Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Dale Carnegie: The best salesman in business
Since then, more than 30 million people worldwide have been embellishing, bedecking, and otherwise disfiguring their copies of How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. Upon its release in February, an iPhone app loaded with videos, charts, and homilies immediately became the top-selling paid business app in the iTunes store (it just landed on the iPad as well), and a new edition of the book -- only the second since its original publication -- may be arriving in stores next year. Not that Dale's heirs need the money; HTWF is already the most successful business advice book in the history of the solar system. Originally published in 1936, it has been translated into 47 languages, including Hindi, Nepalese, and Telugu. Last year alone, the very fortunate Simon & Schuster, which has controlled the rights to HTWF since its birth, sold 300,000 copies -- hardcover, paperback, and audio -- just in the U.S. By comparison, Malcolm Gladwell is a parvenu.
Dale Carnegie clearly knew a hell of a lot about business.
Except he didn't. Born in 1888, the phenomenally successful dispenser of business advice had virtually no business background. Raised on a pig farm in Missouri, he first stumbled trying to sell correspondence courses, and then for a while he peddled bacon and lard in western South Dakota.
He was reasonably successful at that, but gave it up to move east in his early twenties, hoping to make it as an actor. That didn't work, and neither did selling trucks or writing western novels. What did work was the class in effective public speaking that he began to teach to a handful of students at a Harlem YMCA in 1912 -- a class that would form the basis of his philosophy, his methodology, and his mighty self-improvement empire. One of the smartest decisions he made was changing his name in 1919 from Carnagey to Carnegie, at a time when "Carnegie" carried the same aura that "Gates" does today.
But the real key to his eventual triumph, and probably the reason HTWF still holds up today, was the innate connection he sensed between public speaking and professional success. Warren Buffett says he was motivated to take the Carnegie course as a 20-year-old, when the prospect of public speaking would cause him to vomit. Iacocca tells a similar story: "For the first few years of my life I was an introvert, a shrinking violet," he wrote. Post-Carnegie, he was on the path to becoming the unshrunken, Carnegie-ized Iacocca who was the most visible American businessman of the 1980s.
To this day, Buffett keeps his Dale Carnegie diploma close at hand in his office. "It changed my life," he has said.
Effective public speaking, still the core of the Carnegie philosophy, is a matter of self-confidence -- which, tethered to the 30 principles that are the backbone of HTWF, can presumably produce a very effective person. It's as if Carnegie were saying, "If you can get up in front of a crowd and hold its attention, you can accomplish almost anything."
Those 30 principles are somewhat less complicated than particle physics. Or long division. The essential one is No. 3: "Arouse in the other person an eager want." Others could have come from a stern but kindly grade school teacher: "The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it" or "Let the other person do a great deal of the talking."
Before you scoff at those chestnuts, bear in mind that the best advice is usually obvious, and rarely followed (don't have that second martini, wear a sweater or you'll catch cold). One would like to think that what the Carnegie method advocated in 1937 still applies in 2010: The traits that make all human interaction possible -- manners, decency, generosity of spirit -- matter as much in business as they do in private life.
Carnegie himself once told a skeptical audience, "I've never claimed to have a new idea. Of course I deal with the obvious. I present, reiterate, and glorify the obvious -- because the obvious is what people need to be told." Even more obvious: People are willing to listen.Dale Carnegie: The best salesman in business
Sunday, April 25, 2010
5 Typography Poster Designs - StumbleUpon
Whether you need posters for redesigning your bedroom, living room, or office space, Large Format Posters can provide you with high-quality prints for your urgent renovation project.
One good design idea you can use for improving your space is typography. We searched the internet to give you typography design ideas you can use for creating artistic large format poster prints. Feast your eyes on these 5 interesting typography poster designs:
One good design idea you can use for improving your space is typography. We searched the internet to give you typography design ideas you can use for creating artistic large format poster prints. Feast your eyes on these 5 interesting typography poster designs:
Banksy Street Art - Art Finds New Inspirations - Chill Out Point - Funny images and artwork - StumbleUpon
Banksy is a pseudo-anonymous English graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. 
