View allAll Photos Tagged cognitive
Student mixed media painting on paper, Howell HIgh School.
Working with Students with Cognitive impairment.
Teaching artist: Diane M Kramer
photos By Diane M Kramer
Serving Spring 2014 Teaching Residency with VSA of Michigan
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Thomas Malejko, assigned to Engineer Company in Bamberg, Germany, fires the M9 pistol during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
from bit.ly/2DblHYa
RULE #1 : Exercise boosts brain power.
The human brain evolved under conditions of almost constant motion. From this, one might predict that the optimal environment for processing information would include motion. That is exactly what one finds. Indeed, the best business meeting would have everyone walking at about 1.8 miles per hour.
Researchers studied two elderly populations that had led different lifestyles, one sedentary and one active. Cognitive scores were profoundly influenced. Exercise positively affected executive function, spatial tasks, reaction times and quantitative skills.
So researchers asked: If the sedentary populations become active, will their cognitive scores go up? Yes, it turns out, if the exercise is aerobic. In four months, executive functions vastly improve; longer, and memory scores improve as well.
Exercise improves cognition for two reasons:
– Exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain, which reduces brain-bound free radicals. One of the most interesting findings of the past few decades is that an increase in oxygen is always accompanied by an uptick in mental sharpness.
– Exercise acts directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself. It increases neurons’ creation, survival, and resistance to damage and stress.
RULE #2 : The human brain evolved, too.
The brain is a survival organ. It is designed to solve problems related to surviving in an unstable outdoor environment and to do so in nearly constant motion (to keep you alive long enough to pass your genes on). We were not the strongest on the planet but we developed the strongest brains, the key to our survival.
The strongest brains survive, not the strongest bodies. Our ability to solve problems, learn from mistakes, and create alliances with other people helps us survive. We took over the world by learning to cooperate and forming teams with our neighbors.
Our ability to understand each other is our chief survival tool. Relationships helped us survive in the jungle and are critical to surviving at work and school today.
If someone does not feel safe with a teacher or boss, he or she may not perform as well. If a student feels misunderstood because the teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated.
There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle.
RULE #3 : Every brain is wired differently.
What YOU do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like – it literally rewires it. We used to think there were just 7 categories of intelligence. But categories of intelligence may number more than 7 billion — roughly the population of the world.
No two people have the same brain, not even twins. Every student’s brain, every employee’s brain, every customer’s brain is wired differently.
You can either accede to it or ignore it. The current system of education ignores it by having grade structures based on age. Businesses such as Amazon are catching on to mass customization (the Amazon homepage and the products you see are tailored to your recent purchases).
Regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people. The brains of school children are just as unevenly developed as their bodies. Our school system ignores the fact that every brain is wired differently. We wrongly assume every brain is the same.
Most of us have a “Jennifer Aniston” neuron (a neuron lurking in your head that is stimulated only when Jennifer Aniston is in the room).
Theory of Mind : The ability to understand the interior motivations of someone else, and the ability to construct a predictable “theory of how their mind works” based on that knowledge. We try to see our entire world in terms of motivations, ascribing motivations to our pets and even to inanimate objects. The skill is useful for selecting a mate, navigating the day-to-day issues surrounding living together, for parenting. We have it like no other creature. It is as close to mind reading as we are likely to get.
People with advanced Theory of Mind skills possess the single most important ingredient for becoming effective communicators of information.
If someone does not feel safe with a teacher or boss, they may not be able to perform as well.
If a student feels misunderstood because the teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated.
RULE #4 : We don’t pay attention to boring things.
What we pay attention to is profoundly influenced by memory. Our previous experience predicts where we should pay attention. Culture matters too. Whether in school or in business, these differences can greatly effect how an audience perceives a given presentation.
We pay attention to things like emotions, threats and sex. Regardless of who you are, the brain pays a great deal of attention to these questions: Can I eat it? Will it eat me? Can I mate with it? Will it mate with me? Have I seen it before?
The brain is not capable of multi-tasking. We can talk and breathe, but when it comes to higher level tasks, we just can’t do it.
Driving while talking on a cell phone is like driving drunk. The brain is a sequential processor and large fractions of a second are consumed every time the brain switches tasks. This is why cell-phone talkers are a half-second slower to hit the brakes and get in more wrecks.
Workplaces and schools actually encourage this type of multi-tasking. Walk into any office and you’ll see people sending e-mail, answering their phones, Instant Messaging, and on MySpace — all at the same time. Research shows your error rate goes up 50% and it takes you twice as long to do things.
When you’re always online you’re always distracted. So the always online organization is the always unproductive organization.
If a teacher can’t hold a student’s interest, knowledge will not be richly encoded in the brain’s database.
Brains in wild animals are 15%-30% larger than tame, domestic counterparts. The cold, hard world forced the wild animals into constant learning mode. It is the same with humans. The more activity you do, the larger and more complex it can become.
The brain cannot multi-task. It is a myth. The brain focuses attention on concepts sequentially, one at a time. Switching takes time.
RULE #5 : Repeat to remember.
The human brain can only hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds! Which means, your brain can only handle a 7-digit phone number. If you want to extend the 30 seconds to a few minutes or even an hour or two, you will need to consistently re-expose yourself to the information. Memories are so volatile that you have to repeat to remember.
Improve your memory by elaborately encoding it during its initial moments. Many of us have trouble remembering names. If at a party you need help remembering Mary, it helps to repeat internally more information about her. “Mary is wearing a blue dress and my favorite color is blue.” It may seem counter-intuitive at first but study after study shows it improves your memory.
Brain Rules in the classroom. In partnership with the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University, Medina tested this Brain Rule in real classrooms of 3rd graders. They were asked to repeat their multiplication tables in the afternoons. The classrooms in the study did significantly better than the classrooms that did not have the repetition. If brain scientists get together with teachers and do research, we may be able to eliminate need for homework since learning would take place at school, instead of the home.
The first few seconds of encoding new information is crucial in determining whether something that is initially perceived will be remembered.
The more elaborately we encode information at the moment of learning, the stronger the memory. When encoding is elaborate and deep, the memory that forms is much more robust than when encoding is partial and cursory.
The neural pathways initially used to process new information end up becoming the permanent pathways the brain reuses to store the information. (Like the college professor that made no sidewalks in the new campus. He waited to see where students would walk anyway, then later paved the paths.)
The more a learning focuses on the meaning of the processed information, the more elaborately the encoding is processed.
When you are trying to drive a piece of information into your brain’s memory, make sure you understand exactly what that information means. If you are trying to drive information into someone else’s brain, make sure they understand what it means.
Don’t try to memorize by rote and pray the meaning will reveal itself!
The more repetition cycles a memory experienced, the more likely it is to persist in your mind. The space between repetitions is the critical component for transforming temporary memories into more persistent forms.
Spaced learning is greatly superior to massed learning.
Deliberately re-expose yourself to information *more elaborately*, in fixed spaced intervals, to make retrieval the most vivid it can be.
Learning occurs best when new information is incorporated gradually into the memory store rather than jammed in all at once.
Physically, “student” neurons need to get the same information from the “teacher” neuron within 90 minutes, or its excitement will vanish. The cell will literally reset itself to zero and act as if nothing happened.
Information must be repeated after a period of time has elapsed. If the information is repeatedly pulsed in discretely timed intervals, the relationship between teacher and student neuron begins to change, so increasingly smaller and smaller inputs from the teacher are required to elicit increasingly stronger and stronger outputs from the student.
Forgetting allows us to prioritize events. Events irrelevant to our survival will take up wasteful cognitive space if we assign them the same priority as events critical to our survival. So we don’t.
In school, every 3rd or 4th day would be reserved for reviewing the facts delivered in the previous 3-4 days. Previous information would be presented in compressed fashion. Inspect notes, comparing with what the teacher was saying in the review. That would result in a greater elaboration of the information. A formalized exercise in error-checking.
RULE #6 : Remember to repeat.
It takes years to consolidate a memory. Not minutes, hours, or days but years. What you learn in first grade is not completely formed until your sophomore year in high school.
Medina’s dream school is one that repeats what was learned, not at home, but during the school day, 90-120 minutes after the initial learning occurred. Our schools are currently designed so that most real learning has to occur at home.
