Kathryn Smith

Regular mom and wife, just trying to always be a good person, and teach my kids to do the same.

[Ihtesham Ali @ihtesham2005]

A Norwegian neuroscientist spent 20 years proving that the act of writing by hand changes the human brain in ways typing physically cannot, and almost nobody outside her field has read the paper.

Her name is Audrey van der Meer.

She runs a brain research lab in Trondheim, and the paper that closed the argument was published in 2024 in a journal called Frontiers in Psychology. The finding is brutal enough that it should have changed every classroom on Earth.

The experiment was simple. She recruited 36 university students and put each one in a cap with 256 sensors pressed against their scalp to record brain activity. Words flashed on a screen one at a time.

Sometimes the students wrote the word by hand on a touchscreen using a digital pen, and sometimes they typed the same word on a keyboard. Every neural response was recorded for the full five seconds the word stayed on screen.

Then her team looked at the part of the data most researchers had ignored for years, which is how different parts of the brain were communicating with each other during the task.

When the students wrote by hand, the brain lit up everywhere at once.

The regions responsible for memory, sensory integration, and the encoding of new information were all firing together in a coordinated pattern that spread across the entire cortex. The whole network was awake and connected.

When the same students typed the same word, that pattern collapsed almost completely.

Most of the brain went quiet, and the connections between regions that had been alive seconds earlier were nowhere to be found on the EEG.

Same word, same brain, same person, and two completely different neurological events.

The reason turned out to be something nobody had really paid attention to before her work. Writing by hand is not one motion but a sequence of thousands of tiny micro-movements coordinated with your eyes in real time, where each letter is a different shape that requires the brain to solve a slightly different spatial problem.

Your fingers, wrist, vision, and the parts of your brain that track position in space are all working together to produce one letter, then the next, then the next.

Typing throws all of that away. Every key on a keyboard requires the exact same finger motion regardless of which letter you are pressing, which means the brain has almost nothing to integrate and almost no problem to solve.

Van der Meer said it plainly in her interviews.

Pressing the same key with the same finger over and over does not stimulate the brain in any meaningful way, and she pointed out something that should scare every parent who handed their kid an iPad.

Children who learn to read and write on tablets often cannot tell letters like b and d apart, because they have never physically felt with their bodies what it takes to actually produce those letters on a page.

A decade before her, two researchers at Princeton ran the same fight using a completely different method and ended up at the same answer. Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer tested 327 students across three experiments, where half took notes on laptops with the internet disabled and half took notes by hand, before testing everyone on what they actually understood from the lectures they had watched.

The handwriting group won by a wide margin on every question that required real understanding rather than surface recall.

The reason was hiding in the transcripts of what the two groups had actually written down.

The laptop students typed almost word for word, capturing more total content but processing almost none of it as they went, while the handwriting students physically could not write fast enough to transcribe a lecture in real time, which forced them to listen carefully, decide what actually mattered, and put it in their own words on the page.

That single act of choosing what to keep was the learning itself, and the keyboard had quietly skipped the choosing and skipped the learning along with it.

Two studies. Two countries. Same answer.

Handwriting makes the brain work. Typing lets it coast.

Every note you have ever typed instead of written went into your brain through a thinner pipe. Every meeting, every book highlight, every idea you captured on your phone instead of on paper was processed at half depth.

You did not forget those things because your memory is bad. You forgot them because typing never woke the part of the brain that would have made them stick.

The fix is the thing your grandmother already knew.

Pick up a pen. Write the thing down. The slower road is the faster one.

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

Agnes Mary Clerke was born in 1842 in Skibbereen, County Cork, into a world that did not expect women to interpret the stars. Ireland was still reeling from famine and political upheaval, and formal scientific institutions were closed to women. There were no observatory posts waiting for her. No university lectures welcoming her. No professional pathway laid out.

So she built one anyway.

Agnes did not become an astronomer by standing at a telescope night after night. She became one by mastering knowledge so completely that the men who did have access to telescopes had to respect her. She read everything—observatory reports, foreign-language journals, mathematical treatises. She absorbed discoveries from across Europe and translated them into clear, powerful analysis.

Her 1885 book *A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century* was not “popular” in the lightweight sense. It was rigorous, comprehensive, and intellectually commanding. Scientists relied on it. Scholars cited it. She became one of the most authoritative voices explaining the revolution happening in astrophysics—spectroscopy, stellar classification, solar physics—at a time when astronomy was transforming from stargazing into modern science.

And she did it without formal academic credentials.

That matters.

Agnes lived in London for much of her adult life, moving in scientific circles that still barred women from membership. She was denied full access to institutions, yet she shaped how those institutions understood their own progress. In 1903, she was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society—an extraordinary acknowledgment in an era when women were excluded from fellowship.