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Annie Leibovitz’s Photography
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor Supreme Court Justices
William S. Burroughs
Sting
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Annie Leibovitz's Fairytale Collection
Annie Leibovitz’s fairytales « Fotografie de moda
Annie Leibovitz
Life Through A Lens
Born in 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute intent on studying painting. It was not until she traveled to Japan with her mother the summer after her sophomore year that she discovered her interest in taking photographs. When she returned to San Francisco that fall, she began taking night classes in photography. Time spent on a kibbutz in Israel allowed her to hone her skills further.
In 1970 Leibovitz approached Jann Wenner, founding editor of Rolling Stone, which he’d recently launched and was operating out of San Francisco. Impressed with her portfolio, Wenner gave Leibovitz her first assignment: shoot John Lennon. Leibovitz’s black-and-white portrait of the shaggy-looking Beatle graced the cover of the January 21, 1971 issue. Two years later she was named Rolling Stone chief photographer.
When the magazine began printing in color in 1974, Leibovitz followed suit. “In school, I wasn’t taught anything about lighting, and I was only taught black-and-white,” she told ARTnews in 1992. “So I had to learn color myself.” Among her subjects from that period are Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Patti Smith. Leibovitz also served as the official photographer for the Rolling Stones’ 1975 world tour. While on the road with the band she produced her iconic black-and-white portraits of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, shirtless and gritty.
In 1980 Rolling Stone sent Leibovitz to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had recently released their album “Double Fantasy.” For the portrait Leibovitz imagined that the two would pose together nude. Lennon disrobed, but Ono refused to take off her pants. Leibovitz “was kinda disappointed,” according to Rolling Stone, and so she told Ono to leave her clothes on. “We took one Polaroid,” said Leibovitz, “and the three of us knew it was profound right away.” The resulting portrait shows Lennon nude and curled around a fully clothed Ono. Several hours later, Lennon was shot dead in front of his apartment. The photograph ran on the cover of the Rolling Stone Lennon commemorative issue. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors named it the best magazine cover from the past 40 years.
Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, the photographer’s first book, was published in 1983. The same year Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazine’s first contributing photographer. At Vanity Fair she became known for her wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities. Most famous among them are Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk and Demi Moore naked and holding her pregnant belly. (The cover showing Moore — which then-editor Tina Brown initially balked at running — was named second best cover from the past 40 years.) Since then Leibovitz has photographed celebrities ranging from Brad Pitt to Mikhail Baryshnikov. She’s shot Ellen DeGeneres, the George W. Bush cabinet, Michael Moore, Madeleine Albright, and Bill Clinton. She’s shot Scarlett Johannson and Keira Knightley nude, with Tom Ford in a suit; Nicole Kidman in ball gown and spotlights; and, recently, the world’s long-awaited first glimpse of Suri Cruise, along with parents Tom and Katie. Her portraits have appeared in Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker, and in ad campaigns for American Express, the Gap, and the Milk Board.
Among other honors, Leibovitz has been made a Commandeur des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and has been designated a living legend by the Library of Congress. Her first museum show, Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990, took place in 1991 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and toured internationally for six years. At the time she was only the second living portraitist — and the only woman — to be featured in an exhibition by the institution.
Leibovitz met Susan Sontag in 1989 while photographing the writer for her book AIDS and its Metaphors. “I remember going out to dinner with her and just sweating through my clothes because I thought I couldn’t talk to her,” Leibovitz said in an interview with The New York Times late last year. Sontag told her, “You’re good, but you could be better.” Though the two kept separate apartments, their relationship lasted until Sontag’s death in late 2004.
