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Memory

You Can Improve Your Memory!

“Memory enlarges our world. Without it, we would lack a sense of continuity and each morning encounter a stranger staring back from the mirror. Each day and event would exist in isolation; we could neither learn from the past nor anticipate the future.”
—“MYSTERIES OF THE MIND.”

WHY is it that some birds can remember months later the places where they stored seeds for the winter and squirrels can remember the locations where they buried nuts, but we may forget where we left our keys an hour ago? Yes, many of us complain of a faulty memory. Yet, the human brain, though imperfect, has an amazing capacity to learn and remember. The secret is to make the most of what we have.

Enormous Potential

The human brain weighs about three pounds and is roughly the size of a grapefruit, yet it contains some 100 billion neurons, or nerve cells, all of which form an incredibly complex network. Indeed, just one neuron may be connected to 100,000 others. This wiring gives the brain the potential to process and retain a vast amount of information. The challenge, of course, is for a person to recall the information when it is needed. Some excel at this, including many with little if any secular schooling.

For example, in West Africa, nonliterate tribal chroniclers called griots can recite the names of many generations of people in their villages. Griots enabled American author Alex Haley, whose book Roots won a Pulitzer prize, to investigate his family tree in Gambia back through six generations. Haley said: “I acknowledge immense debt to the griots of Africa—where today it is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground.”

Consider, too, the famous Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, who was “discovered” at the age of 19 when called upon to substitute for another conductor. In spite of his poor eyesight, he was able to conduct the entire opera Aida—from memory!

Such feats may amaze us. Yet, most people have the potential to remember much more than they think they can. Would you like to enhance your memory?

Improving Your Memory
Memory involves three stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Your brain encodes information when it perceives it and registers it. This information can then be stored for future retrieval. Memory failure occurs when any one of these three stages breaks down.

Memory itself has been divided into various kinds, including sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Sensory memory receives information from stimuli through the senses, such as smell, sight, and touch. Short-term memory, also called working memory, holds small amounts of information for brief periods. Thus, we can add up numbers in our head, remember a telephone number long enough to dial it, and remember the first half of a sentence while reading or listening to the second half. But as we all know, short-term memory has its limits.

If you want to store information indefinitely, it must go into your long-term memory. How can you put it there? The following principles will help.

Interest Cultivate an interest in the subject, and remind yourself of the reasons for learning it. As your own experience in life may tell you, when your emotions are involved, you enhance your memory. This fact can be a great help to Bible students. When they read the Bible with the twofold goal of drawing closer to God and teaching others about him, their memory can be considerably enhanced.—Proverbs 7:3; 2 Timothy 3:16.

Attention “Most ‘memory failures’ actually represent failures in attention,” says the book Mysteries of the Mind. What can help you to pay attention? Be interested and, where possible, take notes. Note-taking not only focuses the mind but also enables a listener to review the material later.

Understanding “With all that you acquire, acquire understanding,” says Proverbs 4:7. When you do not understand a teaching or concept, likely you will not remember it well, if at all. Understanding illuminates the relationship between the parts, knitting them together to form a logical whole. For example, when a student of mechanics understands how an engine works, he will better remember details about the engine.

Gods Purpose for the Earth

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Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S.

Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S.
Sep.01, 2009 in On the News
Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S. this year, filling intensive care units to capacity and causing “severe disruptions” during a fall resurgence, scientific advisers to the White House warned.
Swine flu, also known as H1N1, may infect as much as half of the population and kill 30,000 to 90,000 people, double the deaths caused by the typical seasonal flu, according to the planning scenario issued yesterday by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Intensive care units in hospitals, some of which use 80 percent of their space in normal operation, may need every bed for flu cases, the report said.
The virus has sickened more than 1 million people in the U.S., and infections may increase this month as pupils return to school, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. If swine flu patients fill too many beds, hospitals may be forced to put off elective surgeries such as heart bypass or hernia operations, said James Bentley with the American Hospital Association.
“If you have 1.8 million hospital admissions across six months, that’s a whole lot different than if you have it across six weeks,” said Bentley, a senior vice-president of the Washington-based association, which represents 5,000 hospitals.
The scenario projections were “developed from models put together for planning purposes only,” said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, at a briefing in Atlanta today. “At the end of the day, we simply don’t know what this upcoming flu season is going to look like. It could be severe, it could be mild, we just don’t know.”
Past Pandemics
The models were based on past pandemics, and the CDC is working on new projections based on the latest data gathered from swine flu patients, Skinner said. Those estimates should be available “soon,” he said, without further specifying.
President Barack Obama was urged by his scientific advisory council to speed vaccine production as the best way to ease the burden on the health care system. Initial doses should be accelerated to mid-September to provide shots for as many as 40 million people, the panel said in a report released yesterday. Members also recommended Obama name a senior member of the White House staff, preferably the homeland security adviser, to take responsibility for decision-making on the pandemic.
“This isn’t the flu that we’re used to,” said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. health and human services secretary. “The 2009 H1N1 virus will cause a more serious threat this fall. We won’t know until we’re in the middle of the flu season how serious the threat is, but because it’s a new strain, it’s likely to infect more people than usual.”
Clinical Trials
Data from clinical trials to assess the safety and effectiveness of swine flu vaccines will start to become available in mid-September, health officials reported Aug. 21. Full results from the two-dose trials won’t be available until mid-October.
“We are making every preparation effort assuming a safe and effective vaccine will be available in mid-October,” Sebelius said today at the CDC’s Atlanta offices.
H1N1 has already reached more than 170 countries and territories in the four months since being identified, the Geneva-based World Health Organization said. Swine flu causes similar symptoms as seasonal strains. It has so far resulted in worse than normal flu seasons, with increased hospitalizations and cases of severe illness, the WHO said in an Aug. 12 release.
New Zealand and Australia, in the midst of their normal flu seasons, have reported intensive care units taxed to capacity by swine flu patients. The experience provides clues to what the U.S., Europe and Japan may see when the H1N1 virus returns.
President’s Advisers
The president’s advisory council describes as a “plausible scenario,” that 30 percent to 50 percent of the U.S. population will be infected in the fall and winter. As many as 300,000 patients may be treated in hospital intensive care units, filling 50 percent to 100 percent of the available beds, and 30,000 to 90,000 people may die, the group’s report said.
“This is a planning scenario, not a prediction,” according to the report. “But the scenario illustrates that an H1N1 resurgence could cause serious disruption of social and medical capacities in our country in the coming months.”
Peter Gross, chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said if the group’s scenario comes true, “I think every hospital in America is going to be in a crunch. We’ll be hard pressed to deal with those predictions,” he said.
‘Overblown’ Estimates
The estimates seem “overblown,” Gross said, given that swine-flu outbreaks in 1968 and 1957 failed to cause as many deaths, even with medical technology and disease surveillance less advanced than today.
“Influenza, you can make all the predictions you want, but it’s more difficult than predicting the weather,” Gross said yesterday in a telephone interview, after the advisory report was made public. “If influenza was a stock, I wouldn’t touch it.”
The 775-bed hospital is planning for an outbreak, upping its order of flu medications and discussing where to put patients if the worst occurs, Gross said.
The President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology is chaired by John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, Eric Lander, the head of the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Harold Varmus, the chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The 21-member group of scientists and engineers, created by Congress in 1976, advises the president on policy involving scientific matters.
New Estimates
Seasonal flu usually kills about 36,000 Americans, Skinner said. Swine flu causes more severe illness needing hospitalization among younger people than seasonal flu, while leaving people 65 and older relatively unscathed, said Mike Shaw of the CDC.
The median age of those with the pandemic virus has been 12 to 17 years, the WHO said on July 24, citing data from Canada, Chile, Japan, U.K. and the U.S.
“We don’t know whether the number of severe illnesses will be much greater, but we do know that it’s a new virus and therefore people are very vulnerable,” said Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in an interview yesterday.
Disease Burden
About 100 million people in the U.S. get the annual flu shot, Schuchat said. Pregnant women, who have “a disturbingly high burden of disease” from swine flu, only get vaccinated for seasonal flu about 15 percent of the time. Pregnant women are a top priority for vaccinations, she said.
Seasonal flu usually kills about 36,000 Americans. Swine flu causes more severe illness needing hospitalization among younger people than seasonal flu, while leaving people 65 and older relatively unscathed, said Mike Shaw, associate director of laboratory science at the CDC’s flu division.
The median age of those with the pandemic virus has been 12 to 17 years, the WHO said on July 24, citing data from Canada, Chile, Japan, U.K. and the U.S.
“People who get infected with this strain happen to be the healthiest members of our society,” said Shaw in a presentation yesterday at the agency.
The H1N1 strain is genetically related to the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed an estimated 50 million people. Variations of the Spanish Flu circulated widely until about 1957, when they were pushed aside by other flu strains. People whose first exposure to a flu virus was one of those Spanish Flu relatives may have greater immunity to the current pandemic, Shaw said.