How do you remember better? Repeated exposure to information / in specifically timed intervals / provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain.
Forgetting allows us to prioritize events. But if you want to remember, remember to repeat.
RULE #7 : Sleep well, think well.
When we’re asleep, the brain is not resting at all. It is almost unbelievably active! It’s possible that the reason we need to sleep is so that we can learn.
Sleep must be important because we spend 1/3 of our lives doing it! Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity.
We still don’t know how much we need! It changes with age, gender, pregnancy, puberty, and so much more.
Napping is normal. Ever feel tired in the afternoon? That’s because your brain really wants to take a nap. There’s a battle raging in your head between two armies. Each army is made of legions of brain cells and biochemicals –- one desperately trying to keep you awake, the other desperately trying to force you to sleep. Around 3 p.m., 12 hours after the midpoint of your sleep, all your brain wants to do is nap.
Taking a nap might make you more productive. In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots’ performance by 34 percent.
Don’t schedule important meetings at 3 p.m. It just doesn’t make sense.
Students given a series of math problems that all had a shortcut that was not revealed to them. Only 20% found the shortcut if answers had to be given same-day. But if asked after sleep, 60% found the shortcut. No matter how many times the experiment is run, the sleep group consistently outperforms the non-sleep group about to 3 to 1.
RULE #8 : Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.
You brain is built to deal with stress that lasts about 30 seconds. The brain is not designed for long term stress when you feel like you have no control. The saber-toothed tiger ate you or you ran away but it was all over in less than a minute. If you have a bad boss, the saber-toothed tiger can be at your door for years, and you begin to deregulate. If you are in a bad marriage, the saber-toothed tiger can be in your bed for years, and the same thing occurs. You can actually watch the brain shrink.
Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory and executive function. It can hurt your motor skills. When you are stressed out over a long period of time it disrupts your immune response. You get sicker more often. It disrupts your ability to sleep. You get depressed.
The emotional stability of the home is the single greatest predictor of academic success. If you want your kid to get into Harvard, go home and love your spouse.
You have one brain. The same brain you have at home is the same brain you have at work or school. The stress you are experiencing at home will affect your performance at work, and vice versa.
RULE #9 : Stimulate more of the senses.
Our senses work together so it is important to stimulate them! Your head crackles with the perceptions of the whole world, sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, energetic as a frat party.
Smell is unusually effective at evoking memory. If you’re tested on the details of a movie while the smell of popcorn is wafted into the air, you’ll remember 10-50% more.
Smell is really important to business. When you walk into Starbucks, the first thing you smell is coffee. They have done a number of things over the years to make sure that’s the case.
The learning link. Those in multi-sensory environments always do better than those in uni-sensory environments. They have more recall with better resolution that lasts longer, evident even 20 years later.
– students learn better from words and pictures than words alone
– students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously
– students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near to each other rather than far from each on the page or screen
– students learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included
– students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text
RULE #10 : Vision trumps all other senses.
We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.
Pictures beat text as well, in part because reading is so inefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures, and we have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to read them. That takes time.
Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it’s how we’ve always apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductive opportunity.
Toss your PowerPoint presentations. It’s text-based (nearly 40 words per slide), with six hierarchical levels of chapters and subheads—all words. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images. Burn your current PowerPoint presentations and make new ones.
RULE #11 : Male and female brains are different.
What’s different? Mental health professionals have known for years about sex-based differences in the type and severity of psychiatric disorders. Males are more severely afflicted by schizophrenia than females. By more than 2 to 1, women are more likely to get depressed than men, a figure that shows up just after puberty and remains stable for the next 50 years. Males exhibit more antisocial behavior. Females have more anxiety. Most alcoholics and drug addicts are male. Most anorexics are female.
Men and women handle acute stress differently. When researcher Larry Cahill showed them slasher films, men fired up the amygdale in their brain’s right hemisphere, which is responsible for the gist of an event. Their left was comparatively silent. Women lit up their left amygdale, the one responsible for details. Having a team that simultaneously understood the gist and details of a given stressful situation helped us conquer the world.
Men and women process certain emotions differently. Emotions are useful. They make the brain pay attention. These differences are a product of complex interactions between nature and nurture.
RULE #12 : We are powerful and natural explorers.
The desire to explore never leaves us despite the classrooms and cubicles we are stuffed into. Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reaction to the environment but by active testing through observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. Babies methodically do experiments on objects, for example, to see what they will do.
Google takes to heart the power of exploration. For 20 percent of their time, employees may go where their mind asks them to go. The proof is in the bottom line: fully 50 percent of new products, including Gmail and Google News, came from “20 percent time.”
The post Brain Rules – by John Medina appeared first on Entreprenergy.
Award-winning photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa, is widely known for his coverage of the Middle East conflicts, especially the Iraq and Afghan wars, where he covered the insurgent sides. While a Fellow at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Ben Khelifa designed and prototyped his latest project The Enemy. This immersive installation uses VR to bring the audience into conversations between enemies within longstanding global conflicts. During his residency, he collaborated with Fox Harrell of the Imagination, Computation and Expression (ICE) Laboratory, to integrate concepts from cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence-based interaction models into the project to engender empathy.
Student mixed media painting on paper, Howell HIgh School.
Working with Students with Cognitive impairment.
Teaching artist: Diane M Kramer
photos By Diane M Kramer
Serving Spring 2014 Teaching Residency with VSA of Michigan
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Brian Keller, assigned to 212th Combat Support Hospital, goes through the obstacle course during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
Student mixed media painting on paper, Howell HIgh School.
Working with Students with Cognitive impairment.
Teaching artist: Diane M Kramer
photos By Diane M Kramer
Serving Spring 2014 Teaching Residency with VSA of Michigan
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 2nd Lt. Victor Dominguez, assigned to 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany, goes through the obstacle course during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Andrew D’Amelio, a native of Easthaddam, Conn., and currently stationed in Sembach, Germany with the 230th Military Police Company, makes his way through the obstacle course with head-mounted video camera on at the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Grafenwoehr Training Area during the first day of the U.S. Army Europe Best Junior Officer Competition. The Best Junior Officer Competition is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors’ leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in high-intensity competition and is a training event unique to the U.S. Army in Europe. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe’s “Best Junior Officer” for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders.The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- Capt. Bryson McElyea, 24th Military Intelligence Battalion, fires his M9 pistol during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
Here are some new biology titles that have been purchased over the past couple of months. Place your cursor over a book's cover to receive more information. Click on the "Check for availability" link in the note to see a book's status in the Library's online catalog.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- U.S. Army 1st Lt. Andrew D'Amelio, 230th Military Police Company, makes his way through the ruck march portion during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
Join us November 9th–11th for "Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism: Part One."
Hosted by Arne De Boever (MA in Aesthetics and Politics, CalArts), Warren Neidich (The Delft School of Design, TU Delft School of Architecture), and Jason Smith (Art Center), "The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism: Part One" brings together philosophers/critical theorists, media theorists, scientists and artists to discuss the state of the mind and brain under the conditions of contemporary capitalism, in which they have become the new focus of laboring.
The conference will begin on Friday, November 9th at the Goethe-Institut (5750 Wilshire Blvd.) with a keynote address by Franco "Bifo" Berardi (introduced by Sylvère Lotringer) and will continue on Saturday, November 10th and Sunday, November 11th at the West Hollywood Public Library (626 N. San Vicente Boulevard). Speakers will include:
Franco "Bifo" Berardi
Jonathan Beller
Jodi Dean
Tiziana Terranova
Patricia Pisters
Bruce Wexler
On Day 2 of SXSW 2016 (Saturday, March 12), I checked out a few of the sponsor lounges including the IBM Cognitive Lounge, which took over the Vince Young Steakhouse (301 San Jacinto Blvd.). Among the many interesting exhibits was Pepper -- billed as ''the world's most intuitive robot'' -- which is powered by IBM's Watson platform.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- Participants of the Best Junior Officer listen to an Army Physical Fitness Test briefing before taking the test 24 July, at the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Grafenwoehr Training Area during the first day of the U.S. Army Europe Best Junior Officer Competition. The Best Junior Officer Competition is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors’ leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in high-intensity competition and is a training event unique to the U.S. Army in Europe. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe’s “Best Junior Officer” for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
Check out Renewin' Strathewen
Now published at seldomlogical.com/2009/09/12/a-benevolent-social-hack
Updated link to original statement by PM.
