Manic Comic Preachers

This group of international comic artists and illustrators picks a theme (kittens, hobos, moustaches) and dips their quills into the surreal every Thursday night. The results are posted on their blog.

clipped from stldrawingclub.blogspot.com STL Drawing Club OUR SKETCHBOOKS WEIGH A TON WE DRAW EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT clipped from stldrawingclub.blogspot.com STL Drawing Club has gone global with the addition of Maximo "Max" Vento. Max is an up and coming graphic novelist who hails from Spain. His first book is due out in his homeland by the end of the year. Clean shaven, baby-faced Max gives us his take on our mustache theme. clipped from stldrawingclub.blogspot.com In honor of the upcoming FBC mustache ride we all drew mustache themed drawings last night. You know what that means!!! NOTE: I'm not crying in that self-portrait, those are eye boogers. Although YOU'D probably cry if you were driving a hot-rod made entirely out of your own mustache.

The Writing On The Wall

Good penmanship is more than just a quaint skill. A new study shows that it's a key part of learning.

By Raina Kelley | NEWSWEEK | Nov 12, 2007 Issue

clipped from www.newsweek.com Many educators say yes, for reasons having nothing to do with thank-you notes. Handwriting is important because research shows that when children are taught how to do it, they are also being taught how to learn and how to express themselves. A new study to be released this month by Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham finds that a majority of primary-school teachers believe that students with fluent handwriting produced written assignments that were superior in quantity and quality and resulted in higher grades—aside from being easier to read. The College Board recognized this in 2005 when it added a handwritten essay to the SAT—an effort to reverse the de-emphasis on handwriting and composition that may be adversely affecting children's learning all the way through high school and beyond. Emily Knapton, director of program development at Handwriting Without Tears, believes that "when kids struggle with handwriting, it filters into all their academics.

World Usability Day

Think of this day next time you try to figure out the self-checkout aisle!

clipped from www.worldusabilityday.org "Making Life Easy!" World Usability Day was founded to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. The focus for World Usability Day 2007 -- November 8, 2007 -- is healthcare. Whether it's new medical devices or technologies; drug research, approval, or delivery; patient forms or medical record sharing; emergency disaster planning; increasing the functionality of hospitals; or everyday healthcare delivery, EVERYONE is affected by usability in healthcare.

JibJab Animations Starring You!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!The masters of pixel-based puppeteering have made it easy for us to insert unsuspecting loved ones into hilarious productions.

(This is my wife and myself dancing very similarly to how we perform at weddings!)

10 Ways to Improve Your Press Releases

These helpful tips are great for drafting many other communication tools, too. Brochures. Take-aways. Instructions for your kids.

clipped from www.visualthesaurus.com There are many voices calling for the death of the press release. What is needed is not execution but reform. I wrote a moby-post on my blog listing 62 Ways to Improve Your Press Release. Here are ten suggestions that relate to the process of writing (other tips deal with managing the process and alternatives to press releases):

Sunny Side of the Brain

clipped from features.us.reuters.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Imagine receiving a big chunk of cash in the future. Or winning a prize. Chances are, such optimistic thoughts are coming from two places in the brain that play an important role in enabling people to, as the old song says, accentuate the positive, New York University scientists said Wednesday. Pinpointing the brain regions involved in optimism and positive thinking about the future, the researchers said, may also have shed light on what might be going wrong in people with depression. The researchers used sophisticated brain imaging to track brain activity in 15 young adults -- seven men and eight women -- while they asked them imagine future scenarios. They included getting a lot of money, winning an award, going to a birthday party or ball game or the zoo, being lied to, the end of a romantic relationship, going to a funeral and others.

Animator vs. Animation

Artist's Comments:

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself. A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself. -- This took three long months.. i think it's worth it.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Dwell's Design Leader: Ken Isaacs

From the Dwell Magazine Design Leaders video series.

Architect Ken Isaacs reflects on the innovative projects that defined his career, from the Shoebox House to the Knowledge Box.

Pop!Tech 2007: Crutch Master

Bill Shannon | Shannon Arts

Here’s a partial list of attributes you must possess to be Bill Shannon: a sense of wonder, a curiosity about what it means to be human, a skateboard, an interest in furthering the dialectic of art in performance, several hundred thousand YouTube hits, discipline, rocker-bottom crutches, a hip-hop soundtrack, and the remnants of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. Bill’s work is based on street performance, club culture, and the fine arts. His performance and video work have been presented nationally and internationally over the past ten years at numerous venues, festivals, and events. He has exhibited at the Tate Liverpool Museum and has choreographed specific elements of Cirque du Soleil’s production of Varekai. Bill’s work can be described as part break dancing, part social experiment. “I create performances that stand in for real life,” he says. “I need to do this because in real life, I often experience genuine acts of Good Samaritanism as obstacles.”