People-mining

We listened to a talk called "Don't take your DNA to the grave".  The idea is to pay to have your blood kept in a special bank so that if your descendants have a need to do so, they can have your DNA looked at when future research uncovers new understandings of DNA and disease.

It is possible to reconstruct your DNA by extracting it from your bones but that is very expensive.  When we had our ancestral DNA patterns looked at by the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society, we supplied the DNA with little toothbrushes swabbed inside our cheeks.  But our speaker said that for their purposes, blood is better.

Maybe sometime, we will be invited to let our thoughts, our physical gait, the geometric arrangement of our organs, our voice, our histories and memories stored in some form.  These patterns and information might be of use to animate robots of the future or to guide an animated film.  Family customs, emotional patterns, fingerprints might be of value.  When you think of the human body, the human mind, the human emotional life and history, there are many parts to us that might be of value in the future.

Each of us represents a particular intersection of cultures, religions, political and other organizations.  We each involve a great deal of information, tone and personality.  Much of the information that is in and about us can be stored in letters.  Even the DNA is a long sequence of four letters.  Someday, the genetic code of me might be stored in multiple places, like email can be.  We might be mined in various ways and for various purposes.  As valuable and impressive as we are, we don't want to go to waste.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Sent today's blog by mistake yesterday evening

Sorry to have sent it accidentally.

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Before

Sometimes, we learn to look at an event or a person in a different light.  I heard recently that "it isn't a story until something bad happens."  The more I have gone over that thought, the more it seems true.  We can hear or read a story or see it acted out and as we are wired to do, we immediately assign a 'valence', a weight, to the story as being roughly good or bad.  The story of the world war II concentration camps usually gets a "bad" rating and with good reason.  The story of recovery from a disease gets a "good" rating.

We have things in our memories that are labeled "good" or "bad".  We can look at the story of how we got where we are today as a mixture of positive and negative events and decisions.  Sometimes, we learn more or new evidence is uncovered and the label changes.  That can be disorienting and painful.  If we thought Abraham Lincoln was a hero and we find he did some things that were not good, it can be disconcerting to find our mind and our judgment being revised.

When something tragic or nasty happens, we are often called upon to remember the pain and loss involved.  I know that I don't know all the pain and all the loss and I know that even in my own life, I can't stay aware of all the good and all the bad that has happened to me or that I created.

Sometimes, the essence of being aware of myself is said to be improved, if only temporarily by intense concentration on the exact present.  At moments when I do that, all my sins, all my mistakes, all my accomplishments, all my triumphs are put aside, shelved, temporarily non-existent.  Just because I am not thinking of events in the past does not mean that they didn't exist or that they weren't "good" or "bad".  Just because I forget about them doesn't mean their effects are gone or that they didn't matter.

We all have finite and fallible memories and judgments and long biological and personal pasts. The memories, the valences and the judgments all matter, however fleeting and slippery they are.

School metrics and real people

​I found the book "Mission High: One School, How the Experts Tried to Fail It and the Students and Teachers Who Made It Triumph" by Kristina Rizga.  Since for the last 50 years, I have tried to keep my eye on methods and results of educational research, I looked into the book.  Mission High is a high school in the San Francisco area and Rizga is a writer who researched the place for 4 years.

She mentions standardized tests and metrics.  She knew going in that particular high school had not scored high on the tests.  She does one of the things that people do which helps to keep a major problem going and that is to use the word "measure" in connection with standardized tests.

The words "measure" and "metric" are often used in connection with school tests.  Such tests are standardized by giving them to a large, hopefully diverse group of students.  That way, when you take the test and score higher than 90% of the group who took it, we can say you outscored 90%.  That sounds good and it is.  It tells others that you did well on the test.  But the "scores" are very crude information, akin to telling the doctor that it hurts somewhere.

When I teach about such tests, which are very popular in the US and have been required of schools by the government, I like to refer to the diagram in the blog post:

http://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2014/09/tests-in-school-and-actual-learning.html  The diagram is an attempt to cast doubt on the value of a test score, especially one in the middle of the possible range of scores.  When scores are in the middle of the range, they are especially murky.  Clearly, if you select the correct choice on multiple choice question for none of the test items, you didn't do well on the test.  If you selected the correct choice for every question, clearly you did well.  But for a teacher, her student and the student's parents, the number of 'correct' questions is rather crude information.

