Multi-tasking thoughts

I encountered a twelve year old Atlantic Magazine article:

The Autumn of the Multitaskers

"Neuroscience is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy. One man’s odyssey through the nightmare of infinite connectivity"

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/the-autumn-of-the-multitaskers/306342/

-and while reading this, remembered a nearly century old Strand Magazine article about THE ULTIMATE MULTI-TASKER: HENRY KAHNE.

I blogged about Mr. Kahne before, making the argument that multitasking can help keep about-to- doze-off-drivers more wakeful. Now looking at this again, see that the Copyright is due to expire in a little over 3 years. 

For now, here's the gist of it, with a link to the original 1925 article:

---

Strand Magazine (October 1925)

"The Man With The Multiple Mind"
An Interview with Harry Kahne, Whose Brain can do Six Things at the Same Time
By Fenn Sherie
It is said that Mohammed and Caesar could, upon occasions, perform two distinct mental operations --- such as writing a letter and carrying on a conversation --- simultaneously. Not having interviewed either of them I am unable to confirm this. I can, however, vouch for the fact that the present generation has produced a remarkable young man who can make his brain do six different things at the same time --- involving, according to the psychologists, no fewer than 14 separate mental processes.

 
When I first heard of his existence I was (as the reader may be at present) a little dubious. However, now that I have witnessed his public performance, put him through several private tests and chatted with him regarding his remarkable talents, I am in a position to state the facts.

 
His name is Harry Kahne, his age is 28, and his native land is America. He has a charming personality, a nasal accent, and above all, a wonderful brain.

 
His demonstrations of multiple mind concentration have to be seen to be believed, but the reader will gather some idea of his remarkable abilities from a careful study of the accompanying photographs with their descriptive captions.

 
Whether he is performing before music hall audiences or learned professors of psychology, Mr Kahne has the happy knack of keeping his audiences amused as well as amazed. Even whilst jotting down rows of figures, writing them upside down and backwards, he manages to maintain a steady flow of amusing chatter.

 
"Will somebody please call out a number?" he asks. "You may call out your age if you like. Ladies may call out the age of their lady friends."

 
And whilst he is writing out news headlines backwards and doing difficult mathematical calculations at the same time, he continues to invite questions from members of the audience, to all of which he has a ready reply.
 

"Talk to me! Talk to me!" he pleads.
 
"What is the population of Manchester?" shouts a voice from the back of the hall.
 
"The population" --- he writes two letters and adds a figure --- "of Manchester" --- he writes two more figures and another letter --- "is 730,551. Anybody else? Talk to me!"
 
"Are you married?" shouts a girl in the gallery.
 
"No", he answers, promptly, jotting down a word as he talks; "It’s my work that makes me act like this."
 
And in his final demonstration of "word-juggling", clearly explained in the photograph on the next page, he maintains the interest by hanging upside down and reciting a poem!
 
"That boy will go mad", said a woman sitting behind me in the theater where I first saw Mr Kahne perform.
 
"He is a genius", exclaimed a gray-haired gentleman who looked like a medical man."Very wonderful, but he won’t live long", he added, shaking his head.
 
But to talk to Mr Kahne is to discover that, although he has exceptional abilities, he is not by any means a freak. If he displays genius, it is not the kind that is akin to madness, but rather of the more creditable variety, generally spoken of as "an infinite capacity for taking pains".

Strand Magazine article continues here:

 http://www.rexresearch.com/kahne/kahne.htm


Now, back to my other six works-in-progress... 

Almost cut my hair today

1st draft

Sometimes on stretches through the splendid Pennsylvania woods I start thinking of imaginative and improbable things. On a recent barefoot stroll my intuition started niggling about ticks and I worried about my long hair. Soon several found my skin and as I flicked them off, my arm hair rose in tingling dismay; remembering how insidious a hurt an untreated tick-bite can become. 

This reminded me of a passage in The Spiritual Nature of Hair by Deva Kaur Khalsa: https://www.quantumbalancing.com/spiritualhair.htm

 

 “Hairs are the antennas that gather and channel the sun energy or prana to the frontal lobes, the part of the brain you use for meditation and visualization. These antennas act as conduits to bring you greater quantities of subtle, cosmic energy.”

Indeed, hair works as sensory antennae, feeling and rigorously feeding mysterious dimensions of our sixth sense or minds-eye. During the Vietnam War a secret psychological institute recruited long-haired Native American trackers and tested them on multiple field and perimeter-intrusion tasks. Then the psychologists paired two men together at a time who had received similar test scores, letting one keep his long hair, while administrating a crew-cut to the other. In each case, the equivalently skilled trackers retook the same tests and invariably the long haired men earned high scores, while the short haired men now failed the tests in which they had previously scored high. 


Much later, an unnamed psychologist involved in the tests revealed a government document which recommended that “all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts.” In fact, it required that “trackers keep their hair long."


Suddenly the thought of my needing to pay for a shortwave crew-cut vanished. Instead, like an attuned 60’s hippy (yes, I’m about sixty!) I believe I’ll rely on my long-hair augmented tingling Spidey-sense to track and trap the treacherous ticks for summertime’s remainder.
-->

Firefly adores ladybugs and butterflies

Firefly adores Hummingbirds and Ladybugs

draft 2

A close friend in Idaho has a precocious daughter who runs like the wind and enjoys climbing trees. We’ve aptly nicknamed her Firefly. Firefly has a fascination for ladybugs and likes to inspect them with her magnifying glass before they buzz off at hyper-sonic speeds. Once she spied a pink ladybug outside a coffee shop that dozens of tall passersby missed seeing. 

