SpongeBob was Never My Kids' Teacher

A new study finds that four year old children who watched only nine minutes of "SpongeBob Squarepants" on TV did measurably worse on mental function tests than kids who watched a slower paced show or watched no TV at all.  The study's author says the results suggest that frenetic kids programming could be detrimental to learning.

I read the above story on the wire this morning with some amusement.  Who is suggesting that SpongeBob is at all educational?  Entertaining?  Yes.  Educational?  Hardly ever.

SpongeBob is simply the latest in a long line of dopey children's programming dating back several decades, from the Flintstones to the Smurfs to the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show ("Overture, light the lights/This is it, the night of nights.")    At least Bugs Bunny taught people of my generation opera (remember "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit") and that the primary ingredient of hassenpheffer is rabbit.

The study focused on 60 four year olds who were assigned to watch SpongeBob, the slower paced PBS show "Calliou," or to draw pictures.  Sixty subjects is a low number for a study, but the researchers said the results suggest that media exposure could hinder a child's development.

University of Virginia psychology professor Angeline Lillard was the lead author of the research.  She says SpongeBob or any other fast-paced kids show can have the effect.  It's not just how much they watch, but what they watch, she says.

SpongeBob is ridiculous, to be sure.  The stories and musical numbers are generally silly.  I do enjoy the voices; I can imitate all of the male voices except the main character...his is too high and out of my range.  My main concern is that SpongeBob has embraced gross-out humor lately.

My older daughter started watching SpongeBob at age seven, when the show debuted a decade ago.  The plot lines included SpongeBob and friends blowing bubbles, playing practical jokes, catching jellyfish and learning to drive.  Pretty benign stuff.

Now some scenes from newer episodes.  Patrick dives into a trash dumpster and eats some of the contents.  A ghostly pirate tries to freak out SpongeBob with scare tactics right out of an Indiana Jones movie.  SpongeBob's infected thumb grows to enormous size and then belches green slime all over another character.

I doubt I would be able to ban SpongeBob in my house without a rebellion.  You can't put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak.  Besides, I grew up on the equally mind-numbing Bugs Bunny and Gilligan.  But if I were to ban SpongeBob, it would be over the show's content, not it's lack of educational value.  

Mother Nature Won't Let up in Virginia

Tropical Storm Lee made landfall several days ago hundreds miles from Hampton Roads, and yet it was still able to substantially impact Virginia.  New Kent County closed down schools Thursday due to what officials called a large number of flooded roads.  Schools in Charles City County were also closed, while Surry County opened its schools two hours late.

At right is a screen grab from VA511.org, VDOT's online roads information page, as of 4pm Thursday.  Each of those red dots represents a road closed due to flooding.  Again, this is due to the remnants of a tropical storm.  The same storm system dropped even heavier rain on eastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York.  And it spawned a tornado that destroyed a gas station in Cana, Virginia this week.

Another storm system, Hurricane Katia, is producing dangerous rip currents along the coast, despite being almost 400 miles offshore.  Red flag warnings were posted along the Virginia Beach Oceanfront last weekend but lifeguards still recorded thirty rescues.

Perhaps the meteorologists on TV do over-hype severe weather events, but they may also have a point.  The past couple of weeks should illustrate that it pays to keep tabs on tropical weather systems, even those that have been downgraded to tropical depressions.  Days after they come ashore, their remnants can spin off tornadoes and drop tremendous amounts of rain.

Meanwhile, central Virginia is still reporting damage from the surprise earthquake of two weeks ago.  The facade of a building in downtown Culpeper crumbled Wednesday, apparently following another aftershock.

Links:
www.VA511.org -- VDOT's traffic info page.
Weather Underground's tropical weather page, with long range computer forecasts
Report on this week's Virginia tornado
Report on the earthquake damage in Culpeper

The Fiat 500

Today I write about something I have been looking forward to for some time:  Consumer Reports' review of the new Fiat 500.  Sadly, the magazine finds that the 500 does not measure up.

In the October issue, Consumer Reports opines that the 500 is agile, nimble and fun to drive.  They add the mini-car's ride is choppy, its control layout is flawed, and its driving position is awkward.

