Some interesting articles

In place of a lengthy essay/exposition/diatribe/rant, today I'm just going to post a few links to interesting articles on various topics that I've come across in the last few months.

Just the other day, the NY Times published a series of articles about the effect daily use of computers is having on people under the title "Your Brian on Computers". Here is one of them: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?ref=garden Thankfully I think I can say I'm not nearly as bad off as some people in this respect, since while I use the computer much of the time both at home and at work, I only use desktop computers (though that may change in the near future, as I have considered getting something portable) and so I don't use computers at all when I am commuting or really anywhere other than my study or my desk at work.

One interesting feature that this article links to is a pair of tests on your ability to filter out distractions and your ability to switch between tasks. The first of these was rather reassuring, as I've begun to wonder if my memory is not what it used to be when I was young and it seemed that I could remember almost everything. It probably really isn't what it was in certain respects, but at least judging by this test my short-term memory is doing okay, as I was able to get every test right, which is apparently much better than average (the main point as far as the article is concerned is that multitaskers did much more poorly on this test than non-multitaskers, but I did better than either).

The second test I didn't do as well on. I actually took this one twice, as I didn't think I was really concentrating the first time (it was late afternoon at the office, and I was a bit tired), but even the second time my answers were slower than average. I did get all of them right, and interestingly I showed no significant delay because of switching between tasks, so in this sense I did better than both groups the study focused on. In other words, I took extra time on each test, but I took the same amount even if I was switching between the two tasks. In a way, this result wasn't that surprising either. I am often accused of overthinking things, and while in most respects I might argue that you can't think too much, I wouldn't deny that there is some truth to it. And even when I was young and was outscoring nearly all of my classmates on standardized tests, my one weakness was that on tests that required computation I would sometimes take too much time thinking about my answers and run out of time to finish (though I'd still usually outscore most other people); I had the same problem with the GRE math tests, on which I scored quite well, but fell short of perfect scores because I was too slow. So at least frequent use of computers doesn't seem to have fried my brains yet.

For some articles on completely different topics, here are a few on politics from several months ago on Newsweek. "We the Problem" by Evan Thomas (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/02/25/we-the-problem.html) makes a lot of good points. At some point I may write something related on the illogical self-centered thinking of those who want the government to eliminate the deficit without raising taxes (especially their taxes), cutting benefits (or at least benefits they get or expect to get), or cutting anything they personally think is important (e.g., defense spending). Another one is on a topic I've commented on before, the current Supreme Court majority's efforts to make elections safe for corporate oligarchy (yes, I swiped that from the Onion's "historic" headline on Woodrow Wilson): http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/22/high-court-hypocrisy.html. This one has been made even more relevant by the court's recent decision throwing out Arizona's state public funding system for elections. And then there's "Know Your Conspiracies", an overview of some of the loony things some people in the US (particularly on the right) believe: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/02/11/know-your-conspiracies.html

In addition to the above, there was also an excellent article on another topic that I've touched on before, namely the tendency for our views of history to get somewhat altered (or distorted) with time, and the difficulty of using historical analogies for current events. The article was entitled "The Mythology of Munich" and it reassesses the historical facts of the Munich agreement between Britain and France on one side and Hitler on the other, as well as explaining (as indeed should be obvious) that Hitler was a complete different order of threat to Europe and the world than Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or most other later leaders who have inspired some to raise the specter of Munich in calling for forceful action. Unfortunately the article, while referenced all over, seems to have vanished from Newsweek's website.

Finally, there is an article critical of Barack Obama's penchant for compromise entitled "Obama and the Curse of Moderation" from Al-Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/2010518111649460720.html . While I don't agree with all the writer's points, as I think that some amount of compromise is often necessary, including in many of the areas Obama has had to deal with (particularly as in a few cases the radical solution has major flaws), I do agree that Obama has often gone too far toward the middle. On some issues, at least, I also think that Obama would be better off taking a firm, even radical, stance and sticking with it (in some ways, this harks back to the above-mentioned Newsweek article "We the Problem").

While there are one or two other articles I've seen recently that I may want to comment on later, the above will do for a start. Until next time....