What Is the Best Education?

HAVE you ever been so overwhelmed by problems that you felt as though you were drowning in a whirlpool? Just imagine how much suffering could result if you made a mistake in coping with one or more of those problems! No one is born with the ability to solve all problems successfully, making good decisions every time. This is where education comes in. Where can you get education to prepare yourself to cope with life’s problems?

Many, both young and old, extol the importance of an academic education. Some experts even say that they “fully believe that you will never be able to find a [decent] job without a college degree.” Yet, there are a number of human needs that go beyond material achievements. For instance, does higher learning help you to be a good parent, mate, or friend? For that matter, people admired for their intellectual achievements may develop undesirable personality traits, fail in their family life, or even end up committing suicide.

Some look to religion for guidance, a source of education, but become disappointed because of not receiving practical help to face life’s difficulties. Illustrating this, Emilia* from Mexico says: “It was 15 years ago that I felt that my husband and I simply could not be together any longer. We argued all the time. I couldn’t get him to stop drinking. I frequently had to leave our small children by themselves while I went looking for my husband. I was emotionally worn out. Several times I went to church seeking something that might help me find a solution. Although the Bible was occasionally used, I never heard any counsel that directly dealt with my situation; neither did anyone approach me to tell me what to do. Sitting in church for a while and repeating some prayers did not satisfy me.” Others may become disillusioned when they see how far their own spiritual leaders are from living an exemplary life. As a result, many lose confidence in religion as a source of training or education for a successful life.

Therefore, you might ask yourself, ‘What kind of education should I obtain in order to make my life a success?’ Does true Christianity have the answer to this important question?

* Name has been changed.

Guilt and Depression

Close on the heels of these emotions usually come waves of guilt. One despondent wife says: "I think women suffer a great deal with feelings of guilt. You blame yourself and wonder: 'What did I do wrong?'"

A betrayed husband reveals another aspect of what he calls roller-coaster emotions. He explains: "Depression becomes a new factor that sets in like bad weather." When her husband left her, one wife recalls that not a day went by that she was not in tears. "I can clearly remember the first tear-free day some weeks after he left me," she relates. "It was some months before I had my first tear-free week. Those tear-free days and weeks became milestones that marked my way forward."

Double Treachery
What many do not realize is that often the adulterer has dealt a bitter double blow to his spouse. In what way? Pat gives us a clue: "It was hard for me. He was not only my husband but also my friend—my best friend—for many years.— Yes, in most cases a wife turns to her husband for support when problems arise. Now, not only has he become the cause of very traumatic problems but he has also stopped being a much-needed source of help. In one fell swoop, he has caused severe pain and robbed his wife of her trusted confidant.

As a result, the profound sense of betrayal and shattered trust is one of the most overwhelming feelings experienced by innocent mates. One marriage counselor explains why marital betrayal can be so emotionally crippling: "We invest so much of ourselves, our hopes, dreams and expectations, in marriage . . . , searching for someone we can really put our faith in, someone we feel we can always rely on. If that trust is suddenly taken away, it can be like a house of cards blown over in the wind."

Quite clearly, as noted in the book How to Survive Divorce, victims "need help in sorting out the emotional upheaval . . . They may need help in working out what choices they can make and how to make them." But what are those choices?

An Avalanche of Feelings

Though shocking, the statistics for infidelity and divorce do not reveal the full impact on people's daily lives. Besides the enormous financial implications, consider the mountains of feelings locked in those statistics—the buckets of tears shed and the immeasurable confusion, grief, anxiety, and excruciating pain that is suffered, as well as the countless nights that family members spend in sleepless anguish. The victims may survive the ordeal, but they are likely to carry the scars for a long time. The hurt and damage is not easily undone.

"A marital breakdown normally produces a huge eruption of emotions," explains the book How to Survive Divorce, "an eruption which sometimes threatens to obscure your vision. What should you do? How should you react? How do you rise above it all? You may swing from certainty to doubt, from anger to guilt or from trust to suspicion."

