I'm guessing this is BS. This is the key graph:
The subjects were significantly more likely to remember information if they thought they would not be able to find it later. "Participants did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statement they had read," the authors write.
Later on, the trick was to remember the relevant index: to be able to make a long arm and reach for references. That was scholarship. Now we remember tricks that improve our google-fu and where we've stuck a site in our bookmarks. That is the knowledge economy. It seems to me that this is progress.
I can't remember why I stopped commenting here.
1: It does sort of sound like Plato's complaint about writing. Can't now remember from what book and I'm too lazy to look right now.
I do generally wonder whether internet use has shortened by attention span.
OT: I had a bad cold that had be in bed on Sunday and Monday morning. Went into work Monday afternoon. Got some acupuncture Tuesday evening. Felt fine on Wednesday until my voice started going. Yesterday, bad voice, coughing and I looked flush, so I went home. Now my ear is starting to hurt.
Before I take a trip to the urgent care center, is there anything I can do for the damn ear? I took some pseudophedrine (perhaps unwisely) because my nsoe was getting congested. I don't want to take antibiotics--since they'd be useless if I have a viral infection. I read about garlic oil, but I don't have any made up.
On the veldt, people memorised epic poems and songs which told them who their ancestors were and what to do when the volcano erupted.
"I sing of arms and a mammoth"
Drip warm olive oil into your ear (at least this is how my mother always treated my earaches when I was a kid). Worked more often than not. Ideally get someone to do the drippping for you, so you can lie on your side and let it soak in.
Huh, so effort to remember affects memory. Exciting. Also, people sometimes remember where they put things better than they remember the details of what they put there. It's like knowing which information is contained in which book! Even more exciting! Oh internet, why must you change everything?
I do generally wonder whether internet use has shortened my attention span.
OT: I had a bad cold
OK, that was funny.
Seriously: antibiotics might help if you have a post-viral opportunistic bacterial infection, so don't rule them out. Alternatively, the symptoms may be the result of demonic influence, and you should try praying.
jersurgislac! I think it was because we were a bag of sexist dicks or something? but we're all better now, so, no worries.
bostoniangirl: you should prolly go to the doctor. pseudoephedrine was not a bad idea since it can help dry up blocked places in your sinuses. but if your ear hurts really badly then, have someone look at it. even though most ear infections in children are viral and pointlessly treated with antibiotics, you might have a secondary bacterial infection as noted above. lots of low grade fever?
10.1: gee, I thought it was because she was a horrible troll. Funny how the mind plays tricks on you.
No no, I stopped commenting here because I was too mean to bob. I'm sure you're mistaken.
11 cont'd: although it's certainly possible apo is a bag of sexist dicks. OR IS IT SEXIEST?
I used to stop commenting here. I still do, but I used to, too.
I never remember if I've stopped commenting here or not because I know I can always found out the answer on the internet.
15: Do you stop commenting here sitting down or standing up?
even though most ear infections in children are viral and pointlessly treated with antibiotics
I couldn't remember whether this was true or not, so I checked the Internet, which reminded me:
In one of every four cases in children, ear infection is not caused by a bacterial infection but by a viral infection.
No word on the role of the placebo effect in these findings.
I had fever on Sunday before the pain. I took some tylenol last night and this morning. but I did feel a bit warm. I don't have a fever now.
Going to my doctor's practice requires an 80 minute ride by public transportation (and I don't want to get out of bed for that). I could probably get an appointment with an NP or a resident. My BF wants to take me to an urgent care center, which will have a much higher co-pay, but is in an area where he can drive and they do labs quickly. I think that that's as much because he wants an excuse to leave work and get away from his boss.
So, who wrote that article?
Prevention of adult ear infection is simple. Nasal spray flushes out bacteria and pollutants which could cause build up and infection. Even allergens can be washed out. The important element necessary in effective nasal spray is xylitol, which naturally repels bacteria before it has a chance to settle into the nasal tissue.
Wasn't there a whole piece about people writing ehow and ezinearticles to get google hits? How reliable can they be?
Am I supposed to start chewing Trident?
I think you should start eschewing Trident.
As it's loosely related to the OP, John Cole quoting Das Bild:
The political climate in the US has been poisoned to a degree that is hard for us (Germans) to imagine.
only one in four? I guess I feel less bad about all those antibiotics for my children.
The political climate in the US has been poisoned to a degree that is hard for us (Germans) to imagine.
I like this as the start of a contest.
"US irresponsibility over its government debt has reached a level that is hard for us to understand" - Kathimerini
24: Is your aim to drive all of us American psych patients to suicide?
"A shocking disregard for the environment." -Te Rapa Nui
"Why can't they just stop mucking up the Middle East?" - Jerusalem Post
"The level of corruption in the US government is almost unimaginable" - Dawn
"Fox News has way too much influence on the US right wing" - The Times
"US media is vulgar in ways that it is hard for us Brits to understand" - The Sun
"Murdoch has more power than it is healthy for any media magnate to have" - Il Giornale
"The US public - and the US government - are far too deferential towards their country's military" - Cumhuriyet
"Half of you lot are just posting ridiculous and contentious comments in the hope of stirring up an argument" - dsquared
"Tabloid Publishes from Beyond the Grave!" - Weekly World News
"Inflammatory media are controllable with a Vioxx regimen"- Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine
Jesurgislac!
