I can't imagine the conversation that must have taken place prior to choosing the man for the photoshoot.
"We need to find somebody for the sign who will relate to the type of people who might consider buying dozens of hot dogs at the local convenient store."
"Dwayne!"]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=30Wed, 21 May 2008 07:50:35 -0700Religious Debate
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=29
If you've been a member of internet communities for a while, chances are you've witnessed one of the frequently-recurring religious debates. When they pan out properly, such debates are undoubtedly healthy, thanks to the introspection they impose upon their participants. Many devoutly religious people would certainly benefit from a greater understanding of science's contributions, as would many empiricists benefit from a greater understanding of the reasoning behind a person's faith. Both sides certainly have something to teach as well as something to learn, however lopsided each particular exchange may be.
Unfortunately, though, such exchanges rarely unfold in a productive manner; more often than not, they end in bitter division between the various involved parties, both of whom exit the debate merely hardened in their current beliefs. Ninety-nine percent of people on both sides of the table never change their minds even ever-so-slightly throughout these arguments, and yet they continue, on and on, over and over, with only minor adjustments made by the participants each time to try and enhance their influence over the opponents.
WHAT MAKES RELIGIOUS DEBATE SO INFLAMMATORY?
It's important to understand just why it is that religious debates always seem to encourage such inflammatory rhetoric and response. For one thing, religion unfailingly deals with such profound questions as "Where did we come from?", "What happens when we die?", and "What is the meaning of life?" These are arguably the most important questions a person can ask, and so it’s not surprisingly that people feel so strongly about their personally adopted explanations.
Also, though, religious debate carries another quality that sets it apart from the myriad "normal" debates, dealing with a variety of other topics, which we witness on a day-to-day basis. This unique quality is the element of ambiguity; while debate over religion is often infused with a generous dose of modern science and bulletproof logic, it still is, in the end, grounded entirely in a wholly indeterminate question. Science surely offers loads of revealing answers regarding our world (as well as the promise of many more answers to come as our mastery of observation and interpretation continues to spread), but it can only extend so far. Astrophysicists and quantum mechanists both agree that there is a very real limit—a set boundary—to what we can know through science. The exact coordinates of this boundary are still being determined, but we know for a fact that one side of it lies in one particular location: at the beginning of time.
(A short passage of advanced cosmology follows; feel free to skip to the next italicized heading if you don’t feel up to reading it)
The beginning of time was set at the beginning of our universe—the Big Bang. Whether you subscribe to the traditional Big Bang model or that of the more sophisticated inflationary cosmology theory (which refines the standard model through the introduction of a so-called inflaton field, a sort of supercooled Higgs Field that permeated all of space prior to the Big Bang, leading to the negative gravity required to fuel such a violent outburst of energy), you will still agree that time’s arrow was set at the time of the Big Bang. As with everything else, the various parameters of our universe (time, the familiar laws of physics, etc.) were conceived at this crucial point in our history. The most compelling proof we have of its occurrence is the cosmic microwave background radiation that exists all throughout space in a nearly uniform state, a cold reminder of the once hot and extremely low-entropy beginnings of our existence.
The point is, our observational ability comes to a screeching halt at this set of coordinates in spacetime… and it just so happens that everything we know about our world is derived from our observations. That means that there is no way we can ever determine with any certainty whatsoever what it was that occurred prior to the Big Bang. Quantum cosmologists such as Stephen Hawking and James Hartle love to tempt us with theoretically consistent yet entirely unsatisfying interpretations of this question to mean that, since familiar time was created by the Big Bang, there is no period “before” the Big Bang about which to ask questions. They dismiss the question by positing that familiar causality is a product of the continuous, yet inherently indefinite, expansion of all matter and time that occurred as a result of the Big Bang. And that may be, but no one really knows for certain… and no one ever will.
(Okay, you can come back now.)
Therein lies the problem. Here we have a subject of debate centered on a completely unknown and indeterminate solution, and yet, remarkably, those involved present their arguments as though they are resting on an unshakable foundation of irrefutable proof—which is simply not the case. It never will be the case. Both theists and atheists rest their arguments on faith. In truth, the most rational approach is agnosticism.
I CAN SEE YOUR POINT
There are some concessions needing to be made. For one thing, in support of you atheists out there, plenty of people still do not “believe” in evolution. My advice to these people is that if you don’t yet believe in it, you’d be well advised to start doing some reading. Regardless of your personal religious beliefs, a truly informed person will never deny the almost entirely proven findings of modern science… and evolution is a proven natural technique of biology. It is one and the same with DNA and the magnificent biochemistry undergirding the microbiology of the cell. The same goes for the Big Bang—we’ve essentially proven its existence, from the expanding universe to the uniform distribution of microwave background radiation referred to earlier.
But if you’ve got your scientific ducks in a row, you’re free to believe whatever you wish. Everything beyond the Big Bang and elsewhere beyond the eventual reach of science classifies squarely as philosophy. And you’re perfectly justified in nearly any relatively uncomplicated philosophical belief you might hold. Anecdotes, analogies, and ancillary teaching methods like those found in the Bible aside, the belief in a God is unchallengeable on the grounds of empirical argument and logical proof. Now, granted, the more complex your theory, the less likely its accuracy, as suggested by the frequently cited Occam’s Razor (even though this model only suggests the preferred philosophical approach; keep in mind that if Occam’s razor were used to justify the results of the Big Bang if we didn’t already know, it would predict something along the lines of a chaotic nothingness… in other words, its explanatory power is limited in such a wildly complicated context). And that’s something that definitely has to be considered, as many atheists reference invisible unicorns and orbiting teacups as proof of the irrationality of a belief in God.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL HORSE RACE
Philosophy that deals with the origins of the universe and the destination of our souls when we die works a little bit differently from your average purely logical decision, however. The reason why is pretty easy to see if you’ll just agree to go with me for a day at the horse racing track. Take a look at the odds on the screen. The odds on Horse 5 (“Occam’s Racer”) are a scorching 2 to 1, meaning that there’s a very good chance he’ll win. On the other hand, the odds for Horse 3 (“Ex Nihilo Tango”) are something along the lines of 4 to 1, meaning there’s slightly less of a chance that he’ll win. One last horse (“Colt of God”) carries odds of 10 to 1 due to complications.
Now, the rational better would bet on Occam’s Racer thanks to his excellent odds. Logically, he has the best chance of winning. However, I might bet on Ex Nihilo Tango, even in spite of his slightly less favorable odds (4 to 1), in hopes of reaping greater rewards if I am proven correct. Our good friend, that I forgot to mention, who came along with us decides to place a hefty bet on Colt of God, based partially on faith, as well as a tip he received that he personally believes.
