Best presentation for a horrible topic
592264
This story is not set in a particular place. The author purposely creates a city that could be almost anywhere in the world and the characters names reflect the same. It is an effort to help us realize how prevalent human trafficking is and that no country is immune.

 Tavi is a wonderful character and although he is put into an abhorrent situation (under false pretenses) he still comes through it all with a strong sense of purpose in helping all other kids who have been used and abused like him.
43435
Vapor Tiger is a great expose' of AGW proving what a farce it is.  Unfortunately, it will not reach the average low information type who will have neither the patience nor the ability to wade through it.  For those relatively few who are already aware of what Mr. Vance postulates, it will effectively be preaching to the choir but in a wonderfully short, sweet, and cogent presentation.  Vapor Tiger's message is, without a doubt, a strong and virtually irrefutable one.  If it can persuade or turn around some of the indoctrinated, then hopefully the message will spread.  Sadly, it is unlikely that the main stream media will give it its due or even mention it. If we could only get it on the evening news..........
4814881
This DVD is long (two hours), and there is an even longer (five-hour) one available.  Two hours is enough, I think, to appreciate the main points of the controversy surrounding teaching origins in public schools, using the evaluation regarding same in the state of Kansas.

This DVD covers a series of public hearings, taking place over a number of days, during which twenty different experts came to testify regarding the advisability of including Intelligent Design (ID) in the public school curriculum.  The presenters ranged from university professors to a freelance media representative from Turkey.  All presenters were advocating the inclusion of such material.

Prosecution (cross examination) was done by an attorney, counsel for a group self-identified as a scientific group (which, having been trained as a scientist myself, I question highly).  Nevertheless, more often than not, his questions served as springboards into salient and succinct points made by the presenters.  His own presentation was an hour and forty-five minutes long, however, only a portion is covered in this DVD.  It was a ridiculous display of harassment and yelling toward the board (which was treated most respectfully by all the other presenters), and in the end, he breached rules by refusing to subject his own presentation to questions of any kind.  Unbelievable that such intimidation tacts are tolerated; however, the chilling effect on the controversy is pervasive, as I learned myself during some twelve years in higher education, both as a student (from the undergraduate through the doctoral levels) and as a faculty member.

Mustafa Akyol was the Freelance Writer for Turkish and U.S. Media, a Muslim, and he pointed out that this debate in Kansas was of interest beyond the state, even beyond the United States to the world.  In response to a question by one of the panelists (of the Board of Education in Kansas), he referred to a quote: In China, it is possible to question Darwin, but not to question the government; in the United States it is possible to question the government, but not to question Darwin.  This contrast summarizes a key problem with neo-Darwinian evolution as currently advanced in educational institutions -- particularly public educational institutions, up to the highest level.

The hypothesis of neo-Darwinian evolution is embraced as a religion (by definition) and is advanced with intimidation tactics that kill the heart of what true science -- indeed, true objective inquiry -- is about!

This is not entertainment, it is serious debate on a critical issue that has untold bearing on the very way that vast multitudes are being taught to think about a core question ("From where do we come?")  Both sides could benefit from watching this DVD, providing that both sides do so objectively.
3008157
Good tips for anyone thinking of presenting. I'm in healthcare. Trying to everyone passionate about infection rates is not easy. Will try to employ some of these techniques.
3370816
I have no complaints whatsoever about the content of this book, with the exception that sometimes the pruning advice is a little vague. It's nice to see a genuine evidence-based approach to gardening that cites studies and research, not tradition and habit. A lot of the advice in this book is the same advice i give as a Master Gardener, but some i'd never heard before and am eager to try.

The big problem i did have with this book was the presentation. It's an absolute font salad, with font size and weight varying wildly in what, i assume, was an aesthetic choice designed to appeal to the internet generation by echoing website design and infographics. Some pages are white with black or colored text, some pages are solid red or green with white text, and so on. And the type ranges from huge and bold to so fine and small that it's almost invisible. My vision is roughly 20/20, and at times i had to get my face right up to the page to read a section.