You and I could have a much more useful conversation if we just focus on one question for which you did not select the answer the testing company gives credit for.  We would like to know which choice you made and WHY you chose that one.  Sometimes, you have a very good reason for your choice.  Once I hear your explanation, I might feel you are an advanced thinker in the subject.  Often everyone involved, the teacher, the student, the parents and maybe the administration of the school and the testing company that built and supplies the test are pre-conditioned to simply ask HOW MANY of the questions you answered with the supposedly correct choice.  This approach is approved by all but it is similar to asking how many bites you had of my cake instead of whether you enjoyed it and want another piece.

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Language changes

If I say "I ain't no friend of him", I won't be registered as senatorial material.  A senator should use language 'properly'.  Both of the language scholars, John McWhorter of Columbia, and Ann Curzan of Michigan, emphasize that language changes.  They have records that show changes but even without them, we can see that it does by reading Shakespeare (1564-1616) or Chaucer (1343-1400).  The scholars have an old letter asking a member of the nobility what he thought of the newfangled fashion of pronouncing "walked" as one syllable instead of two: 'walk-ed'.  But today if you go around saying 'walk-ed', and 'talk-ed', you will be 'look-ed' down upon.

English is often said to be the leading language worldwide.  People point to the network of communication started by the US, so we have words that are basically English such as 'internet' and 'code'.  Similarly, as airplanes fly here and there, English is often used for basic terms in aviation and airport-to-pilot talk.  Of course, we need some uniformity and some reliability in our use of words if we are going to understand each other.  We have the term 'Globish' to mean variants of English adopted and adapted by various groups around the world who speak a different language but find it useful, convenient or fun to use some English now and then. Robert McCrumb writes

I recall a visit I made to the European Commission in the mid-1990s. At the bar, in the nearby Parliament building, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Irish delegates were all arguing–in English.

McCrum, Robert (2010-05-24). Globish: How English Became the World's Language (Kindle Locations 3584-3585). Norton. Kindle Edition.

Our children need to learn to read and write.  Those skills are still basic to many aspects of our lives, not the least of which is reading screens and the labels on the switches of our machines.  Today, we have uppercase letters (capitals) and lowercase letters (non-capitals) and spaces between words to try to clarify what we are trying to say in writing.  But their use is undergoing changes as in commercial and marketing terms, like 'iPad' and 'LinkedIn". So, we throw in a captial here and there or leave one, or a space, out.  

One of the most basic language conventions is the use of the period to denote the end of a sentence.  But among our many audiences these days are machines as well as humans.  So, with the message "your password is xxxxxx", it is best to omit the period.  Otherwise, it may be copied and used along with the other characters, even though the period is not part of the official password.  You know you will be denied passage, then.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Gratitude on Thanksgiving

​I have read that one of the fastest ways to feel gratitude is to think of someone you love and then mentally run through the ways you might never have met them.  Exercises like that can be a little hard on the brain at times.  You may have heard to the koan (Zen question or subject of concentration) "What was your face before your parents were born?"

 Maybe you have read about the many sperm that raced toward the egg that became you and you realize things might have been different. Of course, during your fetal development, many things had to work according to schedule for you to turn out as well as you did.  

Even after birth, you probably had some close calls of one kind or another that might have ended your life or changed very much.  I once shot an arrow way, way too close to my sister's head.  I didn't mean to but that is no excuse.  I am very, very grateful it only passed through her hair.  

I don't think we are really capable of grasping all the near misses and fortuitous events that actually worked in our favor during our lives.  If you are reading this, mentally or actually thank all the teachers who helped you, all the taxpayers who supported the society you grew up in, all the friends who are close and favor you now.  We both have been very lucky

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

The rational tradition and emotional life

The thinking part of our minds has gotten plenty of respect and admiration.  It is the backbone of investigation, whether scientific, medical, historical, legal or other.  I am confident there are many ways to describing rational analysis but asking a series of intelligent questions is one way.  We can start with who, what, where, when, why and how and then search among the answers or lack of them for places where additional questions seem called for.  A pursuit of satisfying answers is much like a hunt without spears or horses.  We feel ourselves flying along toward the truth, toward a solution.  We can feel that we are on the trail and closing in.

