Moonwalking With Einstein

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AppId is over the quota

Have you ever wondered who the world's smartest person is? In a world that celebrates the antics of the world's strongest people very little time is given to those who excel in mental pursuits. Such antipathy for mental prowess put Joshua Foer on a quest to find out who might fit the bill of world's smartest person. When he began his quest, he did not discover who the smartest person was in the world...rather he was introduced to the world of the mental athletes.

Foer's path crossed with the like of memory champions Ben Pridemore, who could memorize gargantuan amounts of numerical digits and the layout of five decks of cards in just a few minutes. Such mental prowess piqued Foer's curiosity and set the journalist within ablaze to discover all he could about their techniques. His quest propelled him along a path which would ultimately culminate in his competition in the U.S. Memory Championship.

This trek placed him in the pathway of interesting individuals-such as Britain's Tony Buzan, an educational consultant who is credited with developing the "mind mapping" technique of taking notes. After meeting with Buzan, Foer enlisted the help of a youthful United Kingdom memory competitor, Ed Cooke, to coach him and prepare him for the U.S. Memory Championship. At Ed's behest, Foer dove into available literature-finding references to mnemonic techniques from around the fifth century BC. Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, Foer also tracks down Kim Peek, the inspiration for the character in Dustin Hoffman's Rain Main, to determine if there were any memory techniques he could glean from an obvious savant..

Foer unearthed techniques many refer to as building a memory palace which allowed him to "store" information spatially along routes of which he was familiar. Want to learn a list of 75 words? No problem. Imagine walking through your house and assigning these words in bizarre contexts (include the most sensory stimulation you can) along the pathway. Suppose the first item is an aardvark...you might place the inconspicuous fellow outside your mailbox juggling the second word you need to remember. Then, when called upon to regurgitate the list you would simply walk through these pre-constructed locations and recall the mental images. Foer used this very technique to place in key events and ultimately win the 2006 National Memory Championship. Not only did he win, he set a new U.S. record by memorizing a deck of playing cards in a minute and 40 seconds.

Although the title seems a little bizarre, it is not until you are reading his blow-by-blow account of the championship that you realize that one of his "mental images," was Foer moonwalking with Einstein to help remember a playing card. After the championship, Foer settled back into journalism and is not sure that his overall memory was changed very much.

This book is commended as a good read of an interesting memory challenge.

But wait, where did I put my car keys?

Mustang Designer

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AppId is over the quota

The Good

Labeled a design biography by its author, Ray Wagner, the book reads like a non-fictional historical novel. The story is told from the point of view of the P-51 Mustang's designer, Edgar Schmued. Ray Wagner had access to the designer's personal papers, and it shows. In fact, it was the designer's widow that suggested to Mr. Wagner that he write the book. Being a retired history teacher, Mr. Wagner wrote a wonderful narrative history of this most famous fighter.

This book is a far cry from the typical fighter love fest that I find in bookstores. Text in those other books looks like an afterthought. The focus there is clearly on the pictures. Mr. Wagner, on the other hand, makes it very clear that the star in the book is the story of the fighter.

The scope of the book is large. In about 250 notebook-sized pages, the author tells the story of the events that led to the Mustang being created and looking the way that it does. Later chapters cover postwar variations on the Mustang and even jet-powered designs that evolved from the wartime lessons learned. A fitting subtitle for the book might have been "The history of the P-51 Mustang in its historical context".

The book is filled with first person quotes, which made the book a lot more interesting to read. I really got the feeling I was there with the designer (Edgar Schmued) as he overcame all the challenges he faced.

There's lots of photos of airplanes (mostly Mustangs) and of the people that played a role in its history. The focus on the captions is on technical accuracy. You won't find any captions of the "Pretty Mustang in flight" type. As best as possible, the captions tell you exactly which airplane you are looking at in the picture. If you like technical accuracy, you'll love this book.

The Bad

All of the pictures in the book are in black and white. Given their historical nature, my guess is that color was missing from the original pictures, too.

I was also hoping to find more technical details that would help me create a scale model. A couple of three-view drawings of the P51D variant are included, but almost all of the pictures of the Mustangs are side views or three-quarter views.

The Ugly

The biggest issue I have with the book is the reproduction quality of the pictures. They are similar in quality to what you find in a newspaper. I was frustrated that I couldn't see more details in the airplanes.

Conclusion

This is a unique book on an extremely popular scale model airplane subject. It works wonderfully well as a way of understanding the mindset and wartime constraints that led to the design of the fighter. If you are an aviation history buff, I can think of no better book to read. If you are a fan of the P-51, as I am, bring this book along on your next vacation. You won't regret it.

http://www.rcadvisor.com/ founder - Home of the best model airplane calculator. Free!

Author of RCadvisor's Model Airplane Design Made Easy and other books.

Host of Ask the RCadvisor in the free weekly http://www.thecrashcast.com/ podcasts.

AMA Scientific Leader and Contest Director #4601.

A Manifesto for Growing Leaders on Your Campus By Tim Elmore

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IP is over the quota

Judging by the title you know this is a book aimed at helping prune leaders through schools, colleges etc. but I challenge that and say it could be used in just about any environment. Mr. Elmore talks not only about traditional ideas of leadership but also what it can and does mean to so many more people. How many people would never call themselves a leader and yet when given the responsibility of a task or project they are passionate about, take it by the proverbial horns, get some great help and run with it successfully?

They are doubtless leading and yet maybe not in the one dimensional sense of the word. Personally I have two daughters who both show remarkable leadership skills but in very different ways and one of them definitely not in the way one would assume would be considered 'leadership'. They also don't necessarily want the task of leadership and yet each time there is a group project or decisions to be made they are right there making sure the others know their opinions. I love it - I fall under the category of 'natural ability' and want everyone to appreciate my ideas and therefore follow. I know that it unrealistic but I am also an optimist.

Mr. Elmore takes on the question of why we need to help grow leaders, how to spot different leaders and what the development process looks like. He also attacks the status quo of how teaching is mainly done in a very 'left brained' way to students, the majority of whom are 'right brained'. We were audio learners, then visual and now have many kinesthetic learners and education isn't necessarily keeping up. My oldest who is an art student at university cited a statistic that many children by the time they are in second grade have gone from loving art and drawing to saying they 'can't' to anyone who asks them to create for them.

We are teaching kids how to pass tests and not necessarily learn with inspiration and motivation. This is not mud-slinging at teachers as I believe they have their hands tied as well with unruly classrooms and no power to control them - that's another story. Who is identifying the kids who will begin to lead and especially the kids who fall below the top 10%? There are so many stories of extremely successful people throughout the world who didn't do terribly well in the organized classroom setting. My hope is that this book and others that the same author has written will begin to be taken seriously in the world of academia. What can be more important than the next generation?

You can find more of my book and movie reviews at: http://ukchica.com/