I've just read this thread -- sorry, I realize Jes commented yesterday.
OT whine/intense annoyance, which I put here because it's a short thread: Deer appear to have discovered the garden. There were three almost-ripe tomatoes there this morning, and this evening the (flimsy, true) 4-foot-high chicken wire fence is smashed down and the two remaining tomatoes are half-eaten, the yellow squash shows a clear path of entry, some of the leaves are half-eaten, and the couple of infant squashes are gone. (This bothers me less.)
Fuckers. Fellow beings. I must figure out how to dissuade them, because there are at least a dozen green tomatoes ready to ripen in the next week or so.
4: Plato's complaint about writing. Can't now remember from what book
The Phaedrus.
35.last: A stronger, taller fence is probably best. There are various repellents but I've never tried them.
37: Yeah, in my narrow window of opportunity this evening before nightfall and after watering, I did some fence strengthening. Threaded some tall thin tomato stakes down through the holes in the chicken wire to make it stand up straight again; a couple threaded through cross-wise to make a hatch-work. Maybe I should have done diagonal, actually.
They went in through the 'gate' of chicken wire that's just about 3 or 4 feet wide, so I strengthened that section, and it functions more like an actual gate. Half an hour later, it still stands! But this is not going to stop them.
It may come to a close watch on just when they choose to come in (overnight? apparently not, as yet, versus daytime) and harvesting the tomatoes before they do. That's until more robust fence measures can be taken.
Maybe leaving a (cheap) flashlight out all night, just for tonight? Hanging from the fence so it moves if the deer hit the fence. I haven't heard of anybody doing that, but it might make them too nervous to go in tonight. In the long run it will just waste batteries, of course.
I don't think that's necessary: they didn't venture in until there were actually ripe tomatoes, and there have been green tomatoes like the size of my fist for almost a week now. They came in once those ripened. I mean, yeah, they might be interested in investigating now that they know, but they'd left those ripe tomatoes overnight last night. And they don't seem interested in the green ones -- left those alone.
I don't know. We'll see what my makeshift arrangement might do at least as of the morning. There are some other barrier types of things I can do. It actually takes an intrepid deer to go up to the garden: they have to walk along a narrow path along the back of the house and up some steps to get to the upper yard where the garden is.
Sorry to carry on, but I've had my thinking cap on.
Other than a fence, netting, or things that would be outright illegal (punji sticks, spring traps, etc.), I very much doubt that anything you can do will be any kind of a barrier to a deer.
Also, Moby, my basil has been totally trashed by bugs of some kind. It's the first time I recall that happening.
A quick thing you could try is stretching some low-ish wire across whatever path they come by. A temporary measure at best, it reputedly works because they do not see it and get spooked when they hit it. Never tried it, however.
Maybe pee in the garden as well.
If you spook the deer, they will pee in your garden.
Is there any rule of thumb for watering? (I know, it depends on the plant.) I'm taking care of some plants for a few weeks and when I asked the landlady how much to water - distinct from the schedule of how many days per week for which plants - she said just to do what I thought was enough. But I've never taken care of plants, so I have no thoughts on what's enough.
I suppose I could search the internet.
42: I've got indoor basil for back-up, but I don't think the outdoor basil will get me a single good leaf. Same with the flat parsley.
41: We had a garden in that location for a number of years (with a lapse for maybe 3 years when we relied on the now-defunct CSA), and had no deer problem. So I'm consternated.
My housemate worked on the construction of deer fencing for the CSA before it died, so we can do that if necessary, but he's out of town for a couple of weeks now -- at the All Good festival. Having a terrific time, and I'm in charge here! D'oh.
On preview: A quick thing you could try is stretching some low-ish wire across whatever path they come by.
Yeah, that was my thought: how to set up a barrier across the opening path. Only a couple of feet wide, fairly narrow really, and you have to know (if you're a deer) you're in human territory there, walking right along the side of the house for heaven's sake to get up to that succulent! garden.
My new neighbors are growing tomatoes in pots. They seem nice so I'm wondering if I should tell them that raccoons ate the tomatoes that last guy planted.
45: It depends on the plant, fa.
Mostly there's a difference between succulents (like aloe and cactus and jade plants) and leafy plants. The leafy ones need more watering. Generally speaking you can get away with every, I dunno, 3 or 4 days or so. The leafy ones are incredibly responsive to watering or not watering: they can get a bit droopy, you water them, they pick up and are all happy the next day! With them you'd want to pay attention to the droopiness and learn the schedule from them. Ideally you want to water them before they droop, obviously.
Succulents are probably fine if you don't water them -- and then only sparingly -- once a week if that.
Ferns are a little harder in my experience.