In case you haven’t already figured it out, the horses in my analogy represent Atheism, basic Theism, and Christianity, respectively. All of them share different odds, with the odds worsening as the unfounded belief complicates (as mandated by Occam’s Razor). However, depending on your personal philosophy, you might find it more exhilarating and/or worth your while to place your money on a less favored position if you believe the results to be greater should you be proven correct. Christians and most theists believe they will be reserved a spot in Heaven if they submit to a belief in God, and so this promise, along with personally-appraised “evidence” in the form of ancient holy texts and teachings, coalesces to form a belief that they consider to be perfectly justified in spite of its less logical properties.
Would you criticize your friend openly for betting on a horse with less favorable odds?
LET’S SAY YOU STILL DON’T HEAR ME… …I still can offer you help on your mission
Okay, so you’ve read this far, and you’ve actually, honestly considered what I have to say… but you still don’t buy it. That’s fine—your opinion is your own, and it’s one of life’s greatest gifts that we’re able to take ownership of our own beliefs and live our lives in accordance with our closely-held principles. Or maybe you’re just an agnostic, and you’re planning on posting to try and convince others to relinquish their faulty beliefs and join you in your proud agnosticism. That’s fine. But if you’re going on the attack against one side or the other armed with self-righteousness and camouflaged insults, you’re making a mistake.
Imagine that you’re sitting at home, eating a Hot Pocket and watching your favorite television show (Mr. Belvedere), when suddenly, to your horror, you're met with a commercial for motor oil.
"Still using Pennzoil? You're an idiot. Clearly you don't know what you're doing, and you need to examine your position more logically. One of these days you'll relinquish your feeble, irrational approach to automotive care and switch to Valvoline. Valvoline. The choice of intelligent vehicle owners."
Would you rush out and buy Valvoline motor oil after seeing this commercial? I doubt Valvoline would have much success in selling their oil after airing such an unproductive commercial.
It's the same thing with opinions. When you and I engage in an argument, I'm trying to sell my opinion to you. If I attempt to force my opinion on you by insulting your intelligence and suggesting that you're inferior for holding your position, you aren't going to listen to me; you're going to ignore me. Every time I insult you or question your intelligence, you erect a wall between you and me, so that it is ever harder to communicate. As we scream louder and louder to try and compensate for this newly-erected wall, neither one of us can hear the other person for our own wailing and screaming.
This is not an effective discussion… and yet this is the way these discussion usually take place. It doesn’t take a highly intelligent person to express themselves—people do that all the time (just take a look around you). Anyone can voice their opinion. The truly great among us find ways of doing so without isolating those we are speaking to. If we want someone to buy our product, we first have to establish a rapport with them; we must show them that we respect and understand their position.
Stephen R. Covey said it best in his terrific (and terrifically successful) book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit number three is one of the best of them all:
SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD
And this is something that you can do immediately. Look, I’m not good at this either, but I’m trying really, really hard to get better, because it’s one of the most valuable tools you can learn.
When you’re speaking with someone—especially when it’s a touchy subject or you’re trying to convince them to adopt your opinion—first do everything in your power to see things their way. Put yourself in their shoes and adopt the argument as your own. Explore their reasoning and try to understand the causes of their beliefs not through your own lens, but through theirs. Step out of your myopia for just a moment and ask yourself all of the tough questions that will help you to truly understand where the person is coming from.
Restate in your own words what you think they mean. Admit it when you don’t fully follow them, and when you need clarification, ask for it. This flatters people. They will see that you actually are considering what they are telling you, and once you express true comprehension of their opinion, they will open up to yours in ways you could never imagine.
DON’T SEEK TO CONQUER
Philosophical discussion, just like nearly every other form of argument, doesn’t need to be a win-lose interaction. It’s very possible to see things through to a much more mutually satisfying and much more effective win-win outcome, where both parties walk away with a greater respect for each other, as well as each others’ arguments.
JUST THINK ABOUT IT, OKAY?
What do you want? Another useless flame war where you waste hours of your time scrolling down the list and quoting every single post, thinking of the fastest, wittiest, and most pointed response possible in hopes of rallying those who agree with you to “beat down” your opponents into submission… or a pleasant, though-provoking thread filled with civil and intelligent conversations between a number of highly capable human beings? In the former, even if you win, you lose. In the latter, no matter what side of the argument you’re on, as long as you play with an open mind, you win.
Think about it.
~os ]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=29Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:16:13 -080026: The World According to Quantum Mechanics
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=26
Ready to have your mind blown?
So I've recently witnessed a lot of talk about quantum theory, particle physics, and all that good stuff, and I've been a part of a few of those discussions. After a bit of pondering, I decided that such concepts wouldn't be a bad idea for a new Tidbit. Of course, unlike most of my Tidbits, this is pretty heavy stuff, so if you aren't primed to think outside the box at the moment you might want to defer your reading of this post until a later, quieter time. I'm not going to deal with a lot of relativistic theory here... though I might in a future edition. So at least we won't be getting into stuff that confusing.
But if you're ready, let's dive in. In this Tidbit, I will attempt to introduce you to the basic concepts of quantum mechanics, explain what they mean, and extrapolate basic conclusions about our existence from what we know. I'm no expert in this field by any means, but I do a lot of reading on the subject, and I'm hoping that my explanations here will spark a serious interest in people who are prone to debating such confusing matters. Keep in mind that my journey through the subject here is going to be highly selective in order to make the material stomachable. But also keep in mind that everything we're discussing here actually is true. Very little of this is speculation or a product of uncertainty. We're talking about the very world around you in this article--everything you see as you look around from your vantage point sitting in your chair.
So let's start with the basics: what is quantum mechanics? Well, in short, it's the study of things of the very small--atoms, electrons, photons, and the like--in an attempt to make some sense of their erratic behaviors. Until around a century ago, it wasn't clear how anything worked apart from things closer to our scale of existence. In fact, what we see as a smooth and predictable universe, governed clearly by the laws of Newtonian physics, is in fact nothing like that at all. These Newtonian laws, such as calculations of gravity's effects on a ball tossed into the air, apply only in our large-scale world. Once you break things down into the world of particles, it's much more difficult to predict anything (in fact, it's actually impossible, as we'll see later on). The movements and actions of particles seems much more jittery than the smooth-looking stuff we perceive around us.
Anyway, a century ago, some German guy named Max Planck made some discoveries regarding the behavior of oscillating atoms, as well as a number known as Planck's constant, which relates the energy of an electromagnetic wave to its frequency. A little later on, Werner Heisenberg declared a fundamental--and rather startling--principle of quantum theory that shook the scientific world: he found that it is impossible to measure both a particle's velocity and position simultaneously with sufficient accuracy. In fact, the more you know about a particle's speed, the less you know about its location. That means it's just plain impossible to predict anything with accuracy relating to particle physics. Read that again just in case you didn't get the importance of it!
This discovery became known as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and it just so happens to be parodied in my signature. :) This stuff is true of ALL particles... it's just the way things are. If you're curious as to WHY... well, there really isn't a very good explanation... it's just a highly complex, so-called "entangled" quantum system (see later for more on entanglement).
