...2015/4/7 TED Talk Takeaways: 8 Ways to Hook Your Audience TED Talk Takeaways: 8 Ways to Hook Your Audience By Gavin McMahon on July 30, 2014 | 8 Comments “You will live 7.5 minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.” This was the claim that video game designer Jane McGonigal presented to the crowd during her June 2012 TED talk. As the camera panned over the members of the audience, their faces showed universal skepticism: Was this lady serious? There was something else interesting about that crowd. Despite their doubtful visages, everyone in the audience was drawn in by McGonigal’s words. No one was checking their email, talking to their neighbor or looking at the camera circling in front of them; all eyes were fixated on the (potentially crazy) speaker. Great hooks, like McGonigal’s provocative opening statement, get audiences on the edge of their seats and give them a sense of what’s coming. They allow you to win a crowd’s attention right away and give you a legitimate chance to have a lasting impact. Consider the alternative: Have you ever witnessed a presentation where a colleague starts by saying something like, “OK, so we’re going to run through a few major takeaways from last quarter and hopefully be out of here within the hour?” Snooze! All that has you thinking about is whether you should go to the bathroom now or in 20 minutes. Starting your presentation in an unorthodox way provides your audience with...
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...It was the beginning of March when the most heart breaking thing happened to Sarah. Her boyfriend of 3 years had broken up with her with no explanation. She was devastated; crying, she tried to call him but the other line’s response was “Sorry your call cannot be completed.” He had blocked her and disappeared from her life without saying a word. She didn’t know what to do. She was so confused and she felt so low. Going into work the next day, she was still weeping over what happened. The last thing she wanted to do was face her co-workers and customers. She spent most of her shift in the bathroom crying. She tried calling other co-workers to see if they could cover her shift, but it was on a Saturday, so she knew no one would be willing to take it. When she faced people, she tried her hardest to wipe the tears away and keep a fake smile. During her shift, there was a group of friends who came in. Working at the register, she took their order. When Sarah and her co-worker Lauren brought them their food. One guy apologized to Lauren and said, “I’m sorry, I could not stop staring at your friend,” while getting up and introducing himself to Sarah. Her face turned red like a tomato when he offered his hand(*). On the other side of her, Lauren started to giggle. While walking back to the restaurant’s lobby she whispered to Sarah, “Maybe this is your time to move on.” Sarah just kept on walking with a smile creeping up on the side of her face. She looked at the guy who introduced...
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...The Vagueness of Words: The Plight of the “Grotesque” Winesburg, Ohio, a short story cycle written by the American author Sherwood Anderson depicts a rather interesting portrait of an American Midwestern small town at the beginning of the twentieth century. Within this citizenry, Anderson draws attention to the distortion of each character in the book as a result of norms and traditions that led them into becoming “grotesques” as described in the prologue (The Book of the Grotesque). Among the exemplary stories written by Anderson, “Hands” and “Mother” are great at fulfilling the intention to reveal the inability of words to capture, express and explain the kinds of truth in life - underlying the main problem within human society. In “Hands”, Anderson begins by describing explicitly Wing Biddlebaum as “a fat little old man”, which clearly captured the essence of being a grotesque. Grotesque as defined by the Oxford Dictionaries (2013) means that the object is odd and unnatural in shape, appearance or character. His grotesqueness is then amplified by the illustration of a group of youths and maidens coming home from work and one of the girls bully him by sarcastically commenting on his hair even though he was bald (9). His unconscious gesture of nervously fiddling his bare white forehead as mentioned by Anderson just shows how absurd he was in the eyes of society. This action in the beginning of the story proves that Wing Biddlebaum is an outlier, someone who is “forever frightened...
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...A Diehard fan through and through The lights dim, as a familiar song begins to blast from the stadium speakers. As an engine revs to life, you see two red headlights in the darkness. The crowd roars and jumps to their feet. The song continues on until the lyrics "Bad to the Bone" begin. At the very same moment, you see a truck hauling down a dirt alley into the arena. The crowd is roaring on their feet chanting, “Grave Digger!” Monster Jam World Finals is a hidden gem; Very few people even know about this event, or that they have been held every year since 2000. This year, they changed the event to a two-day show instead of a one day like previous years. At first, I wasn’t sure if two days was going to be a good fit for this event. The price of the tickets went up increasingly or some it seemed. Many people would say that they should have kept the event at a one day. Although I believe that even though the price might have gone up. The two-day event is actually beneficial to you and also the finer quality of the show you receive. Excitement and anticipation overwhelmed me as I stood in line to enter the stadium. The first night was the racing potion of the championship. As you enter the immense red dome, you are immediately greeted with concession stands everywhere. All the cinder-block walls were a mustard yellow with massive signs separating the different sections of the seats in the arena. I walked into the arena down a long tunnel that had the same color and textured walls...
