An App a Day: Smartwatches and Your Health

by Tanya Seamans

Summer 2015 Intern

My first cell phone was my mom’s old Nokia brick. I wasn’t able to do a whole lot more than make phone calls and play Snake—but then again, what else was a phone supposed to do? When I got my first iPhone, it changed my life. For the first time, I understood that one device could do many, many things. A phone was no longer just a phone—it was a music player, a camera, a notepad, a browser, a gaming device and more. Now, watches are getting the same technological upgrade: Smartwatches can do so much more than just tell time. They can even help keep you healthy!

Anyone with a smartphone or a tablet knows there is a huge variety of fitness apps out there. Fitness trackers and bracelets, such as the Fitbit, are also becoming more and more popular. The most basic of these can track your daily activity, logging information such as steps taken, distance walked, and calories burned—the more advanced ones can do a great deal more. Not to be outdone, smartwatches are now becoming the latest gadgets to monitor health. Many even measure all the ways you move and offer exercise goals to complete each day.

Sensors in many different smartwatch models can track movement, take measurements, record information and collect data. This opens up entirely new opportunities for the medical fields. Apple, for instance, is beginning to explore the smartwatch and smartphone potential with ResearchKit, an app that allow researchers and developers to collect biometrics data. Users have control of the information; they can choose what studies to join and what information to provide. And any information is securely stored and shared. Several of the world’s leading medical institutions are already using ResearchKit to gain further insight into some of our most serious diseases, including asthma, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Soon, you may be able to share information collected on your smart devices directly with doctors, hospitals and other medical personnel. IBM is working on deals with Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic to collect and use more information from personal medical devices to help with patients’ clinical care. A master database of patients’ medical records would allow any medical personnel with access to see a patient’s medical information and history. This would eliminate countless hours wasted by filling out the same information for each new medical facility; it would also keep medical information consistent wherever a patient goes.

It is always exciting to see technology evolving, but isn’t it wonderful to see advancements being made that can directly improve our health and the lives of those around us?

Did You Know?

Most smartphones have the ability for a user to create an emergency card with important health information that is available right on the device’s lock screen. Apple’s Health app is built into iOS 8; numerous third-party apps exist in the Google Play Store for Android; and the Microsoft Store has several apps that are compatible with Windows Phone devices. With many of these apps, you can include information such as allergies, medications, blood type, emergency contacts and more.

Accomplished All Her Life: Story Written by 10-Year-Old Queen Victoria Gets Published

by Tanya Seamans
Summer 2015 Intern

On June 8, 2015, a children’s book, The Adventures of Alice Laselles, was published; its original manuscript is credited to “Alexandrina Victoria, aged 10 and ¾.” The dedication in the book reads:

To my dear Mamma. This, my first attempt at composition, is affectionately and dutifully inscribed by her affectionate daughter, Victoria.

As impressive as this vocabulary is for such a young girl, it is nowhere near as remarkable as the rest of her life; this young author would go on to become Queen Victoria of England!

In the late nineteenth century, Queen Victoria (1819–1901) was the royal ruler of the British Empire. Victoria—the great-great-grandmother of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II—is associated with Britain’s great age of industrial expansion and economic progress. In fact, according to the British Monarchy’s website, “Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set” at the time of Victoria’s death.

In The Adventures of Alice Laselles, the young royal author tells the tale of a 12-year-old girl who is sent away to boarding school after her father remarries. At the school, Alice is wrongly accused of allowing a cat into the school without permission and must discover who the true culprit is.
When Alice learns she has to leave her home, Victoria writes: “ ‘Oh do not send me away dear Pappa,’ exclaimed Alice Laselles, as she threw her arms around her Pappa’s neck; ‘don’t send me away, O let me stay with you.’ And she sobbed bitterly.” This is especially moving coming from Victoria, whose own father died shortly after her birth, and whose mother often kept her separated from other family members.

As a child, Victoria and her governess, Baroness Louise Lehzen, colored paper dolls. The book’s beautiful illustrations include a combination of digitally manipulated copies of these paper dolls and twenty-first-century etchings.

The young Victoria wrote the story as an exercise in English composition. Set down in a red notebook, it was later stored in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle where, until recently, its existence was known only to a select few.  The book includes an introduction from children’s author Jacqueline Wilson.

The book is available to purchase in hardcover format from stores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and eBay. If you have a child you’d love to buy a book for or a passion for the British monarchy, you might find it to be worth the read!

Did You Know?


At the time this article was written, Queen Victoria had reigned for the longest amount of time of any British monarch in history: 63 years and 7 months. Yesterday, September 9, 2015, history was made: Queen Elizabeth II surpassed her great-great-grandmother’s record!  Incidentally, before yesterday, Victoria also reigned for the longest time of any female monarch in history. Now that distinction will go to Elizabeth as well.

Outside the Office: PSG’s Own Athletes

by Tanya Seamans
Summer 2015 Intern

It should come as no surprise that a career in publishing is not particularly physically demanding. Looking around the PSG office, I feel I can safely say that many publishing jobs involve a lot of sitting and staring at a computer. And this is true of many others; compared to our parents and grandparents, we are spending increasing amounts of time in environments that limit our physical activity and require prolonged sitting—at work, at home, and in our cars and communities. In 2003, nearly 6 in 10 working adults used a computer on the job—and that was over a decade ago.

Current public health recommendations propose engaging in at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous activity. So if we aren’t getting enough exercise on the job, how are the people of PSG staying active?

There are a huge variety of sports and physical activities among the PSG team. Currently, Alyssa does yoga, swims for recreation, and attends ballet barre classes at the gym. She was also a competitive swimmer for 10 years and danced for 11 years. Ken has golfed for 25 years and played both tennis and badminton in college. Reena has danced for 18 years, and is even a part of the Tap Ensemble at Tufts. She’s performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center. Troy fishes and gardens competitively, and loves to do home repairs and home improvement projects. Eileen has a super athletic past comprised of all kinds of soccer: recreational, travel and school. Her favorite memory is scoring a goal in the semifinals of a big regional tournament, leading her team to victory. My own past was full of softball and basketball, but now I tend to stick to jogging around cranberry bogs (largely motivated by the “Zombies, Run!” app to scare me into running faster).

Don is by far the most competitive in the office. Whether it is playing a beanbag toss game with friends or learning candlepin bowling on a summer outing with the staff, you can be sure he'll make a valiant effort for victory.

Our fearless leader, Lori, has one of the most active lifestyles in the office, which includes gymnastics, synchronized swimming, yoga, cycling, and even competitive ballroom dancing. A few years ago she made a big change and tried CrossFit. She is now both an athlete and an active CrossFit Coach.

As we spend more and more time behind our desks, it is important to remember to get out and move however we can. Whether we’re golfing with friends, growing the most tomatoes in the neighborhood, or running from zombies, it’s good to know the PSG team is staying active and having fun.

Did You Know?

As a Connecticut native, Don was unfamiliar with candlepin bowling, a type of bowling played primarily in Massachusetts (where it was invented in 1880) as well as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of Canada.

Candlepin bowling balls are smaller than tenpin bowling balls and the pins are thinner. You have three bowls per frame rather than two. For some reason the PSG staff can't fathom, this pastime hasn't spread nationwide.

University of Washington Hosts Impressive New Musical Guests

by Reena Karasin

Summer 2015 Intern

Harry Partch, an American musician who lived and worked during the twentieth century, has always been considered a daring composer. Partch refused to let himself be limited by conventions; when he found the conventional western tuning system and its instruments constraining, he simply created his own.

Partch’s handmade instruments use just intonation rather than the typical 12-tone equal temperament that is practiced in western music. These microtonal instruments operate on a 43-tone scale (including secondary intervals), thus producing a wide range of sounds that mimic the human voice. Some instruments are modified versions of existing instruments, like the adapted viola, while others, such as the kithara II, appear much more original. A testament to the saying that “necessity is the mother of invention,” Partch created new instruments as he discovered that he required them for his compositions.

Since Partch’s death in 1974, his former student, Danlee Mitchell, has had possession of the instruments. They were first in residence at Montclair University in New Jersey, but in November 2014, Mitchell agreed to transfer the collection across the country to the University of Washington School of Music’s Harry Partch Instrumentarium. There, the instruments are available to members of the school’s community and, to some extent, the public.

Students will learn how to play Partch’s instruments, ultimately both learning his compositions and creating their own. The university held its first public events for the instruments in May of this year. A free event in which people could learn about and view some of Partch’s instruments was followed by a ticketed performance.

At a school where creativity is absolutely vital, Partch’s collection shows budding musicians what thinking outside the box can accomplish. The instruments’ residency at the University of Washington School of Music gives many from both the university and the public the opportunity to be inspired and surprised by what they hear coming out of these handmade creations.

Did You Know?

Barbershop quartets often utilize just intonation in order to achieve the “ringing” chord for which they are famous, also known as the “barbershop seventh.”

Adventure Playgrounds: The International Phenomenon

by David Fox

Summer 2015 Intern

When I was five and growing up in Oakland, my parents would drive my older brother and me out to Berkeley, California for a weekend afternoon at Adventure Playground. It was our favorite place in the world: a half-acre of dirt and lopsided structures that looked built by children because they had been. I remember working together with a dozen other five-, six- and seven-year-olds making the rails for a huge wooden fort that still stands to this day. We—my brother and I—and the thousands of other kids who have been visiting the park since 1979 have hammered, nailed, sawed and painted this place into existence under light supervision.

Was it a little dangerous to give young children these tools and have them go to work in whatever way they wanted? Yes, and according to Dr. Stuart Brown of the National Institute for Play, that’s the point. “It’s really central that kids are able to take their natural and intense play impulses and act on them,” Dr. Brown said in an interview with NPR. And while there are only a few playgrounds like this in the states, adventure playgrounds have been huge in Europe for years now. It all started in the aftermath of World War II with Lady Marjorie Allen, a landscape architect who studied children playing in traditional playgrounds. She found that they would rather play with movable parts, and create their own structures.

Over the years, Lady Allen’s idea has spread. There’s the The Land, in Wales, UK, which to the uninitiated eye looks more like a junkyard than a playground. There are very few parents in the park, and the kids are free to swing across the creek on an old rope, start fires (under the supervision of a trained “playworker”) just to see what happens, and whatever else pops into their heads. There are around 1,000 adventure playgrounds like The Land throughout Europe, mainly located in Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Germany and England. Their popularity shows that these kids are thoroughly enjoying the chance to explore, build and destroy in whatever fashion they want.

Fifteen years later, I still vividly remember the days spent at Adventure Playground as the first time I was totally allowed to follow my creative urges. I believe that spirit of independence has stayed with me ever since.

Did You Know?

In the first two years of The Land running, there has not been any injury worse than the occasional scraped knee.

Harper Lee and Scout Finch Return to the Public Eye

by Reena Karasin
Summer 2015 Intern

Since its publication in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird has had a profound impact on children and adults worldwide. Harper Lee’s first printed novel has been published in over forty different languages and still sells a million copies annually—a testament to its accessibility and power. Just as young Scout Finch had to grapple with the grim realities surrounding her, for many of us, To Kill a Mockingbird was our first striking venture into the matters of adulthood. The book has also received significant critical acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. After her first roaring success, Lee never published any other writing—until now, over fifty years later.

Go Set a Watchman, released on July 14, was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s editor was enamored with the snippets of Scout’s past throughout the manuscript, and suggested that Lee go in that direction with a separate novel, which later became To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s newly published novel takes place during the 1950s, and features an adult Scout, who resides in New York but visits her hometown and her aging father—the famous Atticus Finch—in Maycomb, Alabama. After temporal and geographical distance, Scout is faced with sorting out her feelings toward Maycomb and the slew of racial issues it contains.

Go Set a Watchman, whose first print run of two million copies was increased to 3.3 million after selling over a million copies in the week following its release, has broken HarperCollins’s record for most pre-ordered book and fastest selling book. It is classified as adult fiction, and rests at a comfortable length of about 300 pages. The manuscript was published in essentially the same state in which it was found.

It’s too soon to tell whether Go Set a Watchman will become a classic like its predecessor, but regardless of its lasting impact and whether it makes us view To Kill a Mockingbird in a different light, it is a pleasure to return to characters we know and love and to see them developed further. The novel, which is interwoven with familiar flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, draws us once again into the world of Jem and Dill, of Atticus and Aunt Alexandra, and—perhaps most importantly—of Maycomb, Alabama, the fictional but terrifyingly realistic place that many of us first visited during our own childhoods.

Did You Know?

The setting of Maycomb in both of Harper Lee’s novels is modeled after the author’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, but the similarities don’t stop there. Finch was Lee’s mother’s maiden name, and Lee and Scout would have been the about same age in the early 1930s when To Kill a Mockingbird takes place.

Just Call Me Katniss, Coach: The New PE

by Eileen Neary
Asst. Project Manager

Gym class: the often dreaded period of the day. In elementary school, we had these gym class scooters you would propel yourself on by shuffling your feet. There was nothing quite like having your fingers run over by the swivel wheels. And high school? Dodgeball just wasn’t my thing.

My gym class experiences were completely at odds with my after-school participation in recreational, travel and school soccer teams—sometimes all three teams at once, with a different practice each night. My apathy toward gym class had nothing to do with athleticism, and everything to do with, “I don’t feel like doing that.”

But in the last couple of years, more and more schools are allowing students to pick which activity they want to participate in during their gym classes.

At Patriot High School in Virginia, students can choose between football, tennis or jump-rope games. In Washington, DC, public schools, fly-fishing, yoga, archery and even rock climbing are on the roster. One high school offers a class called “Your Personal Fitness,” which allows students to create their own fitness plans. Another has distributed pedometers to all students. In West Virginia, Cameron High School has its own “exergaming room.” It features Xbox Kinect games that require full-body movement, table tennis and arcade-style games.

Gone are the days of forcing students to take the “mile run” or make the terrifying rope-climb in front of their peers. The new voice in physical education is about encouraging students to start at point A and track their personal improvement on the way to point B.

For students lucky enough to attend San Rafael High School near San Francisco, they might find themselves rock climbing, hiking or sailing. But me? I’ll take archery.

Archery is one of the fastest-growing gym class activities in recent years. From Minnesota to Alabama to Pennsylvania, students are enjoying the outdoors and shooting targets, instead of shooting each other looks of exasperation.

If you handed me a compound bow and quiver of arrows in gym class, I might not be Katniss Everdeen, but I might decide to stick around.

Did You Know?

It’s true that archery is flourishing in the United States, exploding in popularity due to the success of The Hunger Games trilogy Looking for an archery club? There are far more out there than you might think.