Memory Tricks

It's been awhile since I posted to this blog, but I saw a nice simple little list of memory tricks and techniques to remember ordinary tasks and names over at Care2 . I have to admit that I found the second tip, for remembering someone's name rather funny in the reading. If you used it too much, you might remember the name, but the person would very likely think you were crazy... 

"Paradigms of Human Memory" -"Community"

I found this piece up on Slate a few days ago, and thought it fit into the theme of this blog rather well. I've enjoyed NBC's "Community" for awhile now. It's a cleverer show than some shows that style themselves as clever, and I think actually sometimes the things they are doing with it are a bit over my head, even though the show is pretty entertaining even for lightweights like me.

I had actually watched this 'highlights reel' of an episode when it originally aired, but decided to take a cue from the article to watch it again before reading it, since it aired that night. Again, I missed a lot. Not missing a lot would probably entail being obsessively involved with the show, which I'm not, so I don't feel too bad about it. Anyway, you can probably find the way to watch the show somewhere if the article intrigues you, although I would really probably watch the show first and then read the article.

The Google Effect?

I found this little piece on Slate the other day, suggesting that the way our memory is structured based on our ability to access information on the internet. Basically, we try harder to remember if we don't think we can find the info again all that easily, and tend to remember where over what if we think we will have to dig up the information again.

Frankly, this hardly seems like rocket science. I've long been an expert in the lazy art of getting by, and so don't think this is an entirely new development. Having just taken an 'open book' test for an online class, rest assured that those days are not entirely behind me.

Do, if  you get the chance, watch the videos of the charming Betsy Sparrow which I link to below:

http://youtu.be/ihgXRWaIlVE

http://youtu.be/7R2jE7VAzC8

I tried to just embed the video, but Google is messing with me. Apparently dissing Google even in a mild way is not advised...

A mnemonic puzzler from Narrative Magazine

Yes, folks, if you have a tricky technique for memorizing something, you can enter the competition HERE.

Fukushima, June 2011 and other nuclear reminders

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Joshua Foer on Memory--Five Books

I have to admit that of the various blogs I have somehow found myself writing, this is the one I'm most often dubious about continuing. The other ones seem to have fairly straightforward prompts for posts, but this one I often let lag. I'm not entirely sure of what I mean its focus to be, other than memory and the lack of it. However, just when I think maybe I'll let it slide or merge it into something else, something seizes my attention and I think I'll go forward.

Yesterday, The Browser sent an email about its Five Books segment, and one of them was an interview with Joshua Foer who was the author of the very popular Moonwalking With Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything. (One of the funny things about selling the book has been that more than one person has come up and said, do you have that new book that has something to do with Einstein? I can't remember the title.) Foer was the 2006 USA Memory Champion, and though I don't know exactly how he came to get the title, he does certainly seem to be a good person to ask about what five books to read on memory. His interview is   here.

One thing that somewhat surprised me was his strong emphasis on books which deal with mnemonic devices--"memory palaces" and the like. I have to admit that when I'm thinking about memory, I'm more thinking about associations to the past, and how things come to our collective awareness and then recede again. I don't think so much about rote learning and tricks for remembering. Perhaps I should...

Another interesting thing was his comment that we have a long history of devices that remember for us, the alphabet being an early one.

An odd note for me is that Giordano Bruno was a memory palace kind of guy. Lately, Bruno of Nolan has been popping  up everywhere. First in Finnegans Wake--repeatedly--then in the mystery novel, Heresy by S.J. Parris, which I'll be finishing shortly and now here. Well, he always was a shadowy, slippery individual.

The World Memory Project

This is pretty cool. Ancestry.Com and the United Holocaust Museum have joined forces to put 170 million documents on line "detailing the experiences of individual victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution during World War II." In the end anyone will be able to search this archive on line for free. Now this venture is asking for your help--anyone who's willing to put in some time can help put these documents on line. Check it out Here.