These demerits were not unexpected.  The 500 is tiny, so it should have a choppy, jumpy ride.  And Italian cars have never been known for their reliability. But Consumer Reports, which usually waits for reliability data before giving a car a thumbs up or down, has come out and said it will not recommend the Fiat because it scores too low.

That's not to say the Fiat 500 doesn't have its fans.  The guys on Top Gear love it.  James "Capt. Slow" May says it "drives brilliantly." Richard Hammond called it a "fizzy little car."  Fiat is selling the 500 with a ton of different looks, including a convertible version.  I personally think the 500c with a red and white interior looks great...kind of like the inside of a Johnny Rockets restaurant.

I should point out that I'm not looking to buy a Fiat 500 or any new car, for that matter;  I doubt I could afford one.  But despite my own reputation as "Capt. Slow" and the fact that I'm a big guy, I have always had a thing for small cars, particularly five door hatchbacks.  And when something new, something innovative comes along, I find myself rooting for it.

If I were in the market for a new, small car, the sharp looking 2011 Ford Focus hatchback would be at the top of my list.  I'm also a fan of the Mazda 2, and, although I doubt I could fit into one, the Mini Cooper.

I'm now looking forward to reviews on more small cars, including the electric Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt and the diminutive Scion IQ, which is about the size of a Smart Car but somehow has four seats.  I also like the looks of Top Gear's current "reasonably priced car," the Kia Cee'd, but it's not sold in the U.S.

Links:
Fiat USA's official site
James May races the Fiat 500 through Budapest

Also in the News

A sampling of stories that time didn't allow me to feature on the air today.

The annual beginning of the school year reminds me to point out yet again that the safest way for students to get to school is, by far, the school bus.  The Virginia DMV reports there were 572 accidents involving school buses in Virginia last year, but zero fatalities.  In the majority of those accidents, the bus driver was found to be not at fault.  Here's the DMV's news release.

The Norfolk SPCA has taken in more than a dozen dogs from a shelter in Chowan County, North Carolina, which ran out of room after Hurricane Irene.  The Norfolk shelter will put the displaced dogs up for adoption.  www.NorfolkSPCA.com

Firefighters say the Great Dismal Swamp wildfire is about 90 percent contained but is still not out.  A spokesman for the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge says it will take substantially more rain than the foot or so provided by Hurricane Irene to completely extinguish the fire.

The Cost of Commuting

Here's a hypothetical situation involving a not so hypothetical radio newsman who happens to live about a mile from the would-be light rail corridor in Virginia Beach.  Let's say Virginia Beach does build a light rail system and let's also assume that a station is built within cycling distance of my house, near BJ's Wholesale Club.  And we'll assume that I work in Downtown Norfolk.  According to Google Maps, that's a distance of about 12 miles, or 24 miles round trip.

As both of my cars, a 15 year old compact and a five year old minivan, each get around 22mph, that would cost me one gallon of gas each time I make that commute by car.  By the current price of gasoline, that's $3.50 in gas every day, and that's only assuming there are no traffic backups along my route.

A one-way fare on The Tide costs $1.50 right now.  With a round trip costing $3.00, that would save me money in this hypothetical situation.  Yes, we can assume that light rail fares will go up in the future, but we all know that the price of gasoline, cars and car insurance will also be increasing.

Obviously, this scenario doesn't apply to everyone, particularly those who live in Great Neck or Pungo.  But for those who live near Virginia Beach Boulevard, commuting into Downtown Norfolk by light rail could be a viable option.

The controversy over whether to bring light rail into Virginia Beach reminds of another huge project that the City of Norfolk paid for with a lot of taxpayer dollars some years ago.  At the official ground breaking ceremony for MacArthur Center Mall in the late 1990's, a remember a few other reporters grousing about the expenditure of public money on such a big project.  I, myself, joked at the time that MacArthur Center could become the world's largest homeless shelter if things didn't work out.

Today, MacArthur Center is thriving.  It's become the focal point for Norfolk's other efforts to revitalize the Downtown area.  Whether Norfolk's Tide is as successful as MacArthur Center will, to borrow an overused newsman expression, "remain to be seen."

