How to Explain Complex Ideas (Like Tech) to Those Who Don’t Understand Speech GraphicsSpeech Graphics creates world’s first high fidelity animation of human speech organs » Speech Graphics Oct 14 '13 Author: Speech Graphics Posted in: Press Specialist audio animation studio, Speech Graphics, announced today the launch of the world's first high fidelity animation of the human speech organs. Communication in today's global economy is critical and for the approximately 2 billion people learning English as a second language, accent and pronunciation are two of the most difficult aspects to master. Gregor Hofer of Speech Graphics explains: "A strong accent can be a major barrier to effective communication. Revealing a hidden world never seen so clearly before, Simone is a fully functioning cutaway of the inside of the mouth, nose and throat. Viewed from the front, Simone's face moves in perfect synchrony with audio recordings of sounds and words. Saundz.com provided a learning curriculum and graphical web interface around the Speech Graphics animation.
Secrets of the Creative Brain As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies creativity, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted and high-profile subjects over the years, but Kurt Vonnegut—dear, funny, eccentric, lovable, tormented Kurt Vonnegut—will always be one of my favorites. Kurt was a faculty member at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the 1960s, and participated in the first big study I did as a member of the university’s psychiatry department. I was examining the anecdotal link between creativity and mental illness, and Kurt was an excellent case study. He was intermittently depressed, but that was only the beginning. His mother had suffered from depression and committed suicide on Mother’s Day, when Kurt was 21 and home on military leave during World War II. While mental illness clearly runs in the Vonnegut family, so, I found, does creativity. For many of my subjects from that first study—all writers associated with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—mental illness and creativity went hand in hand.
5 Tips For Butchering Your Life...So You Can Finally Live Emancipating One’s Self Takes Patience, Grace and a Level of Brutality In Order to Hack Away at That Which Doesn’t Serve In Growth I had been a free-spirited artist who put my dreams, passions and convictions aside to adopt a life that I thought was necessary in order for me to ‘grow up’ and ground myself. You know…to live the American Dream. I became a wife to a safe man who took care of me financially, while taming me into ordinary. I was part of a relationship of comfort, convenience and normalcy. Then I woke up. 2013 was when I purposely and methodically butchered away my life, my Self, the heavy skin from 10 years of marital and personal discord, as well as sever the restraints of that which I had grown to know as my cage. I was left in pieces—hacked, chopped, bloody and raw. That was the most challenging and painful set of events in my entire life thus far. 1. Let’s face it—we can’t truly predict the future outcome from any one decision. After all, control is all just an illusion.
How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour (Plus: A Favor) Deconstructing Arabic in 45 Minutes Conversational Russian in 60 minutes? This post is by request. How long does it take to learn Chinese or Japanese vs. Spanish or Irish Gaelic? Here’s the reasoning… Before you invest (or waste) hundreds and thousands of hours on a language, you should deconstruct it. So far, I’ve deconstructed Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, Korean, and perhaps a dozen others. How is it possible to become conversationally fluent in one of these languages in 2-12 months? Consider a new language like a new sport. There are certain physical prerequisites (height is an advantage in basketball), rules (a runner must touch the bases in baseball), and so on that determine if you can become proficient at all, and—if so—how long it will take. Languages are no different. Six Lines of Gold Here are a few questions that I apply from the outset. 2. 3. 4. It doesn’t take much to answer these questions.
The Power of Process: What Young Mozart Teaches Us About the Secret of Cultivating Genius by Maria Popova On the “powerful blend of instruction, encouragement, and constant practice.” “The trick to creativity … is to identify your own peculiar talent and then to settle down to work with it for a good long time,” observed Denise Shekerjian in reflecting on her insightful interviews with MacArthur “genius” grantees. “Success is the product of the severest kind of mental and physical application,” attested Thomas Edison. “It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider … who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree,” Alexander Graham Bell proclaimed. Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart (public domain) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [was] alleged to be an instant master performer at age three and a brilliant composer at age five. The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl. Donating = Loving Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter.
How Meditation Changes Your Brain Frequency As yogis have known for centuries and scientists can now prove, the benefits of meditation are profound. Meditation is perhaps the most crucial instrument to harness the power of thought, cultivate more peace, clarity and happiness. Learning to train the brain and focus our attention is crucial to thriving and cultivating a peak performance in any endeavor. Longtime psychotherapist Dr. There are five major categories of brain waves, each corresponding to different activities. Slower wavelengths = more time between thoughts = more opportunity to skillfully choose which thoughts you invest in and what actions you take. 5 Categories of Brain Waves: Why Meditation Works 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. How to Meditate: A simple meditation to use to begin the transition from Beta or Alpha to the Theta State is to focus on the breath. To begin the meditation, sit comfortably in your chair with your shoulders relaxed and spine tall. Watch your breath. Silently repeat the mantra: “Breathing In. Consistency is key.
Language-Learning Software and Online Courses | Transparent Language 10 Paradoxical Traits Of Creative People Editor's Note: This is one of the most-read leadership articles of 2013. Click here to see the full list. I frequently find myself thinking about whether I am an artist or an entrepreneur. I am simply trying my best to create my own unique path. It is safe to say that more and more entrepreneurs are artists, and artists of all kinds are entrepreneurs. Creativity is the common theme that drives both entrepreneurs and artists alike. Over this past Labor Day weekend, I found myself reading excerpts from distinguished professor of psychology and management Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (pronounced me-HIGH chick-sent-me-HIGH-ee) seminal book Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People (HarperCollins, 1996). He writes: "I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. 1. 2. 3. 5. 6. 7. 8. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. 10.