Schools and classes like to act as though they are about skills and knowledge but all humans know they are subject to continuous streams of emotions, fleeting feelings that seem to arrive unbidden and often without warning or explanation.  I like this speaker but I am put off by that one.  My brain, my habits and my society, not to mention my history, quickly supply reasons and justification for those feelings, pro and con.  Without that quick buttressing, I would develop a picture of myself as driven by whim.  People don't mind a whimsical friend but not too much emotional display at once, please.

If we are in pursuit of the reason for the experiment not supporting a really good hypothesis, if we feel that we are on the right track, we can probably sense camaraderie, team espirit, and "the great big brotherhood of man".  It can break the mood that emerges and unifies us if we call a timeout in our pursuit, our hunt, our game to draw attention to the feelings we are feeling.  Feelings seem too flighty and unpredictable.  We tend to feel our emotions more clearly and with less interference if we are guided by them but don't examine them.  It is hard to feel patriotic and discuss the meaning of patriotism at the same time.

Older adults are often very skilled at pausing their emotions or putting them in the background.  They can feel and know that they feel but still leave inner space for a change of feeling, for some emotions to exit and others to enter.  There is a difference, of course, between feeling an emotion and expressing that feeling in a way that communicates to others what is being felt.  Throw in the facts of different degrees of approval of certain emotions in myself or in those who matter to me, and you begin to get a picture of the complexity of our feeling world. You can see why we sometimes try to stick to less emotion-based communicating.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Nurseryo

​Lets' forget paleo and let's think about nurseryo.  Back to the childhood wonder, the mind clean, empty and ready to engage.  Really, it is a little difficult to revert to paleolithic times.  A million or so years ago is too far back.  If I return to that time, I will miss the last episodes of Major Crimes and Suits.  I won't get my ice cream or my brie or my Mogen David blackberry wine with a shot of Calypso coconut rum in it.  Besides, another problem is that I don't know when to go back to.  Should I be a paleo child, a young man, a middle aged man or an old coot?  Older guys have the better grasp of life but younger guys have a longer future.

Keeping with the spirits of "Orthodoxy" by G.K.Chesterton and "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Suzuki and Chadwick, let me change the goal and go back to my own early days instead of the early days of humankind.  Much of my mind and habit was laid out in those early days and months.  When my experimental hypnosis session required a goal for the hypnosis, I pondered for a few days before coming up with "new eyes".  I was aware of the difference for me between seeing a town or a person for the first time and being accustomed to that place or person, hardly noticing them.

Chesterton puts it very well:

This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough. A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon. But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door. Boys like romantic tales; but babies like realistic tales--because they find them romantic.

Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) (1994-05-01). Orthodoxy (p. 46). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

The point is that once, we were amazed and charmed by the world, the fascinating everything all around us but after a few scores of years, we get comfortable and the wonder has tarnished. But a little polish can get it back.  Just look at these faces and feel yourself unage, feel yourself thrill to a sunset, a song, a warm bath.  Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear [copyright The Lone Ranger] and regain the magic all around you.

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Then and then and now

​"Sapiens" by Y.N. Harari says that we have evolved somewhat slowly in the biological sense while making big changes in our lives.  So, we are following an industrial schedule using clocks while still being attuned physically to sunrise and sunset.  It was only a couple of hundred years ago, that most people had no time pieces and lived on what might be called natural time, set by the daylight and the calendar.

"Paleofantasy" by Zuk says evolution is not as slow and remote as we think.  Not only are we steadily evolving but so are all the other plants and animals.  That is one reason that a supposed retreat to Neanderthal days of more raw food, less sugar and no dairy or alcohol is not a simple and direct way to purify ourselves and attain some sort of healthy living.

