Memory, Flour Dust, Soya in bread

Memory

We remember pictures far better than we remember things we read so it's more effective to produce information in pictures than in words. The brain has to convert the words to meanings and the meanings to pictures in order for us to remember them. I have a great deal of trouble remembering formulae so when I think of Pythagoras' Theorem, I see a triangle and I think of the two shorter sides coming together to give the longer side. The only word involved it "squaring" and I don't think of that as an image of a square, just squaring and then arrows bringing the sides together.

Similarly, to remember how to calculate sine, cosine and tan of an angle in a right angled triangle I have a visual relationship of the sides. Cosine is like a snapping jaw where the angle is between the jaws, sine is that side way over there (opposite) divided by the longest side (hypotenuse), and tangent is that side over there divided by this close one here. At some point, I tried to learn SOH CAH TOA but I can't work out the letters so to type that I had to think what sides were involved so I knew which letters they were. I do however remember that tan = sin/cos and sin/cos looks right but cos/sin doesn't.

Flour Dust

Flour dust is combustable and a spark can ignite it. Trucks carrying flour have to be earthed to prevent static build up and thus explosions in the confined environment. A truck load of flour (twenty-eight tonnes) will produce about sixty thousand loaves of bread!

Soya in Bread

Soya is added to bread to make it whiter.

Nepal, Tunisian Crochet

Nepal Earthquake

I was classifying damage in Nepal today at the Tomnod site. I've seen pictures and new reports and read what has happened to people but seeing the before and after pictures and actively doing something brought the reality of it crashing home to me. By taking part in clicking on damaged buildings, seeing rubble where once a house stood, tents where people have now found shelter, it ceased to be something distant and incomprehensible. What I learnt is that the simple act of clicking images makes me involved, makes it part of my life, makes it real.

Tunisian Crochet

I've continued with the series of videos mentioned in an earlier post and learnt the twisted purl and honeycomb stitches.

Every Sperm is Sacred, Marriage and the Church, Internal Personas

Every Sperm is Sacred

I've always thought the Monty Python sketch "Every Sperm is Sacred" was taking things too far. That was until I watched a BBC series about Sex and the Church and it makes sense why things have developed as they have. In Old Testament times, the Jews needed to increase their population. They also believed that the whole child was contained within the sperm, and that the woman only provided an incubator. No wonder they didn't want to waste those potential children!

Marriage and the Church

For the first thousand years of the Church, marriage was purely a civic concern and the Church kept away from it. When the first marriages were conducted by the Church, they were conducted in the porch of the Church and only after the couple were married did they move inside. This wasn't very practical and eventually it was moved inside.

Internal Personas

We all have multiple internal personas which are the way we see ourselves in different situations. We try to be consistent according to these personas. If we don't see ourselves in a particular way, then we won't do something. However, we may do small things which are only slightly outside our persona. When we do these small things we adjust our persona to stay consistent. This means that something that we previously would not have done because it was not consistent with our persona then becomes consistent with it. I guess that's why small steps work in moving us from one habit or behaviour to another.