"When you forget a face or can't find your car keys, it's not because your brain is out of storage space. You just aren't filtering out other thoughts well enough, a new study finds.The research contradicts a popular notion that memory capacity is solely dependent on how much information you can cram into your noggin.
Rather, it shows that if you can disregard some of what you see, you'll do a better job remembering the visual input you deem important.
Ignore this
Researchers measured brainwaves as objects popped into the minds of the test subjects, who watched colored rectangles appear on a computer screen. In one experiment, researchers told the subjects to focus on two red rectangles and ignore two blue ones.
Without exception, one group had all the rectangles in mind, while another group of individuals -- who were already deemed to have high memory capacity -- consistently excelled at dismissing the blue rectangles.
"People differed systematically, and dramatically, in their ability to keep irrelevant items out of awareness," said study leader Edward Vogel of the University of Oregon.
Vogel thinks of this ability to focus as akin to having a thought bouncer in the brain, managing crowd control. The results, detailed in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Nature, suggest ways to improve memory abilities.
"Being 'scatterbrained' is often a symptom of a hectic modern life in which we are often overcommitted, overworked, and inundated with information," Vogel told LiveScience. "Given such an environment, it would not be surprising if many of our important cognitive control processes become overtaxed and less efficient. Attentional training may be able to improve one's ability to bounce irrelevant information from awareness."
Imagine that
Not that the lack of a bouncer is necessarily bad thing.
"There may be advantages to having a lot of seemingly irrelevant information coming to mind," Vogel points out. "Being a bit scattered tends to be a trait of highly imaginative people."
But for those who would like to do better at keeping track of their thoughts, help might be on the way. Vogel's team is working on focusing drills based on the new research."
Scatterbrained?
I could use my own thought bouncer. But I wouldn't classify myself as being scatterbrained.
O-Zone
My son loves the O-Zone song "Dragostea Din Tei" so I broke down & purchased a copy from iTunes. That Numa Numa guy Gary is to blame for this.
Here is a link to the video that inspired the little guy. He and my daughter love dancing to this.
Here is a link to the video that inspired the little guy. He and my daughter love dancing to this.
Blessings and Thanksgiving
I hesitated before I began writing this post. Too many cliches and too many others writing trite comments about how thankful they are for this and that. In the end I decided to do so because I have much to be thankful for.
I am thankful for having three grandparents, for my parents, children and family. I am thankful for opportunity, for dreams that have been fulfilled and for those that will be. I am thankful for summer days, for lazy days at the beach, for friends I love and who love me. I am grateful for having the good fortune and luck to be born in such an amazing time and place.
I am thankful for knowing what it is to love with all of my heart, for knowing unbounded passion and unbridled lust. I am thankful for being exposed to beautiful music, for the sun and the moon and for endless blue skies. I am thankful for life.
Happy Thanksgiving- may it be filled with warmth and love for all of us.
I am thankful for having three grandparents, for my parents, children and family. I am thankful for opportunity, for dreams that have been fulfilled and for those that will be. I am thankful for summer days, for lazy days at the beach, for friends I love and who love me. I am grateful for having the good fortune and luck to be born in such an amazing time and place.
I am thankful for knowing what it is to love with all of my heart, for knowing unbounded passion and unbridled lust. I am thankful for being exposed to beautiful music, for the sun and the moon and for endless blue skies. I am thankful for life.
Happy Thanksgiving- may it be filled with warmth and love for all of us.
Stanley Tookie Williams
Many of you are probably unfamiliar with the name Stanley Tookie Wiliams. Mr. Williams is currently incarcerated here in California. He is slated to be executed in a couple of weeks. He is one of the founders of the Crips and was sentenced to death for the murders of four people.
Many people have argued that Williams should be granted clemency. The arguments are based upon a couple basic elements.
1) The claim that Mr. Williams has turned his life around and has been a positive force in helping others to turn their lives around.
2) The claim that he was framed, received unsuitable legal counsel and or was placed in prison due to racial issues.
