“Because they’ve thought about it.”
But the times they are a-changing, and if the world wars of the 20th century began to erode religious faith in the west, then the proliferation of the world wide web has only exacerbated that process. “Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever, and this is all breaking down,” asserts Daniel C. Dennett, the co-director of Tufts’ Centre for Cognitive Studies.
I posted this song when I attended a Hammond family reunion a few years back so it’s only fair to post it again (live version this time) as a very enjoyable Peet family reunion comes to a close…
“Family Reunion” – Corb Lund
So after yesterday’s post, I got a comment from a friend that he was related to the Peets who are from the same area as my mom’s family (Mom’s maiden name is Peet). After a few messages back and forth, we determined that the connection was that my mom’s cousin was married to his stepfather’s brother.
Then, later Shea and I were at the beach when Pace came running in from the water: “Dad! Dad! That guy out there says he knows you from university.” I looked out to where he was pointing but couldn’t make out the guy. So I went out for a swim with Pace and as I got closer…I still didn’t recognize the guy. But after chatting a bit, he said we had a few English classes together and he wasn’t sure why he remembered me but he did.
Embarrassingly, I was drawing a total blank on who he was – even after he told me his name and that we’d been in some classes together (I usually think of myself as someone who’s pretty good about remembering people’s faces and often little details about them – eg. sharing a class – even if I’m not the best at remembering names. It was doubly embarrassing because I don’t particularly think of myself as memorable in my undergrad years to be remembered by people, especially in comparison to what I was like in my Masters program where I was much more outspoken and active.)
Then, to put the cherry on top of this random connection, when I tell him I’m now a librarian and that I was responsible for his hometown as one of the rural branches I supervised in my first job, it turns out that his mom was the assistant librarian in that branch and I even attended her retirement party!
(In fact, that experience has become my “go to” story for why working in a rural Saskatchewan library system is a very unique experience. The quick version is that I drove four hours round-trip to do a five minute presentation at that retirement party! Yes, I stayed longer than that but still a four hour round trip, even if I stayed at the party for an hour, is something you simply don’t end up doing at an urban library system!)
We’re at a family reunion this weekend so blog posts will either not happen or be fairly basic.
Like this…
“Lifetime of Reading Slows Cognitive Decline”
“Habitual participation in cognitively stimulating pursuits over a lifetime might substantially increase the efficiency of some cognitive systems,” writes a research team led by neuropsychologist Robert Wilson of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. This efficiency apparently counteracts the often-devastating effects of nervous system diseases.
Wilson and his colleagues describe a study of 294 elderly people, who began by reporting their level of cognitive activity—not only at the present time, but also during childhood, young adulthood, and middle age. They specifically noted how often they performed such activities as reading books, writing letters, or visiting a library at each stage of their lives.
Their cognitive functioning was then examined on a yearly basis up until their death. Tests were given to measure a variety of skills, including long-term memory, working memory, and visuospatial ability. Finally, within hours after their deaths, their brains were removed and examined for evidence of various diseases.
The key result: “More frequent cognitive activity can counterbalance the cognitive loss associated with neuropathological conditions.”
Recently rediscovered My Heritage’s “Look-A-Like” app where you can upload photos of different people and it will tell you who looks more like whom.
(Usually you’d upload pictures of two parents and their child to see who the child resembles the most but we also experimented with comparing my aunt to my sister and I to see who looked more like her.)
I’m sure a lot has to do with the photos you choose – facial shape, hair style, etc. (I thought the fact that neither Pace nor Sasha have a beard would count heavily against me!) But here’s the verdict…
So that was a bit surprising – I think the consensus tends to be that Pace looks more like Shea’s side of the family and Sasha looks more like my side of the family. But both coming out as a tie is probably a good thing for family harmony too! 😉
(The thing I want to know is how two dark-haired parents have one kid who’s blonde and one who’s got pretty reddish hair. Genetics are fun – or is it the postman and milkman who are fun?) 😉
A great commencement address to a group of baby librarians by Dorothea Salo…
Now, graduates, I want you to remember that misbehaving comes in all sizes. I’ve been talking about great big misbehaviors, but depending on what the policies are like where you work, giving a homeless person a library card, waiving a fine for someone who just lost a job, letting a frazzled undergraduate drink a cup of coffee in peace, criticizing a publisher on a blog, digitizing some kinds of information, refusing to exploit other kinds of information even when big online services make it seem all right—any of these actions could be misbehaviors. They could also mean the world to someone. So you don’t have to aim to misbehave big, just aim to misbehave right!
(h/t AB)
What better songs to post for Canada Day than a couple tracks from a new Canadian super group called “The Mounties”?
The group features Hawksley Workman, one of my favourite Canadian musicians of all-time and the video for their first single contains a few prominent shots of the Canadian flag:
“Headphones” – The Mounties
…while their second video shows some very quintessential Canadian home movies:
“If This Dance Catches On” – The Mounties
Happy Canada Day!