She proved something powerful: you do not need permission to think. You do not need institutional approval to master a field. You do not need to physically stand at the instrument to interpret what it reveals.

© Women In World History

#archaeohistories

[Catholic Sat @CatholicSat]

Pope Leo XIV in a very practical Lenten Message to all Christians says:

“I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves. Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities. In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”

Full text here: https://t.co/GTHINqW7wR

[Knights of Columbus @KofC]

Today we celebrate St. Valentine, not just candy hearts and roses, but courageous, sacrificial love. ❤️

According to tradition, Valentine was a priest who continued to witness and bless Christian marriages at a time when it was forbidden. He believed love was worth defending. He believed marriage was worth protecting, and he ultimately gave his life for that conviction.

Real love isn’t just a feeling. It’s a choice. It’s faithful. It’s brave.

On this Valentine’s Day, let’s thank God for the gift of love, in marriage, in friendship, in family life, and ask for the grace to love with strength and self-gift, not just sentiment.

St. Valentine, pray for us.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

[Trad West @trad_west_]

Today is Valentine's day. For Catholics it is the feast of Saint Valentine.

Emperor Claudius II banned marriage for young men because he believed single men made better soldiers (no attachments).

Valentine defied the Empire because he followed the laws of God, not of men.

He married couples in secret by candlelight in the catacombs.

He knew that the State does not own the Family.

He was beaten with clubs and beheaded on February 14, 269 AD.

He died protecting the sacrament of Matrimony.
This sacrament is under attack today from all sides, now more than ever.

Sister Lucia said: "The final battle between Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family."

So instead of celebrating a secular Valentine's day, celebrate the life of this great saint who was martyred for his love of God.

[Kathryn Smith @Ksmith603]

@Walmart : not necessarily a criticism, rather an honest question; why are there no strawberries from the United States in this bag, when I bought it in the United States?

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

I would like us to remember the Lord’s words: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). It is truly so! If we concretely love those who are hungry and thirsty, those without clothing, those who are sick, strangers, or prisoners, then we are loving the Lord.

[Jan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @RosaryMum]

Grandma's prayers are the reason a lot of us are still here.

[Jan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @RosaryMum]

Saints Simon & Jude, Apostles & Martyrs, pray for us!

[Catholic Podcasts @Cath0licP0dcast]

If you see this i prayed for you without your consent

[Kathryn Smith @Ksmith603]

If @GovKathyHochul values New Yorkers who use this service, she will prioritize the issue.

I pray those who already feel forgotten about and are marginalized every day, can continue to be able to access and use this extremely valuable service.

https://t.co/kyC1xbfvx5

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

When grumpy neighbors report kids skating in front of their house.

[Kaizen D. Asiedu @thatsKAIZEN]

This is how D.E.I. destroyed LA Fire Department’s ability to deal with the LA fires.

[Dudes Posting Their W’s @DudespostingWs]

Dude plays a banjo on a mountain and a little Fox shows up to listen

[Kathryn Smith @Ksmith603]

@Moes_HQ
Not cool Moe's, not cool....second time in a row I've ordered a kids meal with a drink and a cookie, and didn't got neither a drink, nor a cookie 😡😡
Your online ordering system needs some tweaking.....
Also ordered green salsa, not red.....

[Kathryn Smith @Ksmith603]

@Thehullboy1 You are an absolute sweetheart and whatever that post said doesn't matter (I can't see it, looks like it's been deleted).
I see YOU, and I love that you put yourself out there. DON'T STOP! Chicks love that ❤

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🚨 ALERT: Asheville, NC is a TOTAL blackout zone, so we’ve set up TWO Starlink Stations for Public Use

Even NC State Police aren’t able to connect to cellular networks, so they’re using our Starlinks now.

SPOT 1:
DoubleTree Hilton Downtown
199 Haywood
SSID: SORTOR STARLINK
Pass: ncstrong

SPOT 2:
Asheville Shelter
Ferguson Building
340 Victoria Rd
SSID: HALL STARLINK
Pass: ncstrong

Spread this for ANYONE in the affected area. It’s been days since anyone’s been able to connect to cellular out here.

@ChrisHallWx and I have had these up and running for an hour, and I lost count of the amount of people that’ve told us they’ve FINALLY been able to connect with friends and family and let them know they’re okay 🙂

I’m sure this post will have someone run up my data bill just to troll me, but so be it.

We’ve connected Asheville back to the world! 🙌🏻

[Biz Thoughts @Biz_thoughtss]

Those who died yesterday had plans for this morning.
#Motivation

[Kathryn Smith @Ksmith603]

The introduction of the MATCH IT Act is a huge step forward in protecting patients’ safety and privacy. We must address patient misidentification today. @repmolinarony19, please cosponsor the H.R.7379, the MATCH IT Act today! #AHIMAadvocates #patientIDnow