I do highly recommend this book to anyone interested in growing better-tasting better-for-you produce. It covers everything from what cultivars to grow, how to grow them, how to harvest them, and sometimes even recipes for how to eat them. You might want to get a magnifying glass too, though.
3296155
To all those who revel in the gory glory of this set of books, I issue you a challenge: Tell any of your children at a young age about the book of Revelation.  Tell them about the moon turning to blood, stars falling out of the skies, men with locust heads, rivers and streams coagulating with blood, the screaming inferno and tortures to come.  Tell them men and women are going to plead to die but God won't let them.  Just a sampling.  There's plenty more in that book of the Bible.

Forget Sunday school platitudes.  Forget "Jesus loves me this I know..." No, tell them what you believe is the honest truth about God almighty.  Tell them that these are the plans their Heavenly Father has had for the world since the beginning of time.  Don't cotton candy it.  Jesus and His love pales in comparison to the way God is going to destroy and torture the world.

If you are intellectually honest, you would raise them on Revelation before you ever said a word about Jesus Christ.  They first need to be made afraid of the forthcoming wrath.  Nothing is more important than making sure they don't get a foot in hell, isn't it?  No more pictures of the loving shepherd, the kind and gentle Jesus.  Tell them this first.  Tell them this often.  Tell them this because this is what you say you know is going to happen.  Tell them about the glorious end of the world and the Four Horseman riding with swords of death, famine, disease, and pestilence.  Tell them this because nothing less than their everlasting souls hang in the balance.

As a mainline Christian, I am disgusted by work like this, but I also feel we are responsible in a way.  We left to the fringe elements-television preachers with limited education and massive ambition, to corrupt the entire field of theological ideas while we were sitting on our blessed behinds saying, "Surely, people won't really believe this stuff, will they?"  Well, they have and they do. Literally.

As for thinking Christians, it is time to unite together to reclaim our faith from what the Religious Right has done and is doing in the name of God.
3511101
Probably invaluable as intense scholarship--as a thesis presentation--but a terrible read; a good copy reader should reconstruct this entire book to create a smoother flow. Such excellent scholarship deserves an interesting voice in presentation. I quickly lost patience with this book.
4369873
This book is great.  It's chock full of horrible childling drawings that are fairly critiqued along with masterfully done examples of art.  It's a great conversational item to leave on your coffee table for when guests come over.  This book should serve you with hours of laughing at the pithy scribblings attempted by not so gifted children.
4817766
Garr Reynolds has succinctly grasped a pernicious nettle and dislodged a few hoary myths about effective communication in his new book presentationzen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Realising '... that something needed to be done to end the scourge of bad PowerPoint slides and the lifeless narration that accompanies them.' (p. 6), he sets out to illustrate a simpler and more effective approach to communication through presentations.

Keep in mind that the whole thing is about communication: what you need to do and, perhaps more importantly, not do, to make communication effective.

The ten chapters are logically grouped into five areas - introduction, preparation, design, delivery and the next step.

Depending on your philosophical leanings, don't get too caught up or distracted by the 'Zen' context in which he sets out his ideas - look instead at the key ideas themselves.

In the context of planning a presentation I liked his idea of what he called "going analog" (p. 45). Get away from your computer to think about the bigger context in which your presentation is to be made, to identify your key messages and generally tease out your ideas.

One of his key points with which I heartily agree is the need to avoid inadvertently becoming a slave to the software you are using (especially PowerPoint) with its own inherent structural and process constraints.

In discussing at length presentation design (comprising some 20% of the book), Reynolds provides an extensive set of before/after examples to illustrate the key points about the use of text, images, graphics, the interaction between text and images, use of white space, balance, grids and the rule of thirds. The latter will be familiar to readers who are photographers.

A particularly helpful feature comprising Chapter 7: Sample Slides, are examples used by real world presenters , including links to relevant websites. A couple at which I have had a quick look were very worthwhile.

The only downside I struck occurred in the delivery phase of the book where I thought the extensive Zen references and context tended to dominate the key messages he was trying to get across.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has to present something to an audience.

I can't do better than reiterate Reynolds' own advice - enjoy the journey!

(Readers interested in following Reynolds' ideas further should have a look at his website [...])

Reviewed by Greg Davies
The Apple Users' Society of Melbourne (AUSOM)
[...]
1186921
The good news? Really excellent analysis of our current situation in this country. Really excellent suggestions as to possible course of action for remedy.

The bad news? Bernie should have hired a good editor. This book is repetitively repetitive in the extreme. The same points with the same examples over and over (and over) again. He lost me, and I'm a HUGE Bernie fan. This book could have been edited down to a much more effective one. Sad.

