Tuesday, July 29, 2008

10 days to faster reading

by Abby Marks-Beale and The Princeton Language Institute From the reviews Speed reading used to require months of training. Now you can rev up your reading in just a few minutes a day. With quizzes to determine your present reading level and exercises to quickly introduce new skills, this book is a must for anyone feeling pressed for time.
or buy the book from Amazon, where you can buy it for just $9.56, a saving of 20% off the list price of $11.95.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Lincoln, Mark Twain & Lightning: Choice Words On Word Choice

by Ernest W. Nicastro "Eighty-seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation...." The Gettysburg Address Chances are your reaction to the above "quote" is something along the lines of, "No, no, no! You're wrong, wrong, wrong!" And, of course, you would be right. Because Lincoln was not only a great leader, he was a great writer. So instead of beginning his Gettysburg Address with a cold, lifeless number, he opens on a prayerful note with a turn of phrase adapted from the 90th Psalm of the King James Bible: "Four score and seven." (more ...)

Friday, July 18, 2008

From humming fish to Puccini: Vocal communication evolved with ancient species

It's a long way from the dull hums of the amorous midshipman fish to the strains of a Puccini aria – or, alas, even to the simplest Celine Dion melody. But the neural circuitry that led to the human love song – not to mention birdsongs, frog thrums and mating calls of all manner of vertebrates – was likely laid down hundreds of millions of years ago with the hums and grunts of the homely piscine. http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/07/17/from.humming.fish.puccini.vocal.communication.evolved.with.ancient.species

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

A Few Myths of Public Speaking

I took an informal poll recently among some speakers to determine what people tended to think were the hard and fast rules of public speaking – and see if any of those rules turned out to be myths.Read on ...