The World Health Organization report compared the “obesity-related behaviors” for youngsters across 42 nations. And it reveals UK kids are among the laziest.

    Among teenage girls, the Scots topped the league table for most screen time, with 80 per cent spending at least two hours a day on computers. Wales came fourth with 76 per cent, and England seventh with 75 per cent. Girls in Armenia and Albania were least likely to spend hours idling online.

    Screen time figures for boys were even higher. Wales was second in the European “couch potato” league, with 85 per cent glued to their screens for at least two hours. Scotland was third with 84 per cent, and England 15th with 77 per cent. Boys in Switzerland and Portugal were least likely to dedicate two hours a day to sitting in front of a computer.

    Lead researcher Dr. Jo Inchley, from the University of St Andrews, said social media was impacting on kids' health. She said,“ We know there are risks, such as cyber bullying and impact on mental health. Also, there are longer-term impacts on physical health from being sedentary. One of the main challenges is that this kind of activity (social media and computer use) is so much part of young people's lives these days.” She said more needs to be done to get kids moving throughout the day.

    Dr. Steven Mann, research director for UK Active said the findings were “alarming”. He said, “Modern life has changed, but when teens are spending hours having fun with Facebook, Instagram and videogames, they simply aren't getting the exercise that they need. These alarming inactivity figures show that playtime is over before it has started for too many children, putting them at far greater risk of future conditions like heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.”

    Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, warned Brit teens are now “slaves to hand-held devices”. And the WHO warns four in five fat teens will continue to struggle with their weight throughout life. The report also shows less than half of UK youngsters consume fruit or veg daily.

    As a teenage rock fan, all Dennis Vorreyer really expected of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago two weekends ago was the chance to see his favorite bands perform live.

    But he and his father, Jeffrey, who accompanied him to the festival, signed up for Lollapalooza's text-message network, and thus learned about a guitar-playing contest taking place there. Dennis, 14, entered and won a new Gibson guitar. Tad Kubler, the lead guitarist for the Hold Steady, who was involved in the contest, then invited Dennis to perform with the band as it closed its set.

“Having your cell phone everywhere is important for everybody now,” Dennis said. “I never dreamed of playing Lollapalooza.” The modern mobile phone — equipped with camera, Internet access and more— has proved to be a liability for some performers, like Akon and Beyonce, whose regrettable moments were captured by fans and then immortalized on YouTube and similar sites. But for the fans themselves, mobile phones are becoming as important an accessory as an all-access wristband. Beyond using them to record a short souvenir, they are becoming a ticket to everything from free ringtones to VIP treatment.

    On Gwen Stefani's recent tour, as many as 20 percent of the audience at some shows agreed to pay 99 cents for text messages and the chance to win better seats, according to the mobile marketing company Impact Mobile. At festivals like Lollapalooza, thousands of fans sign up to receive continuous updates from concert organizers about promotions and special events.

Even when there is no fee, the service comes at a price: fans must give their phone numbers to marketers. And purists — and some artists — disapprove of fans pecking out text messages or snapping pictures during performances. Still, the arrival of a new generation of phone-based activities could add a new twist to live events at a time when rising ticket prices have discouraged many concertgoers.

    The summer holidays are coming up. It's time to fill the bookshelves with quality literature for the kids. Here are some great books.

    Josephine Wants to Dance by Jackie French

    Price: $14.99 (for ages 4+)

    Josephine is a kangaroo who loves to dance. Her little brother, Joey, tells her that kangaroos don't dance; they jump. But Josephine continues to point her toes and leap through the air. When a ballet group comes to town and the lead ballerina (芭蕾舞演员) is injured, Josephine is called upon to help save the day. Can she do it, and, more importantly, does it matter that she's a kangaroo?

    House of Secrets by Chris Columbus

    Price: $19.99 (for ages 9+)

    The Walker kids —Caroline, Brendan and Nell—may have saved the world, but they can't save their home and must leave Kristoff House. Things can't get any worse, but then it turns out that the Wind Witch is still alive and planning an attack. To defeat her, the Walkers must return to the book world. The Walkers always help each other, but they must do it alone in their most important mission yet. And this time, if they fail, there's no chance of coming back.

    Edge of Extinction Book 1 by Laura Martin

    Price: $16.00 (for ages 9+)

    If you like The Land of the Dinosaurs, you will love this book. Two hundred years ago, the first dinosaur was successfully cloned (克隆). Soon after, humans realized they'd made a big mistake. Thirteen-year-old Sky Mundy's father suddenly disappeared five years ago. Along with her best friend， Shawn， she steps out into the world above --a world of dinosaurs --to look for him. Then she learns that everything she's been taught has been a lie.

