Author: Dan Rose

Dear Editor:

I am retired, 80 years old and trying to recover from multiple mini-strokes, two major strokes, and bleeding on the brain. The doctor told my wife that I was going to die, but here I am!

The airplane noise has impacted my life and recovery, which is very slow. The airplanes departing LaGuardia Airport start at 6 a.m. and wake me. They are loud and mostly low. Most of the time, they fly right through the morning and afternoon into the evening.

I sit on my front patio, but there is no peace and quiet. I cannot listen to the ballgame on my radio or have a conversation with my wife or anyone else. If the phone rings, I cannot hear what is being said and I cannot jump up and go inside my house because of my disability.

The noise has an adverse effect on my cardiovascular system and my hearing. Something must be done to solve the airplane noise! Elected officials, please help to lower the noise level or eliminate it altogether.

Force the FAA to have a different flight path, maybe over the water like it used to be.

Sincerely,

George T. Donahue

Flushing

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In association with the American Heart Association, The Cadwallader Colden School, PS 214, is going to be hosting its annual Teaching Garden Harvest Day today from 9 to 10 a.m.

In the spring, students planted an AHA Teaching Garden at their school in order to promote healthy bodies and minds, and now it is time to reap the harvest of that labor.

The AHA initiated its teaching gardens program in order to help combat the obesity epidemic and improve children’s health from an early age.

According to the AHA, French fries make up one-fourth of children’s vegetable intake and fruit juice accounts for 40 percent of children’s fruit intake. Nearly one in three American children is overweight.

Queens native Lauren Schwartzberg was recently crowned National American Miss New York Teen. Judged on a number of categories ranging from academics to formal wear, Schwartzberg particularly stood out in the fields of academics, volunteer service and the interview portion of the competition.

Schwartzberg’s platform raises awareness of the importance of physical activity for one’s mental health. With that in mind, in addition to hours of community service, she will also be training for the New York Marathon and running it for the National Alliance on Mental Health.

Her interest in health and the sciences goes deeper than the pageant work. Having just graduated from Cardozo High School in Bayside, the Jamaica Estates resident attends a seven-year program at the New York Institute of Technology, pursuing a combined osteopath medical school and B.S. degree.

Read more: Queens Examiner – Queens native Lauren Schwartzberg crowned Miss New York Teen

 

Huang Tiange began playing his musical training at three years old, and now, at 10, he is gaining international notoriety as a talented young prodigy capable of performing difficult classical arrangements flawlessly, as well as composing moving pieces of his own.

He has received multiple awards from the American Society of Music Composers and Producers (ASCAP) for his accomplishments, which include composing his own suite at six years old.

At 3 p.m. today, Tiange will make his New York City debut at Flushing Town Hall, where he will perform three Mozart sonatas and his own original composition, the Xinjiang Suite, a song dedicated to the golden season, or as we know it more commonly here in the U.S., autumn.

Tickets for entry to the show are $10 for students, $12 for members, and $15 for general admission.

 

 

In response to growing demand for surface transit between downtown Flushing and downtown Jamaica, the Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transit Authority will host a public workshop tonight at 6 p.m. in York College’s Academic Core Building, Room 2D01, at 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. in Jamaica.

The workshop will focus on educating the public about Select Bus Service and allow community members to give their input into ways transportation between the two downtowns could be improved.

For those who cannot make the trip to Jamaica to participate in the town hall this evening, the agencies will host a second workshop at PS 244, 137-20 Franklin Ave., on Tues., October 7 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

 

 

When most people think artificial intelligence, Skynet and other diabolical doomsday imaginings come to mind. But at their New York City lab, Microsoft Research is using sentient data servers for a much more PG purpose: drawing cartoons.

Kati London is the senior researcher at Microsoft’s Future User Social Experience (FUSE) Lab in New York City, where 42 unique sentient data servers are whirring away, analyzing 311 call data and crafting neighborhood-specific single-pane cartoons on a weekly basis using algorithms as part of the HereHere NYC project.

“We introduced a very early prototype of this and it didn’t have the cartoons in late March. Then, we released this version of the project in early August,” London said. “We take the freshest data that tells us what kind of the complaints are of that week for any particular neighborhood.”

Iris Gottleib is the artist behind the panes, which this week focus on illegal parking, noisy neighbors and litter, among other topics.

At the heart of the project is the desire to translate public data into engaging, bite-sized pieces, and the servers behind the project have been fed three years of data to fuel their musings. London referred to the servers as characters, programmed to have the same emoted reaction to complaints that residents themselves might experience in the “super neighborhoods” designated by her team.

“A sentient data server allows you to create a computerized character that has a personality,” London said.

London hopes HereHere NYC will continue gaining subscribers – currently there are roughly 700 – so the FUSE lab can run a study on its effectiveness in communicating neighborhood issues. [QL]