Thursday, October 3, 2013

Public discussion "Drawing is Easy"

"Drawing is Easy" with Jeremie Lederman

On September 25th, I gave a talk at Gangplank HQ in Chandler, Arizona. It was an impromptu talk as the otherwise scheduled speaker was unable to attend.


The topic was "Drawing is Easy / What drawing is and all of the things it is not." The purpose of the discussion was to dispel many of the misconceptions regarding the act of drawing. Drawing is as normal a human activity as anything else we do, however, the cognitive benefits of drawing are invaluable.

Some of the points made during the talk included:
• Drawing is something we are already hardwired to do
• Drawing is not art
• Drawing has no species requirement

• Drawing helps to develop many of the brains cognitive strengths




Recorded and edited by my good friend Ita Udo-Ema at http://www.viewfromabove.net/

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Fun Factoids for Fall Frivolity


Here's a bunch of fun factoids....

And when I say 'factoid,' I mean to say, go ahead and prove them all wrong if that's what floats your cupcakes...


TO BEGIN WITH:
Your brain makes snapshots, not movies. Unless it knows that it has a job to do, it will just use the snapshots to interpret what it thinks you need to see...

Stare in the middle of this, and watch your brain kick in with it's unique 'interpretations.'




  1. The British Army issues antimicrobial underwear that soldiers can wear for months at a time.
  2. In the entire state of Ohio in 1895, there were only two cars on the road and the drivers of those two cars crashed into each other.
  3. Listening to music for an hour every day can reduce chronic pain by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%
  4. In China, you can be a professional flatulence smeller and make about $50,000.00 USD a year.
  5. Ben & Jerry’s actually has a graveyard where they bury all of its discontinued flavors.
  6. Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com lost his girlfriend to a man she met on Match.com.
  7. Hitler suffered from chronic flatulence and took 28 different drugs to fight it.
  8. Reincarnation is forbidden in China without permission from the government.
  9. At one time, the US army used color blind people to spot camouflage colors that fooled those with normal color vision
  10. You are more likely to remember something you’ve written in blue ink than something you’ve written in black ink.
  11. When a person lies, the temperature of their nose rises -- This is known as the “Pinocchio Effect.”
  12. You are more likely to be killed by a vending machine than you are to hit the Mega Millions jackpot.
  13. In Iowa, it is legal for an employer to fire a female employee for being too sexy.
  14. It takes about 15 minutes for a man to decide whether or not he’ll go out on a second date.
  15. Dogs, just like humans, are more likely to steal objects in the dark when they think they cannot be seen.
  16. The shiny coating you see on various candies is called “shellac” - A substance which is secreted from the anus of the female Lac bug.
  17. Artificial Raspberry flavoring is partially milked from the anal glands of beavers. Beaver anal glands, known as castoreum (I guess anal glands was a hard sell), are typically used in vanilla and raspberry flavoring and can legally be labeled natural flavoring
    L-cysteine or cystine is used a dough conditioner. It’s sometimes made from human hair, but more and more from duck feathers and can be found in breads and baked goods.

    A red food coloring additive that goes by many names (Carmine, Crimson Lake, Cochineal, or Natural Red #4) is made from insects like the cochineal beetle.
  18. Watching a horror movie can burn up to 200 calories - The same as walking for half an hour.
  19. The pilot episode of the show “Courage the Cowardly Dog” was actually nominated for an Oscar.
  20. If you take your age and multiple it by 7, then multiply it by 1,443, the product repeats your age 3 times.
  21. If you make a fist with your left hand and squeeze your left thumb, this will bypass your gag reflex.
  22. Dead people can still get goose bumps.
  23. People see you as being about 20% more attractive than you think you are.
  24. Early Christians were called "atheists" by Romans as they didn't pay tribute to pagan gods.
  25. In 1980, a 2.5 GB disk drive was the size of a refrigerator and cost about $40,000
  26. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
  27. Coca-Cola was originally green
  28. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
  29. In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders.
  30. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour.
  31. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
  32. Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.
  33. There are more chickens than people in the world.
  34. The porpoise is second to man as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
  35. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
  36. The Average man could lift over 25 Tons if All of the muscles in his body could pull in one direction.