Salon.com

Wow, I never expected that my submission to open.salon.com would get ANY attention, much less be chosen as an editor's pick. I have a few other stories ready to send off, so I'll do that over the next few months. I may try to take some of my blog entries here and revise them, too.

I was a little hesitant to put that much personal information out there, but decided that it was worth it. I wonder if the mix of feeling a little excited and exposed it what "real" artists and writers feel when showing their work or releasing their writing. I can see how that creative process can be a little scary--will people like it? will they understand? will they think I'm nuts??

What has been more surprising, and rewarding in a way I didn't expect, are the reactions and responses of others. Many women reply to me with a story of their own feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. I was surprised to see how my thoughts "connected" with others.

http://www.open.salon.com/blog/christine_himes/2011/07/23/transformations

Open Salon

So, I've gone out on a limb a bit and posted a story at open.salon.com. The post is called "Transformations" and is posted under my own name, Christine Himes. I'd like people to read it, commenting is even better, but not required. I'm trying to get more hits....

Shameless plug, I know!

Living Longer, Part 2

Back in March I wrote briefly about asking my class how many would want to live an extra 50 years. I was surprised at how few students saw that as a desirable goal. A recent study has predicted that 1/2 of those born in 2011 will live to be 100, an amazing feat.

David Brooks, columnist for the NYTimes, wrote a recent editorial about living longer, called "Death and Budgets". In the column he makes the argument that our current fiscal crisis is the result of rising medical care costs. He goes on to note that "Years ago, people hoped that science could delay the onset of morbidity. We would live longer, healthier lives and then die quickly. This is not happening. Most of us will still suffer from chronic diseases for years near the end of life, and then die slowly." Actually, it is true that a greater proportion of life is now spent in years of good health. While it is true that many people suffer from chronic diseases we are much better at managing those diseases and their effects. As a result, active life expectancy has actually increased in the US and other Western countries.

I am not an expert on the current budget situation, but I am an expert on active life expectancy and the picture Brooks paints is just wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html

more on memory...

It must be obvious by now, and I've probably said it here before, that i have become increasingly fascinated with memory. So, it was with interest I read about a recent study on contextual memory. The actual study is pretty specific. People were asked to look at a list of words and then later to recall as many as they could. It turns out that people remember the words "in order." That is, if they remembered one word the next word they remembered was likely to be the word that immediately preceded or followed that word in the list. The theory is that the context of a memory matters, if we remember one part then other parts will follow.

The article in the Times that describes the study doesn't make any connections to other studies, but I was reminded of another recent story that looked at study habits. I'm sure I discussed it here and could go back and find it, but I won't. In that study, researchers found that students who studied in different places remembered more information. In a different way, context mattered. By studying in different places the encoded information was associated with more clues. Those clues helped in retrieval later on. It also reminds me of the clustering of memories used by memory competitors. Those people "chunk" information and use other clues to help anchor the memories (walking through a house, telling a story, etc.)

So, what about in real life? I notice that in talking with older people who have memory deficits that sometimes this clustering takes place. The retrieval of one memory, or part of a memory, will lead to a cascade of additional memories around an event. It is like priming a pump.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/health/05memory.html?ref=science

Christine Lagarde

I have a crush on Christine Lagarde. I don't think I had heard of her until a month or so ago. I happened to be in Paris right after the Strauss-Kahn scandal. He was the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. In the aftermath, he resigned from the IMF and Christine Lagarde, France's Minister of Finance, was being touted as the likely successor. I saw her on TV and fell in love.

One look at her and you feel like she is someone you could trust. Someone who is competent, capable, level-headed, and reasonable. She inspires confidence and admiration. My favorite quote,"I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room."

She is only a year older than me. She is trained as a lawyer, not an economist (a plus in my book!) and has worked in the US and France. She made her way up the partner ladder in a large law firm before returning to France to enter the political scene.

Mostly, I think, I like her hair...