JibJab Animations Starring You!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!The masters of pixel-based puppeteering have made it easy for us to insert unsuspecting loved ones into hilarious productions.

(This is my wife and myself dancing very similarly to how we perform at weddings!)

10 Ways to Improve Your Press Releases

These helpful tips are great for drafting many other communication tools, too. Brochures. Take-aways. Instructions for your kids.

clipped from www.visualthesaurus.com There are many voices calling for the death of the press release. What is needed is not execution but reform. I wrote a moby-post on my blog listing 62 Ways to Improve Your Press Release. Here are ten suggestions that relate to the process of writing (other tips deal with managing the process and alternatives to press releases):

Sunny Side of the Brain

clipped from features.us.reuters.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Imagine receiving a big chunk of cash in the future. Or winning a prize. Chances are, such optimistic thoughts are coming from two places in the brain that play an important role in enabling people to, as the old song says, accentuate the positive, New York University scientists said Wednesday. Pinpointing the brain regions involved in optimism and positive thinking about the future, the researchers said, may also have shed light on what might be going wrong in people with depression. The researchers used sophisticated brain imaging to track brain activity in 15 young adults -- seven men and eight women -- while they asked them imagine future scenarios. They included getting a lot of money, winning an award, going to a birthday party or ball game or the zoo, being lied to, the end of a romantic relationship, going to a funeral and others.

Animator vs. Animation

Artist's Comments:

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself. A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself. -- This took three long months.. i think it's worth it.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Dwell's Design Leader: Ken Isaacs

From the Dwell Magazine Design Leaders video series.

Architect Ken Isaacs reflects on the innovative projects that defined his career, from the Shoebox House to the Knowledge Box.

Pop!Tech 2007: Crutch Master

Bill Shannon | Shannon Arts

Here’s a partial list of attributes you must possess to be Bill Shannon: a sense of wonder, a curiosity about what it means to be human, a skateboard, an interest in furthering the dialectic of art in performance, several hundred thousand YouTube hits, discipline, rocker-bottom crutches, a hip-hop soundtrack, and the remnants of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. Bill’s work is based on street performance, club culture, and the fine arts. His performance and video work have been presented nationally and internationally over the past ten years at numerous venues, festivals, and events. He has exhibited at the Tate Liverpool Museum and has choreographed specific elements of Cirque du Soleil’s production of Varekai. Bill’s work can be described as part break dancing, part social experiment. “I create performances that stand in for real life,” he says. “I need to do this because in real life, I often experience genuine acts of Good Samaritanism as obstacles.”

IFVP & Pop!Tech

There is a whole lot of stuff going on this week in the realm of sharing big ideas and visual learning.

First, the International Forum of Visual Practitioners is gathered in Santa Fe, New Mexico to share insight, technology and techniques of graphic recording and facilitation.

So a big shout out to members of our network who are in attendance!

Second, there is a lots of mindblowing stuff being presented in Camden, Maine at Pop!Tech.

www.flickr.com

This year, the three-day big-ideas bonanza traverses "The Human Impact," digging deep into "some of the many ways human beings impact - and are impacted by - the world and each other." A rich and diverse group of speakers discusses each topic, from exploring the core source of ideas to the implementations and actual realization of ideas, and ultimately, how new and novel ideas and bottom-up thinking can and will change the world we live in.

Topics include the health of the world's oceans, mapping emotions, the pursuit of happiness, plus remarkable social innovations in lighting, health care and sustainable cities (in China!).

As "house artist", I am perched in the box seat (stage left) working in a mobile painting studio, and producing a painting for each presenter. You can see a Flickr slideshow fo the behind the scenes action here.

Most interesting, you can see real-time videos uploaded by participants using Nokia video phones here. Inclduing a tour of the secret Alphachimp Mobile Paint Studio set up in the Camden Opera House. see video >>

You can peruse all the videos being uploaded by the intriguing characters who make up the sudience and speakers at this incredible event here.

By far, the best on-line capture is being done by bloggers like Ethan Zuckerman.

Photographer Chris Jordan Says "Stats Ain't Cutting It"

clipped from www.treehugger.com Chris Jordan with an image depicting 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs. Coming atcha from Pop!Tech. Catch it live -- hundreds of brainiacs eagerly consuming world-changing ideas over three days in Camden, Maine. Seattle-based photographer and photographic artist Chris Jordan gave a great presentation today. He's vibrant, well-spoken and, despite saying all sorts of do-gooder stuff, still somehow comes across as cool. We think he rules and we've covered his stuff here and here, but let's give you a few highlights from his talk.

Or you can see his interview of the master of social probation--and candidate for president--Steven Cobert. see interview >>

Pop!Tech Live

clipped from www.core77.com This year, the three-day big-ideas bonanza will traverse "The Human Impact," digging deep into "some of the many ways human beings impact - and are impacted by - the world and each other." A rich and diverse group of speakers will discuss the topic, from exploring the core source of ideas to the implementations and actual realization of ideas, and ultimately, how new and novel ideas and bottom-up thinking can and will change the world we live in. We'll be tapping our keys furiously alongside other live-blogging sites BoingBoing, TreeHugger, NextBillion, and AM Global, with international coverage in native languages by Tiagodoria (Portuguese), Jacky Peng (Chinese), Medeamaterial (Spanish), Global Voices Online (Arabic), This Iranian American Life (Farsi), and Jikimboe (Swahili). On top of blog coverage-o-plenty, you can sign up to watch and participate in Pop!Tech, streaming live, wherever you are, hanging out in your underwear, given you have a decent connection.

Coaching the Alpha Male

By Kate Ludeman & Eddie Erlandson | May 1, 2004

The best treatise on taming the successful, chest-beating leader we all love to fear!

clipped from harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu Highly intelligent, confident, and successful, alpha males represent about 70% of all senior executives. Natural leaders, they willingly take on levels of responsibility most rational people would find overwhelming. But many of their quintessential strengths can also make alphas difficult to work with. Their self-confidence can appear domineering. Their high expectations can make them excessively critical. Their unemotional style can keep them from inspiring their teams. That's why alphas need coaching to broaden their interpersonal tool kits while preserving their strengths. Drawing from their experience coaching more than 1,000 senior executives, the authors outline an approach tailored specifically for the alpha. Coaches get the alpha's attention by inundating him with data from 360-degree feedback presented in ways he will find compelling.Such an assessment is a wake-up call for most alphas, providing undeniable proof that their behavior doesn't work nearly as well as they think it does. That paves the way for a genuine commitment to change. To change, the alpha must admit vulnerability, accept accountability not just for his own work but for others', connect with his underlying emotions, learn to motivate through a balance of criticism and validation, and become aware of unproductive behavior patterns. The goal of executive coaching is not simply to treat the alpha as an individual problem, but to improve the entire team dynamic.