So, you might ask, then why is it possible to measure the path of a ball through the air? Well, as I said before, in our large-scale world, we perceive only the "quantum average" of such events. In other words, we only see the grand scale result, which is always pretty much what we expect it to be here in the "big" world. Think of it like the pixels on a television screen; up close, they appear clearly separate and multicolored. But together, they blend to form a smooth and familiar picture that is interpreted effortlessly by our brains.
Are we having fun yet? Whew--not exactly the type of stuff you would want to talk about at parties.
The next big foundational principle--and this one will blow your mind--is the two slit experiment. Here's how it works. Imagine a wall with two small vertical slits cut into it at equal heights. Now, stand back from that wall and place a machine gun around twenty feet back, aimed at the center of the two slits. Fire it for a few seconds, and then walk behind the two-slit wall and check out the pattern of bullet holes on the wall behind it. Obviously, they're also arranged in a distinct pattern of two vertical lines.
Now, replace the machine gun with an electron gun. Fire off a few hundred electrons, and then check the back wall again. Same pattern, right? Heh, wrong. In fact, not even close. No two lines at all--instead, there's a muddled swelling and fading of vertical waves across the entire wall. How in the world did that happen?
Well, maybe the particles are interfering with one another; you know, bumping into each other as they fly toward and through the slits. That's got to be why. Let's test our theory to make sure. Now, we're going to fire one electron every few seconds, so that way we give them plenty of time to hit the wall on their own before firing off another one that might screw up its path... After a few hours, though, we end up with the exact same pattern. Is blood shooting out of your eyes yet?
The reason this occurs is thanks to a property known as wave-particle duality. Basically, that means that electrons and other very small things have to be thought of as both particles (bullets) and waves (like water). This is exemplified by the stuff you've heard of as "electromagnetic waves," which, by the way, is the same thing as light (it's just a stream of photons).
So, now, let's see which slit each electron travels through. We're going to place a detector (sort of like a camera we could say) by each slit to reveal which path each electron takes. We fire up our electron gun, start up the detectors, and then let it run for a few hours to collect some data for our graphs while we head to Wendy's for a #6 (Biggie-sized with a Fruit Punch to drink).
When we get back, we drop our food on the floor at the sight of not an interference pattern, but instead a uniform distribution along the wall that looks nothing like before. What in the world happened? How is that even possible? It's as though the electrons knew that we were watching them, so they magically decided to stop acting like waves and instead reverted to their usual particle selves.
In conclusion, the ONLY way to think of this problem is to imagine the electrons travelling through BOTH slits at the same time. Every electron goes through BOTH slits--they don't choose one or the other like you would think. This whole concept leads into a massively confusing approach involving probability waves, wavefunctions and their spontaneous collapse, among other completely unnecessary concepts that I'm not even going to go into here.
SO. That's the basics of quantum theory. From these experiments was born the study of such a counterintuitive subject that even Einstein himself hated it. His famous remark, "God does not play dice," was made in response to some of the quantum goings-on at the time. However, now we know that both quantum theory AND Einstein's theories are correct. The problem is, we have no idea how to connect them in harmony. That leads to a constant searching by scientists for a state of theoretical consonance between the two theories referred to as a "unified theory." Such a theory would be the ultimate "theory of everything"--and that is essentially now the primary goal of modern theoretical physics.
As an example of how these theories (and, in fact, reality) are at odds with Einstein's theory of general relativity, let's talk about quantum entanglement. If you ever really wanted to prove to yourself how very little we actually understand about how the world around us works, this is a good place to start. It is essentially a stated law (authored by Einstein) that nothing--and that means, nothing--can move faster than the speed of light. It's a sort of absolute speed limit for all matter and forces in our universe. However, oddly enough, scientists have recently found some disturbing (or interesting, depending on how you look at it) results from their experiments involving photons and prisms. If you split a photon with a special prism to result in two different photons, traveling in opposite directions from one another, they are what is called "entangled." Let's say you then let these photons continue on their opposite paths for millions of years.
Now, they're on opposite ends of the galaxy (or maybe they're even in different galaxies). If you are now to influence one photon's spin (a common property of all particles that determines their nature), the other particle's spin will instantaneously shift as well in the opposite way. This is horribly confounding to particle physicists, seeing as the only way this seems possible is if the communication between them moved faster than the speed of light. Some theories have been proposed that perhaps it is still limited by the speed of light, but instead the message travels through time as well (spacetime is indeed a strange thing... time doesn't actually progress the way we think it does. I'll get into this in a future Tidbit to twist your mind further). But currently, no one really has any idea, and this is something that science is still working on an explanation for.
But uncertainty is what it's all about anyway. Quantum mechanics reveals, according to what is called the Copenhagen interpretation, that it isn't possible to calculate things in our world to predict what's going to happen next. We don't live in a deterministic world, in other words... we live in a probabilistic world. Everything is based on a set of possible outcomes, not a value of solid certainty.
And one truly uncertain thing is whether or not I'll post a second edition to all of this stuff, dealing next time with advanced relativity concepts and how they intermingle with the confusion of our quantum reality. But either way, stay tuned. :)
Thanks to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos for this Tidbit!]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=26Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:40:18 -080024 & 25: The Phonetic Mental Filing System
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=25
not. And once you have learned it, you will begin to file everything in your memory differently and much more effectively. It has the very real potential to change your life.
Introduction and Preparation
Although the Advanced Loci Mnemonic and other memory systems detailed in previous Tidbits are extremely useful, there are three last particularly enticing uses of which the previous memory Tidbits are bereft: 1) Remembering numbers, 2) Being able to recall ordered list items by their number in line, and 3) Constructing an effective mental filing system suitable for daily reuse.
For instance, how many times have you been provided with a phone number that you soon after forgot? Wouldn’t you like to spend around fifteen seconds committing that number to memory and then refrain from worrying about the constant rehearsal leading up to whenever it’s convenient to write that number down? If you learn this system, the first thing you will be able to do is memorize numbers—even outrageously long ones—effectively and fairly easily. Can you imagine how useful this would be during activities where pen and paper are not handy—for instance, while you are driving?
As usual with memory, it’s all about creating a meaningful visualization in your mind that represents the particular number you need to memorize. Numbers are pretty much impossible to commit meaningfully to memory without advanced mnemonic approaches. Luckily for us, an extremely effective system already exists that actually is not that difficult to learn and apply (give it around 20 minutes of rehearsal and then try applying it to numbers around you for a bit of break-in practice).
Framework of The Phonetic Mnemonic
This system is called The Phonetic Mnemonic, and it has been discussed in several fantastic memory books and on various internet websites. It’s an ancient method that has improved over hundreds of years. Here’s the basis of how it works.
The reason it’s called the Phonetic Mnemonic is that it seeks to assign words to numerical values based solely on the phonetic properties of the words. It ignores vowels and most mild consonant sounds, but it focuses on the more distinct English consonant phonetics. The following table is a breakdown of the foundation you will need to familiarize yourself with in order to begin using the Phonetic Mnemonic system. You will find the same table and hints in many different places, as it is essentially public knowledge among mnemonists. Do not let yourself be intimidated by its seemingly complex nature; it’s actually much simpler and can be memorized much more quickly than it appears.
