Couch Potato Secrets

Couch Potatoes! The father of our lifestyle has died. Just found this article here:

Sunday February 18, 2007
The Observer

The man who changed the world and created the couch potato, the co-inventor of the TV remote control, has died, writes Tracy McVeigh

Robert Adler, an inventor who registered more than 180 US patents during a lifetime of dreaming and tinkering, won an Emmy Award in 1997 for the device along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley.

He died of heart failure at the age of 93 at a Boise nursing home, his former employers, the Zenith Electronics Corporation, said.

In a 60-year career, Adler was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime. His creation changed the face of modern life. In a 2004 interview, Adler remembered being one of two dozen engineers at Zenith given the same mission - to find a new way for TV viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs.

full article here

Although television is one of the greatest factor for children’s obesity, it is not entirely the television’s fault. On a research, there are a lot of factors for this. It could be genetic, environmental, etc.

It could be that obesity runs in the blood of the child’s mother, father, or both sides. Sometimes it is not present in all generations. But if you trace it back, you might discover that his great great great grandfather has been obese, too.

A child may also be influenced by his surroundings. If he go to his friend next door and that friend is a TV fanatic, he may get influenced by him. Since children are on their developing stage, they tend to get impulsive. Maybe he gets so passive if he sees his household to be like that. Also, if he has no one to play with, he will rely to the television to keep himself busy.

Actually, there are still other factors that influences a child that makes him obese. So there is no need to blame the television for his obesity.