3) Their opposition to the death penalty based upon principle and not upon a belief that Williams is special. Rather they do not believe that the state should ever be given the authority to execute someone.
My off the cuff response to each point. If we accept the judgement of the court Mr. Williams murdered four people in 1979. For the past 26 years he has done what they could not do, he has lived. How many people miss these four people. How many family and friends were robbed of the opportunity to share their lives and love with them because he murdered them.
Beyond that what do you think the founder of a gang is like. He was not a nice man and he has plenty to answer for aside from the murders he committed.
As for the claims that he was framed I haven't seen enough evidence to prove that is the case. Jesse Jackson made the specious claims that he might have been convicted because of a dearth of Blacks on the jury. As was pointed out that is a straw man argument and a red herring.
What this really makes me think about is this. There are some things that never leave you, no matter what you do the consequences of these acts follow you forever.
If you murder someone that is something that never goes away. No matter what you do the spectre of that murder will stay with you. Now I can create many scenarios in which one could argue that there were mitigating factors but this is not the kind of situation that lends itself to that.
For example if you got into a bar fight with someone and killed them there might be something there. Let's say that during the fight you pushed the other person and as a result they stumbled backwards and struck their head on a rock killing them. That could be classified as murder, but what is different here is these murders were committed during robberies and that is significant.
I am not sure that you can do anything to ever square things. You can certainly devote your life to helping people and try hard to make the world a better place, but it doesn't change the fact that you are a murderer.
So the question is, does the state have the moral authority to execute people.
Many people have argued that Williams should be granted clemency. The arguments are based upon a couple basic elements.
1) The claim that Mr. Williams has turned his life around and has been a positive force in helping others to turn their lives around.
2) The claim that he was framed, received unsuitable legal counsel and or was placed in prison due to racial issues.
3) Their opposition to the death penalty based upon principle and not upon a belief that Williams is special. Rather they do not believe that the state should ever be given the authority to execute someone.
My off the cuff response to each point. If we accept the judgement of the court Mr. Williams murdered four people in 1979. For the past 26 years he has done what they could not do, he has lived. How many people miss these four people. How many family and friends were robbed of the opportunity to share their lives and love with them because he murdered them.
Beyond that what do you think the founder of a gang is like. He was not a nice man and he has plenty to answer for aside from the murders he committed.
As for the claims that he was framed I haven't seen enough evidence to prove that is the case. Jesse Jackson made the specious claims that he might have been convicted because of a dearth of Blacks on the jury. As was pointed out that is a straw man argument and a red herring.
What this really makes me think about is this. There are some things that never leave you, no matter what you do the consequences of these acts follow you forever.
If you murder someone that is something that never goes away. No matter what you do the spectre of that murder will stay with you. Now I can create many scenarios in which one could argue that there were mitigating factors but this is not the kind of situation that lends itself to that.
For example if you got into a bar fight with someone and killed them there might be something there. Let's say that during the fight you pushed the other person and as a result they stumbled backwards and struck their head on a rock killing them. That could be classified as murder, but what is different here is these murders were committed during robberies and that is significant.
I am not sure that you can do anything to ever square things. You can certainly devote your life to helping people and try hard to make the world a better place, but it doesn't change the fact that you are a murderer.
So the question is, does the state have the moral authority to execute people.
A Collection of Posts
Here is this evening's collection of Posts:
I am going to try and resume writing Fragments of Fiction. The top post is the opening of the story.
That is followed by What Race of Middle Earth are You or Call me Aragorn.
How I write
The next is a rambling, stream of consciousness post about interfaith relations which is too long and needs to be tightened up.
And then batting cleanup is a post about how much people spend on entertainment.
I am going to try and resume writing Fragments of Fiction. The top post is the opening of the story.
That is followed by What Race of Middle Earth are You or Call me Aragorn.
How I write
The next is a rambling, stream of consciousness post about interfaith relations which is too long and needs to be tightened up.
And then batting cleanup is a post about how much people spend on entertainment.
A Beginning
I was almost 25 when I left the city of my birth. It was time to go, time to move on and get away. There were new experiences to be had and the pain of what I had once been, what I had once had was too much. Everywhere I looked there were signs of the glory and the fall.