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...Kai Theato Explore the ways disturbed characters have been presented in the texts you have studied. In this essay I am going to be exploring the ways disturbed characters have been presented in the texts I have studied. I will be referring to a range of poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Macbeth by Shakespeare. Carol Ann Duffy chooses to use emotive language in Havisham by using the words “beloved sweetheart bastard”. This is an oxymoron to show the contrast in her feelings and shows that they are very mixed. The poet is showing how she is both still in love with her husband however still angry at him for leaving her at the altar. Havisham is angry at being an old unmarried woman and uses the word “Spinster” as a sentence on its own at the start of the stanza emphasising Havishams own isolation. The short sentence shows how the word is almost spat out to show the speakers disgust with what she has been forced to become. This also shows us that she is a disturbed character since she is unclear about her own feelings but she feels them very violently. This is similar in the novel ‘Great Expectations’ by Dickens which also presents the character of Miss Havisham as disturbed by describing her dress as ‘faded and yellow’. This use of colour tells us that just like her wedding dress, Miss Havisham has become old. Dickens uses his narrator to show how he sees Havisham in his eyes. He describes her as a ‘skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress’ which shows how long she has stayed in her...
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...Casey has always been a bit of an animal nut and if she joins PETA in the future, it would not be much of a surprise. However, she is often taking medications and using beauty products just like every other girl. She has recently been trying to change the meds and beauty products she uses or stops using them altogether because of her concerns with animal testing. The benefits of the medications were very obvious as well as with the beauty products to an extent but that didn’t matter to her. Casey said that “I can’t take something that has been cruelly tested on countless animals just so I can make myself feel a little better.” The results of not taking the prescribed medications were almost immediately apparent with Casey being all but bed-ridden yet still refusing to take the “tainted meds” as she called them. There are a lot of people who feel the same way that Casey does about animal testing. The core of the issue is pure ethics and what people believe to be right and wrong. Every year there are countless numbers of animals that suffer from being used in the clinical testing with some dieing during the testing process. The majority of animals in the test are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act since it doesn’t protect mice, rats, birds, and fish which make up about 95% of the total animals used in research. Even if the product passes the animal testing stage, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is safe for humans nor do the tests reliably predict the results in human...
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...contributing to an excellent organization and helping to change students’ lives. | Employment History | Student Mentor, Western Governors University | 2010 — Present | Indianapolis, IN Facilitate new student on-boarding and orientation processes.Assist students in educational planning from initial enrollment through graduation.Evaluate learning styles, skills, goals, etc in order to help students utilize the appropriate learning resources.Meet with students on a weekly basis for coaching, accountability and encouragement.Serve as the student’s advocate in resolving matters of academic difficulty, misunderstanding or confusion.Assist students with career planning. | MBA Recruiter & Public Relations Director, Anderson University | 2005 — Present | Anderson, INOversee public relations for the program including chamber involvement, communication, media promotion, newsletters, online networking and promotion of the program through professional organizations.Developed, implemented and facilitate an effective social media campaign for student recruitment and current student/alumni relations.Work with the university Alumni Association to create quality events and opportunities to connect alumni with the university for the purpose of university promotion.Schedule and facilitate presentations to groups of potential and incoming students.Develop relationships with potential corporate partners for the purpose of promoting the MBA program.Determine which students are a suitable fit...
