Americans will spend nearly 10 hours a day watching television, surfing the Internet, reading books, newspapers and magazines and listening to music this year, the U.S. Census Bureau said. Industry groups provided the information on media usage. They projected Americans will spend an average of nearly 4 1/2 hours daily in front of the television in 2006, or 1,555 hours in all. Americans will spend another 2 1/2 hours listening to radio and a half hour listening to recorded music. The rest of the nearly 10 hours is spent reading newspapers, looking at the Internet, playing video games and reading other media. What about you? Do you agree with these findings?

Even though George Barna has been conducting national public opinion surveys for a quarter-century, surprises emerge each year from those studies. The California-based researcher traditionally ends each year by identifying some of the unexpected and most significant findings of the passing year. Barna released his list of the twelve most noteworthy results of 2006, and described a few themes that ran through this year's surveys. Check out which ones made the list for 2006.

A growing body of research suggests Generation Y and Echo Boomers (age mid-20s and younger) are civic-minded and socially conscious as individuals, consumers and employees. They may be less radical than boomer activists of the '60s and '70s and due to the Internet are much more aware of the world. 61% feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world. 69% consider a company's social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% trust socially/environmentally responsible companies more. Many want to help their country by working for the government. Among Hispanics, the CIA, the State Department and the FBI rank only below Walt Disney (the #1 choice) as an ideal employer. Among blacks, the FBI ranked 2nd, the State Department 4th. The CIA rounded out the top 10. 66% of college freshmen believe it is essential or very important to help others in difficulty. Volunteerism by college students increased by 20% from '02 to '05.

The Full Belly Project is a non-profit organization that designs and delivers simple agricultural machines to people in developing countries around the world. This project teaches people how to build hand-operated machines with common materials. The material of choice for sheller parts is concrete because it is inexpensive, widely available, easy to work with and has a very long service life. The vision of the Full Belly Project is that residents of rural communities in developing countries live lives of abundance. The mission is to relieve hunger by taking advantage of the highly nutritious properties of peanuts through appropriate agricultural technology.

The 2007 National New Church Conference will be held in Orlando April 23-26. The event is aimed at inspiring, equipping, and challenging church planting leaders to the next level of collaboration. Speakers will include Bill Hybels, Wayne Cordeiro, Mark Batterson, Dave Ferguson, and several others. Check it out at www.exponentialconference.com.