Number / Phonetic Sound / Mnemonic Hint
0 / s, z, soft-c / “z” is the first letter in “zero”
1 / t, d, th / “t” resembles the number “1”
2 / n / “n” has two downstrokes
3 / m / “m” has three downstrokes
4 / r / “fouR”
5 / l / Roman Numeral L = 50
6 / j, soft-g, ch, sh / Rotate “6” to become “g”
7 / k, hard-c, hard-g, q / 7’s pointed shape resembles the letter K
8 / f, v / The cursive letter “f” resembles an “8”
9 / p, b / Rotate or flip letters “p” or “b” to become “9”
Sounds such as “y”, “w”, and “h” have no phonetic association and thus can be used throughout words as an aid for more colorful and varied associative terms.
After just ten minutes of concentrated practice, you should be able to easily commit these ten associations to memory. Begin practicing them afterwards. You may find it helpful to take advantage of the Phonetic practice application this person has posted here (the entire site is helpful, though I disagree with some of his peg words—stick with my documentation here and I think you may find mine slightly more helpful).
Basic Application
Now, once you’ve tested yourself and made absolutely sure that you understand each phonetic association, try converting simple words into numerical form. For instance, here are some examples:
Book = 97 (B = 9, K = 7)
Imagine = 362 (M = 3, soft-G = 6, N = 2)
Railroad = 4541
Egyptian = 6962
Qualitative = 75118
Of course, it isn’t very helpful to convert words to numbers, but the idea is that once you become partially familiarized with this method, you will be able to perform the opposite conversion on the fly. At first, this will take a bit of practice (the conversions will go slower than you probably would like). But once you begin to pin down the process and almost subconsciously produce concrete terms with which to construct mental images, you will find that this system is one of the most useful things you have ever had at your disposal. It will amaze you (and everyone you know as well)!
Let’s take, for instance, three phone numbers that need to be committed to memory. These numbers are randomly chosen, so please don’t blame me if you decide to actually call them. ;-) They are:
1-800-426-6257
1-521-367-9152
1-888-133-5246
Obviously, it would be extremely difficult to memorize all of these numbers via conventional methods without reading through them for at least three or four minutes. But with the phonetic method, all can be committed to memory in less than a minute (with a bit of practice in its use, of course).
Let’s start with the first number: 1-800-426-6257. Quickly converting the number into concrete words, I create: TV (18), Zeus (00), Yarn (42), Judge (66), Nail (25), and Key (7). Quickly visualize each object in your mind as you think of it. Associate one object with the next via the Link system described in previous Tidbit. In other words, here’s how you’d do this one perhaps (you may find a better association for yourself personally—just be sure to colorfully envision this stuff as you read it!): You see a TV. Zeus strikes the TV with a massive bolt of lightning and it explodes into a gigantic ball of Yarn, which covers you and traps you. The giant Judge looks down on you, slams his huge mallet down, and sends hundreds of Nails flying toward you. All of them miss you, but then they turn around, fly above you, and rain down onto you in the form of cold metal keys, clinking and clanking the entire way.
This entire visualization, should you have produced it yourself, might have taken you something like fifteen seconds.
Now, the next number: 1-521-367-9152. My off-the-top-of-my-head picks are: Tail (15), Knot (21), Magic (367), Bat (91), Lion (52). Remember to VISUALIZE. See this happen in your mind. Feel it, and be a part of it. You have a Tail. You watch it tie itself into a Knot, and it hurts extremely badly as you stare at the huge Knot. So, you cast a Magic spell to unravel it, but the tail then turns into a gigantic Bat attached to you. An even larger Lion swiftly appears out of nowhere and rips the Bat to shreds, covering you in blood.
Finally, the last number: 1-888-133-5240. Taffy (18), Fife (88 — a fife is a small flute), Tomb (13), Mole (35), Weiners (240). VISUALIZE. An enormous vat of hot Taffy is poured on you, and you cannot breathe and can hardly move your arms and legs. You manage to pull out your Fife and play a tune that shrinks the taffy into a tiny ball and seals it in a nearby Tomb (which pops up directly between your legs—you can feel the concrete). A Mole emerges from the dirt beneath the tomb and soon after hundreds more moles follow him. The entire mass of moles is then crushed by an enormous rain of Wieners from the sky, which they attempt to eat as they fall (as do you) and eventually explode one by one.
Finally (and optionally), use your Loci method to associate each of the first items in the three lists with a location in your Loci path. For instance, I would associate TV with my front porch (my front porch is a gigantic TV and I am walking on the screen to the door), Tail with my foyer (The walls are squirming and wagging tails), and Taffy with my stairs (the stairs are made of taffy and as I ascend them, it sticks to my feet and makes it impossible to walk).
Did you visualize each of the scenes? Now, recite the phone numbers.
The Mental Filing System
The term mental filing system is often used my mnemonists to describe a dependable system where you have organized your thoughts so that you can quickly and easily retrieve any thought with amazing accuracy. The Loci method falls into this definition, but I use the term more strongly here, because it is the combination of the Loci method and the Phonetic Mnemonic that can truly produce amazing results for you.
Let’s say you wish to memorize the things you need to accomplish on a particular date; a To-Do list in your head, if you will. The absolute easiest way to do this is through the application of the Phonetic System. But not unlike the framework of this mnemonic, it requires considerable practice before it is second-nature. However, it is unbelievably powerful. I have incorporated this system into my everyday life, and after just two weeks of practice (and by “practice,” I mean using it with a “cheat sheet” handy), I was nearly perfect at applying it.
Here’s how it works: You memorize pre-chosen words, called peg words, to associate your daily tasks with. The typical method of organization is to designate ten peg words per day, to allow for easy storage of ten entirely unique tasks or reminders. That means you will need to memorize 70 peg words. But don’t be discouraged—this is not that hard if you break it down to ten per day.
Try it like this: On day one, spend a little time to familiarize yourself with the first ten words on this list. Once you’re done, move on and do the next ten (to get yourself started quickly). This should not take very long—perhaps just a few minutes of recitation will be needed throughout the day at various times. Here is the list of the first seventy suggested peg words (this is my personal list, and it differs slightly from most other lists floating around in that I have chosen at least a dozen different concrete words to use in place of less visualizable ones in other common peg word lists). If you find a word that you believe would be more effective to you personally, feel free to replace the one provided on my list and use your own instead.
