How Classical Music Affects Thoughts and Mood – Certain types of music can move us emotionally from one feeling to another. In the ‘70s a researcher play certain music in chambers where plants were growing. Of the plants that were provided with rock music, some became stunted and others gangly and most died within a few weeks. Plants that had more soothing music playing in their chambers grew more robust and outlived other plants. Not all types of music leave us in an improved mood once the music ends. An internal medicine physician, Neil Nedley, M.D., says there are ten benefits to listening to classical music: 1. Increases interest in reading and learning, 2. Strengthens brainpower, 3. Encourages good lifestyle habits, 4. Allows frontal lobe to filter information, 5. Encourages fitness, 6. Increases productivity, 7. Strengthens creativity, 8. Decreases irritability, 9. Increases spiritual pursuits, and 10. Improves self-control. It’s important to take careful thought in choosing your music wisely; perhaps just as important of a choice as are the foods you eat and the friends you spend time with. Be mindful of the music that enters your mind.
New Federal Rule Requires Movie Theaters to Provide Closed Captioning – The Justice Department has issued a rule requiring movie theaters to provide closed movie captioning and audio descriptions at the movie-goer’s seat. It applies only to those theaters with digital projection systems. The theaters must also let the public know about the availability of their visual and audio aids and the staff must be available to assist patrons with the equipment before, during and after the movie showing. There are about 39,994 movie theater auditoriums and screens operating in the U.S. and an estimated 38,688 have converted to digital projection systems. The largest expensive for a Megaplex movie theater is to purchase the captioning hardware for each auditorium, which an run to an average upfront cost for a Megaplex of $27,400. The cost for a more average, smaller movie theater is $9,800 to $18,300. (By the way, 4K digital projection is only happening in the commercial theaters, Not on home HDTV sets – that is a compressed version of UHD that some manufacturers are calling “4K.”)
AT&T and DirecTV Allow Users to Stream Video Content to Any Device – For $35 a month DirecTV now allows customers to stream their various channels to a smartphone or anything with no annual contract, no credit check, no installation charge, no set-top box, and the AT&T mobile users, no data charges. This is preferential treatment over other companies for DirecTV, which was bought by AT&T in 2015. But consumers don’t seem to have any concerns about the unusual deal.
