Gel Videos - Ira Glass
http://gelconference.com/videos/2007/ira_glass/

"A master class in storytelling. Ira Glass, host of "This American Life" on radio and TV, has spent years telling stories, and getting stories told. In one of the most popular Gel talks ever, Ira describes the elements of a good story."

I heart this american life

Ira Glass

DTI is a variant of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that can measure the structural integrity of the brain's white matter, which is made up of cells that carry nerve impulses from one part of the brain to another. The greater the structural integrity, the faster nerve impulses travel. >Personal Note: I worked with DTI during my internship at the MRRC (Magnetic Resonance Research Center) at Yale University. Our signals looked more similar to the second image except that we didn't have a 3d model extracted from the raw signal (the second one shows a raw DTI signal with an overlay of its 3d model representation).

The smarter the person, the faster information zips around the brain, a UCLA study finds. And this ability to think quickly apparently is inherited. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, looked at the brains and intelligence of 92 people. All the participants took standard IQ tests. Then the researchers studied their brains using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging, or DTI. Capturing Mental Speed DTI is a variant of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that can measure the structural integrity of the brain's white matter, which is made up of cells that carry nerve impulses from one part of the brain to another. The greater the structural integrity, the faster nerve impulses travel. "These images really give you a picture of the mental speed of the brain," says Paul Thompson, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at UCLA School of Medicine. They're also "the most beautiful images of the brain you could imagine," Thompson says. "My daughter, who's 5, says they look like

Smart People Really Do Think Faster http://bit.ly/ey8Db So...that means all us twitter users are wicked smart [from http://twitter.com/AdamPieniazek/statuses/1375120864]

Pretty sophisticated visualization. Lots of data, lots of layers.

NPR review

Exclusive First Listen

Why NPR is the Future of Mainstream Media

In March of this year, National Public Radio (NPR) revealed that by the end of 2008, 23.6 million people were tuning into its broadcasts each week. In fact, NPR’s ratings have increased steadily since 2000, and they’ve managed to hold on to much of their 2008 election coverage listenership bump (with over 26 million people tuning in each week so far in 2009), unlike many of their mainstream media counterparts. Compared to cable news, where most networks are shedding viewers, and newspapers, where circulation continues to plummet, NPR is starting to look like they have the future of news all figured out. Or at least, they appear to doing a lot better at it than the rest of the traditional media.

In March of this year, National Public Radio (NPR) revealed that by the end of 2008, 23.6 million people were tuning into its broadcasts each week. In fact, NPR’s ratings have increased steadily since 2000, and they’ve managed to hold on to much of their 2008 election coverage listenership bump (with over 26 million people tuning in each week so far in 2009), unlike many of their mainstream media counterparts. Compared to cable news, where most networks are shedding viewers, and newspapers, where circulation continues to plummet, NPR is starting to look like they have the future of news all figured out. Or at least, they appear to doing a lot better at it than the rest of the traditional media. But what is NPR doing differently that’s causing their listener numbers to swell?

In March of this year, National Public Radio (NPR) revealed that by the end of 2008, 23.6 million people were tuning into its broadcasts each week. In fact, NPR’s ratings have increased steadily since 2000, and they’ve managed to hold on to much of their 2008 election coverage listenership bump, unlike many of their mainstream media counterparts. Compared to cable news, where most networks are shedding viewers, and newspapers, where circulation continues to plummet, NPR is starting to look like they have the future of news all figured out. Or at least, they appear to doing a lot better at it than the rest of the traditional media. But what is NPR doing differently that’s causing their listener numbers to swell? They basically have a three-pronged strategy that is helping them not only grow now, but also prepare for the future media landscape where traditional methods of consumption could be greatly marginalized in favor of digital distribution.

As the Weekend Edition math guy, I spoke to Scott Simon and told him the body mass index fails on 10 grounds:

So very awesome at striking down one of the worse medical myths in current society. Everyone should read this.

Some of these are surprising! Anna Karenina is a beach read?

Almost 16,000 of you voted in our Best Beach Books poll. Whether such a vote can determine literary quality, who can say? But if there's one thing a multitude of book-loving NPR types can definitely do, it's pick books that appeal ... to book-loving NPR types.

90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

Is it you pachamama?

I'm not actually sure what this is -- links to a bunch of related NPR stories, I guess. But it looks interesting.

More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.

More than half of adult Americans report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to evolve.

omg!

