Moonwalking with Einstein

During the summer, I read the most fascinating book I have ever laid eyes upon. Joshua Foer, having been assigned an article on the US Memory Championships began taking a personal interest in the subject upon meeting a pair of European World Memory Champions. Long story short, Foer took apprenticeship to these to Grand Masters and ended up winning the US Memory Championship in 2006. This is non-fiction. While the book is incredibly interesting, and I must show nothing less than utter encouragement for whoever might be reading this to buy and enjoy the book, I would like to take this time and talk about Memory's place in society today. If you read the book, or see me tell you right know, the tricks for improving your memory are nothing more than that, tricks. Little more than a few techniques are needed to put yourself at a national level as far as memory goes. However, as simple as these tricks actually are, I had never even heard of them prior to reading Foer's book, and I am certain that you never have either. This is especially true for the younger generations, as older generations tended to have some form of education for memory, so I've been told. So why is it that, if these techniques are so simple, they aren't being implemented and stressed in school. I can speak from experience that in the little time since I've read the book and from the little effort I've put into improving my memory, studying vocabulary for french or biomes for Biology has never been easier. A large portion of institutionalized education is just memorization, making sure we know the facts that have been necessary to learn, and simple improvements to the way in which students study could make a huge difference on the way the American educations system performs. While I know little in the way in which the American educations committees and boards work, I can tell you that improvement is not too far away.

misdirection in haze

On the anniversary of the tragic 9/11attacks, we think about just that, the attacks. However, we often fail to acknowledge the aftermath and impact of the events. Since the fateful attack, the U.S. has openly and aggressively started occupation in both Iraq and Afghanistan. What has to be said for this is somewhere near one million deaths in Iraq since the first invasion, at most, and a threefold increase in Taliban foot soldiers in Afghanistan. Moreover, as of 2008, the U.S. has suffered more than 72,000 battlefield casualties since 2001. On the other hand, we have also dethroned Saddam Hussein, preventing yet another million deaths of his own civilians in addition to his tyrannical rule, Provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan have opened schools, hospitals and even helped with farming projects. And even those these things are still going on, on the ten year anniversary of 9/11 people practically turn their shoulders these matters, and focus on the opening of the ground zero memorial. What does this actually say about how Americans are viewing the transcending effects of the attack? To me, I see people turning toward the gaping hole, literally, that was the terrorist attack on the trade towers.

 I hate to be the one to talk negatively about what has been done, I really do, but I feel that the way in which American people transformed our memory of the tragic event into physical form is non-favorable, to say the least. The memorial, as seen to the right, while aesthetically decent, think about the larger message is holds. It is, to be blunt, a hole in the ground where one of the world's tallest building stood. As I said earlier, wouldn't it be better to move more productively on wards  and not leave a permanent reminder of the damage the attacks inflicted. If you look at other memorials such as the ones in D.C., there aren't any that  visually display a permanent wound in The United Sates. Take, for example, the

WW2 monument  to the left. it consist off a multitude of pillars and towers in a circle, a very unifying shape, raised on a small hill. None of the structural evidence shows any sort of real damage and hindrance to the American people. Yet, for the 9/11 memorial, we show no signs of rebuilding or moving on, just the permanent  damage from a significantly smaller, not unimportant, but smaller event.

People choose, and the media tells us to, remember the sorrow the attacks brought, and it is because of this that we won't be able to move on. If people really wanted to 'show them' how strong of a nation we are, it is about time we choose more productive ways of remembrance, rebuild the towers even taller, show real compassion for what has been done because of the attacks, and whether we agree on the righteousness of the post-9/11 measures, we must acknowledge their presence as the real effect of 9/11. Why do we as a people remember things in a particular way, and interpret their importance in a certain light? While I do not have all the answers, I invite you to ponder the points that were made during our misdirection in haze.

Deceptions in Haste

Speed is a good thing, in many ways. But sometimes, it can corrupt our otherwise worthwhile judgement. Human beings have, in the modern world, evolved to process information thrust in front of us without due process. While this tendency for speediness can be, in many ways, a good thing, lets first look at a great example of our hastiness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg This fascinating video expertly shows how in or attempts to come to a conclusion, in this case, good directions and continuing on with our lives, we fail to see even some of the most blaring truths change in front of our eyes. A quick overview of the video would say that people are not aware of their surroundings, this only furthers my claim, as there is certainly more that we can obtain from the video. Why I think the people in the video hardly noticed the swap is because people tend to be objective driven, or, to put it  another way, care most only for arriving to a conclusion. In watching it again, or if you saw it the first time, I hope that you would have acknowledged that, after being asked for directions, the people looked almost instantly down at the map or away in the direction of Darren Brown's "destination". To me, this lack of eye contact and the immediate commencement of the direction finding show hard determination. To not try to find out who is asking for directions, but instead try to find the directions as quick as possible, illustrates the objective based mindset that practically every person asked for help had. The fact that the average person could actually be so mindless shows us of a very unnerving  vulnerability that neither you or I are ever fully aware of.