Showing posts with label interesting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interesting. Show all posts
Friday, February 01, 2008
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
What is genius?
I recently read a theory that proposes that all people have the same basic mental capacity, and that the only differences are how that capacity is divided. The theory posits that normal people have a more equal distribution of capacity - think of brain capacity as a pie, divided into relatively equal pieces. Geniuses have an overly large portion of one or more parts of the pie. However, since we all have the same basic capacity, other portions of the whole would be reduced. It is commonly believed that people who are considered genius often have odd deficiencies in some behavioral or mental areas.
The equal capacity theory goes on to define idiot savants as individuals who have an abnormal abundance in one mental area, and therefore extreme deficiencies in many other areas. Such individuals can perform seemingly impossible mental tasks such as complex mathematics, but cannot tell time or remember to feed their dog. Below is a fascinating video about Stephen Wiltshire, which seems to demonstrate this interesting theory.
The equal capacity theory goes on to define idiot savants as individuals who have an abnormal abundance in one mental area, and therefore extreme deficiencies in many other areas. Such individuals can perform seemingly impossible mental tasks such as complex mathematics, but cannot tell time or remember to feed their dog. Below is a fascinating video about Stephen Wiltshire, which seems to demonstrate this interesting theory.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Always interesting factoids
Butterflies taste with their feet.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs ...... but not downstairs.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
A snail can sleep for three years..
No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH."
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!!
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
All polar bears are left-handed.
In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow.
Don't forget to pass these weird facts on to everyone you know.
They will get a kick out of it !!
You tried to lick your elbow, didn't you?
Courtesy of www.frogview.com
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs ...... but not downstairs.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
A snail can sleep for three years..
No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH."
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!!
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
All polar bears are left-handed.
In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
Almost everyone who reads this will try to lick their elbow.
Don't forget to pass these weird facts on to everyone you know.
They will get a kick out of it !!
You tried to lick your elbow, didn't you?
Courtesy of www.frogview.com
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