For most of my life I had been a scrapper, never afraid to fight, never willing to give up and not smart enough to get out. It was a self imposed punishment for sins that I had committed but was unwilling to discuss.
It is not much of a description, not very colorful at all. In fact it is rather ordinary, but that is ok, I am ordinary and I prefer it that way. If you stuck me in a crowd full of people you would be hard pressed to pick me out. It was like that in school, never did or said much in class. No need to draw attention to myself I did what I needed to do to get through and nothing more.
And for the longest time that had been enough, an average, nondescript existence. It suited me fine to be a guy who punched a time clock. But sometimes even the average man find himself in a situation that is beyond his control,a time in which he becomes something more than he has been.
But the question is not what he does to elevate himself but how he handles the elevation.
It was Friday night and I had just finished my shift at the plant. There was no rush to get home because there was no one to get home to, no wife, no family, no girlfriend, not even a dog. Just an empty house that was sparsely furnished.
Friday nights were not much different than any other night of the week. I'd go home, pop open a can of beer and stare blankly at the television screen content to let my brain turn to mush.
On this particular night I decided to stop at an ATM. I wanted to order a pizza and I had nothing but the spare change from the last time I had visited the liquor store. It wasn't enough to buy a pack of gum, so I was forced to go to the bank.
There were two people ahead of me in line, a man and a woman and behind me there were a couple of teenage boys.
I didn't see him approach. I didn't notice anything about him including his presence until he was standing in front of us, waving a gun and shouting for our wallets. I have a bad habit of giggling when I am nervous. I don't like being the center of attention and now was certainly a bad time to laugh, but laugh I did.
5'8 or so and about a buck twenty sopping wet with a bad haircut and a Judas Priest shirt, that is all he was, oh and he had a big gun and an even bigger attitude. He grabbed my collar and asked me what was so funny. Before I could answer he had grabbed the woman in front of me.
She cried as he pulled her in front of him and asked me if I thought that this was funny. I choked back a snigger and told him that it wasn't. He told me that if I so much as smiled he would kill her. I wiped the smile off of my face.
It was the wrong thing to do, but I didn't know it. The jackass cuffed me in the side of the head and laughed. It infuriated me, brought back memories of years of being teased and tortured by my someone who had been like an older brother to me. So I just reacted. I kicked him in the balls and smacked him in the head.
In the movies the gun falls and the hero (there has to be a hero) grabs it. Not here, not in my world. In my world when I slap him there is a flash of light and a loud noise. I am splashed with something, but it feels like hours before I realize that he just shot the woman, and that he did it involuntarily. The wetness I feel on my face is her blood.
I stand there in shock, numb and not really aware anymore of what is happening. The guy she had been with is beating the crap out of the jackass, the Judas Priest shirt is stained now, but it is with his blood.
There is a cop speaking to me, but I don't answer. The real hero is lying, telling the officer that I saved everyone's life, that if I hadn't hit him the guy would have killed us all.
I didn't hit him, I hit Georgie. It was Georgie I saw in front of me. It was Georgie taunting me, I just snapped and reacted. But I guess that somewhere inside I began to hear and to believe that I had been the hero, that when the bell rang I had come out swinging.
And that was really the beginning of the end.
For most of my life I had been a scrapper, never afraid to fight, never willing to give up and not smart enough to get out. It was a self imposed punishment for sins that I had committed but was unwilling to discuss.
It is not much of a description, not very colorful at all. In fact it is rather ordinary, but that is ok, I am ordinary and I prefer it that way. If you stuck me in a crowd full of people you would be hard pressed to pick me out. It was like that in school, never did or said much in class. No need to draw attention to myself I did what I needed to do to get through and nothing more.
And for the longest time that had been enough, an average, nondescript existence. It suited me fine to be a guy who punched a time clock. But sometimes even the average man find himself in a situation that is beyond his control,a time in which he becomes something more than he has been.
But the question is not what he does to elevate himself but how he handles the elevation.
