Tim Wilson has a useful set of suggestions on how to close a speech. One of my favourites, that he doesn't mention, is to leave with a challenging thought. It could be a question, but doesn't have to be. It should produce "an ah-ha moment" or a smile from the audience, of understanding and agreement.
[Via Braingle] You exercise your body to stay physically in shape, so why shouldn't you exercise your brain to stay mentally fit? With these daily exercises you will learn how to flex your mind, improve your creativity and boost your memory. As with any exercise, repetition is necessary for you to see improvement, so pick […]
Why reading this story might cause you to clean out the fridge--and other mysteries explained Why am I so hungry after writing one of these columns? I have often wondered. Now comes an answer.A study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine contends that intellectual work—that’s right, I’m calling writing this stuff, ya know, intellectual—induces a big […]
"Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your […]
by Kathy Reichs Dr. Temperance Brennan's quest to identify two corpses pits her against citizen vigilantes intent on a witch-hunt in bestseller Reichs's exciting 11th thriller to feature the forensic anthropologist (after 2007's Bones to Ashes). While working in Charlotte, N.C., Brennan investigates remains unearthed during a housing renovation and discovers disturbing clues possibly […]
by David McCullough Hollywood has made John Adams and American history sexy again, but don't cheat! Read this meticulously researched biography before watching the miniseries starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Here a preeminent master of narrative history takes on the most fascinating of our founders to create a benchmark for all Adams biographers. […]
[Via Children's Bookshelf] Earlier this month, the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City hosted an eight-hour reading marathon to raise money for Book Wagon, a charity that provides children living in local housing projects with books. Throughout the day, 10 young readers in first through fifth grade sprawled out in the bookstore aisles and […]
with W Mitchell, CSP, CPAE How many professional speakers have you heard speak in the past 10-20 years? A lot, we’ll bet. How many of their presentations have stood out to you as truly memorable? Probably just a few. Do you think that if your presentations were more memorable, you’d be asked to speak more […]
by Gregory Maguire "Hardly more than a kitten . . . I had thought to call it Prrr, but it shivers more often than it purrs, so I call it Brrr instead." —From Wicked Since Wicked was first published in 1995, millions of readers have discovered Gregory Maguire's fantastically encyclopedic Oz, a world filled with […]
"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