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...How a professional team markets itself: Anderson Silva UFC Fighter The Ultimate Fighting Championship, known as UFC, was founded in Denver, Colorado, in 1993 by Rorion Gracie, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter, and Davie Arthur, an American publicist. Gracie wanted to create a championship to prove that the Jiu-Jitsu was the most complete martial arts. At that time, in UFC events, athletes used to fight several times in one night, until only one was the winner. The main idea was to show the strength of Jiu-Jitsu, so there were no weight categories and all martial arts were allowed; a sumo wrestler could face an expert in karate athletes. There were almost no rules and, as a result, it not recognized as a sport (Correia ¶ 01). In 2001, the brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, owners of a chain of casinos in Las Vegas, bought the event. The two brothers promoted many changes in the UFC: they stipulated 31 rules, and the athletes were divided into five categories according to weight. It was also determined that each fighter would participate in only one fight per night. After buying the event, the brothers invested considerably in promoting it and the result is that today, in each edition, the event reaches 351 million homes in 130 different countries . In the U.S., over the past three years, the UFC has grown by 30% its fan base, which is estimated to be 31 million in U.S. and 61 million around the world (Esteves ¶ 04). According to CNBC, the brand Ultimate Fight acquired...
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...Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of John Berkley Anderson and the former Annie Delilah Rucker. As Marian grew up she became involved in influencing the civil rights movement. Her impact is one that should never be forgotten as it gave another piece in the civil rights puzzle. During World War I and the Korean war, Marian Anderson was employed to entertain troops in the army hospital/bases. In 1943, Anderson was invited to perform in Constitution Hall. Though Anderson had a lovely voice and incredible talent, she was banned from using facilities like D.C. high school auditoriums. Sadly this treatment was not out of the norm for Marian Anderson. After high school, Anderson applied to the all-white Philadelphia Music Academy....
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...Current #1 ranked middle weight “GGG” Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin (34-0) has steamrolled the Middleweight division winning his last 21 fights by knockout. In the last 2 years he has gained a huge Fan Base at a record pace. Currently he is the most feared man in Boxing aside from Light Heavyweight Sergey Kovalev. Unlike Mayweather who was the man in the welterweight division to mention in post-fight interviews, GGG’s is a name most Middleweights stray away from. In his last fight against David Lemiux was built up to be his toughest fight yet. Every one watched the fight and saw that David Lemuix looked more like David “pepe Le Pew”. GGG tamed Lemiux with a stiff jab the whole night beating him to a bloody pulp. Who else is there left for GGG face in the Division, well Media and Fans alike are demanding the Winner of Cotto VS Canelo fight GGG next in a unification bout, which is GGG’s goal before moving up to Super Middle weight. In Cotto’s post-fight interview after stopping Daniel Geale he seemed reluctant to say yes to a mega fight with Borat’s big brother. Canelo recently said he will face GGG at a catch weight if he is victorious come November 27th. Fans and Media are highly critical of Cotto and Canelo for being hesitant agreeing to a fight with GGG. What does GGG gain from a fight with either guy? I think this is more of a riskier fight for GGG due to the fact that if he loses to either guy it won’t be good for his record. Cotto is naturally a Welterweight...
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...Hedges and Sacco began Days of Siege with a story of a robbery that involved Silvia Ramos and her husband Hernandez. I think that it was a good way to start the chapter because it was so different from the first chapter, Days of Theft. The story portrayed was strong, descriptive, and showed the highlight of the chapter, Camden. This city sits on the edge of the Delaware River facing Philadelphia and is described in detail from a man named Banks. Banks, is a former prisoner who shot his best friend to death. On page 66, Banks describes the Transitional Park that he runs. Here, he provides free tents to the homeless and makes strict restrictions on fighting, arguing. Additionally, Banks has tent inspections every Saturday. The detail that Banks describes makes me feel like I am at the Transitional Park. The pictures of the park on pages 66 and 67 also help me get a feel for what life is like at the Transitional Tent Park. In a way, it makes me think of a campground or a trailer park. An interesting point about Camden is that it has seven hundred and thirty-three homeless and only two hundred twenty beds are available at the Transitional Park. Although city officials tolerate the park due to its illegality, I don’t think that would ever happen in Michigan, it would be shut down in a minute. There is a disproportional number of beds and homeless, the number is not even relatively close. Hedges and Sacco describe Camden as a dead city that produces and makes nothing. It is one of the...