A benevolent social hack
Today I witnessed a social hack by a UK hacker who in the space of a month turned around 60 years of history. What did it take? A simple idea, a measure of determination some imagination and a bit of luck. What did he achieve? He persuaded the government of the United Kingdom with the help of fellow citizens, to acknowledge the maltreatment of a fellow citizen. But this was no ordinary citizen.
What is a Hacker?
You might have heard of Hackers in the media. [0] Those pesky 12 year-old boys and their computers at it again. Breaking into Government computers and causing millions of dollars damage. If you listen to the media, Hackers are also responsible for numerous other electronic sins when the most likely explanation is probably a poor choice of operating system. [1] Hackers have something of an image problem. In fact the term Hacker has been hijacked and misused. It used to mean a person who playfully enjoyed puzzles, reveled in understanding complicated technology by gaining access to machinery they had no permission to access. Hackers tend to be benevolent. Less interested in exploiting for gain [2], more interested in mastery and exploits to show amongst their friends. [3]
Instead, the media cottoned onto the term Hackers to describe malevolent behaviour and the broken understanding has persisted ever since. [4] So Instead of using the correct technical term Cracker, the term Hacker has now become synonymous with bad. Here is a simple way to correct this. Whenever you hear the term Hacker in the media, ask yourself is the behaviour benevolent or malevolent? If it's malevolent substitute Hacker for Cracker. If the behaviour is benevolent you are getting a definition closer to the original idea describing a Hacker. So to summarise, Hackers are curious and benevolent by nature. The alike understanding the complex and enjoy creating new things, especially technology. [5]
What is a "social hack"?.
What is a social hack?
Just as Hackers enjoy breaking and rebuilding technology, sometimes malevolent Hackers, Crackers try to re-engineer people. The intent is sometimes playful but the most reported reason is to gain access to information for misuse [6] by exploiting the cognitive biases of humans. [7] I can only think of a few instances of social hacks being done for good instead of evil. [8] But today I witnessed a benevolent social hack. And a big one at that. Now I have an example that probably best illustrates the benevolence of Hackers and what exactly a good "social hack" is. But first a bit of technology history.
A bit of history
If there is a birthplace of modern hackers you might be tempted to think MIT. [9] But you'd be wrong. Modern computer technology has it's birthplace in the United Kingdom. First there was Charles Babbage. Babbage created a mechanical calculating device and with the help of another Ada Lovelace between them the became the original, hardware/software team. [10] Babbage and Lovelace might have supplied the early inspiration but it took the Second World War, another 83 years [11] to encourage the theoretical framework and a complete working example of what we now know as Computers to exist. And at the centre of all this was one man, Alan Mathison Turing. [12]
Turing is the original Hacker, a mathematician, code breaker and computer scientist. Turing had a measurable effect on the infant science of computers with the creation of the
Turing machine" [13] and the thought experiment, "Intelligent Machinery". [14] Turing also designed machines, part electrical, part mechanical to crack the German Enigma and numerous other algorthyms to help crack encrypted messages vital for the German war machine.[15] In the mid to late 1940's, Turing continued to apply himself to the big problem of the time, outlined in "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" [16], software for the Manchester Mark 1 [17] and developed the "Turing Test" [18] as a means to test if a machine is in fact intelligent.
What is a social hack again?
Enough of the history, lets get back to social hacks. Turing was clearly a man of his time able to influence the future course of computer technology for a better world. But Turing was also a man born into the wrong time. Turing's crime was his sexuality. In a time where sexual orientation was not a choice but the law, Turing was persecuted. Turing was also subject to unethical medical procedures by the UK Government. The same Allied government who turned to ordinary people like Turing to help to defeat Nazi Germany. To defeat the Nazi regime and put a stop to the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and anyone else who didn't fit into the master plan.
So the idea behind a social hack is to somehow change the way people behave, perceive or do things through some mechanism. A social hack is much harder to achieve than a playing around with technology. A social hack relies on being able to persuade other people to do something they might not have thought of, want to do or imagined possible. A good social hack is done, for a greater good. A good social hack improves some aspect of society without personal gain.
A social hack howto
Almost a month ago a UK Hacker and nerd, John Graham-Cumming, wrote about [19] a petition [20] he was forming to get the UK Government to apologise formally to Alan Turing for the treatment he received at their hand. Well almost a month later after many emails, blog posts, twits later, John has got the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown on behalf of the government of United Kingdom to publicly apologise to Alan Turing, his treatment and formally recognise the importance of Alan Turing's technical and scientific application to the war effort. [21] And the contribution he made to science and technology in general. Probably the most rewarding part was also the discovery of members of Turing's existing family who now get some closure. In 2012 it will be the centenary of the birth of Turing London on June 23. [22] For nerds and people who work in computing, the Turing year is going to be big. Maybe not as big as Y2K, but big enough.
So thanks John for this benevolent "social hack". A reminder that Hackers do good things. A reminder that in a just society, people and Hackers alike should be judged by their achievements and not their race, religion, sex or orientation.
Reference
[0] Bruce Stirling, "The Hacker Crackdown",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html
[1] Wikipedia, "Storm botnet: In 2007 a Storm botnet controlled by criminal gangs estimated to total between 150,000 to 1 million PC's to enable a distributed denial of service attack. It was reported that up to 80% of the machines involved used Microsoft Windows operating system."
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_botnet
[2] It has been known for Hackers have exploited their knowledge to gain access and excessive CPU access and I suspect the fascination for lock picking probably has a very practical reason behind it. Historically this was a necessity as access to precious processing time was limited. Limited enough to hack a solution. You can read more about early Hackers here by "Eric Steven Raymond", "A Brief History of Hackerdom",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/hacker-histor...
[3] Woz.org, Steve Wozniak, "Letters-General Questions Answered (Woz on hacking)",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.woz.org/letters/general/59.html
[4] The confusion between Hackers and Crackers means to use the word Hacker means Bad to most people.
[5] catb.org, Eric Steven Raymond, "The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them."
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is
[6] Scientific American, Herbert H. Thompson, "How I Stole Someone's Identity",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=anatomy-of-a-so...
[7] Wikipedia, "A cognitive biases is a hickup in rational thought that can be used by Crackers to socially engineer a human for malevolhttp://www.computer50.org/mark1/MM1.htmlent (bad) reasons.",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
[8] Dashes.com, Anil Dash, "Bill Gates and the Greatest Tech Hack Ever" I have a bit of trouble with this one but it's worth looking at despite the involvement of Microsoft.
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
dashes.com/anil/2008/06/bill-gates-and-the-http://www.cs....
[9] mitadmissions.org, Michael Snively, "Hacking/Snively's Blog: If you've never seen "Hackers" then you're depriving yourself and should make a point of getting on that train.* I get asked about hacking at MIT a lot, which is natural;"
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/hacks_traditions/hackin...
[10] Wikipedia, Ada Lovelace, "She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs—that is, encoding an algorithm in a form to be processed by a machine—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built.",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
[11] computerhistory.org, Charles Babbage, "1849 is the year Babbage is reported to have created a version of his analytical machine."
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ number10.gov.uk
[12] alanturing.net, "Born 23 June 1912 in London, died 7 June 1954 in Cheshire, United Kingdom. Computer scientist, mathematician and cryptographer.",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
[13] Wikipedia, "Turing machine",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine#Informal_description
[14] Wikipedia, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence. A paper written in 1950 for 'Mind' in which Turing discusses artificial intelligence, proposes the 'Turing test' of intelligence and asks important questions such as, 'can machines think?'",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_Machinery_and_Intelligence\
[15] Wikipedia, "Cryptanalysis: Where Turing works at Bletchley Park during the Second World War in order to crack German cryptographic cyphers. "
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#Cryptanalysis
[16] abelard.org, A. M. Turing, "Computing machinery and intelligence"
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.php
[17] computer50.org, "Manchester Mark 1: By April 1949 was generally available for computation in scientific research in the University. With the integration of a high speed magnetic drum by the Autumn (the ancestor of today's disc) this was the first machine with a fast electronic and magnetic two-level store. It in turn was the basis of the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1, the first machine off the production line being delivered in February 1951."