Sunday
head
honey
ham
hair
whale
jaw
key
hoof
pie
dice
Monday
dad
tin
thumb
tire
tail
dish
duck
TV
tape
nose
Tuesday
net
onion
gnome
winner
nail
wench
neck
knife
knob
mouse
Wednesday
meadow
moon
mom
hammer
mole
match
hammock
Mafiaf
mop
rose
Thursday
heart
yarn
ram
warrior
railway
roach
rack
roof
rapper
lasso
Friday
lady
lion
lamb
lawyer
lolly
lodge
lake
wolf
lobby
cheese
Saturday
jet
chain
gym
chair
jewel
judge
Sheik (from Zelda)
shave
ship
kiss
Don’t freak out if you can’t memorize this stuff the first time through (the first week). It took me two weeks to get it down, and it may take you three even depending on how much time you commit to familiarizing yourself with the list. Each day, though, memorize the NEXT day’s list of ten words, and put TODAY’s words to use by associating your daily activities with the nouns. Remember the hints in the previous memory Tidbits about how to transform any idea into a concrete noun. Using these hints, produce vivid, effective visualizations representing your to-do activities. You will be amazed at how you can remember everything you ever need to do. It will life ENORMOUS amounts of stress from your shoulders as your mind begins to trust your memory to keep your daily activities in order. Your feeling of disarray or confusion that often results, even if you don’t realize it, will happen much less often!
Try setting a time to sweep your list as well. Maybe you’ll do it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or maybe in-between each and every class. There are plenty of ways to make it work for you, but the important part is to actually use it. I promise all of you that if you master this method, your life will be better forever. You will be come to known as one of the most mentally organized and solid individuals amongst your friends, and people will actually start to come to you for advice or help with situations as they perceive you to be more capable (somehow!) than themselves. It is amazing the amount of respect an organized individual can subconsciously gather.
Hope you enjoyed this massive double-edition of OtherSteve's Tidbits!
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=25Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:28:16 -0700#23: Remember Names and Faces
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=24
By now, you've probably realized the value of detailed visual associations with respect to recall memory. Thanks to the design of our brains, visual memory is much more prominent than verbal memory. The Loci method, which you have seen discussed at length in two separate Tidbits to date, harnesses the power of this advantage of visual memory, along with the immeasurable dependency of locational memory (hence the name Loci... in fact, here's a fun little morsel of info: the phrase "In the first place" was developed thanks to people in ancient times using the Loci mnemonic to aid their recall!).
But how can you apply the basics of mnemonic methods to help you to remember names and faces?
You meet new people all of the time; possibly even several times a day. And if you're anything like the rest of us, you're terrible at "remembering" their names. There are a number of reasons why this problem exists. First, however, you must realize that memory of names and faces is not so much a recognition issue as it is a recall issue. You probably recognize plenty of people whom you cannot place. This is the result of your subconscious recognizing the person but being unable to successfully associate a name with the person's face. Oftentimes, you'll be speaking with someone, you will exchange names, and only a moment later you'll already have "forgotten" the name of the person with whom you are speaking.
The first mistake? Most people don't get the name to begin with. They never got it, so they never actually forgot it. In fact, a huge percentage of people never even really pay attention to the introduction of their conversational partner, mostly because people are so self-important by nature. Research has shown, for instance, that the more self-conscious you are, the worse you are at remembering the names of people you meet. The main reason why is that during the introduction sequence, you are almost entirely focused on what you should say to look good, and when you will get to say your own name. As a result, you never even pay attention to what the other person is saying.
So, needless to say, the first thing you need to do is 1) Pay close attention to the other person as they speak their name to you. Spell it out in your mind. If you have trouble spelling it, ask them how to spell it. If you think you may have misheard the name, ask them to repeat it. Try to say their name again a couple of times during the conversation (people love when you say their name anyway--it's the sweetest sound in the world to them). None of this stuff is rude--it's just extremely helpful to your memory.
But the second problem is that names are verbal in nature, and they're also frequently arbitrary. In other words, it's difficult to associate a concrete image with a name. However, by taking advantage of the keyword mnemonic that you read about in Tidbit #22, you can find a word or person that is closely associated with the name and develop a mental image of the name in your mind. So, the second step is 2) Develop a concrete image in your mind of the name. This could be a phonetic association (Mike = Microphone), an existing mental relationship (Carey = John Kerry), or a homonymic association (Baker = Bread). As you can see, relationships can be made not only with first names, but also with last names--the latter just takes some practice. At least with regard to first names, a mental association of some sort should only take you a matter of seconds. This mental association, once you've got it, if your first visual component to the memory.
Next, you'll have to 3) Find some defining characteristic of the person. This doesn't have to be physical (and, in fact, often it's better if it isn't). For instance, it sometimes helps to do something you are generally told never to do: judge them. For instance, perhaps the person looks like a bully. Your mental picture, then, could be a bully being a jerk to a kid. The reason why you don't want create associations based on mild physical variations is that most people have loads of trouble trying to recreate an accurate description of the person in their mind based solely on their physical deviations. However, if the person is extremely fat or has a huge nose, you might want to take that and run with it. This is the most difficult part of the entire process, but with practice, it's not that hard at all. A good tip would be to go with the first vivid association that comes to you, as this is likely the first thing that you will remember during the recall phase. This mental picture of a defining characteristic is your second visual component to the memory.
Once you've got your two visual components, then all you've got to do is 4) Associate the two visual components into one picture. For instance, a bully and "Baker" might be a jerk beating up on a loaf of bread in an oven. Try to picture the person you are placing as the bully, although you do not have to. Finally, 5) Rehearse this visual association, in detail, in your head every so often for a couple of seconds. It doesn't take long, and it'll eventually become very easy to recall. It helps to rehearse at least once after the conversation has finished as well. Make sure to say the name in your mind as you rehearse the mental image.
Once you've completed this, the next time you meet the person, you will see the mental picture you concocted, and your logical memory will then lead you to recall their name. Even if this doesn't work 100% of the time, your chances of remembering names are exponentially better if you aid your memory in this fashion. And while it takes some practice, believe me when I tell you that it works.
Here's the process once more in summation:
Pay close attention to the other person as they speak their name to you.
Develop a concrete image in your mind of the name.
Find some defining characteristic of the person.
Associate the two visual components (the name image and the image representing the characteristic) into one picture.
Rehearse this visual association.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of OtherSteve's Tidbits!
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=24Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:24:01 -0700#22: More Memory - Advanced Loci Techniques
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=23
do it now, before you read any further.
The Loci method could theoretically work with something like 100 different items, but then you'd have to remember 100 different explicit locations or elements in the locations to effectively apply the method. Actually, however, there's a way you can commit, say, 100 items to memory for every 20 Loci. That would mean that if you memorized 100 locations or elements, you could memorize something like 500 items. Even better, you can extend this memory past simple concrete nouns and objects; you can make it work for nearly anything, from ideas and concepts, to names, and more. Here's how.
The first thing we'll need to talk about is another well-known mnemonic method: The Link/Story system. It's easy, especially if you've already learned the Loci method. Let's say you've got a list of four items: Ball, Doctor, Rose, and Gasoline. Using the Link system, you'd mentally (and visually) associate Ball and Doctor, then Doctor and Rose, and then Rose and Gasoline. That's it. So, using our guidelines from the previous post for effective visualizations (Interaction, Vividness, and Bizarreness), it might go something like this:
Imagine a doctor rolled up into a ball. Then the doctor quickly reverts to normal form while holding a dozen roses and throwing them at you. However, the roses are covered with, and smell like, gasoline, which burns your skin and stings your nasal passages and eyes.