More Notes on Hurricane Irene

From Around the Region

Power Still Coming Back Online:  Dominion Virginia Power has a self-imposed deadline of restoring 95 percent of the outages from Hurricane Irene by this weekend.  The utility is reporting about 115,000 outages this morning, down from more than one million immediately after the storm.

Staged Returns to Hatteras Island Begin Sunday:  Officials in Dare County have announced that Hatteras Island residents will be able to catch a ferry to the now isolated island, beginning at 6am Sunday.  The returns will be done alphabetically, beginning with the villages of Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras.  The island's only road to the mainland was carved up by the storm.

Funeral Today for Newport News Victim:  Eleven year old Zahir Robinson will be laid to rest in funeral services today in Hampton.  Robinson was killed when a large tree fell on his apartment building on Fairfax Avenue Saturday afternoon.

River Flooding Threat Wanes:  A flood warning will remain in effect for the town of Franklin but the Blackwater River is already beginning to recede.  The river crested Wednesday below moderate flood stage and well below the historic flood that swallowed the town after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Bottlenose Dolphin in James City County Disappears:  The bottlenose dolphin that was spotted struggling in Diascund Creek in James City County earlier this week has not been seen since Wednesday, and marine experts hope it has returned to deeper water in the James River.  It has been theorized that the dolphin was pushed upstream by storm surge from Irene.

Crop Losses in Virginia at 60 Million:  Virginia's agriculture secretary said Thursday that up to half of the  tobacco crop in the eastern half of the state could have been lost. 

Heavy Damage at ECU:  Officials at East Carolina University have increased their hurricane damage estimate to 1.7 million dollars.  Multiple rooms at Greene Hall and the Spillman Building had water damage and more than a hundred trees on campus were blown over.

Three Local Beaches Reopen:  Swimming advisories at Anderson Beach and King Lincoln Park in Newport News and at Sarah Constant Park in Norfolk have been lifted.  Health officials believe the elevated bacteria levels they detected in the water can be blamed on runoff from Hurricane Irene.

Wild Ponies are Okay: The Director of the Carolina Wild Horse Fund tells the Virginian-Pilot that all 128 of the wild ponies of Corolla have been accounted for following Irene.  The ponies usually ride out storms in an isolated, dense forest.

The Locks of the Great Bridge Bridge are now Fixed:  The Army Corps of Engineers has been able to repair a gate lock at the Great Bridge Bridge in Chesapeake, which was damaged by Hurricane Irene.  One official said it was possibly the first time in 79 years the lock system had failed to operate.

Storm Debris on the Beach: On the northern Outer Banks, large piles of debris, including trees and pilings, have been washing ashore this week on Corolla Beach. A Currituck County spokesman tells the Virginian-Pilot the debris will be cleaned up by today.

Life in the Great Suburban Outback

It's easy to forget sometimes that as developed and heavily populated as Virginia Beach is, it's really a giant suburb, equal parts city and country in some areas.  And sometimes the locals remind us of the country aspect.

My house is just a mile north of the city's main road, Virginia Beach Boulevard, but it overlooks a pond and is adjacent to a wetlands area. It was a great surprise this morning when, as I was leaving the house (before sunrise, I might add), I was greeted with the trademark sound of a great horned owl.  I was able to record a little of it with my mp3 player.



I've heard owls here before, but not often.  I think it's been a couple of years since the last time a heard that distinctive hooting sound.

From my location in the middle of Virginia Beach I have also heard the eerie call of a screech owl way off in the distance.  I wasn't able to record it, but here's a link to a page with audio clips.

My early morning drives to work at the radio station have also given me the opportunity to see opossums, raccoons, and even a couple of red foxes in my neighborhood.

The nature lesson doesn't end at work.  There's a grey fox that trots through the station parking lot from time to time.  And following a rain in the summertime, there's often a chorus of frogs in the drainage pond out back.  These are bullfrogs that I recorded in July.


Okay, so Virginia Beach is not "Wild Kingdom" and I'm not Marlin Perkins.  But I feel that sometimes, it's nice to be able to stop what I'm doing and simply listen.

The title of the post is from a Calvin and Hobbes comic, in which Calvin is screaming that a bee "the size of a Kaiser roll" is chasing him.  Hobbes teases him in reply, "Life in the great suburban outback is certainly fraught with peril."