Here’s a pretty interesting piece about the futility of trying to change someone’s mind about their deep-seated beliefs – even with facts.  The author refers to it as the Backfire Effect. Helps explain all those folks who believe there were WMDs in Iraq and that Obama was not born in Hawaii – even though the facts prove otherwise.

The perpetual Hatfields and McCoys . . . . and the premise of the article is proved out in all the comments that follow that piece. Amazing.

Another lesson learned. Well, relearned. Don’t put stuff off.

Wow!

Embrace change; eat two meals a day; work as long as you can; help others, and don’t fear death “because you’re born to die”.

Walter Breuning

At first, I read everything I could get my hands on about Alzheimer’s Disease. Not the most uplifting topic, but there you have it.  As mom’s situation has progressed and become part of our family’s daily lives, I’ve begun to think more about memory as the faculty that defines us as humans - that we are our memories.

I’ve moved beyond reading about Alzheimer’s solely into more general topics having to do with memory – what it is, how it works, and most importantly how to preserve it. (Genetics, you know.)

I’m just finishing a book by Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell called Your Life, Uploaded. It originally came out in 2009 under the title Total Recall.  It’s one of the more interesting books I’ve read in a while. Bell set out to keep a complete electronic record of his life creating what he calls e-memory.He saves, scans, uploads, downloads every aspect of his life. He calls it lifelogging – not to be confused with lifeblogging. (Speaking of blogs, here’s how to get to theirs.) His intent is not to blast his life all over the Web – his intent is to create as complete a record of his life as possible for his private use as he sees fit.

His idea of e-memory has ramifications for education, health, work, and personal life. This is both a idea book and a book that make you want to start building your own e-memory. If I’m destined to lose my bio-memory, I better start creating my e-memory now.

Healthy (top) vs Alzheimer's Brain

All I will need to do is come back and take another look at the image above whenever a solicitation for a contribution regarding Alzheimer’s research lands in my mailbox.

If you’re interested in the some of the latest thinking about the cause of Alzheimer’s,  Laura Sanders has written a good article in Science News called Memories Can’t Wait.

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.