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.computer50.org/mark1/MM1.html22
[18] Wikipedia, "Turing test"
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#Early_computers_and_the...
[19] jgc.org, John Graham-Cumming<, "Alan Turing deserves an apology from the British Government ",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
www.jgc.org/blog/2009/06/alan-turing-deserves-apology-fro...
[20] number10.gov.uk, John Graham-Cumming, "number10.gov.uk: E-Petitions: Submitted by John Graham-Cumming – Deadline to sign up by: 20 January 2010 – Signatures: 31,172"
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/
[21] number10.gov.uk, "Treatment of Alan Turing was 'appalling'"
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
[22] cs.swan.ac.uk, "THE ALAN TURING YEAR",
[Accessed Friday, 11th September 2009]
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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- U.S. Army Capt. John Arthur, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, goes through the obstacle course during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
In the Russian-Ukrainian war from February to the present, the stage of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The invasion was the largest war in Europe since World War II.
World Leader International Leader Fang Ruida on World Peace and War - World War III, Nuclear War, Space War (Bic. S 2021v.1.2 2022v.13 revised version, multilingual comparison global network version)
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World Leader International Leader Fang Ruida on World Peace and War - World War III, Nuclear War, Space War (Bic. S 2021v.1.2 2022v.13 revised version, multilingual comparison of the global network version) once the edition came out, immediately got the praise of readers and netizens around the world. In order to meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people, the author has revised and republished it for the benefit of readers and netizens.
Bick. S
Fang Ruida, leader international mondial, parle de la paix mondiale et de la guerre - Troisième Guerre mondiale, guerre nucléaire, guerre spatiale (Bic. S 2021v.1.2 2022v.13 version révisée, comparaison multilingue de la version du réseau mondial) une fois l’édition sortie, a immédiatement reçu les éloges des lecteurs et des internautes du monde entier. Afin de répondre aux besoins de centaines de millions de personnes, l’auteur l’a révisé et republié au profit des lecteurs et des internautes.
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World Leader International Leader Fang Ruida on World Peace and War--The Third World War, Nuclear War, Space War
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In the 20th century, science and technology have been highly developed, social productivity has advanced by leaps and bounds, and the modern civilization and free rational cognitive perception of human society have gradually developed and changed. Human society has opened up a new planetary civilization, which is an inevitable trend of history. Of course, today's human society also It presents various crises and challenges, clashes of civilizations, geopolitics, territorial disputes, spheres of influence, fetishism, political and economic systems, economic models, etc. as well as climate change, resource environment, population growth, wealth gap, plague Viruses, natural disasters, religious beliefs, racial discrimination, vicious competition, even armed war or nuclear war, etc. Countries such as the United States, China, Russia, Europe, India and Pakistan are among them. Without contradiction and competition, there would be no world, and similarly, without peace and compromise There will be no world if you share wealth with each other. Take one step or two steps back, and the sky will be vast. Nuclear weapons are very powerful and worth mentioning. However, the competition between countries and ethnic groups, in the final analysis, mainly lies in economic and political civilization, and of course also includes land, population, resources, etc. Culture, technology, military, influence, sphere of influence, etc. War is just an important unconventional form, just like animal fighting and killing. However, whether animal groups fight inside or outside, there is also considerable compromise and sharing. Otherwise, Animal species groups will also completely disappear or perish. The same is true for the evolutionary history of human society. There is no doubt about it. Whether you are a politician, a military strategist, or a philosopher, a thinker or a sociologist, Anthropologists, no exception.
After World War II, the world formed a Cold War situation: the two major military organizations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact Organization (Warsaw Pact), began to expand their arms and prepare for war. The United States and the Soviet Union launched an arms race and had nuclear weapons reserves. Vulnerable states will rely on the military protection of great powers as a way to maintain their own security.
The phrase World War III began to appear in communiqués between leaders of various countries. With a large number of high-tech applications in the military field, especially the extensive development and proliferation of nuclear weapons, people have provided a great space for the imagination of the third world war: some people think that the third world war will be a scale that spreads all over the world. The world's nuclear war, this war will become the greatest catastrophe in the history of human civilization. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was once considered the closest crisis in human history to World War III: a confrontation between two powers with unprecedented nuclear power that lasted for decades in the Caribbean Sea. Although the incident was resolved smoothly, full-scale nuclear war has since become a nickname for World War III.
With the development of the world, more and more people believe that the third world war will become a historical term that will never appear, or a war that will not happen in a visible period of time, all because of the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. And implement a policy of mutually assured destruction so that war does not break out.
The Third World War is an imaginary large-scale war in the next world. During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, if a war broke out between the two sides, its seriousness could be called the Third World War, but fortunately, both sides tried their best to War was avoided, and neither side broke out until the end of the Cold War. So far, the three wars have only been speculated and imagined, and they have not broken out, but once they break out, they will seriously affect everyone on the earth. After the great ordeal of the Cold War, the Soviet Union yearned for peace and opposed war.
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With a large number of high-tech applications in the military field, especially the extensive development and proliferation of nuclear weapons, people have provided great space for the imagination of the third world war - some people believe that the third world war will be a large-scale The nuclear war in the world will become the greatest catastrophe in the history of human civilization. Among them, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was once considered to be the crisis closest to the Third World War in human history - the confrontation between two great powers with unprecedented nuclear forces in the Caribbean Sea lasted for dozens of days, bringing the possibility of war to the ground. Raised to unprecedented heights.
From different perspectives, there are many reasons for the outbreak of the Third World War, and the government and the people have different views, such as the war launched by the former Soviet Union against the West, the rise of China, and the war in the Middle East.
There are many different reasons for the outbreak of wars, and the camps are also different. It is believed that some countries will use the atomic bomb, and the war may extend into space. The war broke out because, for example, the United States suppressed a rising China. Military conflict between India, Vietnam, the Philippines and China, Israel and Middle East countries, Middle East or Iran and European and American countries, North Korea nuclear attack on South Korea or Japan, China and South Korea discord, military conflict broke out, the United States returned to the Asia-Pacific region affected by Asia State conflict, etc. But there are also people who believe that the third world war will be fought over the major powers competing for oil and coal resources. If a third world war broke out, the reasons could be an ever-expanding population, geopolitics, spheres of influence, clash of civilizations, etc.
Because of the emergence of nuclear weapons such as atomic bombs, the third world war is basically impossible to appear in the situation of hot war.
There is a global nuclear war on the earth, and the world has launched atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs with a nuclear yield of more than 20 billion tons of TNT. Complete
Geography, climate and environment: Due to the radioactive pollution caused by nuclear explosions, most animals are sacrificed, and only creatures on the seabed and low-level life are likely to survive, various chemical reactions pollute the atmosphere, sunlight is hindered, the temperature of the earth is lowered, and the equator has dropped to freezing point Below, human architecture will disappear in the next few hundred years.
Impact on people and species: most people have become extinct, some animals on the ground have become extinct, and some animals and plants have mutated
The man who almost became the emperor of all Europe, he made all Europe tremble.
Guderian (Germany) the father of the tank.
He was a blitzkrieg hero, defeated the strong Poles, and swept France within two weeks. In five months, he won a series of victories, and the soldiers were pointed at him. up to two million people.
Julius Caesar (Ancient Rome) Symbol of ancient Rome.
He fought in Gaul, and he competed with Pompey for the hegemony. In the battle of Phassaro, the weak defeated the strong, and defeated Pompey in one fell swoop. After that, no one could match the enemy. Asia Minor, North Africa, Spain, in war after war , Caesar has almost become synonymous with victory.
Khalid (Arabian) Sword of Allah.
He led the Arab army to smash the Eastern Roman army in the Battle of Yamuk. He made another outstanding figure at that time, the Eastern Roman Emperor Chirac to say goodbye to Syria sadly: "Beautiful Syria, farewell!"
