My new project is one that will take some time to accomplish: I'm reading a book upside down.
I had read that reading a book upside down was a "brain game" so I decided to give it a try. I browsed through my books looking for a font that would be easy to read upside down, but all my books had the same size printing. I selected 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus, a translation from the French by Mathew Ward and began reading, but it wasn't long before I decided it would be better as a beginning upside down reader, to choose something a bit lighter.
After sorting through the books, I picked an Alexander McCall Smith book, 'In The Company Of Cheerful Ladies' which is a charming book with engaging characters, and one of his series about 'The NO. 1 Ladies Detective Agency'. We are so practiced in reading that we intuitively understand meanings of words and sentences without checking the dictionary, but in reading upside down, I often have to spell out a word in order to decipher it and know its pronunciation.. Consequently, I can't anticipate the next word in a sentence. I also have to pay attention to punctuation in order to keep the thread of the story making sense.
Its slow going and it will be some time before I can sail through the pages like I do reading right side up. It will be a while before I actually finish chapter 1... and there are 21 chapters total. I'll update my progress from time to time.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Neurobics
One of the most fascinating books that I've read lately is Keep Your Brain Alive written by two authors,
Lawrence C Katz and Manning Rubin. They say that when we occasionally change the way we perform daily routines, we create
Neurobics which is an additional way of nourishing the brain. The authors describes in detail how memory cells are created and stored in various area of the brain, and how Neurobics help create memories. Unlike logic puzzles and memory tests, Neurobics uses the senses of touch, smell, hearing, spacial memory and emotional sense.
Representations of events, people and places are associations and are stored in many areas of the brain. Incorporating Neurobics into ones life is not a quick fix, but will give your brain a good workout by making new associations and activating circuits that increase and strengthen associative cells that prevent mental decline.
There are three conditions required for creating Neurobics.
The book includes numerous ways that are easy to practice and that do not entail lots of time.
The following are some of the suggestions.
These ideas sound simplistic, but having had personal experience of being forced to practice several of them due to temporary physical limitations over the last several years, I found them surprisingly difficult.
A year ago I broke my right wrist and had to use my left hand to write letters to my sister, Esther. She had stopped using her computer and due to her profound hearing loss, we exchanged letters 2 or 3 times a week. I actually got very good at writing with my left hand. Presently I'm being forced to NOT use my left thumb due to surgery. The Dr. had zapped a spot of skin cancer on the knuckle just below the thumb nail. Because it became infected, the Dr. removed the nail. It's almost well, but my thumb is extremely sensitive and I've had to use my fingers in a way to hold things. I no longer look like I'm trying to hitch a ride, and my thumb is almost well enough so that I can start knitting again.
Now I practice reading upside down when I'm in a waiting room with magazines. So far I've only read magazine advertisements, but one of these days I'll might try reading a regular book.
Representations of events, people and places are associations and are stored in many areas of the brain. Incorporating Neurobics into ones life is not a quick fix, but will give your brain a good workout by making new associations and activating circuits that increase and strengthen associative cells that prevent mental decline.
There are three conditions required for creating Neurobics.
- involve one or more of the senses in a novel way.
- break routine activity in unexpected and non-trivial ways.
- engage your attention.
The book includes numerous ways that are easy to practice and that do not entail lots of time.
The following are some of the suggestions.
- Change your writing hand
- Change your olfactory association of waking to coffee by keeping a container of favorite aromas bedside for a week such as vanilla, peppermint or rosemary
- Shower with your eyes closed using tactile associations
- Read out loud or listen to someone reading
- Brush your teeth with your non-dominate hand
- Read upside down
- Learn Braille
- Start a new hobby
- Keep a cup of coins in the car cup holder. At stop lights determine denomination by feel alone
- Grow a garden
- With eyes closed using spacial memory, unlock the car door, sit and buckle the seat belt, insert the ignition key and locate the radio and windshield wipers
These ideas sound simplistic, but having had personal experience of being forced to practice several of them due to temporary physical limitations over the last several years, I found them surprisingly difficult.
A year ago I broke my right wrist and had to use my left hand to write letters to my sister, Esther. She had stopped using her computer and due to her profound hearing loss, we exchanged letters 2 or 3 times a week. I actually got very good at writing with my left hand. Presently I'm being forced to NOT use my left thumb due to surgery. The Dr. had zapped a spot of skin cancer on the knuckle just below the thumb nail. Because it became infected, the Dr. removed the nail. It's almost well, but my thumb is extremely sensitive and I've had to use my fingers in a way to hold things. I no longer look like I'm trying to hitch a ride, and my thumb is almost well enough so that I can start knitting again.
