Posted on 02/22/2006 3:49:16 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
The 'ruh-roh' was Astro, referencing the educated part, thinking all of us will be in trouble early! The 'edumacation' sounds like Homer....he frequently puts a 'ma' in the middle of words. Actually the word edumacation is a perfectly cromulant word.
Having been involved in a few medical research projects, I have concluded that whoever is funding the project will get whatever result they want. Sad, but look at the myriad research studies looking into the effects of estrogen on post-menopausal women. One study finds it harmful and the next study find it beneficial. When a study comes out that says estrogen is harmful I always tell my friends who are on estrogen 'wait six months and a study will come out with the exact opposite results'.
I find myself at a typewriter looking at a television. Why am I here? I used to tpe gud kalkdkl alcm,;alld,.
I have relatives on BOTH sides of my family who contracted Early-Onset Alzheimer's . Imagine being totally senile before you're 50, as happened to an uncle of mine. If I contract this and there's still no cure-I intend to Take Matters Into My Own Hands.
Throw in a few almonds, sunflower seeds and wheat germ with your morning cereal.
That was mentioned. But, if the educated person stopped reading and writing after, say, fifty, would the decline begin later and go quickly, or if the mental activity continued all along would the decline begin later and go more slowly?
Three years of elementary school down the drain!
Maybe the best S.F. story ever. Since I'm approaching Alzheimers age and increasingly forgetful about proper names especially, the yarn seems even more poignant and real to me. The movie version, "Charly" with Cliff Robertson, was good but not nearly as affecting as the original story. Now that bioengineering is a reality the story isn't quite as far-fetched as it seemed back in the 50s.
There's something about the old-timey SF that just isn't there for me in the new stuff. Some people call it "clank." Whatever it was, I miss it.
"312 seems to me to be a small sample from which to draw any sweeping conclusions."
It sure is. The editors of this journal, and the authors of the study should be checked for Alzheimers symptoms.
I just read an article that said 2 groups of people, one with Alzheimers and one without, were asked to name as many animals as they could in 1 minute. The Alzheimers group named an average of 15 and the healthy group named an average of 33. The Alzheimers group named "basic" animals like horse, cow, cat, dog. The healthy group's animals included animals that are learned later in life like giraffe, zebra, aardvark, etc.
I've also read that if you suspect someone has Alzheimers, to ask them to "draw" a clock that says 2 o'clock. The Alzheimers victim, even in early stages, will be unable to.
Is it OK to draw a digital clock?
If playing chess helps reduce the risk of gettin Alzheimer's, what about Sudoku?
The two main approaches to analysis are "candidate elimination" and "what-if"...
I would bet 100 to 1 Soduku would provide the same type of bennies as chess. Player thinking strategies are pretty darn closely mirrored, and the combinations/permutations are equally complex.
I hope your son doesn't take you seriously and end up in trouble! But yes, it's a very sad disease. It's like it steals you before you die.
susie
I've never heard that term. Hugo Gernsback, the pioneer S.F. publisher and writer, wrote about "a sense of wonder" which describes the feeling I used to have in the old space opera days. But of course science has moved forward so rapidly there are fewer things that seem as mysterious and unknown as back then, at least in the solar system. Periodical S.F. (Analog, Galaxy, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) sort've lost their edge for me in the middle to late 60s. With Analog I relate it to the Ben Bova and Spider Robinson era. Now I find nearly as much 'sense of wonder' in science fact.
I never was a Jetson's fan so I defer to you.
I'd have to say that chess probably challenges you better. There's just so much more to keep track of. You really have to be creative as well as scientifically minded.
This is the way I figure it. The cheapest computer on the market today could solve the most diabolical su doku puzzle in seconds (if that). But it takes a monstrous processor like Deep Blue to beat the best human chess players. And no computer (or human, of course) in existence could play chess "perfectly", that is, by anticipating every possible combination of moves that could result from any given move. So at some point it has to involve left-brain thinking as well as right-brain thinking.
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