It was Friday night and I had just finished my shift at the plant. There was no rush to get home because there was no one to get home to, no wife, no family, no girlfriend, not even a dog. Just an empty house that was sparsely furnished.
Friday nights were not much different than any other night of the week. I'd go home, pop open a can of beer and stare blankly at the television screen content to let my brain turn to mush.
On this particular night I decided to stop at an ATM. I wanted to order a pizza and I had nothing but the spare change from the last time I had visited the liquor store. It wasn't enough to buy a pack of gum, so I was forced to go to the bank.
There were two people ahead of me in line, a man and a woman and behind me there were a couple of teenage boys.
I didn't see him approach. I didn't notice anything about him including his presence until he was standing in front of us, waving a gun and shouting for our wallets. I have a bad habit of giggling when I am nervous. I don't like being the center of attention and now was certainly a bad time to laugh, but laugh I did.
5'8 or so and about a buck twenty sopping wet with a bad haircut and a Judas Priest shirt, that is all he was, oh and he had a big gun and an even bigger attitude. He grabbed my collar and asked me what was so funny. Before I could answer he had grabbed the woman in front of me.
She cried as he pulled her in front of him and asked me if I thought that this was funny. I choked back a snigger and told him that it wasn't. He told me that if I so much as smiled he would kill her. I wiped the smile off of my face.
It was the wrong thing to do, but I didn't know it. The jackass cuffed me in the side of the head and laughed. It infuriated me, brought back memories of years of being teased and tortured by my someone who had been like an older brother to me. So I just reacted. I kicked him in the balls and smacked him in the head.
In the movies the gun falls and the hero (there has to be a hero) grabs it. Not here, not in my world. In my world when I slap him there is a flash of light and a loud noise. I am splashed with something, but it feels like hours before I realize that he just shot the woman, and that he did it involuntarily. The wetness I feel on my face is her blood.
I stand there in shock, numb and not really aware anymore of what is happening. The guy she had been with is beating the crap out of the jackass, the Judas Priest shirt is stained now, but it is with his blood.
There is a cop speaking to me, but I don't answer. The real hero is lying, telling the officer that I saved everyone's life, that if I hadn't hit him the guy would have killed us all.
I didn't hit him, I hit Georgie. It was Georgie I saw in front of me. It was Georgie taunting me, I just snapped and reacted. But I guess that somewhere inside I began to hear and to believe that I had been the hero, that when the bell rang I had come out swinging.
And that was really the beginning of the end.
Interfaith Relationships- Jews and Christians Misunderstood Again
There is an ongoing problem with the relationship between Jews and Christians. There is a misunderstanding that exists that is creating numerous issues that are going to need to be dealt with.
I wouldn’t characterize this misunderstanding as being between all Jews and all Christians. I suspect that there are large numbers of both groups who haven’t given a thought to any of this, but I also know that there are many who have and that is part of why I am writing this post.
Boiled down the misunderstanding is along these lines. There are Christians who see Jews working to tear down Christianity, to attack it and try destroy it and there are Jews who see Christians working to destroy Judaism. That my friends is the very simplistic version of this story. There are multiple layers here, but we’ll leave those alone for now.
Part of the impetus for this post was generated by a post by a Christian blogger here. His post was in response to a statement made by Abe Foxman, the national director of the ADL who issued a warning about the attempt to Christianize America. Here is an excerpt:
And I have to say that when I read some of the responses to things Foxman and other Jews have said I am most disappointed. Vox Popoli's post irritated me. In it he said about Foxman:
And then within the comments there are all sorts of gems:
Well, maybe if his ancestors hadn't killed Jesus 1975 years ago, he wouldn't have such a guilty conscience...
Mr. Astrosmith, smart boy that you are do you realize how many Jews were murdered or persecuted by your brethren using this allegation and you call us paranoid.
