Archive for April, 2007

Internet Causes Amnesia?

Thursday, April 19th, 2007
William James:
Our memory is always used in the service of some interest; we remember things which we care for or which are associated with things we care for. When we wish to fix a new thing our conscious effort should not be so much to impress and retain it as to connect it with something already there. The connecting is thinking. I would say that the art of remembering is the art of thinking.

The human brain is a very powerful and adaptive system. A curious example of the brain’s ability to adapt is our bad visual memory. As you all know it is quite difficult to hold a mental picture in mind of what you have just seen. The reason for that is simple, it is not necessary for the brain to memorize the image while you can actually see that image with your eyes. In a sense, the brain uses sight as the external memory, so it adapted to not spend effort on memorizing what it is seeing.

Student:
Professor, may I ask a question?

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Electric Emoticon Announcement

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
UNESCO Spokesman:
Ladies and Gentlemen.

The seriousness of environmental issues on the planet is recognized globally. Many countries and institutions have tackled these problems through various projects; however, the global trend of environmental degradation is still continuing. Humanity is still burning millions of barrels of oil every day, and still emits millions of tons of pollution into the air.

Today, every effort to end the oil age and switch to the clean, environmentally friendly alternatives should be publicly recognized, emphasized, and supported. As part of the international environmental movement, today UNESCO officially announces an ASCII art sequence representing the electricity or electrical nature of something. The ASCII sequence consists of two characters, plus and minus, enclosed in square brackets.
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Extreme Internet Surfing

Monday, April 2nd, 2007
BitnikB:
Hi, Gal! Tsup?
Gal909090:
Hi, Bit. Haven’t seen you for a while.
BitnikB:
Got into an awful accident, just recovered.
Gal909090:
Did you get under the “under construction” sign again?

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