I am overwhelmed when I go to the library, kinda like going to Sam's club....so much stuff. So I go to Sam's and spend $400 or I go to the library and check out twice as many books as I can read in 3 weeks. Cause I can't decide between 'this' and 'that'. So, my new favorite thing is 'ezone'. I got to the libraries web site, plug in the name of he book or any author hat I like, check to see if they have the 'ezone' version, and if they do, request it. When it's available they email me and I go to the computer, connect the iPad and......MAGIC, it's there to read! Right now I'm reading Judy Collins "Sweet Judy Blues Eyes", which, I'm sure, would make my mother, the folk music lover, so happy. I thought this might interest my fellow book lover Kelley because you could check out all kinds of wonderful books without having to get the little folks ready to go "bye-bye car." You need an iPad, or iPhone or Kindle and a library with ezone. Also, you can do this this the Barnes and Noble Nook. It's much more complicated. Sylvia has a Nook and we could never get books from the library on it vey easily. Oh and the best thing about this.....free.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tell Me Why...
...I can nick myself with a razor, scrape any part of me on a fence post, or suffer the slightest cut opening a can, and I bleed. Because I take an aspirin daily, I bleed pretty easily!
But...
Put me in a doctor's office with a nurse armed with a needle, two prominent veins bulging from my arm, a large rubber tube to tie off above my elbow, and my making a strong fist...the nurse can't find blood although she is poking that needle into my arm expressly in search of such.
I don't understand....
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Crossed Dominance
Oh wow.
I don't know exactly how I feel about this. It is just the tip of the iceberg, if you will, and I've had little time to process it.
But I think it is interesting beyond whatever other conclusions I may come to over time.
By way of background I've known since high school that I have Hand-Eye Crossed Dominance, although I didn't know there was such a title for it. In my case it means this: I am right handed and I am "left-eyed". The latter is a term we don't hear much but I think these days most of us understand that our brain prefers input from one-eye over the other. (If you don't know which of your eyes is dominant, this card can help.)
(It may be relevant to note that I am also left-ear dominant and right-footed. Thus, my head and my body might be said to be totally out of sync!)
I was generally a pretty good athlete in high school but I had little success in basketball. I wondered then if having a dominant left eye while shooting from my right hand had anything to do with my poor shooting ability. Since the hemispheres of the brain are said to control opposite sides of the body, my theory was that my crossed-dominance setup might mean my brain needed to coordinate my left eye and my right arm, an extra step (in very simplistic terms) over those who are purely right or left-sided. (Turns out this question is a science fair experiment - I was just ahead of my time!)
The crossed dominance also means when I entered the Army I learned to shoot left-handed, because using my left (dominant) eye gave me a more accurate sight picture. Problem with this is the M16 rifle is designed for right handed firers, ejecting the very hot brass to the right side of the weapon, and into the face, arms or body of a left handed firer. A brass deflector alleviates this problem (though there are other issues for left handed firers using that weapon).
Today I was getting a jump on my upcoming studies by watching psychology lectures from Yale University online. The professor, reviewing functions of various parts of the brain, discussed the theory of brain lateralization , which is, simply put, a recognition of the differing functions played by the hemispheres of the brain and the idealized state in which these hemispheres cooperate in environments in which each hemisphere may need to take the lead on elements of the involved tasks.
This introduction led me to search for facts about crossed dominance during which I stumbled on some correlations/ associations about which I had no idea.
For instance:
(emphasis mine)
It is no secret that I have been addicted to nicotine and alcohol, both of which I have overcome (although the AA crowd doesn't want me to say that of alcohol...but that is another discussion). While successful in beating these addictions, I can say both addictions were intense!
I don't toss up crossed-dominance as an excuse for the addictions I've held and overcome. Seems there is a chicken and egg question here involving association/causation. But I find it interesting that there is even a link between these things.
It also seems to be a very good thing I never tried drugs...
I don't know exactly how I feel about this. It is just the tip of the iceberg, if you will, and I've had little time to process it.
But I think it is interesting beyond whatever other conclusions I may come to over time.
By way of background I've known since high school that I have Hand-Eye Crossed Dominance, although I didn't know there was such a title for it. In my case it means this: I am right handed and I am "left-eyed". The latter is a term we don't hear much but I think these days most of us understand that our brain prefers input from one-eye over the other. (If you don't know which of your eyes is dominant, this card can help.)
(It may be relevant to note that I am also left-ear dominant and right-footed. Thus, my head and my body might be said to be totally out of sync!)
I was generally a pretty good athlete in high school but I had little success in basketball. I wondered then if having a dominant left eye while shooting from my right hand had anything to do with my poor shooting ability. Since the hemispheres of the brain are said to control opposite sides of the body, my theory was that my crossed-dominance setup might mean my brain needed to coordinate my left eye and my right arm, an extra step (in very simplistic terms) over those who are purely right or left-sided. (Turns out this question is a science fair experiment - I was just ahead of my time!)