Sontag’s influence on Leibovitz was profound. In 1993 Leibovitz traveled to Sarajevo during the war in the Balkans, a trip that she admits she would not have taken without Sontag’s input. Among her work from that trip is Sarajevo, Fallen Bicycle of Teenage Boy Just Killed by a Sniper, a black-and-white photo of a bicycle collapsed on blood-smeared pavement. Sontag, who wrote the accompanying essay, also first conceived of Leibovitz’s book Women (1999). The book includes images of famous people along with those not well known. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon and Diane Sawyer share space with miners, soldiers in basic training, and Las Vegas showgirls in and out of costume.
Leibovitz’s most recent book, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, includes her trademark celebrity portraits. But it also features personal photographs from Leibovitz’s life: her parents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews, and Sontag. Leibovitz, who has called the collection “a memoir in photographs,” was spurred to assemble it by the deaths of Sontag and her father, only weeks apart. The book even includes photos of Leibovitz herself, like the one that shows her nude and eight months pregnant, à la Demi Moore. That picture was taken in 2001, shortly before Leibovitz gave birth to daughter Sarah. Daughters Susan and Samuelle, named in honor of Susan and Leibovitz’s father, were born to a surrogate in 2005.
Leibovitz composed these personal photographs with materials that she used when she was first starting out in the ’70s: a 35-millimeter camera, black-and-white Tri X film. “I don’t have two lives,” she writes in the book’s introduction. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” Still, she told the Times, this book is the “most intimate, it tells the best story, and I care about it.”
–Rachel Somerstein
Second Best Optical Illusion EVER? | Mighty Optical Illusions
Is it a Girl or a Tiger?
Second Best Optical Illusion EVER? | Mighty Optical Illusions
"Hard to believe that's it rather a body art girl than a tiger."
Second Best Optical Illusion EVER? | Mighty Optical Illusions
Humans and Robots: Visions of the Future
The future is not written yet and who knows weather robots are dangerous or not. What is for sure is that humans, being the curious beings, will develop new advanced generations of robots. Robots and other high-performance inventions have always been of a vast interest for humanity. A great number of scientists have spent the whole life in their laboratories with one aim to work out innovative schemes, develop them and create some highest qualitative ranking robot. This engrossing process has reached its peak with the technical push that took place due to the endeavors of a number of brilliant and clear intellects of scientists all over the world.
The most striking fantasies in this sphere are brought successfully into reality and a great number of robots are in service of people in order to make the process of work or manufacturing automatic. It happens so that people and robots go together in this life side by side, in some spheres of life they are even interchangeable and who knows into what this opposition “Human and Robots� will translate.There are two perceivable outcomes:
Robots and humans that live and prosper together…Or robots realize they don’t need us that much…
Human and Robots: Visions of the Future - Chill Out Point - Funny images and artwork
29 Brilliant Music Videos - Smashing Magazine
Music has always been an excellent source of inspiration. Particularly if you are stuck with some problem you can’t find a workaround for, a beautiful song can give you a new perspective, let you see the problem from a different angle. And sometimes it’s just useful to make a break — for instance, watching some music videos.
In this post we present some unusual music videos for your monday’s coffee break. Some of the videos are thought-provoking, some of them are funny and some are bizarre. While many of them are well-known, you’ll probably find some videos you’ve never watched before. The videos all perfectly to the music which is being played in the background. Hopefully, everyone will find something new and inspiring for himself/herself. Please notice that you might need to watch some videos at least twice to get the idea behind them.
You might want to read the descriptions of the videos — they are provided below every link. The screenshots often don’t reveal that much about the videos they stand for.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources — follow us on Twitter!]
Music Videos
Unkle – Rabbit in your Headlights
What is this guy whispering? Who is the guy? And what is he doing in the tunnel? You need to watch this video till the very end. You won’t be disappointed.
Jason Forrest – “War Photographer” (2005)
These freaking vikings are both cool and strange. But it doesn’t make them less sympathetic. And they can play both on drums and guitars pretty well.
Bat for Lashes — What’s A Girl To Do
00:38 is the best moment in the history of music videos. Well, this one is kind of scary. Hares driving on the bicycles and clapping their hands at the same time? A masterpiece from the year 2007.