Suvorov (Russia) the first player in Russian history.
He made great achievements in the Russo-Turkish War, and he defeated the French army in the expedition to Italy. He was the only commander in Napoleon's era who could rival Napoleon. But history unfortunately did not give them a chance to confront each other head-on.
Hannibal (Carthage) Lone Hero.
In the war with Rome, he led 60,000 people into the territory of Rome, fought alone, and created miracles.
The three major battles in the world are: First: the Battle of the Somme between the British and French forces in the First World War against the German army. It lasted half a year. The two sides invested more than 1.5 million troops, and the number of casualties reached an astonishing 1.3 million. The battle was fought by the British and French forces. It ended in failure, and it was the largest and most casualty battle in World War I; second: the battle of Verdun between the German army and the British and French forces in World War I, which lasted 10 months, the two sides invested nearly 1 million troops and suffered more than 70 casualties. 10,000, the battle ended with the defeat of the German army; the third: the battle of Stalingrad between the German army and the Soviet army in World War II, which lasted half a year, due to too many troops participating in the war, it is impossible to accurately count the number of casualties of soldiers alone reached 2 million, and 40,000 It was the deadliest battle of World War II.
"The Art of War"
"Sun Tzu's Art of War" is the most famous military book in ancient China and the earliest extant "Sacred Book of Military Studies" in the world. The author Sun Wu, also known as Sun Tzu or Sun Wuzi, courtesy name Changqing, was a native of Le'an (now Huimin County, Shandong) in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Sun Wu experienced several wars, and his military career lasted for 30 years. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is a splendid treasure in the ancient Chinese military cultural heritage, an important part of the excellent traditional culture.
"Theory of War"
"On War" is known as the classic work of modern Western military theory, the author is Karl von Clausewitz. "Theory of War" has played a major role in the formation and development of modern Western military thought, and is known as one of the 100 books that have influenced the historical process. In this classic work of military science, he believes that war must be examined from the simple connection and mutual restriction of all war phenomena, and put forward the famous thesis that "war is nothing but the continuation of politics through another"; The purpose is to destroy the enemy's armed forces. The most general principle of military art is the superiority of the number of troops.
"Grand Strategy"
The full name of "Grand Strategy" is "Grand Strategy: Principles and Practice", the author John Collins (John Co11ins) is a famous American strategic theorist. book. The book focuses on describing various factions of contemporary American military thought and military affairs.
"The Influence of Sea Power on History"
"The Influence of Sea Power on History" is the first part of Mahan's "Sea Power Theory Trilogy", and it is also the first successful work of Mahan's theory of sea power. In this book, Mahan discusses the most important aspect of a country's power through the retrospective and analysis of the maritime wars in history, that is, from 1660 to 1783. Mahan's Sea Power Theory.
"Strategy"
"Strategy" by Reed Hart. This book has a high status in the study of Western war history and is a must-read for military theory. Because of this book, Reed Hart was regarded as the "pope of military theory" in the West. The author makes a detailed analysis using rich historical materials. "Strategy Theory" has high historical value. Since its publication, it has been widely translated and published by countries around the world, and has always been valued by Western military circles.
"Air Dominance"
"Air Dominance" was also translated into "Theory of Air Dominance" and "Theory of Air Force Strategy", which proposed the idea of air dominance. Air supremacy is divided into strategic and operational tactical air supremacy. Mastery of the air can have a major impact on the outcome of a war.
"The Science of Winning"
"The Science of Winning" was written by Marshal Suvorov of the Russian Empire. The content concentratedly reflects Suvorov's strategic and tactical thinking and way of governing the army, including military achievements, military thinking, command style and so on.
"Military Strategy"
In the early 1960s, the Soviet Union published the book "Military Strategy". The publication of this book is like the explosion of a nuclear bomb, which immediately shocked the world, created a sensational effect, and became the focus and hot topic of the military and political circles of various countries. The surname Sokolovsky in the author Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky means "eagle". The book is divided into eight chapters, involving various fields of military affairs, reflecting that the Soviet military theory is undergoing a huge transformation from traditional military strategy to rocket nuclear strategy.
Introduction to the Art of War
"An Introduction to the Art of War" by A. H. Jomini. This book is divided into seven chapters and forty-seven sections.
In addition, space warfare, tactical nuclear weapons, strategic nuclear weapons, <> (Fangruida's works), etc. There are also many other works that are well-known all over the world. Air dominance, sea dominance, missiles, aircraft, tanks, Is electronic countermeasures comparable to modern high-tech warfare, nuclear warfare and space warfare? The answer is no. Will there be crooks and lunatics in the world? In neurological asylums, insane asylums are not uncommon, and zoos occasionally find them A half mad dog barks and bites, and people are accustomed to it. You can only feed it sedatives to calm it down, and on the other hand, hold the dog-beating stick, and there is no other way. Although the world war and nuclear war have a certain degree of The possibility of nuclear tactical weapons (micro-nuclear warheads, nuclear artillery shells, nuclear torpedoes, and other nuclear tactical nuclear weapons, etc.) may occur on one side. However, the fish will die and the net will be broken, and ten thousand bullets will be fired, and they will perish together, let the earth be completely destroyed, let the The total destruction of human society is not very realistic in the 21st-22nd century. If the earth does not exist, then everything becomes meaningless. Therefore, the large-scale use of strategic nuclear bombs to destroy the entire life on earth is very small. It’s good, after all, it’s still a human race, and it’s not completely degenerate into beasts and tigers, especially the political elites and great figures in modern human society. Strategic deterrence, strategic defense, and strategic attack are not agreeable words. Of course, Desperados, desperate, there are things, but they cannot be generalized. Are there really madmen and sages and gods in the world, hundreds of trillions of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs are launched, the earth, the moon, Mars, Jupiter, the sun, the Milky Way, black holes, The Milky Way, ...... is fleeting, isn't this the myth of the Big Bang that created the universe? This is probably only known to God and Zeus.
A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier---Napoleon (France)
A soldier's best destination is to be killed by the last bullet in the last battle - Patton (United States)
Only those who are not afraid of death deserve to live - MacArthur (United States) If I know that there is a minefield on the way forward, I will let the troops go directly to it-----Zhukov (Soviet Union)
Whoever fires first and can make the most intense concentrated fire will win - Rommel (Germany)
"The conflict of World War II across the theater was the 20th century with unprecedented casualties and devastation. An estimated 80 million to 120 million people died in the war.
Affected countries First World War Second World War
Deaths 20 million 72-100 million
Injured 20 million 35 million
Conscription 70 million 110 million
Battlefield size 4 million square kilometers 22 million square kilometers
World wars profoundly affected the course of world history, the old European empires were destroyed or divided or severely damaged, the direct cause was the staggering cost of the war, or in some cases defeat by the great powers, the war weakened or even cut off the main colonial powers and colonies. The connection made the colonies operate in a semi-autonomous state. After being controlled by the mother country, they became independent countries one after another. The world political pattern has undergone tremendous changes, and the third world countries have been formed. Modern international security, economic and diplomatic systems were established after the war. Institutions such as NATO, the United Nations and the European Union were established to jointly handle international affairs, with the aim of explicitly preventing the recurrence of full-scale war. War also dramatically changed everyday life. Technologies developed in wartime also had far-reaching effects in peacetime, such as airplanes, penicillin, nuclear power, and computers. "(quoted from Wiki)
All kinds of battles and conflicts, sometimes hostile parties compromise with each other, and resolve various disputes through peaceful negotiation; Of course, from the perspective of the development and changes of the entire human society, the trend of peaceful development is always the mainstream, and the state of war is not the mainstream norm after all. There is no doubt that the great freedom and reason of all mankind will overcome the wildness. Otherwise, human society will collapse. It will be completely destroyed. Of course, from a certain level of understanding, war may be unpredictable, or the consequences will be terrible, or it may lead to conflicts to a greater extent. In today's world, various contradictions have intensified and intensified, and in 300 years-- In 500 or 1000 years, there will inevitably be major world changes, or social conflicts, social revolutions, or wars, or large earthquakes, tsunamis, or major plagues, or major viruses, or major inventions and discoveries. , (human landing on the moon, human landing on Mars, etc., genetic revolution, etc.), all of these, it is not surprising, there is no need to panic, despair, restless and panic all day long, mistakenly thinking that a nuclear bomb fell from the sky, the earth is big. Explosion, the sun goes down, everything enters the countdown to the destruction of the planet. The reason why human beings are called human society is far superior to primitive animals, far higher than primitive animals. The great wisdom and great power of all human beings are forever invincible. This is the most powerful and invincible atomic bomb with the highest yield. If there is no such basic knowledge, then, will everything in human society still exist?
