A recent study showing that running helps grow new braincells:

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v2/n3/full/nn0399_266.html

So, if you want to be smarter, exercise!

New pictures for my wall. I was going to get only one big one, but I liked several of them so I got them all (in smaller sizes). Here they are:

This one is long but skinny. It is mount Everest:

This one is in a different room to tie the two together:

And that’s it. What do you think?

Some people think genius is something you are born with. Not true. Intelligence is indeed a skill that can be developed, as we shall see.

Of course your DNA does affect your base intelligence. In 1958 some scientists bred some rats over generations to be specifically smart or dumb (measured by how well they ran through mazes). Here is a graph representing those rats:

So then they took a group of each type of rat, and put them in awful environments. Poor lighting, nothing interesting, just eat and sleep all day. Both groups of rats ended up completely dumb. In fact, there was no statistical difference between the two. Here is a graph representing those rats:

Then they got some more rats and put them in an awesome environment. They gave them all the rat toys they could ever desire. Everything they needed. Turned out both rats were amazingly smart, smarter than any of them were before:

There is a slight difference between the two, but not much.

In other words, how you develop your brain is much more important for your intelligence than the DNA you are born with.

Now, this has been known since 1958 or so. But for many years, it was assumed that the brain could only be changed while you were still growing. That there was a window you had to take advantage of when you were young otherwise your intelligence growing capabilities were gone forever.

However, in the last 10 years scientists have observed that adult humans can and do grow new braincells when we learn.

Now the question several researchers are working on is the best way to increase your intelligence. It is still an open question, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to figure out a way yourself!

OK, My next post will be intellectual I promise, but this song is just awesome. Everyone has their own point of view.

I have nothing to add

Remember parents, teach your kids to work so they don’t turn out like this.

I recently came across this movie, I think it is the most beautiful movie I have seen in a long time. Check it out, even if you check out nothing else today:

Continue reading →

I had a friend who went to the San Diego zoo recently, and took a picture petting a rhino. It was so friendly! As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to find out if you can ride them.

Turns out you can! Rhinos seem to be like giant cows. So, when I have a farm, I will have a mustang to ride, a zebra, and a rhino. We will have fun running among the trees, scaring the birds. I will get a short horned rhino to reduce the chances of injury. Also, I will get a female because the males mark their territory with 3-foot piles of dung. Gross.

This Shakespearean Sonnet says that real love does not change, it stays solid and strong like a rock or a mountain; but a mountain will eventually erode away, whereas love will not.

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark 
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle’s compass come: 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

PS In Shakespeare’s day, bark meant boat

In the late 60s, Don Kirshner created musical groups. He did all the work for groups like The Monkees, got people to write their songs, got people to play instruments for them, figured out which songs would be good to play, and made them successful. The band didn’t like him though, and kicked him out. He didn’t want any more trouble with artists, so for his next band, he got a bunch of cartoon characters together. They were successful, and never betrayed him. Here is one of the biggest hits from The Archies. (Band names were so much simpler then)

This song style is called Bubblegum Pop, because the groups had their own brand of bubblegum. You could go into the store and get bubblegum from your favorite group. It is a simple style, light, upbeat, fun, and appeals to teenagers and kids. Not like that hardcore Beatles stuff!

I went rock climbing with my brother. He is an expert and showed me how.

At first I was having a lot of trouble. I climbed up part-way and then got really tired. Then I realized have a rope, and I can just hang there in the air while I rest. So I climbed a few feet, then rested a while. Then climbed a few more, then rested again. Then finally I made it.

My brother reassured me that the rope is strong enough to hold an elephant. Even so, I kept thinking thoughts of death and the movie Vertical Limit. But I climbed anyway.