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...the movie Borat Sacha Baron Cohen portrays a man named Borat who is a Kazakstani reporter. He is sent by the Kazakh Ministry of Information to gain a better understanding of American culture and bring his findings back home. Borat and his advisor Azamat played by Ken Davitian set off to New York City. They face culture shock and are bewildered by the big city. Borat being moved from a very Gemeinschaft country to a Gesellschaft one causes him to be very touchy with strangers. The people whom live in New York City put off his behavior as a folkway and are less than pleasant to him and he starts to lose hope. Then one night while channel-surfing in his hotel room, he discovers the beautiful Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson. He is now determined to go to California marry Anderson and find the true essence of America. On his rode trip there he has many encounters with "typical" Americans. There are three types of stereotypes in the movie Borat. The first way Borat classifies against people is through the way Borat himself thinks. He believes; Jews are scary, blacks are cool, and women are pea-brained sex machines. In one scene Borat is forced to stay at a bed and breakfast owned by a homely Jewish couple. He and his partner Azamat are terrified and are unable to stay the entire night. In this scene Borat has an obvious font and back stage. His front stage as being calm and reserved and his back stage at being terrified. The second way Borat promotes a typecast is through the main...
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...To: PeTA Cc: Brenda Martin From: Ashley Burns Date: September 10, 2011 Subject: Analysis of Pamela Anderson PeTA ad Human VS. Animal Introduction Men and women are exposed to advertisements every day, weather they think they are or not. Unfortunately, there are more and more that goes against women and degrades them. The design features of this PeTA ad uses and focuses of female stereotypes, in order to persuade men and women to become a vegetarian. There are ways this could be portrayed as a stereotypical ad, from the model, to how she is sitting and what she is wearing, or even with what the text says, to the color choices. Description The ad was smaller when it was pulled it up on the internet, but the model is Pamela Anderson. There are limited colors of white, blue, black, and the skin and hair color of the model. It is obvious that she is trying to be sexy in every aspect. It looks as if she is sitting on a bed. She is wearing a revealing two-piece blue bikini, slightly showing some cleavage, and her hair and make-up are done, which pulls attention to the look on her face. Clearly, the look she is trying to go for is innocent. Also, her body is sectioned into parts just as a cow’s body would be when processed for meat. The text also plays a big part in this ad. Along the top of the ad it says: “ALL ANIMALS HAVE THE SAME PARTS,” and “HAVE A HEART, GO VEGETARIAN,” which surprisingly matches the color of her bikini...
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...companies, independent films are also distributed and produced by firms of major film studios. These independent films are commonly distinguishable by their style and content as well as the way the personal artistic vision of the filmmaker is realized (O’Meara, 2014). Generally, independent films are produced with considerably lesser film budgets compared to major studio films. Also, the marketing of these films is usually marked by limited release, though they can also have major promoting campaigns as well as wide release. They are usually screened at international, national, or local film festivals before being distributed (O’Meara, 2014). This paper presents a biographical essay of three independent film producers; Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, and Noah Baumbach Woody Allen Woody Allen is an American writer, playwright, comedian, actor, and director. He was born in 1935 in the Bronx (Girgus, 2002). However, he was raised in Brooklyn, a town in New York. Allen was the son of Nettie, a book keeper, and Martin Konigsberg, a waiter and a jewelry engraver. He had a sister named Letty and was born in 1943. Allen’s family was Ashkenazi Jewish. .Allen’s childhood was not for the most part happy. Besides having a shaky relationship with his uncompromising and temperamental mother, Allen’s parents did not cope (Girgus, 2002). He spoke Germany rather bit in his early childhood. While going to Hebrew school for a period of eight years, Allen attended public school 99 and proceeded to Midwood...
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...JT McCarthy Mrs. Thrash English 1113 October 29, 2015 Ted Talk What we want in life is something that goes through my head almost every day. The wonder of what happens after someone dies or the wonder of what we are actually doing here in life. BJ Miller made his speech very well on these subjects. He lost his two legs and an arm in an accident that occurred his sophomore year of college. BJ works at Zen Hospice Project and thinks deeply about how to make a dignified, or graceful end of life for his patients. He says that many people want comfort, respect, and love. He talks about his accident and how it made him, in a way, face death and really think about what he wants in life. It’s very interesting to think about, especially in a personal sense. What I would want are probably the simple things that he mentioned, and maybe help people along the way. The way he presented his speech was very laid back and calm, kind of like a casual talk with a friend. He made a few funny comments which got the crowd laughing a little bit and kept them engaged. The way he put talking about death into context made the speech not as depressing as it should be. Also he was very calm throughout the speech which made it pleasurable to watch him. Watching his speech was very informative and made people think. His speech gave very good points and made sense. He also talked about making the most out of being dealt a bad hand and is in a way an example of that. He shows great leadership...
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