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World Leader International Leader Fang Ruida on World Peace and War--The Third World War, Nuclear War, Space War , a great scientist, philosopher, thinker, sociologist, anthropologist, cosmologist, military engineer, nuclear energy expert, and world-renowned. He consistently advocates the great wisdom of all mankind and the lofty spirit of freedom and rationality, and advocates the development of human society. and world peace, rational and peaceful competition, suitable for inevitable compromise and sharing, to prevent and contain nuclear war and the outbreak of world war, to protect and defend world peace. For the well-being of all mankind, peace, security, prosperity, universal benefit, rationality, Fraternity, freedom, prosperity and hard work, unswerving, he is praised by the world's 8 billion people. Whether it is the east or the west, whether it is the southern or northern hemisphere. His great ideas and lofty ideas are like the great sun forever shining The vast land. This is the core content of this article. (Bick November 2021, revised in 2022)
Fang Ruida, leader international mondial, parle de la paix mondiale et de la guerre - Troisième Guerre mondiale, guerre nucléaire, guerre spatiale (Bic. S 2021v.1.2 2022v.13 version révisée, comparaison multilingue version du réseau mondial)
Leader mondial Leader international Fang Ruida sur la paix et la guerre mondiales - la troisième guerre mondiale, la guerre nucléaire, la guerre spatiale
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- Capt. Michael Bruce, assigned to 1-214th AVN Regiment, fires a M 16 rifle during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
Up close, the faces all look like Albert Einstein. Move back, or scale the photo down, and they turn into (from left to right, top to bottom:
• Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe)
• Marilyn Monroe
• Sigmund Freud
• Salvador Dalí
• Sean Connery
• John Lennon
• Madonna
• a different Albert Einstein (??)
The illusion was made by Aude Oliva, an "Associate Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT, leading the Computational Visual Cognition Laboratory, a research team, part of the Perceptual Science Group." These images come from her Hybrid Images work:
"A hybrid image is a picture that combines the low-spatial frequencies of one picture with the high spatial frequencies of another picture producing an image with an interpretation that changes with viewing distance."
You can read about the technique in dense academic paper-ese (PDF), or follow along with possibly clearer presentation slides (also PDF). There's also a gallery of hybrid images on her web site.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. John Tidwell, assigned to 72nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion in Schweinfurt, Germany, performs a 2 mile run during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
I had to go to work on a couple of Sundays in December 2010. I wandered the cubicles while waiting for something to happen...
A view of the Patterns: Cognitive T-Shirt Co by IBM in the Times Center Lobby during 2016 Advertising Week New York.
The model here attempts to 'translate' Mayer's Cognitive Processing Assumptions. I have written the accompanying text (please cite appropriately :-) "With specific reference to multimedia for education, Mayer's (1991) cognitive theory of multimedia learning is underpinned by three main assumptions - dual channel, limited capacity and active processing. The dual channel assumption is based around the notion that the human brain possesses separate channels for processing sight inputs and sound inputs. The information in the two channels is processed independently but simultaneously in the working memory, from where it is then integrated into existing information networks in the long term memory. However, the limited capacity assumption identifies that each channel can only process a limited quantity (between five to seven 'chunks') of information at once; a phenomenon known as cognitive load theory. This limitation results in the brain having to allocate processing resources, often in response to affective factors such as interest. Finally, the active processing assumption refers to the active engagement in cognitive processing required to build organised, systematic mental representations of inputs. As such, the human brain is constantly occupied with the selection, organisation, and amalgamation of input with existing 'knowledge', thus resulting in the formation of a personalised mental model in the individual's working memory (Mayer, 2009)" (Owen, & Martin, 2010).
Please cite as: Owen, H., & Martin, H. (2010). Multimedia enhancement of opportunities and outcomes for learners engaged in open, flexible and distance learning: Theory and practice. DEANZ 2010 - Quality Connections - Boundless Possibilities: Through Open, Flexible and Distance Learning.
Do you want the convenience to attend your therapy sessions sitting at the comfort of your home? Linda’s cognitive behavioral therapy online is the best platform for you. She now offers online video therapy sessions that you can attend right from your home. If you are not comfortable enough to discuss your problems face to face or you have a schedule too busy to visit a therapist, this telemedicine sessions is a golden lifetime opportunity for you. For more information please visit our website erwin-gallaghertherapy.com/ or call 858-610-1460
D.M. DeVito, Jr. 1989 from W. Adler 1981: The War of the Roses.
No-fault divorce does not require a showing of wrongdoing by either party, thus allowing a family court to grant marriage dissolution in response to a petition by either party of the marriage without requiring the petitioner to provide evidence that the defendant has committed a breach of the marital contract.
Divorce was introduced in Italy by law of 1970-XII-01 (amended several times until 2015). An abrogative referendum, supported by Catholic organizations and by the Vatican, was defeated on 1974-V-12. A constitutional issue had been also raised with regard to Italy's obligations under the 1929 Lateran Treaty, on whether it prohibited Italy from authorizing divorce. Before 1970, there was no provision for divorce in Italian law, and the difficulty of ridding oneself of an unwanted spouse in the absence of any legal way to do so was a frequent topic of drama and humor, reaching its apotheosis in Divorce, Italian Style. In Italy, almost all divorces are granted on the ground of legal separation. In 2015, the period of legal separation was reduced to 1 year if the cases are contested, and 6 months in the case of consensual separation (from the previous 3 years) since the comparition of the spouses at the first hearing in the separation procedure or since the date of the separation agreement. A separation decree may be granted by mutual consent, or when there are facts that would render the continuation of married life intolerable or have a seriously damaging impact on the upbringing of the children. Separation by mutual consent and uncontested divorce are also possible without judicial procedure. Divorce may be granted without a previous legal separation only in very rare cases (e.g. final criminal conviction, annulment or divorce obtained abroad by the foreign spouse, unconsummated marriage, sex change).
REFERENCES
A. Michael 2015: The quest to materialize value into objects.
Franklin Birkinshaw 1983: The life and loves of a she-devil.
possession is 9/10 of the law • parochialism • victimisation
t-problem • philosophical razor • c-bias • mediatization • To rob Peter to pay Paul • KUWTJ
We view ourselves as mentally flexible and others as inflexible.
(Baxter & Goldberg, 1987)
Children who expect rewards for an activity are less likely to engage in the same activity later than those who were intrinsically motivated.
(Lepper, Greene & Nisbett, 1973)
CC image courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2911042795/
Jonathan Connell presenting Four Paths to AI by Jonathan Connell IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Kenneth Livingston Psychology Department, Vassar College
Solution to the AI problem might be a combination of four approaches
- Core Value and Silver Bullet
A self motivated language learner
- Emulation and Emergence
A neural network trained with Web data
So - I think this is the Hybrid intelligent system approach.
in Technical Session I: Overview of AGI Research at the The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08)
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research focuses on the original and ultimate goal of AI -- to create intelligence as a whole, by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies. AGI is also called Strong AI in the AI community.
Another good reference is Artificial General Intelligence : A Gentle Introduction by Pei Wang
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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- U.S. Army Capt. Bryson McElyea, 24th Military Intelligence Battalion, conducts a ruck march during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
Award-winning photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa, is widely known for his coverage of the Middle East conflicts, especially the Iraq and Afghan wars, where he covered the insurgent sides. While a Fellow at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Ben Khelifa designed and prototyped his latest project The Enemy. This immersive installation uses VR to bring the audience into conversations between enemies within longstanding global conflicts. During his residency, he collaborated with Fox Harrell of the Imagination, Computation and Expression (ICE) Laboratory, to integrate concepts from cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence-based interaction models into the project to engender empathy.
