There is an app for that

My brother-in-law was lamenting the fact that we, as citizens, seem to have lost all ability to engage in critical thinking.

My response was that brains are like muscles. It re-wires to become more efficient at tasks it performs frequently at the expense of tasks it rarely does.

A different brother-in-law noted that he never uses a paper map anymore. He isn't even sure he could use one. His wife noted that she thinks handwritten recipes will become quaint, treasured oddities. Everything is on-line.

The ever lovely and brainy Mrs ERJ interjected that it can be a PITA to find the exact, same recipe that you liked last time. In fact, how do you know that recipe still exists? It could have been tweaked to lower the fat or sodium or just plain disappeared.

I believe that most people, especially if they start as children while brains and muscles are most "plastic" can be Division II capable distance runners. If they have the frame size, they can be Division II hurdlers or pole-vaulters.

I believe the same "most people" have the capability of memorizing the Odyssey and the Iliad or the first five books of the Bible or the Founding Documents of this great country (including the Magna Carta).

I believe that nearly every person can be taught the most common logical fallacies and become adept at identifying them in the wild.

Rote memorization still matters

Paiget Piaget, the founder of "Developmental Studies" ran an experiment where he was trying to pinpoint that age that most children can recognize patterns.

His experiment was pretty simple. He tracked the same kids from a very young age, testing them every six months or so. He brought them into his lab and tested them.

He arranged short sticks and long sticks into patterns like l-s-l-s-l-s-l and l-l-s-l-l-s-l-l and so on. After showing the test subject a pattern, he scrambled the sticks and then asked them to replicate it.

His intention was to find and document the age when children can understand the concept of "patterns".

On one occasion he was distracted after he brought the test subject into the lab. When he was able to attend to the test the child had arranged the sticks into the pattern that PaigetPiaget had shown him six months earlier. The same pattern that the child had been unable to replicate at that earlier session.

We now understand that the child took a "visual snapshot" of the pattern, something he did not understand. Human brains do not like puzzles. They either wall them off or they keep poking-and-prodding them until they resolve the puzzle. This child's brain chose to keep poking-and-prodding.

The challenge rewired the kid's brain. He walked into PaigetPiaget's lab and slam-dunked all of the patterns.

Having a portfolio of memorized documents and skills (like division and converting units) provides the same mental growth-challenge as the visual snapshot in the kid's brain. They might not understand what they memorized. They might not agree. But those rote memories are the fertilizer that makes their brain grow.

Spelling matters

Source. You can buy ornamental, brass sextants for about $30 but there is no guarantee that they will be functional.

Sextants were devices used by mariners and later by aeroplane navigators (think Amelia Earhart)  to determine their precise location on the globe.

Latitude, or North/South position was determined by measuring the height of the sun at noon and comparing it to tables to adjust for time-of-year.

Longitude, or East/West positions were determined by shooting the angle between the moon and prominent stars at night.

Between the angle scale and the MOA vernier thumbwheel, a competent navigator could determine a mid-ocean position within 10 nautical miles which was plenty good enough for charting an angle-of-compass course.

Closer to shore the sextant was used to shoot angles between the horizon and tall objects on the shore. If the tall object was of known height (found from referencing a chart) then the distance to a couple of objects could be calculated and arcs struck with a compass, determining the ship's precise location. Thus, known shoals and other hazards that were close to shore could be avoided.

The sextant is a very cool tool but it requires charts, manual dexterity, a very accurate timepiece and a working knowledge of math and geometry. Nobody uses them any more. There is an app for that.

You may be wondering why this section is titled "Spelling matters".

The every lovely and generous Mrs ERJ gave me a sextant very similar to the one shown above as a Christmas gift.

Decorum demands that I only share that the gift wasn't exactly what I thought I asked for.