The crossed dominance also means when I entered the Army I learned to shoot left-handed, because using my left (dominant) eye gave me a more accurate sight picture. Problem with this is the M16 rifle is designed for right handed firers, ejecting the very hot brass to the right side of the weapon, and into the face, arms or body of a left handed firer. A brass deflector alleviates this problem (though there are other issues for left handed firers using that weapon).
Today I was getting a jump on my upcoming studies by watching psychology lectures from Yale University online. The professor, reviewing functions of various parts of the brain, discussed the theory of brain lateralization , which is, simply put, a recognition of the differing functions played by the hemispheres of the brain and the idealized state in which these hemispheres cooperate in environments in which each hemisphere may need to take the lead on elements of the involved tasks.
This introduction led me to search for facts about crossed dominance during which I stumbled on some correlations/ associations about which I had no idea.
For instance:
Results:
Patients with heroin and hashish had a significantly increased frequency of left-handedness in comparison with the other patients and controls (chi square=29.36, p<0.001). Patients with cigarette, alcohol, heroin and hashish addictions had a significantly increased frequency of left-eyedness in comparison with controls (chi square=25.24, p<0.01). Also, patients with cigarette, alcohol, heroin and hashish addictions had a significantly increased frequency of the crossed hand-eye dominance in comparison with controls (chi square=19.11, p<0.01).
Conclusions:
Different addictions such as cigarette, alcohol, heroin and hashish may be associated with abnormal handedness distribution and accepted as cerebral lateralization abnormalities.
(emphasis mine)
It is no secret that I have been addicted to nicotine and alcohol, both of which I have overcome (although the AA crowd doesn't want me to say that of alcohol...but that is another discussion). While successful in beating these addictions, I can say both addictions were intense!
I don't toss up crossed-dominance as an excuse for the addictions I've held and overcome. Seems there is a chicken and egg question here involving association/causation. But I find it interesting that there is even a link between these things.
It also seems to be a very good thing I never tried drugs...
How Much Is a Gzillion Anyway?
I wish I knew to whom to attribute this bit of budget simplification genius below, but I do not.
Those who study such things have concluded that most of us possess an innate understanding of quantities up to four or five. Beyond these quantities, numbers represent relative abstractions. We don't truly grasp the number 87; we understand from experience that it is more than 32 and less than 104. We understand from experience that 87 would be an absurdly small quantity of blades of grass in the yard, but an uncomfortably large number of snakes in the shoe closet.
(For a quick test of the brain's ability to grasp quantities versus relative numbers, see the lecture materials found here and be sure to click the hyperlink "at this point" under the section on the left titled "Grasping Quantities" The test on the right side of the screen does a terrific job of making this point...much better than I am able to.)
Having established that we do not understand absolute values of numbers above five but understand merely relative quantities in context of things being counted and other numbers, how do we deal with quantities for which we have no useful bounds or context for understanding?
I believe most of us encounter this limitation if we are still paying attention and trying to understand just how terrible the debt crisis is for the US government. I cannot conceive of $15 Trillion so I don't really understand how much of a problem it is.
My lack of understanding makes me grateful to whoever developed this simplification which I am much better able to comprehend. I think you may find this helpful as well.
Those who study such things have concluded that most of us possess an innate understanding of quantities up to four or five. Beyond these quantities, numbers represent relative abstractions. We don't truly grasp the number 87; we understand from experience that it is more than 32 and less than 104. We understand from experience that 87 would be an absurdly small quantity of blades of grass in the yard, but an uncomfortably large number of snakes in the shoe closet.
(For a quick test of the brain's ability to grasp quantities versus relative numbers, see the lecture materials found here and be sure to click the hyperlink "at this point" under the section on the left titled "Grasping Quantities" The test on the right side of the screen does a terrific job of making this point...much better than I am able to.)
Having established that we do not understand absolute values of numbers above five but understand merely relative quantities in context of things being counted and other numbers, how do we deal with quantities for which we have no useful bounds or context for understanding?
I believe most of us encounter this limitation if we are still paying attention and trying to understand just how terrible the debt crisis is for the US government. I cannot conceive of $15 Trillion so I don't really understand how much of a problem it is.
My lack of understanding makes me grateful to whoever developed this simplification which I am much better able to comprehend. I think you may find this helpful as well.
The budget explained in simple English.
I love it when complex things are simplified so that we can all understand.
- United States Tax Revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
- Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
- New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
- National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
- Recent budget cut: $38,000,000,000
Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it is a household budget.
- Annual family income: $21,700
- Money the family spent: $38,200
- New debt on the credit card: $16,500
- Balance on the credit card $142,710
- Recent budget cuts about which some politicians are proud: $385
Stop the insanity now. Vote them out and demand a balanced budget.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Please Watch This
And remember, or perhaps understand for the first time, what was once permitted - shall I say expected - from the White House at Christmas just 30 years ago.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