Now I practice reading upside down when I'm in a waiting room with magazines. So far I've only read magazine advertisements, but one of these days I'll might try reading a regular book.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
The OH SHYTE Presidential moment by KimB
So... Here we are. On the brink of exercising our US voting rights (ahem, ahem... well, some of us are) and voting in a New President. Prospects are looking pretty grim. The winner of the Kentucky Derby looks to be a better candidate for the Triple Crown than any of the current crop of Presidential Hopefuls are for President. This season's Presidential Post Parade is particularly ugly.
Not that many years ago, I posted about what the election of Barack Obama meant to me. About how he appeared to embody all the best of America: Honesty, Integrity and his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution of the USA. He was portrayed as a constitutional lawyer and professor.
I figured: who better would understand the requirements and the empowerment of that document than a person who has seen both sides of how it CAN be used and how it SHOULD be used. You know, the We the People, sort of thing.
The Change We Can Believe In quickly became the Change I Couldn't Believe Was Happening.
As I've moved into the more mature category of life, I often wondered what actually happens to makes someone do a 180 as soon as they hit public office. Corruption, bribes, PACs, SUPERPACs, sweetheart deals and paybacks are part of the landscape but this particular U-Turn was more hurtful than others.
No one expected Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, to do a 180 on his Trickle Down/Supply Side economics, when Milton Friedman was a regular on the TV talk show circuit describing how all that wealth at the top of the pyramid was going to trickle down to the homeless, poor and hungry at the bottom.
What Milton said was true, in a way. The money did trickle down but not to the bottom of the pyramid.
It over-flowed into fake corporations, tax doge havens and flooded into hidden bank accounts located in places like the Bahamas, Panama, Luxemburg, Jersey (UK). For the stay at home tax avoidance group there is Delaware, Nevada, Wyoming and Oregon and other localities banking on a new growth industry: hiding the wealth of the 1%.
It flowed in and took up permanent residence. A stagnant pool of funds large enough to wipe out world poverty without ever bothering the 1% who can't even remember where they stashed it all.
But the corruption, incompetence and self-serving opportunism doesn't cover the whole ground. People do have some moral compass, although there have been claims that anyone who runs for President with the ability to annihilate the world in 3 seconds, by definition is NOT the person you want to be running the show and having that Red Phone follow them around.
Well, now we know what it is: It's a meeting with:
Because Mr. Hayden told us. He told the world.
Just like he told us that there is never going to be a requirement for a warrant in the US, because warrants are only needed for UNUSUAL searches. If all searches are defined to be "USUAL", then no warrants are needed. (It's easy, when you know how to play the re-definition game.)
So what is the OH SHYTE MOMENT?
That's when Mr. Hayden and his successors, take the candidate into the woodshed and scare the crap out of them for hours and hours. They put 'em on the toilet so they don't have to clean up the mess and tell them enough to keep them compliant and in line with the views of the security services, the military and a lot of other people who would be very very very unhappy if something changed.
Just as they are experts in interrogation, they also are experts in manipulation. No one is going to stand up to the unified onslaught.
So, imagine what you would do?
Not that many years ago, I posted about what the election of Barack Obama meant to me. About how he appeared to embody all the best of America: Honesty, Integrity and his sworn oath to uphold the Constitution of the USA. He was portrayed as a constitutional lawyer and professor.
I figured: who better would understand the requirements and the empowerment of that document than a person who has seen both sides of how it CAN be used and how it SHOULD be used. You know, the We the People, sort of thing.
The Change We Can Believe In quickly became the Change I Couldn't Believe Was Happening.
As I've moved into the more mature category of life, I often wondered what actually happens to makes someone do a 180 as soon as they hit public office. Corruption, bribes, PACs, SUPERPACs, sweetheart deals and paybacks are part of the landscape but this particular U-Turn was more hurtful than others.
No one expected Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, to do a 180 on his Trickle Down/Supply Side economics, when Milton Friedman was a regular on the TV talk show circuit describing how all that wealth at the top of the pyramid was going to trickle down to the homeless, poor and hungry at the bottom.
What Milton said was true, in a way. The money did trickle down but not to the bottom of the pyramid.
It over-flowed into fake corporations, tax doge havens and flooded into hidden bank accounts located in places like the Bahamas, Panama, Luxemburg, Jersey (UK). For the stay at home tax avoidance group there is Delaware, Nevada, Wyoming and Oregon and other localities banking on a new growth industry: hiding the wealth of the 1%.
It flowed in and took up permanent residence. A stagnant pool of funds large enough to wipe out world poverty without ever bothering the 1% who can't even remember where they stashed it all.
But the corruption, incompetence and self-serving opportunism doesn't cover the whole ground. People do have some moral compass, although there have been claims that anyone who runs for President with the ability to annihilate the world in 3 seconds, by definition is NOT the person you want to be running the show and having that Red Phone follow them around.