That's the Link Method, coupled a bit with the Story method, which suggests that you link the items logically through a story. It's easy to come up with these wacky ideas, and that makes lists easy to remember in this fashion, although it helps to have a reference point should you forget for some reason one of the associations.
This is where the Loci Method comes in. For the first Loci (say it is your front porch), you might visualize the porch steps as giant balls that are very difficult to walk on, although you try. Then, envision the doctor in the shape of the ball, and perform the Link association with the next three or four items. Next, proceed to your foyer or whatever is next in your personal Loci path. Using this method, you can easily memorize literally hundreds of objects or items. It's absolutely amazing.
But what about concepts, ideas, names, phrases, quotes, or sentences? Anything else can be remembered in this fashion as well by simply using what mnemonists call a keyword association. This keyword is a concrete noun or easy-to-visualize activity or adjective, and it corresponds phonetically to a core of the concept, name, or what have you that you are committing to memory. For instance, if I wanted to memorize a class of students with the Loci/Link hybrid method, I could start at the first row and proceed down it through each student, associating his or her name with a concrete noun or picturable concept. Steve might be steeple, Mike might be microphone, Jerry might be the mouse from Tom & Jerry, etc. Concepts work in a very similar fashion: hunger might be represented by a horrifically skinny person, death might be represented by the grim reaper, Communism might be represented by Karl Marx, and sorrow might be represented by a cold sorerowing a boat. You can easily remember your daily schedule in this manner as well: Going to the dentist would be represented by the visual image of the dentist, while getting your oil changed might be depicted by a spilled barrel of oil. Each of these pictures is then associated with either the element of Loci, or with the next and previous item in the Link list. Honestly, the possibilities are endless, and with a bit of practice, it becomes nearly second-nature.
I use these methods daily. It's unbelievable how much easier this makes my life. I can remember entire grocery lists where the number of items is no object. I can recall things on my to-do list without even having it present. I can even remember food orders when I go out to get stuff for my co-workers or friends by combining this method with a slightly more complex memory method involving numbers. Learn these simple techniques, and you, too, will change your life. People will respect you and be in awe of your memory abilities.
And finally, TEST YOURSELF:
Here is a list of 35 items I want you to commit to memory through the Advanced Loci Method. Try spending around 10 - 15 seconds on each one (that's it)! Remember to VIVIDLY, INTERACTIVELY, or BIZARRELY imagine each of the associations clearly in your mind before moving on. Type the list as a reply to this post so you can share your results to encourage others to try this. If you have trouble getting started, there are a few visualization suggestions below the list to help you get on your feet. So, without further ado:
Christmas Tree
Calculator
Bear
Telephone
Flower
Wine
Bulldozer
Phone Book
Tiger
Computer Mouse
Milk
Basketball
Semi Truck
Radio
Mickey Mouse
Post-It Note
Lawnmower
Stapler
Super Mario
Lunchable
Newspaper
Bread
Paperclips
Birthday Card
Mail
Dog
Bananas
Jet Plane
Black Hole
T-Shirt
Cardboard Box
Ninja
Space Ship
Twinkie
Grass
Here are a few suggestions to get you started if you are having trouble. Don't forget the guidelines to making memorable visualizations:
1) (First LOCI association) Imagine your porch (if that is your first Loci) made of Christmas trees, the tops of which you are walking on. You're trying to avoid stepping on glass, breakable ornaments.
2) (Now onto the LINK associations for the first Loci) Imagine calculators hanging from the Christmas tree. They all work, and they all have different numbers on them, which is weird.
3) Imagine a bear knocking over the tree and eating the calculators on it. He loves the taste of calculators!
4) Imagine the bear's phone cell phone ringing and so he has to stop eating the calculators to take the call.
5) When he answers the phone, however, hundreds of colorful flowers shoot out of it into his ear and his head explodes into a giant mass of beautiful foliage.
After the first five, you'd start on the next Loci association, and so forth. After just seven, you're done. EASY!
Spend a few minutes committing these objects to memory with a well-defined Loci and Link hybrid system. Try using three to five items per loci (I recommend five, it's still very easy). That means you'll only need seven Loci locations to get it to work... and you may be amazed at the results. Feel free to post them here once you finish!
Hope you enjoyed this edition of OtherSteve's Tidbits!
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=23Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:53:16 -0700#21: Memorize the Entire Calendar
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=22
Your Friend: Hmm... that'll be on July 23rd. You: Ah. [Thinking for a few seconds] That's a Sunday. Your Friend: :O
It's actually very easy. Try this fairly widespread mnemonic technique that will allow you to memorize any full year by just committing a single 12-digit number to memory.
First, know your months. The old children's rhyme to help remember which months have how many days is as follows:
30 days has September
April, June, and November
All the rest have 31
Except February, which stands alone
Well, okay, so it isn't much of a rhyme. But it works. As for the 12-digit number, let's try 2006.
The 12-digit number for 2006 is: 155-274-263-153
Commit that to memory; here's what it means: Each digit is the date of the first Sunday in every month of the year. For instance, in January it's the 1st, in March it's the 5th, and in November it's the 5th. Now, whenever someone presents you with a date, you simply refer to this number and count by sevens until you reach the closest Sunday to the target date. Then, just count backward or forward to figure out the correct day of the week. July 23rd, as detailed above, would be processed as follows mentally: July = 7th month = 155-274-263-153; 2 + 7 = 9 + 7 = 16 + 7 = 23. So the 23rd is a Sunday. Or, if the date was the 26th, you'd just count up 24, 25, 26 = Wednesday. Easy!
In the same way, you can also answer questions such as how many Tuesdays are in a month (in July, start at 2 again, then count 3, 4 = Tuesday, then count by sevens, incrementing in your head: 11, 18, 25 -- so four Tuesdays in July). Try this tomorrow at work or school and see if you don't impress your friends! (And by the way, if you enjoyed this Tidbit, don't miss Tidbit #9, The Method of Loci!)
Thanks to various websites and books for this Tidbit.
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=22Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:13:00 -0700#20: Conquer Your Headaches
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=21
NOTE: I know a ton of these Tidbits have been about health recently, but you have to understand that health is one of the only fields where there is a wealth of universally useful knowledge that almost no one knows about! I'll switch subjects a little in the near future, but as for now, enjoy this heavily-requested Tidbit!
I have long suffered from headache pain, sometimes to a debilitating extent. For the longest time, I simply assumed that it was all attributable to my sinus problems (of which I also had plenty). I wrote off the pain and continued with my daily activities, often taking a common analgesic like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) to expedite the recovery process.