Series coming to an end. Children no longer presumed literate.

26 years! Wow! Not as long as Sesame Street, but WOW!

For 26 years, Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton shepherded kids through the exciting world of books. The show, which fostered a love of reading, was the third longest-running program in PBS history, outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

I recommend this article for those of you who grew up with Reading Rainbow and who value children's literature.

After 26 years, the beloved children's show hosted by LeVar Burton will disappear from the airwaves. Today, educational funding favors programs that teach kids how to read, rather than why to read.

Even if you can't remember a specific Reading Rainbow episode, chances are, the theme song is still lodged somewhere in your head: Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high, Take a look, it's in a book — Reading Rainbow ... Remember now? Reading Rainbow comes to the end of its 26-year run on Friday; it has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history — outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

"Research has directed programming toward phonics and reading fundamentals as the front line of the literacy fight. Reading Rainbow occupied a more luxurious space — the show operated on the assumption that kids already had basic reading skills and instead focused on fostering a love of books."

"Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do."

Exchange ideas with the world’s leading scientists, educators, policymakers, artists, and authors. Presented by WGBH Boston with PBS, NPR, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and The Lowell Institute.

A good read for designers and maybe even more for clients.

Old professions

A case study in how to transform a newsroom to the digital age: How National Public Radio is changing the reporter’s skills teaching them social media, online writing, photo and video. At the Poynter Institutes seminar on best practice in multimedia editor Keith W. Jenkins told how they change the newsroom: 'Begin with the skills of the journalist. Then add a little to what they can already do. Don't start with the needs of the organization.' From the article: Most news organizations are at least paying lip service to this multiplatform goal, but NPR is putting its money (and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's) where its mouth is: The foundation gave NPR $1.5 million to train its 450 editorial employees in digital storytelling skills and to pay for substitutes to fill in for them while they learn. NPR is putting an additional $1 million into the training

About the creative (descriptive) use of language

An interesting discuss on language and how images have different meaning to different people and cultures

Lera Boroditsky's take on how language transmit culture. I'd also love to read her essay, "How Does Language Shape the Way We Think" in the anthology What's Next (Vintage Books, June 2009)

Through Juliet's lips, Shakespeare said "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But the Bard may have been wrong — names do matter. Language researchers say your sense of the rose depends on what you call it.

Lera Boroditsky asks us to describe a bridge - "What explains the difference? Boroditsky proposes that because the word for "bridge" in German — die brucke — is a feminine noun, and the word for "bridge" in Spanish — el puente — is a masculine noun, native speakers unconsciously give nouns the characteristics of their grammatical gender" (wikipedia notes that "For the Burning Man festival, she once built a banana vehicle" ;)

A story done on behavior economics and it's acceptance in the Obama administration.

RT @GuyKawasaki: Great piece on behavorial economics and social psychology. Must read! http://adjix.com/6ufc [from http://twitter.com/r1tz/statuses/2088997262]

Human beings don't always behave rationally. Now, policymakers are using research about human decision-making to design policies to protect humans from their own poor judgment — including everything from unwanted pregnancies to failing to save for retirement.

Economic models and how unpredictable human beings mess with them.

Very cool story about ants and smells.

Text and audio versions of story

All Things Considered, March 2, 2009 · Teachers know the blank stare. It can be hard to know what students are absorbing in class. Well, technology to the rescue. More teachers are equipping their classrooms with little keypads — often called clickers — that let students instantly, and anonymously, answer questions. Teachers say the clickers are improving the quality of education by measuring how engaged students are in the material they are learning.

In Search Of Answers, Teachers Turn To Clickers - all things considered

hasticity, which is the science of random chance, and they talked to someone who

There's whatever the story appears to be about—the financial crisis, evangelical Christianity, cryogenics—and then there's what it's actually about. And what it's actually about is, as often as not, wrongness.

Ira Glass on the narrative power of being wrong

This is just delightful.

I don't know whether it's going to come in the form of a more successful movie franchise about librarians than that TV thing Noah Wyle does, or a basic-cable drama about a crime-fighting librarian (kinda like the one in the comic Rex Libris), or that reality show I was speculating about, but mark my words, once you've got Old Spicy on your side and you can sell a couple of YouTube parodies in a couple of months, you're standing on the edge of your pop-culture moment. Librarians: prepare.

A quick reminder from NPR.

RT @SterlingBooks: From @NPR Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries http://n.pr/bva1RY