Learn more at arts.mit.edu
All photos ©Hélène Adamo
Please ask before use
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Thomas Malejko, assigned to Engineer Company in Bamberg, Germany, goes through the obstacle course during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Andrew D'Amelio, assigned to 230th Military Police Company in Sembach, Germany, performs sit-ups during the United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition (BJOC) in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer. (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach/released)
This is a picture of a large piece of art carved of wood by Peter Wolf Toth in 1988 that stands next to a small lake on the western edge of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It commemorates the Ojibwe presence in the region.
Here are some things that are true:
1. I just wrote a long thing about how everybody wants to make up claims of Native American heritage.
2. Before that, I wrote a bunch of long things claiming Native American heritage.
3. I am not a fan of cognitive dissonance.
So what gives?
One of the things that people told me when I was little and everybody was talking about my adoption was that my biological family had some connection to the Native Americans, though nobody knew the distribution of the cultures well enough to specifically say "Ojibwe." My mom -- Becky, not Yvonne -- used to say that Uncle Joe Prout might be half-Indian, and if he was half-Indian, then I'd be a quarter. Even at a young age, I was skeptical, but as time went on and I looked more closely at my origins, it seemed reasonable that at least some portion of me might have passed over the Bering Land Bridge. By the time Robin and I got together, I was making joking references to "my people" as Robin stared at my blond hair with rolling eyes.
But then she did all this research and confirmed it. As it turns out, I am one of the few white Americans who claims Native American heritage without lying. There really are Ojibwes on my family tree. And probably some Hurons and maybe some Sioux.
So, then. How Native am I?
(Now, to be clear, I want to emphasize that this is purely an exercise in biology. Culturally, I am not Native American at all. I was not raised in that culture, and I've never had to deal with the limitations imposed on that culture by the larger society of white Americans. I'm not trying to go all Rachel Dolezal here. I self-identify as a white guy.)
To work the biology out, let's go back five generations to my great-great-great grandparents. Like anybody, I have 32 ancestors in this generation. This is the generation of Susanne Aiabens, daughter of Chief Aiabens and some unnamed Ojibwe woman. John Davenport is also in this generation, and as the son of Susan Descarreaux, he was 50% Ojibwe. Another 50%--at least as recognized by the government--comes from Marie Vallier, the wife of Amable Goudreau. So assuming that I'm right about about these heritages--and for these three people, I'm about 95% sure--then I am at least 1/16th Native American, or about 6.25%.
There are more questionable references to people who might have been Native American. Some notes suggest that both parents of Elizabeth Belanger (Paul Belanger and Angelique Montreuil) were half-Ojibwe. There's some suggestion that some Ojibwes might be hiding in a couple of places on the Frazier line, or among the Leveques/Lavakes. And there's that Nathaniel Quick thing, which I mostly don't buy. If all that were true, that might take me up to about 10% Native American.
And the rest of me? That seems split between France and England, with England getting the edge. As far as I know, everybody on my biological father's side is English. About a third of my mother's people are French by way of Canada. And that's everything I am. I'm 90% white guy, which in America counts as white guy.
If you want to go back far enough, though, things start getting absurd. Consider all those Cornwall English. Go back far enough, and what's their origin? Where were they, say, a thousand years ago? Maybe they were Normans. So, more French. Or maybe they were Anglo-Saxon, which makes them kind of German. And what about all those French? Go back far enough, and they're Germanic Franks. Go back farther, and they're Gauls. Unless they were Romans. It's entirely possible everybody's a Roman. Which would make me Italian. So I'm a distant cousin to Robin.
(Which, as a Kentuckian, doesn't really bother me.)
Basically, if you take all this genealogical stuff far enough, everybody is everything, and we're all the same people. Robin and I probably have a common ancestor within the last 2,000 years. I probably have a common ancestor with most people reading this in the same time frame. In my 37th generation, I have a number of ancestors greater than the number of humans that have ever existed, ever. So do you. That generation probably lived some time around the fall of the Roman Empire, when the population of the entire planet was around 200 million. So a lot of names appear a lot of times, and they're the same names that appear on the family tree of every other person alive today.
So here's the ultimate lesson of genealogy. Knowing this stuff is fun, and I enjoy seeing the different paths people took to get to different places. But in the end, we all go back to the same patch of African trees. So really, we should just get over ourselves.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- U.S. Army 1st Lt. Andrew D'Amelio, 230th Military Police Company, competes in the two-mile run event, part of the Army Physical Fitness Test, during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
Cognitive dissonance. Beautiful dioramas of wildlife in natural settings in a store selling every means for exterminating them.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany --- 1st Lt. Brian Keller, 212th Combat Support Hospital, fires his weapon during United States Army Europe's Best Junior Officer Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 24, 2012. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to the U.S. Army in Europe, is a training event meant to challenge and refine competitors' leadership and cognitive decision-making skills in a high-intensity environment. The competition runs from July 23-27, 2012. The competitors, company-grade officers ranking from 2nd Lt. to Capt., represent Army units throughout Europe and have already distinguished themselves amongst their peers and exemplify the profession of arms. The competition brings these up-and-coming young leaders together for five days of physically and mentally challenging training, all for the chance to be named U.S. Army Europe's "Best Junior Officer" for 2012. Challenges include pistol and rifle qualifications, multiple foot marches, and various situational training exercises to test their intellect and instincts as leaders. The knowledge, skill-sets and leadership traits honed at this competition will help prepare the young leaders involved to excel when the time comes to lead Soldiers in a deployed environment. For more information or to see photos and video from the competition go to the U.S. Army Europe Web site www.eur.army.mil/BestOfficer.
(U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Markus Rauchenberger/Released)
presenting the question of Real AGI?
This was a very informative talk, but it to go through it in detail would have taken at least an hour, or even longer, as a tutorial. He did an excellent job of covering this material, giving us the highlight in a whirlwind talk. In addition, he provided a very good perspective on the state of AGI from a European perspective. There were quite a few papers from Europe (France, Germany, Poland), a few from Israel, one from Australia, one from China.
I was surprised that there were no Japanese or Indian papers, and only one from China.
Cognitive Architectures: Where Do We Go From Here?
in Technical Session I: Overview of AGI Research at the The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08)
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research focuses on the original and ultimate goal of AI -- to create intelligence as a whole, by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies. AGI is also called Strong AI in the AI community.
Another good reference is Artificial General Intelligence : A Gentle Introduction by Pei Wang
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Guinea baboons (Papio papio) display a wide range of social behaviours. They sometimes chase and aggress each other.
Here, this male is exhibiting an intimidation behaviour: he stands steadily and stares at his target with wide-open eyes. The baboons' eyelids are white, creating a strong threatening effect when they raise their eyebrows high.
This picture was taken in the wild, in Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal, where the researchers of the Centre de Recherche de Primatologie Simenti have been following and studying Guinea baboons since 2007.
More information: www.dpz.eu/en/cognitive-ethology
Student mixed media painting on paper, Howell HIgh School.
Working with Students with Cognitive impairment.
Teaching artist: Diane M Kramer
photos By Diane M Kramer
Serving Spring 2014 Teaching Residency with VSA of Michigan
15 October 2013
Bad day. Not because of external reasons, really. I was just in a weird, pessimistic and unmotivated mood. So for the most part, it wasn't a very good day.
I woke up at a decent time, but I didn't have to go to the school today. So I sort of just… sat around. I still had residual bad feelings from yesterday about not planning ahead precisely, and not being efficient with my time.
I know I shouldn't beat myself up so much, and I know that there's no such thing as a "perfectly" functional adult. But I find it difficult to achieve a healthy balance between being "responsibly" critical of myself, and raking myself over the coals for every "mistake."
Even though I suppose I haven't really made a mistake. I just felt like I SHOULD be planning every aspect of my life better, and I SHOULD be using every moment of my time in a productive/fulfilling way.
Again, I know this is a cognitive error. There is no "should." And I let that inaccurate concept of "should" ruin my moments, by making myself feel tense and overwhelmed by the sheer number of options of other things I could be doing.
