clearly attached to Twitter from a brand perspective but we have no intention of ‘going after’ the wonderful applications
and services that use the word in their name when associated with Twitter,”

If that wasn’t clear enough, he added the following, “In fact, we encourage the use of the word Tweet. However, if we come across a confusing or damaging project, the recourse to act responsibly to protect both users and our brand is important.”

As of now, Twitter has not said if the have any intentions to take this up with a higher authority.

How to make Snow Cream

diocia — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:51:18 +0000

The fresh snow is falling white and deep and and now the kids want a treat. Then make your own snow cream its as easy at it seems! Its fast and so very tasty too and the children will volunteer to make it instead of you. Here’s how.

Bundle up and gather new pure white snow while its still falling or just after a recent snowfall.
Put about 8 cups of the snow into a large mixing bowl. Snow melts very fast so its best for you to do the mixing outside.
Add to the snow the following; 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract.
Mix until very smooth and then add your toppings if any is desired. Add more fresh snow if the snow cream is too thin. The mixture does not have to be perfect, its homeade!
Enjoy your snow cream!