|
The Federalist Diaries
Are
We Going to Lose This One?, Part 7
Libertarian
ideologues and moneygrubbers stand aside. Make room for the people.
Statement
of August 19, 2008, by Don McCanne,
retired
physician and an advocate on behalf of Physicians for a National Health
Program, an organization of fourteen thousand American physicians advocating
for single-payer national health insurance.
Should the voting age be
raised? Does the following make
for an argument to do so?
“Why
You Get the Joke”
A
leading expert reveals the secrets of “intelligent memory”
Barbara Mathias-Riegel, AARP, July and August, 2004
Barry
Gordon, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins
Medical Institutions. …
…The
two types of memory actually stem from different parts of the brain.
Ordinary memory is heavily dependent on a relatively small section of
the brain called the hippocampus, while intelligent memory seems to be a
property of many different nerve cells that are spread throughout the brain.
The
beauty of intelligent memory is that it doesn’t fade. …
Intelligent
memory, says Gordon, “thinks on its own”—that is, the connections
between thoughts and ideas happen automatically. …”You can take small
pieces at a time and then kind of chew on them.
It doesn’t overwhelm your learning capacity, and it allows your
brain to connect what you’re reading to other ideas.”
For example, don’t’ race through a book all at once;
take the time to review in your head what you’ve read.
Another tip: when you
learn something new, sleep on it, literally.
“There’s good evidence now that forming connections in memory
appears to occur during sleep,” says Gordon. …
Because
intelligent memory will automatically absorb anything you’re interested
in, it can be improved without a lot of effort on your part.
Let’s say you’re in the dentist’s waiting room:
Try to figure out what music is playing in the background.
Or randomly skim a book of quotations or a dictionary.
Or imagine new endings to the last movie you saw.
…intelligent
memory can accumulate errors if you’re not asking questions and using your
critical thinking skills. Says
Gordon: “Beware of hunches and
absolutes, such as ‘I bet I’ll never get my money back.’” …
December 18, 2008
|