Its about time. Sony has finally upgraded to a 6x Optical zoom digi for your snapping pleasure. Pending May release means that you will be able to get up and close to whatever this Spring. Shakes from the night before? Not to worry, this bad boy is image stablized and anti blur so you dont have to be.
Most people want to be smarter. Those who don’t probably aren’t smart enough to realize there stupidity in the first place. Some educations cost a fortune, while others can be obtained with nothing more than an internet connection. In a series of posts to come, tagged under ‘Get Smart’, I am going to find and report on some of the best FREE resources out there.
Hacking Knowledge: 77 ways to learn Faster, Deeper, and Better offers “77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning.”
Verbal and Auditory Techniques
- Stimulate ideas. Play rhyming games, utter nonsense words. These loosen you up, making you more receptive to learning.
- Brainstorm. This is a time-honored technique that combines verbal activity, writing, and collaboration. (One person can brainstorm, but it’s more effective in a group.) It’s fruitful if you remember some simple rules: Firstly, don’t shut anyone’s idea out. Secondly, don’t “edit” in progress; just record all ideas first, then dissect them later. Participating in brainstorming helps assess what you already know about something, and what you didn’t know.
- Learn by osmosis. Got an iPod? Record a few of your own podcasts, upload them to your iPod and sleep on it. Literally. Put it under your pillow and playback language lessons or whatever.
- Cognitive enhancers: binaural beats. Binaural beats involve playing two close frequencies simultaneously to produce alpha, beta, delta, and theta waves, all of which produce either sleeping, restfulness, relaxation, meditativeness, alertness, or concentration. Binaural beats are used in conjunction with other excercises for a type of super-learning.
- Laugh. Laughing relaxes the body. A relaxed body is more receptive to new ideas.
Get your life in order! BackPackIt lets you keep your to-dos, notes, ideas, and schedule online. All the hip kids these days are keeping track of their lives with trendy moleskins, but think about all the time you waste transferring your ideas to the web, not to mention the unsightly beer stains picked up while slugging PBR at happy hour.