[aside: I guess by now its a little red iPhone with an NSA tracker in it and the keypad lock code disabled. If they didn't disable the keypad code, the FBI might have to pay another $1,000,000 for the zero-day exploit to unlock the phone.There must be something else that happens shortly after election and becomes evident after the inauguration. Something no one expects. Something so horrible that it cannot be spoken aloud. Something so cataclysmic that people with good sense and judgment go completely ape-shit off the chart.
Imagine: having to push the damn button but the keypad is locked. Then having to pay a 3d party black hat to come unlock it for you...
How Embarrassing!!!
WWWIII postponed while we wait for the All Writs Act to force those Italian Black Hats to come open the phone for free.
No wonder Comey, Burr and Feinstein want to ban encryption. Maybe the President accidently locked the phone while playing Smurfs?]
Well, now we know what it is: It's a meeting with:
Michael Hayden and the OH SHYTE moment.How do we know?
Because Mr. Hayden told us. He told the world.
Just like he told us that there is never going to be a requirement for a warrant in the US, because warrants are only needed for UNUSUAL searches. If all searches are defined to be "USUAL", then no warrants are needed. (It's easy, when you know how to play the re-definition game.)
So what is the OH SHYTE MOMENT?
That's when Mr. Hayden and his successors, take the candidate into the woodshed and scare the crap out of them for hours and hours. They put 'em on the toilet so they don't have to clean up the mess and tell them enough to keep them compliant and in line with the views of the security services, the military and a lot of other people who would be very very very unhappy if something changed.
Just as they are experts in interrogation, they also are experts in manipulation. No one is going to stand up to the unified onslaught.
... the intelligence agencies went one better by drawing Obama in with what Hayden calls the “aw shit moment” – a briefing that so alarmed the president with the enormity of the threats the country faced that he embraced the bulk of the NSA and CIA’s anti-terror programmes.
“National security looks different from the Oval office than it does from a hotel room in Iowa,” Hayden says. “It was the reality. So [Obama] gets rid of the black sites. But he keeps rendition. We still do it. He gets briefed on metadata and he keeps it.”
General Michael Hayden, retired.
Former head of the CIA, NSA and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.
9 March 2016
So, imagine what you would do?
- Here's THE Button.
- You have 3 seconds to press it.
- Go ahead. Give it a go. .
- We locked the keypad ....
.
.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Political Correctness
One often hears the term, 'political
correctness' when remarks of politicians are quoted in television
news broadcasts. It's an intuitive phrase so I never bothered
checking a dictionary for a more meaningful explanation, until now.
I'm starting to wonder if the term is being used to hide what a
politician really thinks when he verbalizes the opposite.
According to Wikipedia, political correct language intends not to offend or disadvantage a particular group of people in society. Wikipedia also traces the history of the term from articles by New York Times and the writings of Allan Bloom's book in 1987, Roger Kimball's 1990 book, and the 1991 book by Dinesh D'Souza.
Presently the country is in the middle of a primary election to nominate a person or persons from the Republican and Democratic parties, who will eventually face a general election to decide our next President. As electioneering rallies, town halls, and TV interviews increase in frequency, scornful attitudes and accusative comments of political incorrectness are jabs hurled against rivals, highlighting traits that disqualify opponents from holding the office of President.
This particular election cycle is different in many ways from past elections. Half the Republican party is represented by angry, disillusioned voters, as is the Democratic party. Not only is the Democratic party divided, but for the first time in history, a very savvy political female is trying to win the nomination, and might actually win the general election. She is competing against the only Republican still in the primary, and her rival Democrat, who is leading the angry, disillusioned voters of her party.
The Republican rival happens to be an 'outsider' not a traditional politician, funding his own campaign, and constantly told he's political incorrect. But a lot of his comments mirror the Democrat rival of the woman seeking to become President. Examples: trade policies and acceptance of millions of dollars in contributions from those the public believe can and do buy the best government money can buy.
Obviously, political correctness can direct attention from substantive matters and also fight liberalism
According to Wikipedia, political correct language intends not to offend or disadvantage a particular group of people in society. Wikipedia also traces the history of the term from articles by New York Times and the writings of Allan Bloom's book in 1987, Roger Kimball's 1990 book, and the 1991 book by Dinesh D'Souza.
Presently the country is in the middle of a primary election to nominate a person or persons from the Republican and Democratic parties, who will eventually face a general election to decide our next President. As electioneering rallies, town halls, and TV interviews increase in frequency, scornful attitudes and accusative comments of political incorrectness are jabs hurled against rivals, highlighting traits that disqualify opponents from holding the office of President.
This particular election cycle is different in many ways from past elections. Half the Republican party is represented by angry, disillusioned voters, as is the Democratic party. Not only is the Democratic party divided, but for the first time in history, a very savvy political female is trying to win the nomination, and might actually win the general election. She is competing against the only Republican still in the primary, and her rival Democrat, who is leading the angry, disillusioned voters of her party.
