In case you missed it on the breadpig blog; this fantastic artwork is from the mind and cursor of Hadley (licenseplate on reddit). We've got a full-page ad running in this issue of Hacker Monthly. Thanks again to the fine folks over there who made breadpig a deal we couldn't refuse!
“I totally believe that you are a different person for having read that book,” Wolf replied. “I say that as a neuroscientist and an old literature major.”
She went on to describe how reading creates pathways in the brain, strengthening different mental processes. Then she talked about content.
“There is a difference,” she said, “between immediate recall of facts and an ability to recall a gestalt of knowledge. We can’t retrieve the specifics, but to adapt a phrase of William James’s, there is a wraith of memory. The information you get from a book is stored in networks. We have an extraordinary capacity for storage, and much more is there than you realize. It is in some way working on you even though you aren’t thinking about it.”
Did this mean that it hadn’t been a waste of time to read all those books, even if I seemingly couldn’t remember what was in them?
“It’s there,” Wolf said. “You are the sum of it all.”
I can't help but also feel like my Kindle-reading only exacerbates this.
There's something to be said for humility (or setting expectations really low). Not surprisingly, this was found on reddit.
Oh, Hong Kong, you rock...
Hong Kong still passes!
Only 20 light years away! Hmpf. Well, I'm still happy about potentially having a new, habitable planet to ruin.
And I was actually heading to sleep...
As maker of these LOLmagnetz, I can honestly say I've never seen anything this awesome produced with them. Marvelous!