What we say and do, by the hour, by the day, by the month, by the year, by the decade does, of course, change.  I used to put my shoes on the opposite feet from what they were made for and shuffle to some grownup, asking for some help in tying my shoelaces.  I used to ask for somebody to cut up my meat for me.  Right now, I can do those things for myself and even help my greatgrandchildren with them if needed.  Later, I may again ask for help.

But quietly, in the background, we can make changes in our routines and habits and ways of living that don't always get noticed.  I mentioned the Paleofantasy chapter on some humans evidently modifying themselves so that they can continue to digest milk throughout their lives.  Many people wonder about the body being built for exercise, such as walking and hunting and gathering, while more and more humans travel while sitting.  I realize that our practices after we are born are not likely to result in much of a change to the human genome.  I guess we need a mutation for a basic change.

However, keep your eye on the geneticists as well as on our ways of living.  I keep seeing references to new tools for picking and choosing genes and we might have a few artificial, that is, human-made mutations one of these days soon.  Besides, whether biologically based or societally based, we humans are on the alert for possible changes that might be to our betterment or amusement, that might make a profit, that might defeat our enemies, whether terrorists or resistant bacteria.  In addition, you might have noticed that we aren't restricted to being rational.  The fad of pet rocks and the thrill of hula hoops and the age of Facebook all show that we can create activities and products and rules and fashions that can change our way of living very drastically.  So, with a nod to the artificial doe scent and deer urine industry during Wisconsin's deer hunt, I sign off.

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Face to face or not

​The phrase "face to face" is often used to mean a meeting where the parties to the meeting are within a few feet of each other and can see each other's faces.  The idea pops up in discussions of teaching, meeting with a physician and possibly in connection with interrogation in law enforcement.  Do we need to be physically in the same (reasonably small) room to have a good interchange between the teacher and the student?

More and more online teaching takes place.  Sometimes, a lecturer gives a talk using Skype or Google Hangout in a situation where the speaker and the audience are actually on different continents.  Medicinal meetings between physician and patient and legal meetings between client and lawyer might take place over the internet or use other methods of seeing and hearing each other at a distance.  The general subject of distance education is about teaching students without being physically close to them.

To some, a good teacher or an impressive lawyer may have a sort of charm or presence that is supposedly not easy to feel with using distance methods.  Yet, literate folks often have the experience of reading a text written in the last century or a poem from years back and being more affected by the language and the ideas than by the last time they attended a class with a living teacher.  Once Professor X in my department gave a lesson to a large class and collected written notes and questions from those present.  One of the questions was "How long has Professor X been dead?"  Maybe you have seen the interrogation of Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny" movie or the courtroom scenes in the movie "Inherit the Wind" and been very moved by actors who were physically long dead.

Both human arts such as photography and acting and human sensitivity that students possess are wide, and deep, and rich.  Right today, you might read Ecclesiastes in the King James bible or Socrates' Apology and be so moved and so affected that you carry the effect in you for the remaining years of your life.  In discussions of "live" (a.k.a. 'face to face') vs. distance methods, one component that is sometimes missed but can matter is the presence of other listeners or students.  They don't always matter but their expressions of awe or stupefaction or confusion or distaste can definitely affect the final result of the meeting or lesson.

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Precise is attractive but mythical

​​It seems odd to me that people seem to have a strong desire to be precise but that precision seems to be an entirely mental thing.  I weigh this chocolate bar and my little scale says that it weighs 1 ounce.  Is it exactly 1 or a little more or a little less?  I am not sure where I get the inner desire to know the bar's EXACT weight.  I bet that at the quantum level, it doesn't have a single EXACT weight but that it fluctuates with the space-time continuum or something.

If I want to be really deeply right, why don't I say the bar isn't heavy or that it weighs less than a pound?  As I fall into fanaticism about the stupid bar's weight, I search out my magnifying glass in order to study the weight scale more carefully.  Is the indicated weight exactly in the middle of the tiny 1 oz. mark?  I guess I have the urge to be precise, to be accurate because I am afraid of being wrong.  If I am very, very, very accurate, I will be very, very, very right, right?  Then, I will be a type of ok, of all right.  So, it is looking more and more as though this desire for precision is a desire for deep rightness.  I seem to want to be unassailable.  So, don't bother trying to assail me because you can't.  I am beyond assailing - I am that accurate, that right precisely on target.