The Republican rival happens to be an 'outsider' not a traditional politician, funding his own campaign, and constantly told he's political incorrect. But a lot of his comments mirror the Democrat rival of the woman seeking to become President. Examples: trade policies and acceptance of millions of dollars in contributions from those the public believe can and do buy the best government money can buy.
Obviously, political correctness can direct attention from substantive matters and also fight liberalism
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Weather
For as long as I can remember, weather conditions have been an important topic of
conversation in our family. During my childhood years my family
lived in a small farming community in Iowa. It was a river town with
shops catering to the many farms dotting the rolling hills of Iowa.
Corn was the predominate crop and one could drive for miles and miles
and see only rows of corn. During the growing season, the green
stalks would be 'knee high by the 4th of July'. By the
first frosty days of autumn, the stalks would be higher than a mans
head with tops of golden silk glistening in the sun.
My family lived on a small asparagus farm. Besides the 7 acres of asparagus, we had huge beds of black berries, raspberries, strawberries and numerous bee hives. We had farm animals, cows, hogs and chickens, but on a smaller scale than our farming neighbors. You can imagine how important it was to be aware of weather changes. Listening to the noon time radio broadcasts giving weather and stock prices was part of the lunch time ritual.
Exchanged letters with farming relatives in other states always included information about the weather and its' affect on the crops they grew, tobacco in Kentucky, wheat and corn in Kansas. During the years that we lived on the asparagus farm Dad continued his job with the telephone company. The phone company had transferred the family several times during his early years with the company, but we lived in our little river town for a number of years. It looked to be permanent, but when the company asked, and offered, a transfer from Iowa to San Francisco, the family left farming behind.
As my brothers and sisters married and moved to areas where their careers took them, I too found myself far removed from the daily concerns of an agricultural life. But rather than harvesting corn, milking cows and feeding chickens, I indulge in amateur gardening. I like propagating African violets, sprouting avocado seeds, and raising geraniums in hanging baskets. A small container garden is my pretense to owning farming genes passed on to me from parents and grandparents. As far as weather went, I only paid attention, in a hap-hazard way, to reports of weather temperature and rain fall.
Now global warming is forcing us to think about how to deal with climate change. Weather reports are more important than ever, and not just for farmers. The erratic and extreme weather patterns are playing havoc around the globe. Floods and tornadoes are causing destruction matching that of war torn areas where masses of humanity are fleeing war. It may be a dollar late, and a dollar short, but climate change is a crisis we can't afford to ignore. Hopefully our politicians will begin to publicize and plan for ways to help us live with the changes as they happen.
My family lived on a small asparagus farm. Besides the 7 acres of asparagus, we had huge beds of black berries, raspberries, strawberries and numerous bee hives. We had farm animals, cows, hogs and chickens, but on a smaller scale than our farming neighbors. You can imagine how important it was to be aware of weather changes. Listening to the noon time radio broadcasts giving weather and stock prices was part of the lunch time ritual.
Exchanged letters with farming relatives in other states always included information about the weather and its' affect on the crops they grew, tobacco in Kentucky, wheat and corn in Kansas. During the years that we lived on the asparagus farm Dad continued his job with the telephone company. The phone company had transferred the family several times during his early years with the company, but we lived in our little river town for a number of years. It looked to be permanent, but when the company asked, and offered, a transfer from Iowa to San Francisco, the family left farming behind.
As my brothers and sisters married and moved to areas where their careers took them, I too found myself far removed from the daily concerns of an agricultural life. But rather than harvesting corn, milking cows and feeding chickens, I indulge in amateur gardening. I like propagating African violets, sprouting avocado seeds, and raising geraniums in hanging baskets. A small container garden is my pretense to owning farming genes passed on to me from parents and grandparents. As far as weather went, I only paid attention, in a hap-hazard way, to reports of weather temperature and rain fall.
Now global warming is forcing us to think about how to deal with climate change. Weather reports are more important than ever, and not just for farmers. The erratic and extreme weather patterns are playing havoc around the globe. Floods and tornadoes are causing destruction matching that of war torn areas where masses of humanity are fleeing war. It may be a dollar late, and a dollar short, but climate change is a crisis we can't afford to ignore. Hopefully our politicians will begin to publicize and plan for ways to help us live with the changes as they happen.
Saturday, May 07, 2016
Mother's Day Suprise!
Real life has brought a number of changes and another year for the blog.
This year I am learning to post directly to the blog for Mother's Day. I don't think I'm supposed to have to work on Mother's Day but this looks more like fun than work!
Since I'm 94 and learning a lot of new things, please bear with me as I learn the ins and outs of posting!
This year I am learning to post directly to the blog for Mother's Day. I don't think I'm supposed to have to work on Mother's Day but this looks more like fun than work!
Since I'm 94 and learning a lot of new things, please bear with me as I learn the ins and outs of posting!
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