The bulk of the advertising directed at children today has an immediate goal. One marketer explained that the goal is not just getting kids to whine but also [1] giving them a specific reason to ask for the product. Years ago, sociologist Vance Packard [2] had described children as “surrogate salesmen” who had to persuade other people, usually their parents, to buy what they wanted. [3] James U. McNeal, a professor of marketing at Texas University, is considered America’s leading authority on marketing to children.

In his book, McNeal provides marketers with a thorough analysis of “children’s requesting styles and

appeals.” [4] McNeal never advocates turning children into screaming, breath-holding monsters. He classifies juvenile nagging tactics into seven major categories. A pleading nag is one accompanied by the repetition of words like “please” or “mom, mom, mom.” A persistent nag involves constant requests for the [5] wanted product. Forceful nags are extremely pushy and may include subtle threats like “Well, then, I’ll go and ask Dad.” Demonstrative nags are the most high-risk, often characterized by full-blown tantrums in public places.

[6] “You’re the best dad in the world” is a sugar-coated nag by which children promise affection in return for a purchase and rely on heartfelt declarations. Pity nags claim that the child will be heartbroken if the parent refuses to buy a certain item. [7] While trying to affect children’s behavior, advertisers have to learn about their tastes. [8] Today’s market researchers not only conduct surveys of children in shopping malls, they also organize focus groups for kids as young as two or three. They analyze children’s artwork, hire children to run focus groups, stage slumber parties and then question children into the night.

They send cultural anthropologists into homes, stores, fast food restaurants, and other places where kids like to gather, to quietly and [9] surreptitiously observe the behavior of prospective customers.

The Internet has become another powerful tool for assembling data about children. In 1998 a federal investigation of websites found that 89 percent requested personal information from kids; only 1 percent required parental approval before requesting the information. [10] Fast food websites no longer ask children to provide personal information without first gaining parental approval; to do so is now a violation of federal law.

[1] In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tried to ban all television ads directed at children seven years old and younger. [2] Many studies had found that young children often could not tell the difference between television programming and television advertising. [3] They could not comprehend the real purpose of commercials and trusted the advertising claims were true. [4] Michael Pertschuk, the head of the FTC, argued that children need to be shielded from advertising that preys upon their immaturity. [11]

Social Media VS. Print Newspapers as a News Source by Elisa Shearer

Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans: [12] 20% of U.S. adults say they often get news via social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking these questions. In 2017, the portion who got news via social media was almost [13] as equal to the portion who got news from print newspapers.

Social media’s small [15] drawback to print has emerged after years of steady declines in newspaper circulation and modest increases in the portion of Americans who use social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year.

Overall, television is still the most popular platform for news consumption – even though [16] it’s use has declined since 2016. News websites are the next most common source, followed by radio, and finally social media sites and print newspapers.

News preferences differ drastically for younger and older Americans. Age gaps that have long been notable have now widened [17] regularly, with those 65 and older five times as likely as 18- to 29-year-olds to often get news from TV. A large majority of those 65 and older (81%) get news from television often, as do about twothirds (65%) of those 50 to 64. [18] Far fewer young Americans are turning to television news. Whereas only 65% of those 18 to 29 get their news from television, 36% of those 30 to 49 get their news from television.

The age divide is nearly as large for social media, but in the other direction: those 18 to 29 are about four times as likely to often get news from social media as are those 65 and older. Print’s popularity only persists among those 65 and older. [19] Among the oldest age group, about four-inten (39%) get news there often but no more than 18% of any other age group do.

[20] [1] Online news websites are more popular among those ages 30 to 49. [2] About four-in-ten (42%) in this age group get news often from websites and news apps. [3] About a  quarter (27%) of 18- to 29-year-olds get news from news websites, making it the second most commonly used platform for news for that age group.

[21] Youngest Americans are also unique in that they don’t rely on one platform in the way that the majority of [22] there elders rely on TV. No more than half of those ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 get news often from any one news platform.

Florida's Everglades, the largest national park in the eastern USA, is in serious danger. One of the most significant areas of wetland in the world, and classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the park has suffered dramatically over the last sixty years on account of the [23] promotion of agricultural land and the vast increase of Florida's population. If the accelerated growth [24] did not stop, the entire ecosystem of southern Florida could be [25] irreparably damaged – and the sunshine state, one of the fastest growing states in the USA, could become less hospitable.