    Filled with much housework, meals and childcare at home, many people feel that being at work sounds more like having a picnic. Even for those who have a happy family life, they feel actually more stressed at home than at work.

    Recently, a study carried out by the researchers at a university in the USA found lower levels of hormone released in response to stress in a majority of subjects when they were at work compared to when they were at home. This was true for both men and women, and parents and people without children.

    Both men and women showed less stress at work. But women are more likely to report feeling happier there. Men were more likely to feel happier at home. Experts say there are other reasons why work is less stressful than home for many. “Paid work is more valued in society,” said Sarah Damaske, the lead researcher on the study, “Household work is boring and not particularly rewarding.”

    We get better at our job with time and the increased competence means less stress and more rewards. Yet none of us, no matter how long we've been doing it, ever truly feels like an expert at parenting or even at marriage.

    The support and friendship of co-workers also offer stress relief. At home, meanwhile, stress spreads and increases quickly. “That's the reason why most housewives wish they were the bread earners,” Dr. Damaske says.

    Much of the advice to families and couples includes the warning to “leave work stress at office” and even to change our mind-set from work to home, for example, a walk around the block. The recent findings, though, suggest our home life, not our attitude, might be due for some change.

    My college experience included this life-skill lesson: Drink alcohol on a full stomach. Or you will get inebriated too quickly. Of course, most college students shouldn't be drinking at all, but we know from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that close to 60 percent of college students aged 18 to 22 do consume alcohol, which makes harm-reducing approaches important.

    Unfortunately, campus authorities and researchers are reporting a practice that turns the full-stomach drinking strategy on its head: rather than filling up before a night of partying, significant numbers of students refuse to eat all day before consuming alcohol.

    This is a high-risk behavior called "drunkorexia," which is one part eating disorder, one part alcoholism—a very dangerous combination for college-age students. The term drunkorexia, which can also include excessive exercise or purging before consuming alcohol, was coined about 10 years ago, and it started showing up in medical research around 2012. Drunkorexia addresses the need to be the life of the party while staying extremely thin, pointing to a flawed mind-set about body image and alcoholism among college students, mostly women.

    Imagine this scenario: A female college freshman doesn't eat anything all day, exercises on an empty stomach, then downs five shots of tequila in less than two hours. Because there's no food in her system to help slow the absorption of alcohol, those shots affect her rapidly, leading to inebriation and possibly passing out, vomiting or suffering alcohol poisoning. That's drunkorexia.

    Tavis Glassman, professor of health education and public health at the University of Toledo in Ohio, researches drunkorexia and worries about scenarios such as the one described above: "With nothing in her system, alcohol hits quickly, and that brings up the same issues as with any high-risk drinking: getting home safely, sexual assault, unintentional injury, fights, hangovers that affect class attendance and grades, and possibly ending up in emergency because the alcohol hits so hard," he says.

    "Alcohol can negatively affect the liver or gastrointestinal system, it can interfere with sleep, lower the immune system and is linked to several types of cancers," Hultin says.

    If you walk through the doors of one of the Smithsonian Institution's museums in Washington, D.C., you may be greeted by an unusual guide. A Japanese tech company recently sent 25 humanoid robots to the Smithsonian. All of them are named Pepper.

    Each Pepper stands 4 feet tall and has a computer screen attached to its body. Built by SoftBank Robotics, the robots are programmed to share information about the museum in which they are based.

    "Pepper is basically an experiment," Goslins, director of the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Museum, said. "The idea is to explore and see how a robot performs in this kind of environment."

    Museum visitors communicating with Pepper. The robot can tell stories and answer basic questions. People even take pictures and dance with it.

    "The robot draws big crowds," said Allison Peck, director of marketing at the Hirshhorn. "People just love Pepper."

    According to the Smithsonian Institution's website: "Pepper gives our museum workers a new way to reach and serve visitors." For example, Pepper teaches Swahili words to visitors of the "World on the Horizon" exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.

    Pepper also has the special ability to draw guests to less-visited areas of the Smithsonian's museum. When Pepper is placed in a spot, crowds are attracted to that place.

    When not educating museum visitors, Pepper stays in the Smithsonian offices, getting charged and programmed. After being charged, Pepper can run for about 8 hours at a time.

    Pepper plays an important role, but the robot "is not meant to take away human jobs at the museum," Goslins explained. "It is meant to give our visitors a more enjoyable experience while they are here with us."