Of course, now smarty-pants comes along and ruins my nice certainty about being oh-so right.  Smarty-pants brings another scale which he says is more accurate than mine.  I of course don't accept that statement on the face of it so he shows me the scale's pedigree, its provenance. Whoa, this scale was made by Herkimer and Whittleson, the famous scale-making firm.  I don't even know who made my scale.  It doesn't have a brand-name on it.  But as a fan of accurate scales, I have heard of Herkimer and Whittleson many times.  I think they gave the money for the Scale Hall of Fame.  [To be continued in the next exciting episode of Precision or Die.]

​​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

UX, IoT, N-back and mouse milk

Oh, no, not UX, IoT, N-back and mouse milk again!  I know, I know, every time you turn around it's UX this and IoT that.  And how many times have you heard of N-back and mouse milk?  Sheesh!

Even though I live in a out-of-the-way place, I run into terms and ideas that strike me as interesting.  Sometimes, they come in a bunch, piled on top of each other.  The O'Reilly blog refers to UX and IoT this morning.  I find that it is a good idea to look terms up every now and then to try to keep at least a little aware of what is being talked about.

"UX" uses the same letters as the Latin word "ux" (wife), which my Scrabble and Words with Friends family knows about.  They know all the two letter words that these games will accept.  They play using the internet and the computers will only accept some words.

In capital letters, UX stands for "user experience."  My wife has had a PhD for more than 20 years and when she was studying for it, she used a book called "Plans and Situated Actions" by Lucy Suchman.  It is about the theoretical and design problems of designing what a user needs to do to operate a machine, such as a copying machine.  If you have used an advanced, complex copying machine that can print in different fonts on different types of paper, on one side or both sides of sheets of paper, can collate the pages and staple them in readiness to hand out to people, you have an idea of the many different paths through the options and controls that a user can take.  Studies continue of what sorts of user interfaces and dashboards are most easily understood and used.

"IoT" is even a little hard to read.  Is that first symbol a one, a lower case L or and upper case i ('eye')?  It is an i, the first letter of the word 'internet'.  I.of T. stands for the internet of things, the coming communication between various machines and appliances in your life.  I put 'internet of things' into Google and up come ads placed by IBM, Cisco, Intell and GE.  Big surprise!

I read the article by Dan Hurley in the current Atlantic about Dr. Sarah Lisanby and her work updating electroshock therapy.  We keep an eye on research and treatment for mental problems and Lisanby is finding that modernized electroshock therapy holds good potential for improving lives.  Hurley was mentioned as the author of "Smarter", a book about the current state of training that may improve or unleash greater intelligence in people.  N-back is a game or exercise used in brain training and mind testing.  A person is given a series of symbols and must indicate when the next one matches a target or the second one or the Nth one in the series.  As N gets larger, it becomes more difficult to do the task.

In some of our eating adventures lately, I was inspired to wonder how often people were able to eat, say, 100,000 years ago.  I am pretty sure they could not count on three full meals a day.  I am impressed at how much history and prehistory various experts know.  Usually, the scientists and academics can back up their knowledge pretty well so after a little searching, I found "Paleofantasy" by Dr. Marlene Zuk.  Her book emphasizes that the animals, the plants and people are undergoing modification and evolution all the time.  One focus of discussions of our evolution is milk.  The white liquid we pore on our bowl of cereal is actually rather special.  We are "mammals", named after the nice, curvy bumps on the chests of our females.  Zuk makes it clear that humans are the only mammals who continue to consume milk and milk products after childhood has passed.  Some of us have been modified so that we can continue to metabolize the sugar in milk throughout our lives.  The scientists are studying the milk produced by other mammalian females, such as mouse milk, and comparing its ingredients with human milk and cow milk.  Zuk points out that it takes quite a bit of harvesting to get 8 oz. of mouse milk.  She doesn't say what the mice think of these studies.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Some little exchanges

​You have seen it often.  The main suspect is seated under a single dull bulb in an interrogation room.  All the evidence points to him as the criminal.  He is answering yet another question when he alters his answer by a word or two.  Suddenly, the chief detective raises her sexy, lovely head, brushes her long, lovely hair to one side and says,"Wait a minute. How could you know the stab wound was made by the point of an umbrella?  We have kept that detail from the media.  You have confirmed our suspicion, you murderer!"