Firefly and I are holding a contest to see which State has the most ladybugs; Pennsylvania or Idaho?  So far the Gem State is in the lead, but if I get more outdoorsy I feel the Keystone State might pull ahead; although I reckon it would be fair to count her pink ladybug as ten points.

Besides lovely ladybugs, Firefly and I share tales about butterflies and hummingbirds. I told Firefly about the splendiferous white butterflies flying out of Spring Mills. Now I want to send her some hovering hummingbird photos. An unexpected thing about the hummingbird photos I caught was the stern look on their faces. I suppose I’d be serious too if as an elite flying athlete I wasn’t sure where my next meal was coming from, because someone neglected to fill their bird vitamin feeder.

I sent an article out last season about how important this is, to keep your hummingbird feeders maintained. On top of that it’s at least as important to rinse the bacteria from feeders in between fill-ups to prevent hummers from becoming ill. This could further explain the stern look on their faces we’ve see before they ‘tank up’ for the night.

Following our most recent ladybug tally-up, young Firefly asked if I had any more interesting insect insights, so I gave her a riddle: “What did the guy firefly say to his girlfriend when twilight loomed?” Firefly lit up tickled pink and said, “You glow Girl!”   

Hummingbirds, Fireflies and Ladybugs

A close friend in Idaho has a daughter who runs fast and enjoys climbing trees. We’ve aptly nicknamed her Firefly. Firefly and I are having a ladybug contest to see if Idaho or Pennsylvania has more. So far the Gem State is winning, but I feel if I get outdoors more our Keystone State could pull ahead with ladybugs. 

Besides lovely ladybugs we talk about butterflies and hummingbirds. I told Firefly about the splendiferous Spring Mills white butterflies and now I want to send her some hummingbird photos. A funny thing about the hovering hummingbird photos I caught is the stern look on their distinct faces. I suppose I’d be serious too, if as an elite flying athlete I wasn’t sure where my next meal was coming from, because someone neglected to fill their vitamin feeder. 

I sent an article out last season about how important this is, to keep your hummingbird feeders maintained. On top of that it’s at least as important to clean the bacteria out of the feeders in between fill ups to keep the hummers from becoming ill. This could further explain the stern look on their faces we’ve been seeing before they ‘tank up’ for the night. 

On a lighter note after our most recent spring ladybug tally-up, I asked Firefly. “What did the guy firefly say to his girlfriend after the rainbow?” Firefly responded, “You glow Girl!”

-->

Light Olympic notes

"Every dog has his day, and I feel like I’m going to be barking soon.”

Larry Myricks – Champion long jumper

Supposedly, Dick Fosbury has started an Olympic blog, but so far, I’m unable to locate it. Could be his laptop has a virus since our State Dept. has virtually guaranteed that anybody using a laptop at the games will be infected.

Fosbury can always count on these guys when he returns to Idaho

Nonetheless, I’ll keep flopping around to try to find Fosbury’s blog as it would be nice to hear about him chumming around China with his old friend and fellow legendary leaper Bob Beamon.

It’s also interesting to note how some of the natural athletes are left out of the club as it proves hard to pin down an exact definition of what makes a true Olympian:

From this La Times article:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-olympians2-2008aug02,0,1468452.story

“Ask anyone in the world who watches the Games on television if they know what an Olympian is, and they'll all nod their heads," said Fosbury, an Idaho businessman and president of the nonprofit World Olympians Assn., which is chartered by the IOC to represent Olympians' interests. "From their perspective it's very simple. But from the Olympian's perspective, it's very complex."

The complexity is driven by the fact that several Olympic organizations -- including the International Olympic Committee, national sports federations, the WOA and national groups that represent Olympians -- have a say in creating and policing the definition.

The debate often is heated, not because of hard-and-fast benefits that accrue to Olympians as much as the obvious pride shared by those admitted to this distinguished cadre of athletes.

"It's the intrinsic fact that you're part of a fraternity, and everyone else wants to be part of that exclusive fraternity," said Willie Banks, who qualified for the 1980 team, competed in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Games and now serves as president of the U.S. Olympians Assn. "It's as if you went to Vietnam in the First Marine Division and kicked butt. You say, 'Yeah, I was part of that group. You couldn't have experienced what I did.' "

As with many things Olympian, politics is at the heart of the disagreement. Everyone agrees that an Olympian is someone who participates in the Games -- what's open to debate is the definition of "participation."

"You can sum it up by saying that the term 'Olympian' is loosely used, and that there is no definition for Olympian," Banks said. "There is no definition of 'Olympian' because the only organization that can officially do it is the IOC and they've kept it vague."

~

Ray Ewry would have enjoyed BSUWG’s leaping lizard post.

It was cool seeing Michael Phelps watch the National Anthem after winning his eighth gold medal in the current games. I wondered how many people considered that Francis Scott Key scribed the Star Spangled Banner in the same Baltimore waters where Champion Phelps grew up.