In the year 2000, in order to prevent such a catastrophe and ensure the survival of America's most distinctive National Park, Congress approved [26] a 30-year 8.2-billion-dollars Everglades rescue plan, the largest concerted environmental project the world had ever known.

Estimated at 10,700 square miles (27,700 km2), the original Everglades area was home to a fantastically rich and diverse range of wildlife. In recent decades, this wildlife has been [27] abounding. It is estimated that the water bird population of the Everglades, for example, [28] fell by 93% in the last forty years. Scientists conducted a survey on 39,000 miles along the Everglades area roads from 2003 through 2011, counting wildlife spotted along the way and comparing the results with surveys conducted on the same routes in 1993 and 1999.

[29] The researchers found a staggering decline in animal sightings, with only 5 opossums spotted as compared to 24 white-tailed deer.

As a wetland region, the whole environment of the Everglades depends on the flow of water into and out of its vast area of natural swampland. Before modern agriculture and drainage schemes began to change the hydrology of the whole of southern Florida, water that fell on the central part of the Florida Peninsula used to flow regularly and naturally into [30] the great Lake Okeechobee, the large lake at the northern end of the Everglades region. From there, it would flow out slowly and regularly in a southerly direction through the Everglades and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the 1940's, this natural system has been radically modified. Over 1,700 miles of canals have been built [31] in order to control the risk of flooding and provide water for Florida's growing population and drain land for agriculture and construction. Today a large amount of the water that flows into

Lake Okeechobee is rapidly evacuated through man-made canals, out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Everglades restoration program [32] is attempting to reverse the recent course of events and undo some of the damage. It calls for the restoration, protection, and preservation of water resources [33] because of the loss of water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean. The recaptured water will be used for environmental restoration, reviving the ecosystem, and improving water supplies in Southern Florida.

The Most Easily Automated Activities

Almost one-fifth of the time spent in US workplaces involves performing physical activities or operating machinery in a predictable environment: workers [34] are carrying out specific actions in wellknown settings where changes are relatively easy to anticipate. [35] Scientists have adapted and adopted currently available technologies. They have estimated that the feasibility of automating such activities is 78 percent, the highest of seven top-level categories. Since predictable physical activities figure prominently in sectors such as manufacturing, food service and accommodations, and retailing, these are the most susceptible to automation.

 [36] Consequently, in manufacturing, performing physical activities or operating machinery in a predictable environment represents one-third of the workers’ overall time. [37] There are many activities that can be automated: such as packaging products, loading materials on production equipment, welding, and maintaining equipment. [38] Just because an activity can be automated doesn’t mean that it will be—broader economic factors are at play. Because of the [39] acceptance of such predictable physical work, some 59 percent of all manufacturing activities could be automated, given technical considerations.

The overall technical feasibility, however, masks considerable variance. Within manufacturing, 90 percent of what welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers do, for example, has the technical potential for automation, but for customer-service representatives that feasibility is [40] above 90 percent. Manufacturing, for all its technical potential, is only the second most readily automated sector in the US economy. A service sector occupies the top spot: accommodations and food service, where almost half of all labor involves predictable physical activities and the operation of machinery. Automats have long been in use. Now restaurants are testing new, more sophisticated concepts, like self-service ordering or even robotic servers. [41] Solutions, such as one company’s burgercooking robot, which can reportedly assemble and cook 360 burgers an hour, could automate a number of cooking and food preparation activities.

But while the technical potential for automating them might be high, the business case must take into account both the benefits and the costs of automation, as well as the labor-supply dynamics discussed earlier. [42] Since restaurant employees who cook earn an average of about $10 an hour, a business case based solely on reducing labor costs may be unconvincing.

Retailing is another sector with a high technical potential for automation. Retailers can take advantage of [43] efficient, technology-driven stock management and logistics, for example.

Packaging objects for shipping and stocking merchandise has a high technical potential for automation. So do maintaining records of sales, gathering customer or product information, and other data-collection activities. But retailing also requires cognitive and social skills. [44]