That was Pedro's experience after he learned about his wife's unfaithfulness. "When there is infidelity," he confides, "then a flood of confusing emotions rain down." The sense of devastation is difficult enough for victims to comprehend—let alone outsiders, who have little grasp of the situation. "No one," claims Pat, "really understands how I feel. When I think about my husband being with her, I feel a real physical pain, an ache that is impossible to explain to anyone." She adds: "There are times that I think I'm going crazy. One day I feel so in control; the next day I don't. One day I miss him; the next day I remember all the scheming and lying and humiliation."

When a Mate Is Unfaithful

When a Mate Is Unfaithful

INFIDELITY—
Its Tragic Consequences
"I've left," said the voice on the telephone—likely the most devastating words Pat's* husband had ever said to her. "I just couldn't believe the betrayal," she says. "What I'd always feared most—that my husband would leave me for someone else—became an awful reality."

PAT, a 33-year-old, really wanted to make the marriage work; her husband had assured her that he would never leave her. "We promised to stand by each other, come what may," Pat recalls. "I was convinced that he meant it. Then . . . he did that. Now I've got nothing—not a cat or a goldfish—nothing!"

Hiroshi will never forget the day his mother's extramarital affair came to light. "I was just 11 years old," he recalls. "Mom came storming through the house. Dad was right behind her, saying, 'Just hang on. Let's talk about this.' I could sense that something had gone horribly wrong. Dad was shattered. He's never quite recovered. What's more, he had no one to confide in. So he turned to me. Imagine it: a man in his 40's coming to his 11-year-old son for consolation and empathy!"

Whether it is the scandalous affairs that have rocked royalty, politicians, film stars, and religious leaders or the betrayal and tears in our own families, marital unfaithfulness continues to take a tragic toll. "Adultery," states The New Encyclopædia Britannica, "seems to be as universal and, in some instances, as common as marriage." Some researchers estimate that between 50 and 75 percent of people have at some time been unfaithful. Marriage researcher Zelda West-Meads says that although much infidelity goes undetected, "all the evidence points to affairs being on the increase."

Why People Give Up on Life

"IT IS suffering to live." That is what Ryunosuke Akutagawa, a popular writer in early 20th-century Japan, wrote shortly before committing suicide. However, he prefaced that statement with the words: "Of course, I do not want to die, but . . ."
Like Akutagawa, many of those who take their life do not want to die as much as they want "to end whatever is going on," stated one psychology professor. The wording so commonly found in suicide notes suggests as much. Such phrases as 'I could not take it any longer' or 'Why go on living?' show a deep desire to escape life's harsh realities. But as one expert described it, committing suicide is "like treating a cold with a nuclear bomb."

Although the reasons why people commit suicide vary, certain events in life commonly trigger suicide.

Triggering Events

For adults, financial or work-related problems are common triggering events

It is not uncommon for young ones who give in to despair and commit suicide to do so even over matters that may seem trivial to others. When they feel hurt and cannot do anything about it, youths may view their own death as a means of getting back at those who have hurt them. Hiroshi Inamura, a specialist in handling suicidal people in Japan, wrote: "Through their own death, children cherish an inner urge to punish the person who has tormented them."

A recent survey in Britain indicated that when children are subjected to severe bullying, they are nearly seven times as likely to attempt suicide. The emotional pain that these children suffer is real. A 13-year-old boy who hanged himself left behind a note naming five people who had tormented him and had even extorted money from him. "Please save other children," he wrote.

Others may try to take their life when they get into trouble at school or with the law, suffer the end of a romance, get a bad report card, experience stress over exams, or become weighed down by worries about the future. Among high-achieving adolescents who may tend to be perfectionists, a setback or a failure—be it actual or imaginary—may bring on a suicide attempt.

For adults, financial or work-related problems are common triggering events. In Japan after years of economic downturn, suicides recently topped 30,000 a year. According to the Mainichi Daily News, almost three quarters of the middle-aged men who killed themselves did so "because of problems stemming from debts, business failures, poverty and unemployment." Family problems too may lead to suicide. A Finnish newspaper reported: "Recently divorced middle-aged men" make up one of the high-risk groups. A study in Hungary found that the majority of girls who contemplate suicide were reared in broken homes.

Retirement and physical illness are also major triggering factors, especially among the elderly. Often suicide is chosen as a way out, not necessarily when an illness is terminal, but when the patient views the suffering as intolerable.

However, not everybody reacts to these triggering events by committing suicide. On the contrary, when faced with such stressful situations, the majority do not take their life. Why, then, do some view suicide as the answer, while most do not?