But it eventually got worse. Once I started working, my headache pain increased to more intense headaches more often. I was having headaches as often as twice to three times a week, and I was taking the associated pain medications to cure them. I was never anywhere close to being physically addicted to pain medication, but it still didn't feel right having headaches as often as I did. So, I did what I always do when I have a problem: I set out to look for some answers. After some weeks of infrequent research and months of casual reading, I finally developed a solution that worked for me. As a result, I now hardly ever deal with headache pain, and when I do, I don't feel bad about taking the occasional analgesic to fix the problem, since I know it won't be coming back anytime soon.
A headache, put quite simply, is a culmination of pain involving the muscles of the face and neck and/or the meninges (brain membrane). Lots of people have to battle with frequent headaches, and I know firsthand that it's not any fun at all. They occur for any number of reasons, and are rarely associated with underlying medical conditions. The small percentage of headaches that are related to another disease or condition are called secondary headaches.
Chances are, however, that your headaches are primary headaches -- that is, headaches that are standalone in cause and condition and that can be treated symptomatically and preventatively. There are three main types of primary headaches. The first two:
• Migraine Headaches are accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, and throbbing pain, are caused by enlargement of the temporal artery. This artery enlargement is referred to as vasodilation, a phenomenon which is apparently initiated by the nervous system (presumably via a process related to the release of serotonin). In turn, the swelling of this artery puts pressure on the surrounding bundle of nerves, which causes throbbing and unbearable pain on one or both sides of the head. Migraines, however, only occur in approximately 6% of males and 18% of females (and these estimates are likely high).
• Cluster Headaches are typically concentrated around the eye, and they generally recur often for months. These headaches are very rare.
But the third type of headache is particularly interesting, especially if you haven't done a lot of reading on this subject:
• Tension-type Headaches are by far the most common type, with as much as 70% of the population suffering from them on a regular basis according to some studies. These headaches are characterized by constant pain of any intensity on either side of the head, and the pain often continues to the base of the neck and shoulders as well.
If you suffer from headaches on a regular basis, chances are you can attribute the phenomenon to tension-type pain. Tension-type headaches are "myogenic" (muscular) headaches, and they are incited by the tensing and spasming of facial, neck, and jaw muscles. Nearly everyone will have one during their lifetime, and most people will have hundreds. While these headaches are not associated with migraine-like symptoms (nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, etc), they cause plenty of problems, mainly thanks to the fact that they are constant and recurring sources of pain that most people never find the answer to.
But if you're looking for temporary, symptomatic relief, here's a good place to start.
Sit down upright in a chair with your legs uncrossed in front of you.
Focus on the origins of your pain: your neck, shoulders, and the back of your head are likely culprits.
Rest your neck and shoulder muscles by dropping your arms to your sides.
Try applying moderate pressure with three fingers to a spot on your neck, shoulders, and upper back for eight seconds.
Release the pressure and perform a circular massage routine on that spot for another five to ten seconds.
Repeat this process for every sore spot -- or often just the entire surface area -- on your upper back, shoulders, and neck.
Be sure to also treat the hard protrusions in the center of each shoulder blade and the base of the neck.
Once you're finished with this exercise, you'll likely feel blood flowing all throughout your shoulders, upper back, and neck, and as a result, you will feel warm. But you will also notice a significant decrease in the severity of your pain if you are suffering from a tension headache. That's because these muscles you treated are some of the primary muscles involved in tension-type headache pain.
This technique will effectively relieve most tension headache symptoms, but if your headache has become particularly nasty, try a common analgesic. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen work for many people (ibuprofen has been proven stronger), but the most effective medicinal treatments involve combinations of acetaminophen or aspirin with caffeine or diphenhydramine (Benadryl). One particularly effective medicine is Excedrin (just make sure you get the type with acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine). And no matter what you do, don't take more than one dose of these medicines per 24 hours unless you absolutely must. Likewise, don't take headache medicine more than a couple of times a week, lest you may end up with a much more excruciating and persistent type of headache known as a rebound headache.
That's all well and good, but what if you want to prevent your headaches before they start? Well, there's no way to keep them away for good if you're a regular sufferer without completely changing your lifestyle. But there are ways to significantly reduce your encounters with common tension-type headaches. You might be surprised to find what could be leading to your headaches. Here's a list of the most common triggers, many of which applied to me!
Reduce emotional stress. Stress is, believe it or not, one of the single most important ingredient in tension-type headaches. Whether you realize that you are stressed or not, this phenomenon leads to the tightening of facial muscles and clenching/grinding of teeth that can result in severe tension headaches. Whatever you do, try your hardest to cut back on stress in your life. It also helps to read up on some stress reduction tactics that can help you to psychologically cope with stress more effectively. Finally, try putting some plants in your office; plants have been shown to significantly reduce the stress level at work.
Improve your posture. If you sit in a chair, often in front of a computer, for much of the day, your tension headaches are almost certainly developing partially as a result of your unhealthy posture. Make sure your back is resting against the chair or positioned in a firmly vertical fashion as you sit. Do not slump. Try to place your feet on the floor. Don't hold the telephone between your shoulder and ear. You have no idea how much muscular tension is created in your neck, upper back, and shoulders simply thanks to bad posture.
Avoid clenching your teeth. Habitually clenching your teeth is called bruxism. Jaw pain, often a result of bruxism, leads to temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ. It's also a huge component of most people's tension headaches. Even if you don't have TMJ, your temporalis muscle will become sore after you clench your teeth enough, and you will develop a tension headache. This is one of the precise problems that lead to my constant headaches. If you grind your teeth at night (like many people do), eliminating stress from your life can cure you. If you can't seem to kick the habit, something like a Doctor's Nightguard will alleviate the problem and often cure tons of other issues you have been having (other than tension headaches, there's also ear pain, hearing problems, chipped teeth, misaligned teeth, and other stuff).
Try to stay away from chewing gum as much as possible. Chewing gum trains the jaw muscles to clench, often leading to bruxism during sleep. It also deprives the jaw muscles of the rest that often occurs while you swallow when eating (the normal function that chewing contributes to), so it helps to exacerbate muscle tension in your face and jaw.
Likewise, avoid biting your nails. Again, this can lead to problems with jaw pain.
Stay hydrated. Make sure you drink tons of water, even if it means more frequent trips to the bathroom. Most people have no idea how many problems you can prevent simply by not depriving your body of water. You should shoot for 8 glasses of water per day (yes, that's a lot)! Here's why: depriving your muscles of water leads to increased spasmodic activity. Dehydration also prevents the effective absorption of oxygen into your blood. By the time you first start to feel thirsty, you are significantly less hydrated than you should be.
Consciously focus on relaxing your facial muscles. During the day, try not to tense your forehead, jaw, or neck, and avoid squinting your eyes as much as possible. Deliberately relaxing your facial and neck muscles during the day can be a huge help to eliminating tension headache occurences.
Try cleaning your air. At work, I've got a few co-workers who like to smoke on a fairly regular basis. This pollutes the air and can cause all sorts of problems. A lack of oxygen intake can lead to increased incidence of tension headaches. Eventually, after some discussion, we purchased an air filter and ionizer for my office; this quiet device not only helps to remove the tobacco smoke from the air, but it also improves breathing and oxygen intake and cleans the air through HEPA, carbon, UV, and ionizing techniques.
