Smart Phones Mean You Will No Longer Have to Memorize Facts
David Pogue is arguing that because of smartphones, our memory skills
aren’t what they used to be. He realized this when he asked his son to name all
the presidents for a prize of $10. David’s dad used to play this game with him
when he was younger and he loved it. When David asked his son to recall the
names of the presidents he was baffled. His son argued, “everybody has a
smartphone” and always will. In 2013, the amount of smartphones will outnumber
the amount of plain ones. Essentially, we have a mini computer in our pocket.
This may eliminate the need to memorize facts. David argues that as we depend
more on smartphones, people will develop analytical skills (logic,
interpretation, creative problem solving) and personal ones (motivation,
self-control, tolerance).
This is interesting to me because I don't have the best memory and I find it interesting that David thinks that we will have better logic skills if our memory skills worsen.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/inviting-monkey-tea/201304/are-smartphones-replacing-human-memory
This is interesting to me because I don't have the best memory and I find it interesting that David thinks that we will have better logic skills if our memory skills worsen.
Your Hidden Censor: What Your Mind Will Not Let You See
Hundreds
of studies have backed up the theory that when your attention is occupied with only
one specific activity, you fail to notice other occurrences right before your
eyes. Psychologist
Ulric Neisser decided to test the theory. He showed a group of subjects a video
of two teams passing a basketball back and forth, and asked the subjects to
count how many times the ball was passed. To test the theory, he projected
another video of a girl with an umbrella walking right through the center of
the screen while the basketball video was played. He asked the subjects to
record how many times the ball was passed but when reporting the results, 79%
of the people didn’t notice the girl with the umbrella right in front of them. Neisser
suggests that we are constantly overlooking things. He says that when we focus
on one thing always means picking up less information about everything else. For
example, if we are sitting outside at a café reading a book, we are ignoring
the noises of the street, people passing by or talking at tables around us, and
maybe some music playing in the restaurant. This is how we are able to focus
when things are happening all around us. In a sense, we prioritize what we are
paying attention to.
I
find this interesting because I never realized that we can completely ignore
things that are happening right in front of us. It is kind of unsettling to
think that we could be ignoring significant things around us.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=your-hidden-censor-what-your-mind-will-not-let-you-see
Beer
In April 2013
the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) brought together two
dozen nationally respected craft beer brewers to launch the Brewers for Clean
Water Campaign. “Whether brewers are creating ales, pilsners, porters, wits or stouts,
one ingredient must go into every batch: clean water,” says Karen Hobbs, a
senior policy analyst at NRDC. Not only is clean water nesecary for health but
it is important to the flavor of the Beer. Beer is 90% water so it isn’t
surprising that breweries want clean, local water. They take pH and mineral
content into consideration for the flavor of the beer. Different levels of
minerals and salts cause different flavors and are desired for different kinds
of beer. NRDC is urging beer lovers (and other concerned environmentalists) to
use the form on its website to e-mail the White House encouraging President
Obama to finalize guidelines recently created by the Army Corps of Engineers
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that call for greater protections
for streams and wetlands in important headwaters regions from coast to coast.
And consumers should be glad to know that for once drinking beer can actually
be good for the environment.
This is interesting to me because I never realized that clean water is important in making other drinks than bottled water.
http://www.nrdc.org/water/brewers-for-clean-water/
DSM-5
The book,
“Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders, fifth edition”
or DSM-5 for short is the manual for psychiatrists, insurers, drug companies,
and medical doctors on how to classify mental disorders. The reason fort the
manual is to standardize the criteria for mental disorders. Unfortunately, this
book is being criticized for doing more harm then good. For example, DSM-5
clumped various diseases such as autism and Asperger’s together to create a new
disease called autism spectrum disorder. Psychologists argue that this may in
fact be a disease but that it is far to early in the discovery to tell distinct
biological markers for a disease like this in patients. The most criticized of
the DSM-5 is the over diagnosing. One example is children who threw tantrums
were diagnosed with disruptive mood dyregulation disorder. In addition, it has
classified millions of Americans as having a disorder because they eat excess
at least once a week over at least three months. Another example is that the
manual revised its’ previous conclusion that people mourning cannot be treaded
for depression. Now they have concluded that they can indeed be classified as depressed.
The problem isn’t only with adults as 1 in 10 children have been diagnosed with
ADHD and 2/3 of those kids are on prescription medication. It is the criticism
of the DSM-5 that has caused many physiatrists to do research and publish on
their own.
I think this article is important
because sometimes doctors are quick to prescribe medication for human problems.
It is important to be smart and know that medication isn’t always the solution.
Safe Driving
It is not surprising that
distracted drivers are significantly more likely to get into accidents than
people who aren’t distracted. The question is, what are the most distracting
actions we do while behind the wheel of a car. There was a study done by the AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety, in Washington. David Strayer, the study’s
authors, examined how distracted you are by doing various things in the car.
Dr. Strayer had three groups of 51 people. Dr. Strayer and his team watched
each person performed eight tasks: doing nothing; listening to the radio;
listening to an audio book; conversing with a passenger; calling a friend using
a hand-held phone; calling a friend using a hands-free phone; using speech to
send a text message; and a difficult task few people engage in behind the wheel
such as verifying a set of mathematical equations while memorizing nouns
interjected between the maths problems. The first of the three groups sat at a
computer, the second group sat in simulators (resembling the interior of a
car), and the third drove real cars. They rated their level of concentration
from a scale of 1.0 (least mentally challenging) to 5.0 (most mentally
challenging). The lowest rated activities were listening to the radio or to a
book with scores of 1.21 and 1.75. Talking to a passenger (2.33) and talking on
the phone (2.27 if hands-free and 2.45 if hand-held) were intermediate. The
most distracting, at 3.06, was hands-free texting. This is significant because
many people think that hands free texting is the safest option. Logically,
anything that moves your attention off the road can be fatal.
This is interesting to me
because in a short amount of time I will start driving. Before reading this article,
I would have guessed that hands free texting would be very safe to use while
driving. It is interesting to know that it is significantly more distracting
than I would have expected.
A whale of a story
There will be a new
exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C. this fall showing a
life-sized fossil of a 5 year old whale from Chile. The model will be made by
printing three-dimensionally. The fossil was found while widening the Pan
American Freeway. This whale was one of a dozen fossils found. Some local
experts were concerned that by removing the bones would have destroyed
important information such as how the animals died. As the locals were debating
on how to remove the bones so that the Freeway could continue construction,
Nick Pyenson and his team from the Smithsonian happened to be working nearby.
Dr. Pyenson enlisted the institution’s 3D-digitisation team to fly to the site
and scan the skeletons with lasers, before they were removed. This procedure
allowed the team to create virtual detailed models. The models will be an exact
copy so that people can see what the whale would have looked like even if they
were not at the museum in Chile.
Besides being interesting, this article has significance to science that we have around us. This story is talking about new and innovative technology that we have at school. Because we have a 3D printer, we can think about how that technology has been used for archeology. In addition, we can think of new ways our 3D printer could be utilized.
Besides being interesting, this article has significance to science that we have around us. This story is talking about new and innovative technology that we have at school. Because we have a 3D printer, we can think about how that technology has been used for archeology. In addition, we can think of new ways our 3D printer could be utilized.
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