These little words, just a few dropped unsuspectingly, can have a tremendous effect.  It is famously hard to tell when some words will have an important effect.  Many teachers have had the experience of explaining something for the umpteenth time and suddenly, for some unknown reason, THIS time, the student raises his lovely head and says,"Oh, so I hold the Control key AND the Shift key down at the same time."  The teacher knows darned well he has said to do that, in the very same words, many times before, but this time, the student grasps the meaning, the importance, of those little words.

You could be leaving a message to remember to pick up some milk, or asking for an appointment for a painful nail but you might say something that happens to perk up someone's day or give them a lift you never know about.  I think the reason some little exchange can suddenly matter is often related to the exact circumstances the recipient has been living in the past few hours. Maybe the murderer has been looking at the rain and thinking that minute of umbrellas.  Maybe the student has been recently been told he has excellent control of his balance and at this moment, the word 'control' stands out for him.  You could be on the 5th task of the day and in need of a little pick-me-up so you use a slightly different vocabulary or a slightly warmer tone.  You just happen to really mesh with the other person's mood or thoughts.

Whether it is a short note, a book, a gift, a comment on a birthday card or an offhand remark in passing, you might leave a long-lasting effect that you have no idea about.

​

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Hunger pangs

I imagine scientists and coaches know quite a bit about hunger.  We have been trying the "Fast Diet" by Mosley and Spencer.  We often call it fasting but it isn't really.  The 5:2 plan gives a woman 500 calories a day and a man 600 on any two non-consecutive days a week..  We have followed the plan for about 7 weeks.  We have both lost about 5 lbs.

We have both noticed that we have experienced little pain or discomfort.  The main trick, similar to many other things in life, is to watch what we are paying attention to.  Our bodies seem wired to notify us that we didn't eat much and that it has been quite a while since we ate at all.  These notifications come "in from the back" so to speak.  That is, just when you are about to move your attention a little, say from the remote to the tv, ZIP!  A little message comes streaming across your consciousness saying you might want to go eat something.

In addition, our senses, especially our eyes, notice fruit, the cupboard with the crackers in it, the other one with the nuts and chocolate.  So, it is easier to follow our plan if we stay out of the kitchen and away from food. It is also easier to follow the plan if we immediately dismiss physical reminders, actual hunger pangs or merely a thought of food.  We have learned that a firm dismissal and a quick dive into something of interest will be followed for a reasonable time by no thought of food or snacks.

A person can feel leery of fasting but most of us are actually quite far from being in danger of death by starvation.  I have mentioned the TED talk by Dr. Mark Mattson on the benefits of fasting for the brain and the liver.  A day of much reduced calories makes the next day heavenly.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Modern literacy

Literacy refers to the ability to read and write.  Those two abilities are not identical, as people who have studied a foreign language can tell you.  Reading is input and what is to be taken in is all ready for the reader.  Writing is production and seems to require closer connection between the brain and the words produced.  The two abilities together with basic arithmetic make the famous three R's of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic or basic calculation of numbers and counts.

There are plenty of people alive now who cannot read nor write in any language.  People in the US thought that was a big handicap 200 years ago.  It was and I imagine it is.  But in today's world, there are additional skills that would probably be considered fundamental to living these days.  I nominate some basic knowledge, experience and skill with machines, computers and meditation.

In the area of machines, we have items like a television set, a washing machine and others but the primary one is the automobile.  In our house, we find that a new car has a new dashboard and that how to use the electronic controls is not obvious.  But driving on our roads is pretty much the same as it was 50 years ago.  Entering and exiting a superhighway is a little bit new but sitting in a traffic jam is the same. 

