The ability to memorize things seems to be a vanishing   technique.So what can we do to bring out brain cells back into action? A newly published book on memory, Moomvalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer, makes a telling point, one that is an analysis of the importance of memorising events and stories in human history; the decline of its role in modem life; and the techniques that we need to adopt to restore the art of remembering. As For points out, we no longer need to remember telephone numbers.Our mobile phones do that for us.We don't recall addresses either.We send emails from computers that store electronic addresses.Nor do we bother to remember multiplication tables   .Pocket calculators do the job of multiplying quite nicely.Museums, photographs, the digital media and books also act as storehouses for memories that once we had to keep in mind. As a result, we no longer remember long poems or folk stories by heart, feats   of memory that were once the cornerstones of most people's lives.Indeed, society has changed so much that we no longer know what techniques we should employ to remember such lengthy works.We are, quite simply, forgetting how to remember. And let's face it, there is nothing sadder than someone who has lost their mobile phone and who finds they cannot even phone home or call their parents or partners because they cannot remember a single telephone number.That is a sad example of loss of personal independence.So, yes, there is a need for us to he able to remember certain things in life. Therefore, Foer's book outlines the methods that need to be mastered in order to promote our memories and regain the ability to recall long strings of names, numbers or faces.In the process, he adds, we will become more aware of the world about us. The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as " elaborative encoding", which involves transforming information, such as a shopping list, into a series of "absorbing visual images".If you want to remember a list of household objects--potatoes, cottage cheese, sugar and other items, then _ them in an unforgettable manner, he says.Start by creating an image of a large jar of potatoes standing in the garden.Next to it, imagine a giant tub of cottage cheese--the size of an outdoor pool--and then picture Lady Gaga swimming in it.And so on.Each image should be as fantastic and memorable as possible. Using methods like this, it becomes possible to achieve great feats of memory quite easily, Foer says.It certainly seems to have worked for him: he won the annual US Memory Championships after learning how to memorize 120 random digits in five minutes; the first and last names of 156 strangers in 15 minutes; and a deck of cards in under two minutes."What I had really trained my brain to do, as much as to memorise, was to be more mindful and to pay attention to the world around," he says. These techniques employed by Foer to master his memory were developed by Ed Cooke--a British writer and a world memory championship grandmaster.He acted as Foer's trainer during preparations for the book and helped him achieve his championship performances." Memory techniques do just one thing: they make information more meaningful to the mind, making the things we try to learn unforgettably bright and amusing," said Cooke. This passage can be sorted as   _  .
a news report an advertisement a scientific discovery a book review