Take a Break. Ward off or even relieve tension headaches in less than three minutes with the simple stretches below. Enjoy a brief break from your activities every couple of hours as you do them.
Coat Hanger: While sitting or standing, inhale and squeeze your shoulders up toward your ears. Then exhale and drop your shoulders as low as possible.
Rag Doll: Sit tall and let your head and neck hang forward without forcing your chin toward your chest. Take three deep breaths, allowing your head and neck to hang a bit lower with each breath.
Eye Can See: To relieve computer eye fatigue, look at an object in the distance, noticing as much detail as possible. Then close your eyes and visualize the object in full detail. Repeat at least once.
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=21Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:10:00 -0800#19: Think Twice Before Taking Your Vitamins
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=20
the most informative newspaper on the planet.
Vitamins -- we all know that we need them. After all, how many reputable breakfast cereals are tagged with the claim "A healthy source of vitamins and minerals?" Well, regardless of what you might have deduced from the title of this thread, vitamins are not bad for you. They're just not something you should be going out of your way to load up your system with.
"Vitamin" means "vital anime" (not to be confused with "amino acid"). According to Howstuffworks.com, here's an explanation of just what that means: "Vitamins are organic (carbon containing) molecules that mainly function as catalysts for reactions within the body. A catalyst is a substance that allows a chemical reaction to occur using less energy and less time than it would take under normal conditions. If these catalysts are missing, as in a vitamin deficiency, normal body functions can break down and make a person susceptible to disease." The unique thing about vitamins is that they are not able to be manufactured by the body (unlike other necessary chemicals), so it's crucial that you maintain a usable level of these organic compounds, lest you deprive your body of some necessary tools for its health and survival.
This concept has been the cornerstone of a huge marketing campaign based around the necessity of good vitamin levels in the body. Adults take Centrum, some load up on Vitamin C to prevent themselves from getting sick (or so they think), and kids take Flinstones vitamins. However, what is not communicated is that most of us obtain a perfectly reasonable level of vitamins simply thanks to our daily diets. Of course, if all you're eating is potato chips all day long, you aren't getting everything you need. But the answer is not in pills -- studies have shown that taking vitamin pills is nowhere near as effective, or healthy, as getting them naturally along with flavanols, polyphenols, and other important minerals that work in a balance to keep your body healthy. In fact, according to today's Wall Street Journal, the murky research that is out there surrounding supplemental vitamin intake actually looks pretty bleak.
Let's take antioxidants for instance. Most of us have heard all about these, but in case you haven't, here's a rundown. If you've read my Tidbit about Cancer, you know that cell DNA damage that goes unrepaired is what leads to serious medical conditions such as autoimmune disorders, Alzheimer's, and cancer. This DNA damage is a result of what are referred to as "free radicals;" in other words, wreckless, rapidly-moving molecules that are produced both naturally by your body and by insultants like UV rays from the sun and cigarette smoke. We know that antioxidants nullify free radicals (they prevent oxidation, which is the process that damages your DNA). So, then, it follows that you should be taking antioxidants to help prevent these dangerous molecules from damaging your genes, right? Not necessarily -- not only has research pretty much concluded that antioxidants are entirely worthless (The Wall Street Journal says "The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences -- the top U.S. authority for nutritional recommendations -- has concluded that taking antioxidant supplements serves no purpose"), but in fact, it is theorized that they actually make these conditions worse.
The logic is that your body naturally responds to free radicals by fighting them, but at the same time, these free radicals serve as important indicators to your immune system that repair of DNA damage is needed. Intuitively, if you provide other means for free radical disposal, such as by loading up your body with antioxidants, your immune system may not receive the necessary signals to initiate a repair or cleanup process. Thus, the damage goes unrepaired, and you've basically just done just the opposite of what you wanted to do by taking the antioxidants in the first place.
Other problems surrounding the use of vitamin supplements has surfaced as well. The WSJ article describes them in detail, but the gist of most of them is that taking pretty much anything as a supplement when you've already got a preexisting condition is potentially dangerous. Vitamin C, for instance, has been shown to strengthen cancer cells and promote tumor growth, primarily because cancer cells ingest it more rapidly than surrounding non-malignant tissue. It follows that there is also a higher chance that the tumor cells will then become resistant to chemotherapy (intravenous chemical treatment for cancer). Vitamin C can apparently be pretty dangerous, especially in high doses -- regardless of what you have been told! No vitamins have ever been shown to be hugely beneficial in any way when taken in supplemental forms. In fact, most scientists believe that it is merely the balance of vitamins and other crucial elements in your body that lead to good health.
But the biggest thing to remember is that none of these studies are conclusive in the big picture. In other words, while we know that antioxidants probably aren't worth taking, we don't know for certain whether or not they do more harm than good. Same with Vitamin C, since while it hasn't shown to prevent colds among normal humans, those who are under intense training or extremely stressful situations actually do benefit from it (at least in terms of immune response). Perhaps the best advice that anyone could take from all of this convoluted information is this:
• Natural sources of vitamins and minerals are always healthier than synthetic ones, the latter of which can actually be harmful to you. Apples and oranges >>> bottled vitamins.
• Taking anything in excess is bad for you (or so it seems, based on all the biology and health I have read over the years), so the best advice for pretty much any situation is to indulge in moderation. There aren't very many beneficial phenomena that are still extremely beneficial in high indulgence. Don't forget that!
That, my friends, is the only conclusive evidence that we have about pretty much anything related to personal health. Remember that these companies shoving vitamins and synthetically enhanced foods down your throat are simply there to make money; just like any other company on the planet, they have an Income Statement and stockholders to please first and foremost.
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=20Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:02:00 -0800#18: Popping Your Knuckles
http://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=19
In fact, this isn't something that has had a lot of scientific research devoted to it. Most specialists who have looked into the situation, however, agree on one of a few theories as to what makes this phenomenon work to begin with. The most commonly accepted explanation is the same general idea behind chiropractic manipulation; that is, gas trapped inside the joints is released when you create an opening through which it can escape.
Luckily for you, knuckle-poppers, the most prominent study surrounding the risks of the activity (performed by Castellanos J. and Axelrod D.), which simply involved asking 300 nursing home patients about their habits and then associating those responses with incidents of arthritis, found that knuckle-popping does not lead to greater risk of arthritis. Unluckily for you, though, the study also found that it does increase the presence of joint swelling and impaired hand function.
In other words, while knuckle-popping won't lead to arthritis, there's no way it's actually good for you. That said, I do it still (and have been for my entire life), so I'm going to try and stop!
Thanks to Castellanos and Axelrod's Study and Wikipedia.
~os]]>tidbitshttp://www.othersteve.com/index.php?itemid=19Mon, 13 Mar 2006 18:57:00 -0800
