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U.S. Adults Spend Half Their Day Consuming Media

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

A study released by eMarketer reveals that people in the U.S. currently spend more than half their day consuming media – 12 hours, one minute spent with major media every day.

In the study, “US Time Spent with Media,” eMarketer measured every minute of daily media consumption across platforms.  Simultaneous usage of two or more media devices – such as watching television while utilizing a smartphone – counted individually toward the total.  Thus, total media consumption time continued to grow, even as the number of minutes in a day remained the same.

“Multitasking via mobile is primarily responsible for the overall increase in time spent with media. Consumers are spending more of their time on mobile devices conducting attention-heavy activities like video viewing and mobile gaming, but also with less visual activities like audio listening that enable continuous media intake,” stated eMarketer in a release accompanying the study.

Television remains the most-used means of consuming media for U.S. adults, with 3 hours, 58 minutes of use each day.  And with the rise of mobile, even with multitasking, that figure is down seven minutes from 2016, and below their forecast for this year at 4 hours, 19 minutes.

‘Fox & Friends’ Expands Morning Broadcast to Five Hours

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Fox News building on 6th Avenue in NYC. Photo courtesy Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons.

The morning news program “Fox & Friends”, a favorite of President Donald Trump, will expand its broadcast to five hours each weekday, Fox News announced Wednesday.

“As FOX & Friends continues to mark its most-watched year in network history, we are thrilled to give our viewers more of the morning franchise they love,” revealed Fox News president of programming Suzanne Scott.

Adding an additional hour at 4AM EST, “Fox & Friends First” will be hosted by Heather Childers.  Beginning at 5AM EST, Jilian Mele and Rob Schmitt will take over.  Once 6AM hits and until the 9AM end of the program, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade will co-host for the remainder of the morning.

According to data provided by AdWeek, Fox & Friends is on pace to have its best rated year in its 19 year history, delivering 1.5 million total viewers.

Also, with this morning lineup addition, Fox News now has more women anchoring and hosting programs than its cable news competition during weekdays.

Former President Obama Surprises Michelle with Anniversary Tribute

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Photo courtesy the White House.

During the middle of a question-and-answer session at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women in Philadelphia, former President Barack Obama surprised his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, by dropping in with a recorded video message wishing her a happy 25th anniversary.

Appearing on the big screen on stage, President Obama first apologized for “crashing” the conference, then launched into a heartfelt tribute for the former First Lady.

“Hey honey,” the former president began, “listen, I know you are with all these important Pennsylvania women.  But I had to crash this party because today we have been married for 25 years.”

The audience responded to the surprise message with applause and laughter, and the former first lady blushed and smiled while on stage with tears in her eyes.

“Not only have you been an extraordinary partner, not only have you been a great friend, somebody who could always make me laugh, somebody who would always make sure that I was following what I thought was right, but you have also been an example to our daughters and to the entire country,” he continued.

After the video completed, Mrs. Obama turned to Shonda Rhimes also on stage and joked “I better get home.”

The Obamas were married on October 3, 1992 in Chicago.

New Poll: Public Confidence in News Media Rises, Trust in Trump Falls

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

According to data released by Reuters / Ipos, the public is placing more trust in the news media, while also increasingly distrusting the administration of President Donald Trump.

The poll found that 48 percent of adults say they have either a “great deal” or “some confidence” in the press, an 11-point increase since November 2016.  Additionally, 45 percent say they have “hardly any” confidence in the press, measurably down six percent from a similar study in January.

“What you’re seeing now is a gradual recognition of the importance of the press,” said Martha Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University and director of the White House Transition Project.

Simultaneously, public confidence in President Trump has been declining across partisan lines since taking over the White House this year.  Forty-eight percent of adults say they have a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the Trump administration, down from 52 percent in January.  Republicans’ trust in the president has decreased six percent since January, and three percent among Democrats.

The Reuters / Ipsos opinion poll surveyed 14,328 adults from August 24 through September 5th.  This survey is the third so far this year on confidence in major public institutions.