Nick Cave & Kylie Mingoue — Where The Wild Roses Grow
Probably one of the most beautiful music videos ever made. There is no need for words. Watch it.
Rob Dougan — Clubbed To Death
Incredible editing and directing. So symbolic, so powerful.
Fujiya & Miyagi – Ankle Injuries
What about a music video which is made with thousands of 6-sided dice? Exactly. And the music fits perfectly.
Radiohead – “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” (1995)
The video for this song was shot using different film frequencies, allowing various actions to unfold at different rates within the same frame. The emotional effects of this practice range from silly to unsettling. Try not to watch this video too many times; it begins to feel a little more disturbing each time. [Jeff Shreve]
Sia – “Breathe Me” (Quicktime)
The production of this video clip took several thousands Polaroid photos. The result is… at least unusual.
Citizens Here and Abroad – You Drive and We’ll Listen To Music
Jason Koxvold’s video pairs crashing cars with crashing guitars. Rock. Very well executed and perfectly edited. Must see.
Moby – Porcelaine
Such a beautiful song. One of the videos you are amazed about once, and you never forget again.
The Strokes – You Only Live Once (Imeem)
With a Hundred ways to do a dozen things, why not try it all? Directed by Warren Fu.
Arctic Monkeys – A view from the afternoon (Quicktime version)
A song about a passion and unstoppable willingness to do what you love. Simple, yet so effective.
“Glosoli” – Sigur Ros
“Glosoli” depicts a young drummer boy gathering up the other denizens of what appears to be an adult-free utopian land, and leading a revolution to freedom. So beautiful and so touching. Don’t miss the last scene.
The Avalanches – “Frontier Psychiatrist”
This is freaky. Sometimes the most obvious concept for a video also turns out to be the best. The ghost choir is the best. Except for the nightmarish old-man turtle, of course. [via PitchForkMedia]
Royksopp – Remind Me
We’ve featured this movie already, but it’s worth mentioning it in this post. You can watch it dozens times and still not catch everything. A day in the life of an average working Jill, broken down into its minutest component parts. The unstated joke: mankind has erected immense, resource-devouring systems of almost incomprehensible complexity just so you can sit in your cubicle.
Blur – “Coffee & TV” (Quicktime)
Actually, this song is about a dancing milk carton. However, its adventures are funny, cute, but with a pleasing streak of cruelty. The milk-carton protagonist even has its own fan site.
Boards of Canada: “Dayvan Cowboy” (Quicktime)
It’s pretty easy to get wrapped up in the grainy, existential pulchritude of this thing and completely miss the cheeky self-reference. So, um, where can one surf in Canada? Directed by Melissa Olson.
Move Your Feet – Junior Senior
That’s weird. And that’s what makes it special. A pixel-based video clip.
Daft Punk – One More Time
Probably one of the most colorful animated music videos of all time. Daft Punk, one more time.
Xploding Plastix – Joy Comes In The Morning
A music video about the world we live in and the world we’d like to live in.
Unkle – Eye For Eye
A haunting track with a creepy animation, which won an award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Nasty weirdness drops from the sky and then moves on.
Vitalic – Poney
Flying dogs in light of a laser and in slow-motion. Nobody has ever done something like this before.
Justice “D.A.N.C.E.” (Quicktime)
Sometimes even T-Shirts can speak. For instance, in this music video. “D.A.N.C.E.” was nominated for “Video of the Year at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. On the first of November Justice received the “Video Star” award at the European Music Awards in Munich.
Forss – “City Ports”
The visualization fits perfectly to the music.
Radiohead – Just
What could the man on the street possibly have said?
Prodigy – Out Of Space
Prodigy’s “Out of Space” is probably one of the weirdest videos ever created. Welcome back to the 90s — this is how some videos looked like then. The song which was * for the whole generation.
The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
A video everybody has seen. And everybody would see again.
RJD2 – Work It Out
This guy just want to have some fun with his crooks and his skateboard. A one-shot-video from 2007.
29 Brilliant Music Videos - Smashing Magazine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
