This piece is brilliant but evokes sadness for a future that may yet come to pass.
Fabian Brunsing’s public art installation “Pay & Sit: The Private Bench” imagines a dystopian tomorrow in which even the most quotidian of conveniences — resting a moment on a park bench — have become soulless objects of enterprise. (from The Daily What via Andrew Sullivan)
Here in Sweden, such conveniences have already been monetized: at the Stockholm and Göteborg train stations, access to individual restrooms requires depositing 10 kr into the coin slot.
Previously, I pointed you to what Steve Jobs does in making awesome presentations. As I’ve read more on presentations using visual aids, I’ve come across a couple blogs on how to get the most out of Powerpoint for your talks. I point you to a couple example posts on each blog.
“Takahashi method” – on Presentation Zen
“What’s wrong with templates?” – Presentation Advisors (impressively, only one guy)
There are countless ways to incorporate PPT in a presentation, and the optimal way will vary with the nature of the presentation. These blogs have so many ideas, I will definitely have fun trying to work different elements into my talks, which will be a challenge since science talks are usually so data/visual-heavy.
On “How I Met Your Mother” the character Robin, anchor of an early-morning talk show, thinks her show is doing really well because a lot of people watch it, including students of her friend Ted. In actuality…
College kids: “We watch it for the drinking game. You have to drink every time she says But, um…“
I never thought verbal tics and filler words could be the subject of sitcom tv, but they do a pretty good job with it. Link to episode; start watching around the 9-minute mark. [Update: the link might no longer work.]
(My filler word is like but I’ve gotten better at using it less, thanks to the Ah-Counter at our toastmasters meetings pointing out how often I’m using it.)