Pew: News Media Focuses on Trump’s Character More than Policy

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

A new study released by Pew Research Center showed that nearly three-fourths of all stories on President Donald Trump during his first 100 days in office focused on his character and leadership skills instead of policy issues.

“Coverage was much more likely to be framed around Trump and the administration’s leadership and character than around policy,” Pew wrote.

Compared to past presidencies, policy-centered news accounted for 31 percent of all stories regarding Trump, with higher numbers during the starts of prior administrations Obama (50 percent), George W. Bush (65 percent) and Clinton (58 percent).  Stories were deemed “positive” if it had at least twice as many positive as negative statements, with the reverse true for negative stories.

“[T]he evaluations of Trump were far more negative and less positive than those of his predecessors,” the study notes.

The study pointed out five topics dominating coverage of the administration.  These topics ranged from the president’s political skills (17 percent of stories) to immigration (14 percent), presidential nominations and appointments (13 percent), Russia (13 percent) and health care (9 percent).

Articles and stories from right-leaning news outlets tended to be more sympathetic to the President, while left-leaning platforms leaned more negatively in their reporting perspective.  Left-leaning or neutral outlets also were more likely than right-leaning to “fact-check” or refute the President and administration, adding to their negative ratings in the study.

“Stories with a greater mix of voices were more likely to have an overall negative sense of the president’s actions or statements,” concluded Pew’s director of journalism research Amy Mitchell.

Additionally, Pew found that right-leaning news outlets “cite fewer source types – including fewer experts, issue groups and the administration.”  These news organizations “were roughly one-fourth as likely as outlets with a left-leaning audience to cite at least one outside expert in their stories (5% compared with 22%) and about one-third as likely to do so as outlets with a more mixed audience (16%).  Right-leaning media outlets also were half as likely as left-leaning or neutral groups to cite both Democratic and Republican politicians in the same story (7% versus 14%).

While some may read this study as evidence of media bias against the Trump administration, Mitchell warns against drawing any conclusion of the type from the study.  “It is speaking about, from the public’s perspective, what is the overall evaluation of the particular event that is being discussed in this news story related to Trump and the administration,” she said.

You may review the study by Pew Research Center by clicking here.

CBS Fires Staffer After Facebook Comments Following Las Vegas Massacre

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

CBS quickly terminated senior counsel of strategic transactions Hayley Geftman-Gold on Monday, after she posted on Facebook that she was not “sympathetic” to the victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting and blamed the tragedy on Republican politicians.

“This individual, who was with us for approximately one year, violated the standards of our company and is no longer an employee of CBS,” the network said in a released statement on Monday.  “Her views as expressed on social media are deeply unacceptable to all of us at CBS.  Our hearts go out to the victims in Las Vegas and their families.”

Geftman-Gold’s Facebook post quickly spread around social media, including references to her position at the network.  Both her name and “CBS Exec” rapidly became top trending topics on Twitter.

Halcyon Dialogue and AAAS Partner for Robotics Showcase

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Photo courtesy Halcyon.

Georgetown startup incubator Halcyon, in partnership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), hosted a VIP event Thursday, September 28th to celebrate and discuss innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence.

The event, led by industry experts, congressional leaders, technology companies, policymakers and media weighed in on the opportunities that this new technology will provide in the near future.

Speakers at the event included Axios Science Editor Alison Snyder, The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons, AAAS CEO Dr. Rush Holt, former White House CTO Megan Smith, Roomba inventor Helen Greiner, Microsoft’s Fred Humphries, and Congressman Will Hurd.

Also notable, Hitachi’s EMIEW3 robot made it’s U.S. debut at the discussion, accompanied by newly-crowned Miss America, Cara Mund.

Emerging Robotics Technology: Living with Robots

In the first panel of the Halcyon Dialogue Robotics Showcase, “Emerging Robotics Technology: Living with Robots,” Axios Science Editor Alison Snyder dove into current robotics technology and exciting future trends.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

“We’re going to soon have fully autonomous vehicles, package delivery drones, robot caregivers,” Snyder said launching into the first panel discussion.  “And so the question I think is: there’s rapid progress in artificial intelligence and robotics that makes it sort of easy to imagine in this world where they’re amongst us and interacting among us every day.  But how close are we to that vision?… And are we fully ready to relinquish that control?”