We make plenty of use daily of a microwave but it is pretty quick to learn, I think.

Today, a person can live and live well without a computer or knowledge of the internet but my same-age friends would agree, I think, that some knowledge of and experience with a monitor, a mouse and using Windows or a Mac definitely enriches life.  Even if you have used email but never visited Facebook or some other social website, you would probably be impressed by the service that now has over a billion with a B users.

Some familiarity with secular, non-religious meditation is also a basic plus.  About 1980, I had read enough research to realize that the evidence for mental health and less noxious stress with meditation was rich enough and persuasive enough that at least some introduction to the practice should be in the basic school curriculum. Nowadays, the evidence is much stronger and more complete.

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

The importance of talking about unbelievably awful events

​I thought this week's TED update was a good one to use as a reminder of TED talks being available.  Just put TED into your favorite search engine.

Bill​

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: This week on TED.com <no_reply@ted.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 10:03 AM
Subject: The importance of talking about unbelievably awful events
To: olderkirby@gmail.com

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser

This week on TED.com November 15, 2015

Talk of the week Jean-Paul Mari: The importance of talking ... after a brush with death 15:30 minutes · Filmed Mar 2015 · Posted Nov 2015 · TEDxCannes On a reporting trip, journalist Jean-Paul Mari had a face-to-face encounter with a senseless, random death, beginning his acquaintance with a phantom that has haunted us since ancient times: post-traumatic stress. "What is this thing that can kill you without leaving any visible scars?" Mari asks. In this probing talk, he searches for answers in the aftermath of horror and trauma -- and comes to a very human conclusion: we must talk. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Taking time for self-care 9 TED Talks on the science of taking care of yourself -- both emotionally and physically. Watch » 9 TED Talks • Total run time 2:08:33

More from TED.com Randall Munroe from the web cartoon xkcd answers simple what-if questions ("what if you hit a baseball moving at the speed of light?") using math, physics, logic and deadpan humor. In this charming talk, a reader's extremely nerdy question leads Munroe down a circuitous path to a hilariously over-detailed answer — in which, shhh, you might actually learn something. Watch » How do we respect someone's religious beliefs, while also holding religion accountable for the damage those beliefs may cause? Chelsea Shields has a bold answer to this question. "Religions can liberate or subjugate, they can empower or exploit, they can comfort or destroy," she says. "What is taught on the Sabbath leaks into our politics, our health policy, violence around the world." Watch » As a gay couple in San Francisco, Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols had a relatively easy time living the way they wanted. But outside the bubble of the Bay Area, what was life like for people still lacking basic rights? They set off on a world tour in search of "Supergays," LGBT people who were doing something extraordinary in the world. Watch » Search engines have become our most trusted sources of information and arbiters of truth. But can we ever get a truly unbiased search result? Andreas Ekström believes that such a thing is a philosophical impossibility. In this thoughtful talk, he calls on us to strengthen the bonds between technology and the humanities, and he reminds us that behind every algorithm, somewhere, is a human. Watch »

read more about ideas on ted.com Create: How does musical creativity work inside your brain?  » A neuroscientist and a songwriter talk together about the state of creativity   Archeology: Using satellite images to catch looters » When ancient cities are destroyed, there's a lucrative market for what's left behind Health: Help for people who have a very rare disease » This system connects unique patients with the doctors who can help

Quote of the Week " My idea of a perfect world really can't be designed by one person or even by a million experts. It's going to be seven billion pairs of hands, each following their own passions." Jay Silver Hack a banana!

Join the Conversation Join us on Facebook Follow us @TEDTalks

Share Tweet Share Read Later Forward

 

You are receiving this email because you've subscribed to our mailing list. We also send out daily emails, if you can't get enough of us. We love you too. Copyright © 2015 TED, All rights reserved. You're receiving the TED Talks weekly newsletter because you subscribed to it on TED.com. (Was this forwarded by a friend? You can sign up here: http://www.ted.com/newsletter ) Our mailing address is: TED 250 Hudson St., Room 1002 New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences   view email in browser

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby