Monday, October 27, 2008

TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK LXXXVII

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: "That presents have come to be thought of as payment for hospitality is a repulsive notion that means that we are selling one another our social company." Miss Manners

QUOTE II: "Instead, when you give a banquet, make your habit to invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed because they can't repay you." Luke 14:13,14

IN OTHER NEWS:

How ripping! Jay sends a wire to say that Catholic Carnival 195 is up!

You might know that I have a special place in my heart for the Sisters of Life in New York. Kay sent this note along that Roman Catholic Vocations has a post on them.

November, which is quickly encroaching upon us, is the month of Poor Souls. Just in time for it Kay started this blog where we can add names of our loved ones to pray for. You might also remember all the other names in your prayers.

Now for some fun! If you can, read G. K. Chesterton's essay on juries entitled "The Twelve Men" before you try this. I tried to find a link for you to this but can't get my computer to go there. Maybe you can find it. This video clip is quite an interesting experiment. Give it a go, perhaps you will be as surprised as I was.

When I was little my mother bought me a cylinder recording of Under the Double Eagle March as a novelty to have on my dresser. The cylinder is the precursor to the modern - well - not so modern record. Fr. Ott sent this site that is trying to preserve these recordings so that they do not disappear for ever. I found them kind of fun to listen to and thought you might also. Thanks O!

The Diocese of Cleveland Enewsletter is featuring Bishop Lennon's talk on evangelization of our Diocesan Web T.V.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting essay by Chesterton, as usual. I suppose the danger is there even for priests, and the stakes are much higher!

Anonymous said...

Where did you ever get that video clip? I restarted it several times because I did not think the gorilla was there the first time. great clip! Where can I get more info?
lyn

Fr. V said...

Annon - you said it.

and Annon 2 - HA! I didn't believe it either! I too went back! Is that not remarkable??? There is a lot to take from that little experiement no?

Lillian Marie said...

Lyn - the video is a clip from a study that Daniel Simons performed called 'Sustained Intentional Blindness'.

It's reviewing Visual Attention, Picture Memory, and Change Blindness - and how we adapt or do not adapt to change.

I, and my team, are using this at work. And...I didn't see the gorilla either.

Anonymous said...

I should have watched the clip before I read the comments!! darn.

Anonymous said...

Dear Father, Regarding the gorilla, we who did not see it are not as dumb as we seem. The central nervous system is designed by God to filter out extraneous information so that we can concentrate on what is essential. Consider how we never notice the feel of our clothing against our skin unless we are told to notice it. Or consider how we can "deafen" one ear and focus on what we are hearing through the telephone with the other ear. These examples show the phenomenon of "selective attention," which is a function of the central nervous system. Regarding the gorilla, we followed instructions and our nervous systems filtered out the extraneous information. But even better, consider that the gorilla looked almost exactly like the players dressed in black. He wore black "clothing" and so did they. Their hair is black and so is his. The only thing different about the appearance of gorilla was that his face was dark and the black players' faces were white. So, our central nervous systems were only filtering out one tiny bit of information--the black face. I am more concerned about the people who DID see the gorilla. Apparently, they can neither concentrate on a difficult task nor follow instructions. As for this "news" story, the media and "Science" can fool us if we are not knowledgeable.

Lillian Marie said...

Pat - that is the entire point of the video clip. We are so trained to do one task - and put all of our thought process into that one task and we miss the obvious things that are happening around us...like the gorilla.

When I viewed it, I noticed that things seemed to get more dense, but I never looked at the 'dark shirts' because that was not my task.

What we found interesting is that the employees who are in mechanical or engineering fields saw the gorilla at a higher rate than those who were in administrative or supervisory fields.

After some reading & more in-depth analysis of this, another scenario was brought up - and this has happened to me as well. Going to the movie theatre, meeting friends inside the theatre. I walk in, look around, don't see my friends so I sit down. After the movie, my friends and I meet up - they asked why I didn't sit with them. I tell them I did not see them. Apparently, they were waving their arms in the air trying to get my attention.

We can train our minds to pick these 'oddities' up - to look for the unsual aspects in a situation even if we are focused on a task.

The more I read, the more I am intrigued.