The panel also featured iRobot Corporation’s co-founder and CTO of CyPhy Works Helen Greiner, a revolutionary robotics entrepreneur who has been on the cutting edge of robotics and AI since she was 11 years old.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

Greiner discussed how the robotics industry and development were breaking into the mainstream American economy affecting millions of people every day, along with the critical funding and investments that allow for future development starting to really step into this arena.

“We’ve come a huge way.  There’s lots of robots out there.  But we’re not R2-D2 yet… There’s so much more that robots and drones can do and I’m inspired to be part of the next ones as well,” Greiner explained.  “It does surprise me there aren’t many more.  It’s driven by not just the technology and other fields… but it also is coming from the investment, having… a successful acquisition drives investment.  Now you see… billions of dollars going into robot startups, which is another signal how we’re going to get through those technological and regulatory and policy hurdles.”

Also on stage in the second panel, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, who is currently CEO and founder of the startup shift7.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

“The thing that i also love is it’s the beginning of these tools democratizing.  So the ability for anyone… to get ahold of some of these tools and actually make their own stuff is also really promising,” Smith said. “To Dr. Kuno’s creativity, the more we have more of us engaged in making and creating, this technology is better.  Because we don’t want just one group of people making all the stuff for everybody else.  We want everyone thinking about what they’re passionate about solving in the world and how might they apply whatever tools are available including robotics and AI to solve that problem.”

Policy Opportunities in the Robotics Age

The second discussion, titled “Policy Opportunities in the Robotics Age,” discussed ethical and policy implications of this emerging and evolving field, as well as the many ways that developments in these areas influence developments in robotics,  whether federal and state regulations would help nurture the future of robotics or build barriers to success.

Moderated by Washington editor-at-large at The Atlantic Steve Clemons, top experts on robotics and AI policy discussed ways to achieve public trust and legislative action without stifling innovation.

Clemons started out talking about the challenges between public policy advocates and technology development thinking and working on completely different levels of thought.

“I was at a dinner with Larry Page from Google and a bunch of other high tech other types,” Clemons said.  “And the topic of conversation was the end of death.  They’re trying to end death as we know it.  And a couple Washington people said ‘oh my gosh, what would happen to entitlements? It would go through the roof.’”

Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX), a former undercover CIA officer and senior cybersecurity advisor, discussed some of the challenges with robotics in public policy.  Hurd emphasized his thoughts that government’s role largely should be to allow the industry to thrive, innovate and grow smartly.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

“Ultimately,” said Hurd, “our role is to stay out of the way of innovation and don’t stifle it.  The technological change we’re going to see in the next 20 years is going to make the last 20 years look really insignificant.  And one of the problems you have when you look at legislators or regulators not understanding where technology is going, …people are afraid of change.  We have to embrace it.  And I think where Congress should be having this conversation is how do you facility industry having a conversation on a code of ethics when it comes to artificial intelligence?  What are some of the elements in the federal government that could benefit from artificial intelligence?… Congress can play a role in our oversight function in making sure our various agencies are integrating that technology in the way that it should.”

Rounding out the second panel was Fred Humphres, corporate vice president for U.S. government affairs at Microsoft, who talked about the corporate responsibility of technology firms to educate, inform public policy makers understand where robotics and AI development is heading, and help them integrate these developments into our public lives smartly, without stifling innovation.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

“We have a responsibility to make sure we’re getting up there and educating Members [of Congress] on the different issues.  Because it’s complex,” Humphres agreed.  “[T]here are some challenges up on Capitol Hill… learning this complex area.  So we have a responsibility as companies, we need to get up there and be honest brokers in advocacy and not spinning and not just positioning for our products.  Because when you think of AI, it’s complex.  Robotics, it’s complex.  It’s not black and white, it’s very nuanced.  And there’s a lot of anxiety about it.”

Robot Demos

Throughout the event, several robot demonstrations were on display, including Hitachi’s U.S. debut of their EMIEW3 robot, showing how it can offer services in a variety of scenarios.

Additionally, a display from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab offered videos and artifacts from their robotics / AI lab. Senior robotics engineer Dr. Edward W. Tunstel of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, discussed how those working in both technological development and public policy are optimistic about the future.

Screen grab courtesy Halcyon.

“Robotics has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people,” Tunstel said.  “You’ve got a segment of our society that is in some ways afraid, apprehensive.    We’ve certainly got a number of movies that might inject some of those thoughts.  In many cases one will find through dialogs like this that it’s not that scary at all.”

Microsoft provided access to their Perceptive Pixel (PPI) 55” Touch Device, also known as the Magic Wall. Participants and guests alike were all welcomed and encouraged to answer questions on robotics to be shared with the public.

The event was held at Halcyon’s headquarters in Washington, DC and was hosted alongside partners Axios, Science Robotics (AAAS) and Washington Ideas. Sponsors for the discussion included Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Microsoft, Honeywell, X, and Daikin.

You can watch the full livestream of the Halcyon Discussion online here.

Halcyon VIP Robotics Showcase – Live at 1:30

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Hitachi’s EMIEW3 makes its USA Debut at Halcyon VIP Robotics Showcase

Celebrate the innovations in the fields of AI and robotics as we release the 2016-2017 Halcyon Dialogue series report, Shaping Robotics Policy for the 21st Century. Tune into the Facebook livestream on September 28 from 1-4pm as we roll out the report with exciting robot demos and captivating conversations.

Listen to leading experts as they discuss our future living with robots. Top industry experts, congressional leaders and staff, leading technology companies, and influential policymakers and media figures will take part in the event. Don’t miss out on the chance to hear what they have to say.

Join live on Facebook @HalcyonInspires. 

Eager to learn more about the Robots visiting Halcyon? Check out our robotic guests: 

Amazon Web Services will demonstrate how to use a fully managed IoT service in the cloud (AWS IoT) as well as an Image Recognition service (AWS Rekognition) to assist in emergency response scenarios. The demonstration will include an IoT connected search device which will be fitted with a camera and LED indicators. Conceptually these devices could be mounted on an unmanned vehicle (drone or land based) or an emergency response vehicle. AWS will have a web interface that allows operators to enter search terms (e.g. fire, person etc.) for the search device to detect. When the search device is activated it will transmit images and location to an image recognition system (running on AWS cloud); service will analyze the incoming images, extract data from it and compare against the list of search terms that were entered into the system. When the system finds a match, operator is notified via the web console to review the image. If the image is a positive match the operator can put the search device into a beacon mode where it will flash its LED’s to notify nearby emergency responders to investigate the area.

Calypso for Cozmo (“Calypso” for short) is a new robot intelligence framwork for the revolutionary Cozmo robot by Anki. Calypso allows anyone age 8-80 to program Cozmo using computer vision, speech recognition, and artificial intelligence algorithms. Calypso was developed by Professor David Touretzky of Carnegie Mellon University. During this live showcase, Dr. Touretzky will demonstrate how Calypso’s innovative user interface supports “transparent robot intelligence”. #Cozmo #CozmoMoments

EMIEW3 is a humanoid robot with an enhanced degree of autonomy based on EMIEW and EMIEW2. A “remote brain” consisting of control functions deployed on the cloud and a robot monitoring system, forms the robotics IT platform, which enables EMIEW3 to support customer and guidance services. #EMIEW3 #HitachiRobot #Hitachi

This exhibit will highlight robotic systems developed in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics at Johns Hopkins University, including new microsurgical robot developed to assist surgeons in minimally invasive applications of otolaryngology, neurosurgery and similar critical fields. The system can eliminate hand tremor and enforce virtual safety barriers to allow surgeons to perform high-stress cases with improved confidence.  We will demonstrate a research version of this robot.  A clinical version of this robot is being developed by Galen Robotics, Inc.

The Perceptive Pixel (PPI) by Microsoft 55″ Touch Device is a touch-sensitive computer monitor capable of detecting and processing a virtually unlimited number of simultaneous on-screen touches. It has 1920 x 1080 resolution, adjustable brightness of up to 400 nits, a contrast ratio of up to 1000:1, and a display area of 47.6 x 26.8 inches. An advanced sensor distinguishes true touch from proximal motions of palms and arms, eliminating mistriggering and false starts. With optical bonding, the PPI by Microsoft 55″ Touch Device virtually eliminates parallax issues and exhibits superior brightness and contrast. And it has built-in color temperature settings to accomodate various environments and user preferences. #Surface #SurfaceFam #MagicWall

John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (#JHU or #JHUAPL) will present Intelligent Systems that can make decisions under uncertainty and take action when authorized. A legion of trusted, intelligent systems able to autonomously sense, think, decide and act, while interfacing with human teammates on critical applications. JHU/APL has developed Think/Decide algorithms that allow robots to operate “in the wild”. Specifically, their team has focused on enabling a heterogeneous team of robots to:

  • perceive and describe novel objects they encounter
  • collaborate autonomously on mapping, navigating, and manipulating a challenging environment
  • interface with human teammates using natural language

Daniel Turner and Stephen Carter, the co-Founders of TRAXyL and two of Halcyon Incubator’s own Cohort 7 fellows, install optical fiber communications on the fly. Using their latest prototype, the FiberTRAXtor, to test their patented installation method, the final product blends in directly with the road surface and allows for digital communications without compromising road surface integrity.

NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ Most Watched Sunday Morning News Show

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NBC International Information Bureau. Photo courtesy Jeff Maurone via Flickr.

NBC News’ Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was the most-watched Sunday morning political and public affairs show throughout the past year.

According to the media site Adweek, the NBC news program averaged 3.66 million viewers for the season, besting second-place CBS’s Face the Nation at 3.62 million total viewers and third place ABC’s This Week at 3.23 million viewers.  Fox News Sunday received 1.54 million viewers, while data for Univision’s Al Punto was unavailable.

“I’d like to think viewers believe we are producing a show that’s less stuffy, more approachable, more relevant and intelligent,” show host Chuck Todd said. “I also think the efforts we have made to expand our footprint beyond Sunday mornings — in the forms of a weekday MSNBC show, a podcast and a film festival this November — have helped create more urgency and relevancy to our Sunday morning edition.”

Meet the Press is the longest-running show in the history of television, celebrating its 70th anniversary in November with a documentary film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute.

Protesters Blocked From Discussion on Free Speech Headlined by Attorney General at Georgetown

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited the campus of Georgetown University Law Center in Washington on Tuesday to give a lecture on the First Amendment and freedom of speech.

However, over 100 students that had reportedly been invited to the event were barred and dis-invited due to the threat of protests against the Trump administration’s top justice official.

Greyson Wallis, a law student at Georgetown, told the Washington Post that:

“It seemed like they were rescinding those invites because they didn’t want any sort of hostile environment, and I can understand not wanting to have a violent environment, but that’s not at all what we were trying to do. We’re law students. We all just wanted to hear what he had to say and let him know where we differ from his opinions.”

As Sessions read remarks about plans to defend free speech, some students in attendance silently protested the event by placing duct tape over their mouths.  Roughly 100 other students and approximately 40 faculty members stood outside the building in protest, holding signs and chanting through bullhorns.  They also took a knee and later linked arms, in a symbolic reference to protests over the weekend by NFL players against accusations of police violence toward African Americans.

“A law school is a place for people to learn about the deepest principles that undergird our democratic republic. Those principles are trampled upon by Attorney General sessions in particular and Donald Trump,” Georgetown law professor Heidi Li Feldman said. “You cannot invite people who so thoroughly threaten the basic premises of American law to a campus and not speak up if your mission in life is to educate people about the American legal system.”

Tanya Weinberg, a spokesperson for the law school, replied to criticisms lobbed against the school saying “At events like today’s, we designate protest areas to allow free expression on campus in a manner that upholds safety and security and minimizes potential disruptions to learning. Additionally, students in the auditorium were allowed to protest in a way that did not disrupt the event.”