Google is shutting down its goo.gl URL shortening service

Google is shutting down its goo.gl URL shortening service

Google announced last week that it is shutting down the goo.gl URL shortening service. A URL shortening services is an online service that takes long, unwieldy addresses and creates a new, shorter address that it is easier to share. I’ve covered the Chrome extension before, which made it very easy to use. The timeline for…

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the growing body of scientific evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds Source: Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. So why can’t you put it down?…

Coding and the brain

Coding and the brain

It’s true: programmers think differently than everyone else. Not to say that programmers are necessarily smarter, more logical, or more rational than everyone else, as is commonly said. But scientists have recently started studying the brains of programmers and have come to some interesting conclusions. Source: How Programming Affects Your Brain: 3 Big Truths According to…

New book, The Case for the “Self-Driven Child”

New book, The Case for the “Self-Driven Child”

We are raising the anxious generation, and the conversation about the causes, and the potential cures, has just begun. In The Self-Driven Child, authors William Stixrud and Ned Johnson focus on the ways that children today are being denied a sense of controlling their own lives—doing what they find meaningful, and succeeding or failing on…

Increased letter spaces increases reading speed and fluidity.

Increased letter spaces increases reading speed and fluidity.

“Generally speaking, our lab is interested in learning about how kids learn to read. More specifically, we want to know how the brain activity of kids that have difficulty learning to read differs from those who are not.” said Elizabeth Sacchi, a doctoral candidate at Binghamton University. “Through some of my studies, I came across…