Oh, and if they're flowering plants, i.e. flowers, you're on your own. As far as I can tell, those things need to be watered practically every day, which I think is ridiculous.
They're basically all leafy. And as I say, I know the frequency. Just not the amount. You can water every other day and still water too little or too much. I was hoping to get some advice like soak these, those don't need much water each time, etc.
If you water everyday, you can't easily underwater so use less. If you water every three days, just stop when the water starts to come out the bottom of the pot.
51: Hm. That depends on how much drainage there is in the pot with its under-dish. These leafy plants are in pots with holes in the bottom and an under-dish to capture any run-off?
Generally you don't want to soak leafy plants. They should have an under-dish and you give them enough until the water just barely runs into the under-dish. If you give them too much water (soak them) the under-dish is filled up, and they can develop mold from the bottom. You don't want to do that.
If you're watering every other day, I'd go for more sparing, keep an eye on the sprightliness of the leaves, and try to avoid letting the under-dish become filled up.
I have no idea if this is helpful.
On preview: what Moby said.
Now that's a rule of thumb. She said outright that she didn't care if the plants that should be watered every day die, which is kind of strange, as they get watered every day. There's a flowerbed that she was blase about too. But the every other day plants seemed important. Fortunately, I have names for some of those and can look them up, I guess.
Also, what's the deal with picking basil to prevent it from flowering?
I should write a book about my plant knowledge: The Botany of Indifference.
Also, what's the deal with picking basil to prevent it from flowering?
It's not picking basil, it's pinching it back. You pinch back the thingies, or else it will grow thingies and flower, but with basil, what you want is the leaves, not the thingies or flowers.
Er, you also pick basil, selectively, in order to make it branch out and become more bushy.
Earlier, I was filled with despair. Now, I am filled with red wine.
The Denver airport got hit by a lightening storm, presumably because of all the penis art.
What should I do about my crazy rosebush that, just last fall, decided that it should start shooting up to being 9 feet high with no flowers? I pruned the hell out of it earlier this spring, but that just seems to have encouraged it to grow higher faster.
It is in really crap soil, gets a fair amount of both water and sunlight, and isn't really hurting anything.
59: When? I was just there about 4 hours ago and the weather was fine.
57: I can't always tell the difference.
I don't know a thing about rose bushes. 9 feet high is pretty impressive, though.
Are you supposed to prune rose bushes practically down to the ground, like 2 or 3 feet high?
64: That's pretty much what I did a few months ago.
We never promised you a rose-gardening-thread.
62.1: It was Wednesday or so. Wouldn't affect your travel plans unless you were flying Frontier because many of their planes were on the ground when the hail hit.
66:
I've got a giant rosebush,
I haven't got one rose,
I guess I could have pruned it wrong,
But that's the way life goes.
I suppose the penis art wasn't affected by the storm. On the other hand, airplanes are kind of phallic shaped, excepting the wings.
You pruned it to 2 or 3 feet high this spring and now it's 9+ feet high again? I don't know what to say. I thought roses were difficult. Apparently they are.
What should I do about my crazy rosebush
Restraining order.
62.2: When your despair gets displaced by red wine it leaks out of your eyes. When your red wine gets displaced by despair, it leaks out of your gullet.
Also, you're rather less wobbly on despair.
As for keeping creatures out of one's garden, the guy at the gardening center suggested any combination of: [1] dried deer blood (apparently you can buy this?), [2] human hair, and [3] human urine.
So I tossed my beard clippings back there and encouraged everyone to pee back there whenever we had guests. I'm classy, I know, but the guests tended to really embrace the request.
the guy at the gardening center suggested any combination of: [1] dried deer blood (apparently you can buy this?), [2] human hair, and [3] human urine.
This sounds like a clip from the Satanic Apocalypse Gardener's Question Time bit in Good Omens.
Wolf shit is used by the cognoscenti.
And nobody else can get the wolf to eat raisin bran.
[1] dried deer blood
Does that make the vegetables less... vegetarian?
I don't think the blood or the urine is supposed to go on the tomatoes directly.
Hypothesis: the basil is being eaten by stinkbugs. Why they're leaving everything else alone I don't know, but I spied some this morning on the pepper plants (whose leaves aren't chewed) and then, alerted!, I saw one on the basil.
I have now moved the basil plants -- they're in large pots outdoors -- to another location, and conscientiously pinched off their flower-thingies, thanks to fa's reminder on that front, even though the basil is half-dead.
Since I'm continuing to think aloud on these matters: bug control is often best addressed in an organic garden by providing some sacrificial plants/crops. The bugs go for them and leave the veggies you really want alone. The basil may serve that role this year, which is a bummer, but hey. My gardening-fu may be pretty bad now after a 3-year lapse, but I'll figure this out, I will!
In case anyone cares about the subject of the OP, this is a good explanation of the actual findings: "although the online availability of the information reduced memory for content, it improved memory for its location. Conversely, when participants knew that the information was not available online, memory for content improved. " IOW, see #1.