If you have kids and wonder if all that time they spend on their smartphones endlessly scrolling, snapping and texting is affecting their brains, you might want to put down your own phone and pay attention. The federal government, through the National Institutes of Health, has launched the most ambitious study of adolescent brain development ever attempted. In part, scientists are trying to understand what no one currently does: how all that screen time impacts the physical structure of your kids' brains, as well as their emotional development and mental health. At 21 sites across the country scientists have begun interviewing nine and ten-year-olds and scanning their brains. They'll follow more than 11,000 kids for a decade, and spend $300 million doing it. Dr. Gaya Dowling of the National Institutes of Health gave us a glimpse of what they've learned so far. Dr. Gaya Dowling: The focus when we first started talking about doing this study was tobacco, marijuana, all drugs the screen … [Read more...] about Groundbreaking study examines effects of screen time on kids
New school for music study
Rap pioneer Kurtis Blow a natural for ‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker’
Mary Chapman Special to The Detroit News Published 9:00 PM EST Dec 5, 2018 Just as Kurtis Blow’s pioneering 1980 megahit “The Breaks” was a riff on an old tune about the vicissitudes of life, the Masonic Temple’s holiday mashup, “The Hip Hop Nutcracker,” re-imagines Tchaikovsky’s time-honored score through charged hip-hop choreography and a contemporary storyline. “‘The Breaks’ was from some old philosophy song that came out in the 1920s,” said Blow, in town for his performance as the production’s special guest MC. “We did a flip of that record. That’s the same idea of ‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker’ — taking an old classic and making it an up-to-date smash hit.” Celebrating love, community and the magic of the holidays, the show features a dozen dancers, an on-stage DJ and an electric violinist. The tour includes 28 stops nationwide, including Detroit on Thursday night. “I … [Read more...] about Rap pioneer Kurtis Blow a natural for ‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker’
Amazon’s HQ2? Make That Q for Queens
Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index New York Subscribe Log In Log In Today’s Paper Supported by ByJ. David Goodman Nov. 5, 2018 New York City last week announced $180 million in new spending on Long Island City to bolster transit, fix the sewer system and attract new, good-paying jobs. Now it appears that spending was, in part, deliberately timed. Amazon is nearing a deal to name Long Island City, a fast-growing neighborhood of gleaming apartment towers and low-rise manufacturing on the western edge of Queens, as one of two locations that would together house as many as 50,000 employees in its ever-expanding work force, according to people briefed on the negotiations. The other location said to be in Amazon’s plans is outside Washington in the Virginia suburb of Crystal City. But the choice of Long Island City is deep in New York, a short subway ride across the East River from Midtown Manhattan. [Read … [Read more...] about Amazon’s HQ2? Make That Q for Queens
iOS 12 Review: What’s now for what’s next
Smartphones and mobile operating systems were originally designed to converge the past. They replaced our phones, personal digital assistants, portable video and music players, gaming handhelds, and GPS units into one, small, always-connected package. And it was good. Now, smartphones and mobile operating systems are in a race for the future — not just to define it but to predict it. Surfaces can now read our fingerprints. Microphones can understand what we say. Cameras, who we are and what we're doing. Machines can also learn to anticipate what we'll do and want and when. Consequently, our devices have gone from reactively recording and retrieving only the information we've given them to trying to "know" us and proactively provide us with a range of information and services right before we realize we need them. At the same time, we live in an era where the largest internet companies in the world have told us our privacy is effectively dead — and are now being forced to … [Read more...] about iOS 12 Review: What’s now for what’s next
M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion
Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index Technology Subscribe Log In Subscribe Log In Today’s Paper Advertisement Supported by BySteve Lohr Oct. 15, 2018 Every major university is wrestling with how to adapt to the technology wave of artificial intelligence — how to prepare students not only to harness the powerful tools of A.I., but also to thoughtfully weigh its ethical and social implications. A.I. courses, conferences and joint majors have proliferated in the last few years. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is taking a particularly ambitious step, creating a new college backed by a planned investment of $1 billion. Two-thirds of the funds have already been raised, M.I.T. said, in announcing the initiative on Monday. The linchpin gift of $350 million came from Steven A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, the big private equity firm. The college, called the M.I.T. Stephen A. … [Read more...] about M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion