Alexa, Are You Safe For My Kids? That’s what NPR science reporters Allison Aubrey and Michaeleen Doucleff asked this week, and some of what they discovered is giving parents pause. In our age of friendly, interactive computers with human voices -- from iPhone’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa to Google’s Home -- it can be tough to teach manners when the kids’ every wish is the machine’s command.
“You can yell at them and scream, ‘I don’t like that song, skip ahead!’ ” points out University of Montana child psychologist Rachel Severson, “and the devices just respond in the same way as if you’re polite.” Beware, parents: Young kids notice and imitate, she says, without making the distinction between machine and human.
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| Get America Covered/Screenshot by NPR |
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Obama’s Tweets Go Viral The former president has more than 95 million followers on Twitter, and this week he used the platform to urge eligible Americans to hurry up and check out HealthCare.gov and sign up for a 2018 health plan before the Dec. 15 deadline. “Eight in 10 people this year can find plans for $75 a month or less,” Barack Obama said in a video linked to the tweet. “That’s cheaper than a lot of cellphone plans.” Take that, Siri.
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| Dr. Eduardo Ibarra checks the blood pressure of Carmen Garcia Lavoy in the Toa Baja area of Puerto Rico. He's been making house calls in the area with nurse Erika Rodriguez. Jason Beaubien/NPR |
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Lingering Health Legacy Of Hurricanes It’s been many weeks since the wind and rain of the violent storms named Harvey, Maria and Irma spun destruction through the Americas, but many people are still struggling. Maria brought Puerto Rico’s electrical grid down on Sept. 20, and although the government “has prioritized getting power back to hospitals,” many homes, smaller clinics and doctors’ offices still don’t have electricity, NPR’s Jason Beaubien reports.
That means a lot of patients aren’t getting needed exams and scans, and some are dying. And some equipment -- like MRI machines that need liquid helium to cool their magnets -- is at risk of permanent damage. The hurricane’s official death toll, doctors there tell Beaubien, doesn’t include those who are dying because their failing kidneys or high blood pressure or other ailments are going untreated.
Meanwhile, a number of Texans are suing the chemical manufacturer Arkema over Harvey-related explosions of organic peroxides at its plant in Crosby, near Houston. As NPR science reporter Rebecca Hersher reports, some nearby residents who were outside the evacuation region feel the company should have warned them the floodwaters or clouds of smoky fog after the explosion could be risky. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are investigating the fires.
Stay tuned next week for further updates on these stories and others.
Your Shots editor -- Deborah Franklin
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