The study shows that those who suffer most over speaking in public get more anxious, not less anxious, as their presentation gets under way. And when it's over, instead of feeling relief, they feel even more anxious.
The Six Sacred Stones: a novel
By Matthew Reilly
The wildly imaginative Reilly has taken inspiration from comics, video games, movies, thrillers and Code-style puzzle novels to create this rocket-fuelled sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders. After completing a 10-year mission to acquire the Golden Capstone of the Great Pyramid from what's left of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Jack West Jr. has retired to the Australian outback to raise his adopted daughter, Lily. Jack's pal, Professor Max T. Epper, known as Wizard, has discovered that the Dark Sun, a mysterious heavenly body, is due to emerge in nine days, triggering the Apocalypse. Ultimate disaster can only be averted if someone can locate the six legendary Pillars, cleanse them with the Philosopher's Stone and insert them in the 6 Vertices, thereby causing the Great Machine to power on and negate the fatal blast from the Dark Sun. If anyone can perform these Herculean labors, it's Reilly's resourceful hero. A pervasive tongue-in-cheek quality (one that extends to the low tech–looking maps and illustrations) will help readers find this outlandish adventure thrilling.
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"This business of hozho. The way I understand it ... I'll use an example. Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. Spring dried out. No water. The Hopi, or the Christian, maybe the Moslem, they pray for rain. The Navajo has the proper ceremony done to restore himself to harmony with the drought. You see what I mean. The system is designed to recognize what's beyond human power to change, and then to change the human's attitude to be content with the inevitable."
-- in 'Sacred Clowns' by Tony Hillerman
Shadra Strickland was recently named the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator of 2009, just weeks after receiving the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award on January 26, 2008 for her illustrations in the picture book Bird (Lee & Low, 2008).
The honors were the furthest things from Strickland’s mind when she and I first met last June on a return flight to New York from the American Library Association conference in San Diego. At the time, she was an enthusiastic young passenger sharing the proofs of her drawings for Bird with her seatmate. more » » »
To create effective backgrounds in PowerPoint is one of the most challenging tasks for a presenter, as balancing visual impact, layout balance, properly matching colors while keeping great legibility is nothing that I would consider easy. Article continues
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by Ann M Martin and Laura Godwin Illustrated by Brian Selznick |
Best friends Annabelle Doll and Tiffany Funcraft are back, and this time they've got an unexpected visitor, a new doll named Tilly May. In this masterfully plotted third book in the Doll People series, Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, with the help of Brian Selznick's captivating black-and-white illustrations, take the reader on another exhilarating adventure from a doll's-eye view.
Our ability to remember the objects, places and people within our environment is essential for everyday life, although the importance of this is only fully appreciated when recognition memory beings to fail, as in Alzheimer’s disease.
By blocking certain mechanisms that control the way that nerve cells in the brain communicate, scientists from the University of Bristol have been able to prevent visual recognition memory in rats
A single neuron (centre) in the perirhinal cortex which is involved in memory processes. (Credit: Photo by Andy Doherty)
This demonstrates they have identified cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain that may provide a key to understanding processes of recognition memory.
http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/cotsen/exhibitions/index.html
Princeton University's virtual exhibit of past exhibits of children's book illustrations offers visuals and brief explanations geared towards children and adults. The easy-to-use website is divided into four virtual exhibits, that contain a portion of what the physical exhibits at the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton University displayed. The four exhibits can be accessed by clicking on their links on the homepage. The "Water Babies" exhibit contains illustrations of swimming, and was meant as a respite for kids who couldn't escape the city's heat. Each illustration in the virtual exhibit is accompanied by a short synopsis of the book or publication it came from, and often a web link or reading suggestion for more information on the author, illustrator, or subject matter of the book.
The "Magic Lantern" virtual exhibit contains illustrations of magic lanterns, a type of projector widely available for home use, that were the precursors to film and television, and which enthralled children and adults alike. The "Creepy-Crawlies" exhibit highlighted the many illustrations of insects in children's books and natural history. The insects in children's books were most often portrayed as evil or villainous. But, if visitors can put those feelings aside, they will find many beautifully rendered drawings. The physical "Beatrix Potter" exhibit coincided with the publication of the Beatrix Potter Collection of Lloyd Cotsen in 2004, and the virtual exhibit contains illustrations by Potter, and others, with whom the visitor can use for comparison, to see Potter's unique style.
"Your imagination is your preview to life’s coming attractions."
-- Albert Einstein
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Resource for the Week
Motivational Music from Bob Falstein
Whenever I listen to his music, I am put in the right frame of mind." —Dee Dee Tucker
"Bob Falstein's music is magical! I love his CDs." —Carolina Girimonte, Communication Coach
This is motivational music that you can play for yourself or at your seminars, meetings and groups. Find out more about this music.
Jan has a useful post about using 3D in Powerpoint -
Many 3D effects are NOT useful. Three dimensional graphs make it harder to match the data to the value axes. Adding "random" bevels, reflections and shadows to a PowerPoint object does not make it an elegant graphical element. The fact that PowerPoint can do it, does not mean you have to use it.
Why don't we use 3D for what it can do best: show distance? The example below shows a time line that we expect to last forever.