"Of course the reason Christians feel under assault is the largely Jewish and Jewish-led for the last 40 years ACLU/Southern Poverty Law Center have gleefully assembled their ranks of lawyers for a little Christian-bashing and getting Christ out of Christmas and the public and shopping mall spheres. Perhaps that is who Foxman should target. He might also wish a little word with his fellow Brooklyn Jew Michael Newdow who is after the Pledge and getting "in God we trust" removed from public buildings and US currency."
Aside from making unsubstantiated claims old Cedarford seems to be under the misguided impression that trying to see that the Constitution is followed is wrong.
And then within the comments on the Haaretz article there is this little nugget:
Let's circle back to the initial opening in which we talked about misunderstandings. As a member of the minority it is hard for me to see the discrimination that Christians, primarily evangelicals are complaining about.
We live in a country that has a clear definition of the separation of church and state in which we go out of our way to promote pluralism and tolerance for all, not just the majority. That means that courtrooms and other public (read gov't funded) buildings are not decorated with the 10 commandments or other religious paraphenalia. A Buddhist, Hindu or Wiccan should be able to walk into a courthouse, for that matter anyone should be able to walk in and feel comfortable in the knowledge that the law of the land is going to judge them, not some biblical law that they may not believe in.
Students in school are entitled to be educated without being forced to be witnessed to or placed in other uncomfortable situations, based upon nondisriminatory laws.
Private businesses and homes are a different situation. I understand and accept that within these places there could be religious expressions of all kinds. When I go to the mall I expect to the salespeople to use some kind of holiday greeting. Frankly I get tired of everyone wishing me a merry xmas, but ok, I am not surprised by it and I am not even asking that it not happen.
All that I am asking for is an understanding that following the law is not discrimnatory but in our best interests. Our plurality and diversity is an exceptional strength that we can and should draw upon.
This is getting rather long so I'll try and tie it up. For better or for worse there is roughly 2000 years of persecution of Jews by Christians. It really is just within the last 50 years that things have really improved, but within that time frame many of us have still witnessed things that can be seen as an attack on Jews and Judaism and witnessing can be categorized as such.
It is hard to see the majority as having to face the same challenges and even if we accept that they do it is not of the same magnitude.
And that is about it for now. Perhaps I'll come back and try to cover this again at a later date.
Religion,Judaism
I wouldn’t characterize this misunderstanding as being between all Jews and all Christians. I suspect that there are large numbers of both groups who haven’t given a thought to any of this, but I also know that there are many who have and that is part of why I am writing this post.
Boiled down the misunderstanding is along these lines. There are Christians who see Jews working to tear down Christianity, to attack it and try destroy it and there are Jews who see Christians working to destroy Judaism. That my friends is the very simplistic version of this story. There are multiple layers here, but we’ll leave those alone for now.
Part of the impetus for this post was generated by a post by a Christian blogger here. His post was in response to a statement made by Abe Foxman, the national director of the ADL who issued a warning about the attempt to Christianize America. Here is an excerpt:
"Today we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us!" he said.I haven't any problem with what Foxman said because my perception is that there is much truth in this. In September I covered a CNN story in which we read about the Southern Baptists and their discussions on how to convert more Jews. In that same post we revisited several Southern Baptist decisions including:
Foxman proceeded to describe the process and to name names: "Major players include Focus On Family. Alliance Defense Fund, the American Family Association, Family Research Council and more. They and other groups have established new organizations and church-based networks, and built infrastructure throughout the country designed to promote traditional Christian values."
"The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in 1996 calling on its members to "direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the gospel to the Jewish people."They are just one of the groups that have missionaries in place whose purpose is to witness to Jews for the purpose of conversion. They excuse this by claiming a religious obligation to do so. I am consistently surprised that they are so surprised by how vociferous a protest there is to these actions.A 1999 prayer guide by the International Mission Board recommended conversion of Jews to Christianity during their High Holy Days, an effort labeled "offensive and disrespectful" by Jewish leaders.
As recently as 2003 Jewish leaders criticized a Southern Baptist seminary president for saying Christians have a mandate to evangelize Jews just as a surgeon has a responsibility to tell a patient about the presence of a "deadly tumor."
