Mythbusters

Here is a bit of fun. I think you could make this into a game for a workshop. It basically takes common ideas and myths and confirms or debunks them.
For example you can find out whether a tooth dissolves when left in a glass of cola overnight.
Lots of possibilities here.


http://www.drivl.com/myths

Common Sense

I have found that you can ususally make good activities from ideas about the senses; how they work, how you can trick them and so on. Have a look at this website to see if you can adapt any of the quiz items for your presentation.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/senseschallenge/

Common Sense

I have found that you can ususally make good activities from ideas about the senses; how they work, how you can trick them and so on. Have a look at this website to see if you can adapt any of the quiz items for your presentation.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/senseschallenge/

Sarchasm and More Words

Gift from the internet.
I often ask people in workshops to adapt words to suit their own purposes.

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stop bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Keyboard Garden

Well I can't help myself. Here is a fabulous practical joke for April Fool's Day. Seems you can create a garden in someone else's keyboard.

http://www.nada.kth.se/%7ehjorth/krasse/english.html

Gotta try it with an old keyboard.

Cat's Meow

Just for fun watch this video of cats talking.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6036658873440327262

I laughed out loud when I saw it, but it really made me think of this about communication:

It's not always what someone says, it is how you heard it. It's all in the interpretation.

Entropy and Life

Entropy - I would start by asking people if they had heard of the word.
Perhaps some had, but to define it you can go back to the world of science.
Entropy can be described as the fact that all matter tends to disorder in the absence of constructive energy.

I like this idea. So how could this apply elsewhere in the world?

In the world of business - unless some constructive energy is added, disorder will remain.

In the real world - an ice-cube won't stay an ice-cube, it will become disordered and turn to water unless some constructive energy, in this case, in the form of cold and freezing is added.

I just enjoy the picture this word creates. Watch for good words, you can build big ideas around them.

Visit this blog http://sixdisciplines.blogspot.com/2006/08/small-business-organizational-entropy.html
to read other ideas about business and entropy.

Bet I Answer All Your Questions

I have been doing a particular seminar for years. One part of the seminar I cover the basics of how a process works; kind of a who, what, when, where, why section. I have a handout with those words listed and ask participants to fill in info they find interesting.

So, after all these years I tried to do something a bit different and it worked out really well.
I asked the participants to write down a question about the process. Something they had been wondering about was what I was after. Example: How many volunteers are in this program?

Then I challenged my colleague:

You know, Jennifer, I bet as we work through this information we will answer every single one of the questions that people wrote down on their sheets.

I played it up a bit, a bit of macho strutting, we can do it, etc. Then we covered the information.
At the end I said:

"Well, I am sure we have covered every question you had, right?" Set up time.
Of course we hadn't. People were now pleased to present their questions in a kind of "stumped the panel" part.

It worked out well and I will repeat it every time. I think I might even get chocolates for those who have questions left after our talk.

The key is to ask them to write down their questions at the beginning without telling them they are trying to stump us in any way.