5 stars for content. Unfortunately, 1 star for presentation.
4159443
Was this a Power Point presentation... gone missing?
First, it's important to realize that this book is part of a series of "Introducing..." books from a UK publisher.  So good authors were probably forced to follow a bad format.
That format apparently required glitzy graphics which overpowered the book.  Each small page seemed to be on a separate topic... much like a Power Point slide presentation.
There was disappointingly little coverage of the math side of the material.  OK, there really was next to none.  The saving grace was the coverage of where fractals were being used in practical applications.
Let me tell you a little more on these graphics.  They were (professionally done) hand drawn cartoons.  Mostly of famous mathematicians having quirky things to say about the subject, on an 8th grade level.
Overall, I think the authors did a fair job of trying to jamb an excellent subject into a stupid book format.  The problem lies most likely at the feet of the publisher.  This format makes sense for some of their other 8th grade books: "Introducing Feminism"... Freud... Jung... Marx... Einstein, etc.  How they were able to pull off "Introducing Math" in one of these small books is probably a story in and of itself.  They even have an "Introducing a Post-Feminism" book, if the first one was not enough.
This book was not a complete zero for me, as I did learn many new things.  It was a fast read, but I think I have yet to find the best introductory book on Fractals.  If you buy this book, you'll never have to pick up a pencil and solve a problem, or even use a calculator.  It's just all... a quick read.
John Dunbar
275400
This is a ready-to-use PowerPoint presentation on the Tabernacle in the Wilderness of Sinai. It has 50 slides, each with illustrations, diagrams, and charts. This is designed for a teacher to present. It does not have music or sound. It runs on Mac or PC.

1. Large full-color illustration of the Tabernacle, with the tent "cutaway" to show the interior.
2. Slides of each of the furnishings: bronze altar, brass laver, table of showbread, golden lampstand/candlestick, table of incense, ark of the covenant, mercy seat, and the veils.
3. Slides and descriptions of the high priest's garments.
4. Slides describing each of the sacrifices, the meaning, and symbolism.
5. Slide showing parallels between the work of the high priest and Jesus Christ
6. Slide of a bird's-eye view of the Tabernacle and the tribes camped around it.
7. Close up slides of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place.

These images and content are also available in other forms:
1.  A $3.99 pamphlet suitable for students. Appropriate for Bible studies and small groups. Click here to see&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Tabernacle/dp/1890947997/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Tabernacle</a>
2. A wall chart:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Tabernacle-Cutaway-Wall-Chart-Exclusive-Tabernacle-Cutaway-Wall-Chart/dp/1890947482/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Tabernacle Cutaway Wall Chart (Exclusive! Tabernacle Cutaway Wall Chart)</a>
3. It is also included in the book,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rose-Book-of-Bible-Charts-Maps-and-Time-Lines/dp/1596360224/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines</a>

The Microsoft PowerPoint application does not come on the disk. You need to have it already on your computer, but most people who have Microsoft Office already have PowerPoint.
266298
There is nothing worse than having to listen to a boring speech except being the person giving the boring speech. If you want to get more people listening to what you have to say, then liven up your presentation with humor. It can be a daunting task to know how to do that. For years I have added what I thought was humor to my speeches, but few people laughed. Now I know why. I did not know how to set up my jokes. Marshall Chiles book is an easy to use guide that helps even the most boring of us be funny.  His book gives several easy to use tips and tricks to get people laughing in your presentations. If you get people laughing, you make them happy. If you can make them happy, you can sell them anything.
1404745
My classmates and professor all agree that this book is horribly written and incredibly difficult for a non-expert to sift through and comprehend.  The authors contradict each other continually and the specific ideas in the book are not well explained.  I cannot imagine that there is not another text out there on the subject that is more well-written.
2324407
Excellent presentation of one of the most significant problems of our times.  Well written, documented , and very readable. This book should be widely distributed among our country's leaders.
4037573
Excellent basic pointers on making presentations with impact. Garr Reynolds really leverages his knowledge of human psyche to create memorable powerpoints.
A must read for presentation enthusiasts.
2234073
This author has the amazing ability to present topics that make some people uneasy and present it in such a way that even the most unsuspecting reader would consider trying it, even if only for a split second.