This article warns: “In a society flooded with mobile phones, Blackberry devices and computers of various shapes and sizes, a quarter of all Britons do not know their own landline number while as little as a third can recall more than three birthdays of their immediate family.”

Oh no! The world is coming to an end!

Hang on a second… doesn’t this sound just a wee bit familiar?

When I was a kid, I heard this exact same thing about electronic calculators destroying the math skills of our youth. And about digital watches that were doing the same for the ability to read a traditional clock, and later about home computers with spell-checking that were eradicating peoples’ ability to spell.

Calculators were banned in all of the schools I attended; now they’re required for most high-school math courses. I had several English teachers in high school who would automatically mark any paper that was obviously produced on a computer as an ‘F’, because the computer was doing the work for you; these days most teachers prefer papers written on a computer, and you’re expected to have access to one (at least at the public library) to get anything done. Yet oddly enough, most people can still do enough math in their heads to realize when the McDonald’s guy has short-changed them. And even the slowest people don’t have a problem telling when it’s quitting time, regardless of whether the clock at their workplace is digital or analog. And if spell checkers have made any difference to spelling, I haven’t noticed it — they’re practically ubiquitous these days, and a good percentage of people still write as if they’re only semi-literate.

I don’t use a mobile phone, but my Palm TX has earned the nickname of my “external brain.” It remembers appointments, telephone numbers, shopping lists, to-do lists, and any other information that I need to keep on hand, and various memory aids have done so for me for the last decade or more. Despite this, I can still tell you the birthdays of my wife, my sisters, my mother, and my first cat, all off the top of my head. Just as I can still do a good deal of math in my head, read an analog clock, and write with only the occasional spelling mistake, even on paper. Amazing, isn’t it?

A Chinese city called Chongqing is going for a world record with the newly-opened four-story toilet facility.

“We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV,” said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or “Foreigners Street,” tourist area where the bathroom is. “After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy.”

Well, Mr. Lu, that depends on how badly they needed to go beforehand, eh? 😉

Okay, it’s not the proper use of the term (which means “the fear of Friday the 13th”), but it was such an interesting word that I had to find a way to put it in a blog title.