And I have to say that when I read some of the responses to things Foxman and other Jews have said I am most disappointed. Vox Popoli's post irritated me. In it he said about Foxman:
"This guy would have made quite the grand strategist, wouldn't he? With leaders such as these, it's no wonder that Jews always manage to find persecution all over the world. Launching all-out assaults on the overwhelming majority doesn't exactly strike me as the best way to win friends and influence people in any place or time."If I hear him correctly he suggests that Foxman should be lambasted for having the audacity to question the majority, as if the larger number automatically provided moral superiority, not to mention his foolish remark about persecution. And that is a topic to be grabbed a little later on.
And then within the comments there are all sorts of gems:
Well, maybe if his ancestors hadn't killed Jesus 1975 years ago, he wouldn't have such a guilty conscience...
Mr. Astrosmith, smart boy that you are do you realize how many Jews were murdered or persecuted by your brethren using this allegation and you call us paranoid.
"Of course the reason Christians feel under assault is the largely Jewish and Jewish-led for the last 40 years ACLU/Southern Poverty Law Center have gleefully assembled their ranks of lawyers for a little Christian-bashing and getting Christ out of Christmas and the public and shopping mall spheres. Perhaps that is who Foxman should target. He might also wish a little word with his fellow Brooklyn Jew Michael Newdow who is after the Pledge and getting "in God we trust" removed from public buildings and US currency."
Aside from making unsubstantiated claims old Cedarford seems to be under the misguided impression that trying to see that the Constitution is followed is wrong.
And then within the comments on the Haaretz article there is this little nugget:
"Abraham Foxman is unbelievable! He seeks to destroy the reason America is the ONLY true ally Israel has. The Christian faith is the only reason Israel exists. Oh, by the way, Foxman, do you like not having to run from Kristallnacht, pogroms and Zyklon B? Thank the christians. We are the reason more of your people did not die in the gas chambers.Call me crazy, but I don't see any reason to thank someone or grovel for enjoying the same rights as anyone else in the US. And believe it or not, the US is not the only reason that Israel exists. It may have been at one point in time, but that is no longer the case.
Foxman should not be fighting the only people that like Jews and go after the people who lust to slaughter Jews: Muslims, especially the Palestinians. Why isn`t he fighting the Palestinians? Doesn`t he know the Abbas and his buddies kill Israelis every day? Doesn't he know that Iran wants to kill every last Israeli?
Don`t bite the hand that feeds you." Jay Stang
Let's circle back to the initial opening in which we talked about misunderstandings. As a member of the minority it is hard for me to see the discrimination that Christians, primarily evangelicals are complaining about.
We live in a country that has a clear definition of the separation of church and state in which we go out of our way to promote pluralism and tolerance for all, not just the majority. That means that courtrooms and other public (read gov't funded) buildings are not decorated with the 10 commandments or other religious paraphenalia. A Buddhist, Hindu or Wiccan should be able to walk into a courthouse, for that matter anyone should be able to walk in and feel comfortable in the knowledge that the law of the land is going to judge them, not some biblical law that they may not believe in.
Students in school are entitled to be educated without being forced to be witnessed to or placed in other uncomfortable situations, based upon nondisriminatory laws.
Private businesses and homes are a different situation. I understand and accept that within these places there could be religious expressions of all kinds. When I go to the mall I expect to the salespeople to use some kind of holiday greeting. Frankly I get tired of everyone wishing me a merry xmas, but ok, I am not surprised by it and I am not even asking that it not happen.
All that I am asking for is an understanding that following the law is not discrimnatory but in our best interests. Our plurality and diversity is an exceptional strength that we can and should draw upon.
This is getting rather long so I'll try and tie it up. For better or for worse there is roughly 2000 years of persecution of Jews by Christians. It really is just within the last 50 years that things have really improved, but within that time frame many of us have still witnessed things that can be seen as an attack on Jews and Judaism and witnessing can be categorized as such.
It is hard to see the majority as having to face the same challenges and even if we accept that they do it is not of the same magnitude.
And that is about it for now. Perhaps I'll come back and try to cover this again at a later date.
Religion,Judaism
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