The funny thing is, instead of this bad anxious feeling motivating me to action, I have a tendency to freeze up instead and not act at all. I've found that this unhealthy mental process is at the heart of most of my procrastination--I put pressure on myself to do things a certain way or perform to a certain standard, and then the pressure feels so overwhelming that even starting a task seems difficult.
I could list so, so many examples of how this has manifested itself in my life: school assignments, arriving on time ANYWHERE, replying to emails or phone calls, application processes (hello, I only applied to one college and it was the night before the deadline), and also this one awful, awful time last year when I felt so much pressure to say something interesting that I essentially became mute for about an hour. I sincerely wish I was joking.
It happens with art. It happens with writing. It happens very often in littler ways. It sucks, and it's painful, but I'm working on it.
Actually, this photo project is an attempt to make me okay with not taking perfect pictures or writing perfect descriptions or uploading perfectly on time! So that helps. But it's a daily struggle, nonetheless.
Anyway, when I find myself overwhelmed like this, I make things much worse by procrastinating. And then I feel even WORSE about not using my time properly… while continuing to not use my time properly. It's like, the more things I feel like I should be doing, the more I can't motivate myself to do anything but waste time.
Of course, it really comes down to the question of "Who SAYS I'm wasting time?" And consistently answering that properly is what's truly required to reach a healthy mental process.
But instead of accepting this idea, loosening myself, and allowing myself to act as I wish without self-scrutiny… I feel compelled to respond in unhealthy ways. For example, by making rigid lists, budgets, schedules, "rules" and "tests" for myself. More on that later.
Anyway, so I languished quite terribly for the entire morning, and then showered and made lunch. I was ready to go early, and I walked to the home where the teacher lives who wanted me to give her son private lessons.
This was a bright spot in my bad day! I got to walk in a section of the town that I'd never really seen before, so that was interesting. And I met the two boys that I'm going to be giving lessons to, Victor and Emilio. They're both in Bachillerato, so they're older. And so my job is seriously just going to consist of speaking to them in English to help with pronunciation and fluency.
I didn't actually know that today was going to be a "lesson." After briefly talking about pricing with the parents, I met the boys and sat to talk with them. We seriously just talked about movies, music, video games (bonding over The Walking Dead game!), differences in youth culture between America and Spain, and random other stuff.
They're 17-year-old boys, so naturally they wanted to talk about 17-year-old boy stuff, like "Is college in the United States really just like American Pie?" They also wanted to know if Knife Party is just a band name or if knife parties are like, a thing… oh boy. Also whether Grand Theft Auto is how life really is in America ("If you steal a plane and get away, do the cops stop chasing you?").
It was an incredibly entertaining conversation, and they spoke to me totally in English, so that was good. Their mother came in eventually and was like "Okay, it's been over an hour," and just handed me the money right there, like a prostitute or something. But I'm never going to complain about quick and easy cash. I almost feel like being an English teacher is too easy, sometimes.
Afterwards, I decided to renew my pharmacy-seeking efforts, since today was the day that mattered in regards to refilling my birth control. I walked up Bulevar and found a pharmacy, showed my prescription to the pharmacist, and easily received the pack of pills.
I understand that it might seem like a personal thing to talk about getting birth control pills, but it's not something I feel uncomfortable addressing, especially because I want to explain the differences between the process in the U.S. and in Spain.
Also, I don't just take them FOR CONTRACEPTIVE PURPOSES. A lot of people assume that's their only use, but I used to have other symptoms that have stabilized and/or disappeared since I started taking birth control pills about 4 years ago. I would continue to take the pills for those reasons alone.
For example, I suspect that these bad/dramatic emotions I've been experiencing will probably subside in a couple of days as my hormones get put in their place. Crossing my fingers!
So yeah, my month's prescription cost me 5,95 euros. Less than 6 euros. And I say "prescription," but I suppose it would be more accurate to say "supply," since a prescription isn't required for a girl to get birth control pills here in Spain. That also means that costly appointments that keep resulting in more surprise medical bills are NOT required to renew a prescription. Also, there was no health insurance involved at all--it's just like going to the store to buy headache medicine.
I'm dwelling on all of this because this summer I ran into a BIG HEADACHE INDEED trying to get a month's supply of pills. Involving a routine, required appointment that cost me roughly $600 after all the separate bills, the results of which were "you should probably follow up on this because the results weren't 'definitely-not-cancer.'" Needless to say, I'm taking my chances there.
And on top of that, I have to pay an additional $28 each month every time I need to refill my prescription. Welcome to "not having health insurance in America"! Pah. It's the most frustrating and dehumanizing thing in the world to be told that your ability to live and be healthy is dependent upon your ability to pay inflated sums for basic care.
But I'm in Spain now. Which has a lovely, reasonable, efficient healthcare system. Do you realize what a relief it is to know that you don't have to apologize or be punished for having imperfect health? I was so excited when the pharmacist told me the price. I was like "THAT'S IT?? Oh my god, it's so cheap here!" He looked puzzled and then shocked when I told him the price of my prescription in America.
Anyway, now that we've made it past my long rant about healthcare, I happily left the pharmacy and walked home. And as these things always seem to go, I passed like 3 other pharmacies on my way back. Even though there were none to be found last night. That's life.
Instead of going straight home, I instead went to my usual cafe for some cinnamon tea. And this is where the part about unhealthy and rigid responses comes in. I started drawing up a strict and detailed budget, recording my recent spendings, estimating my earnings, subtracting my expenses and trying to determine what I'm left with in the end. And then trying to determine how many more private lessons I should give to get closer to my goal.
I don't think that was necessarily unhealthy. If I force myself to follow it rigidly and beat myself up over any deviations, that will be bad. But I'm actually kind of glad that I got a realistic look at my budget, to keep in mind at least somewhat.
But then it sort of snowballed and suddenly I had made an inventory of every food item in my kitchen, with stars next to the foods that are most perishable so I know to make meals with them first. And I had planned each meal for the next three days. And somehow got this idea in my head that I would plan every meal so I could shop most efficiently and use each item to its fullest potential.
There's nothing wrong with looking ahead and having an idea of specific meals I might want to cook in the coming days. But I don't think it's very healthy to have a specific plan for EACH EGG IN MY REFRIGERATOR. I'm not even a naturally organized person. And I like variety. And I don't always know what I'll be hungry for.
The healthy way to respond to feelings of "Am I using my time/money/resources as I SHOULD be?" is to say "There really isn't a way that I SHOULD do anything, and mistakes are natural. What matters is that I am operating in a way that suits me and makes me feel okay."
But my typical solution instead is "I SHALL PREVENT MYSELF FROM EVER MAKING ERRORS BY CREATING THIS PERFECT LIST AND PERFECT PLAN, PERFECTLY ORGANIZED AND PERFECTLY TIMED AND PERFECTLY EXECUTED AND..."
"Stop the music! Well ain't I human, like everybody else?"
(It sounds silly, but this Kinks lyric often provides a great mental axe to cut through my thoughts and stop my weird perfectionist cycles from continuing).
There's no realistic way to follow the sorts of rules I impose upon myself without being truly miserable and squeezing all the spontaneity and flavor out of life. So although a plan might inherently be a good thing, I have difficulty planning in a realistic and healthy way. It's either no plan because I feel too overwhelmed to act, or a disgustingly specific plan that's nearly impossible to stick to.
Middle ground. Gray areas. That's what I'm always seeking. That's the healthiest place to be.
I promise, I'm working on it. It's honestly getting better. It's just tough on days like today when the bad feelings seem to defeat the logical thought patterns.
Going to bed (although I went late) was the best thing for me. Sometimes days just need to be discarded, so you can start fresh and try to be better the next day.
Award-winning photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa, is widely known for his coverage of the Middle East conflicts, especially the Iraq and Afghan wars, where he covered the insurgent sides. While a Fellow at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Ben Khelifa designed and prototyped his latest project The Enemy. This immersive installation uses VR to bring the audience into conversations between enemies within longstanding global conflicts. During his residency, he collaborated with Fox Harrell of the Imagination, Computation and Expression (ICE) Laboratory, to integrate concepts from cognitive science and Artificial Intelligence-based interaction models into the project to engender empathy.
Learn more at arts.mit.edu
All photos ©Karim Ben Khelifa
Please ask before use