Steven Pinker on language

TedTalks: Steven Pinker: What our language habits reveal is an informationally dense talk. You can use the transcript menu option on the bottom, right of the video to read along while listening.

Steven Pinker's bio - Quote, "Linguist Steven Pinker questions the very nature of our thoughts -- the way we use words, how we learn, and how we relate to others. In his best-selling books, he has brought sophisticated language analysis to bear on topics of wide general interest."

Get your Downton Abbey fix

If you are still withdrawing from your Downton Abbey addiction, perhaps these links will help:

Printable quotes from Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

The Simple Explanation of Downton Abbey

If Downton Abbey took place entirely on Facebook: Season 3

New casting details for Downton Abbey 4th season

Downton Abbey Road

Printable Downton Abbey paper dolls

Downton Abbey Bingo

Downton Abbey Cartoon on Pinterest

Disney's Downton Abbey

The Downside of Downton Abbey

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

Soft-edge piecing for quilting

Jinny Beyer Studio has beautiful quilting patterns, tutorials, fabrics, notions and tools. She also has a JinnyBeyerStudio channel on YouTube.

I'm particularly enamored by her paisleys in the Renaissance Garden fabric collection and the beautiful technique she uses called soft-edge piecing, which is a perfect way to highlight the beautiful paisleys in quilts.

She has provided a free, downloadable Renaissance Garden quilt pattern and soft-edge piecing instruction sheet. There is also a video tutorial for soft-edge piecing, which you can view below.

What makes us happy?

TEDTalks has created a 7 video series of lecturers discussing the various aspects of happiness.

Quote, "We all want to be happy. But how, exactly, do you go about it? More stuff or less? More choice or less? The answers -- from psychologists, journalists, Buddhist monks -- may surprise you.

What makes us happy?

http://www.ted.com/playlists/4/what_makes_us_happy.html

Free Strathmore art classes 2013

Our body language

Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, shows how "power posing" -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.



TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

Slick

Great flashmob marketing: Colin Robertson's speaker profile on TED.

TheShutterSchool

Dustin Thompson started his YouTube channel TheShutterSchool to help beginners and advanced photographers learn new techniques and enhance their photography skills.

So far there are 3 videos posted and I look forward to new additions.

• Welcome to The Shutter School
• Episode 1: Black and white head shots made simple
• Episode 2: Levitation Photos

Relief

A friend of mine sent this email today. I lalalalaloved it!

So much so, I decided to search the title, 'Whew! What a relief to learn this...' to see its general origins of the email and whether any articles were written the the subject matter.

General origins:

• New research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky suggests that passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses.

• The Psychology of Whew!

• On Near Misses and Completed Tasks: The Nature of Relief

My favourite articles written on the subject matter explored a relatively unstudied concept: relief.

Subject: Whew! What a relief to learn this...

Ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind, only to completely forget what that purpose was?

Turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses.

Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what's known as an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next. Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale.

Thank goodness for studies like this. It's not our age, it's that damn door!

The evolution of Mom dancing

Michelle Obama grooving on the Jimmy Fallon Show to promote her Let's Move campaign to end childhood obesity.