A friend has been doing a lot of research on China lately, and we had several conversations early today that stemmed from that. The Olympics and the World Expo were brought up, as well as current pro's and con's to the major government types in existence today.

There was an increased depth of light conversation that made me smile. All social environments are different, but at certain times, under the right conditions, some environments can definitely be more stimulating, educational, or productive than others.

On top of that, what did I learn today?
- Recent U.S. passports have a note inside that says, "This document contains sensitive electronics." Evidently those electronics can be destroyed by about 4 seconds in a microwave oven.
- Some people use images of 3d spaces in their minds in order to keep track of certain things, such as counting cards. One individual I talked to said he pictured a room with items placed all around it. Each card was associated with a different item. A 6 of Hearts was represented by a guitar. Reason being, heart strings related to strings on a guitar, and a guitar has 6 strings. Each time a card comes up, the individual pictures walking around the room and posting a sticky note on the object. Then you can count the sticky not to know how many of those cards have appeared. By assigning each card a different object, and each object a certain spot in a 3 dimensional space, your brain does a better job of keeping track of everything.