Terms of the Trade

Objective Correlative: a literary term referring to a symbolic article used to provide explicit, rather than implicit, access to such traditionally inexplicable concepts as emotion or color. T.S. Eliot used this phrase to describe “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion” that the poet feels and hopes to evoke in the reader.

How to write headlines that convert

You know that — on average —

only 2 out of 10 people read an article beyond the headline, don’t you? If you don’t write irresistible headlines, even fewer will read your content.

How to self-edit so you don’t look dumb

Whether you are a good writer or not doesn’t matter.

Does this surprise you?

The only way to become a master writer is to become awe-inspiringly good at editing. Advertising great David Ogilvy says this:

I am a lousy copywriter, but I am a good editor. So I go to work editing my own draft.

Getting Your Content on Google

There is a basic fact that we need to get clear here. Other than yourself, there is no one on this planet who wants your content showing up as often as possible in the SERPs than Google.

For nearly two decades Google has spent 100s of 1000s on giving you an education, and telling you exactly what it takes to get you listed as often as possible. They want you to be #1! Reels of Video Training on YouTube,. Free College Credit Classes at Universities across the nation, MOOCs, free advertisement with Adwords (up to $500 at times). Reams of pages, and the best Analytics program money can buy given to you with all the training and needs you could imagine -- for free.

How to enchant your audience

• If you try to sell right off the bat without building trust, the sceptics will quickly click away.
• If you delight your readers with your product or idea, if you provide real solutions to their problems, they’ll want to find out more.
• Use the following tips to engage, delight, and ultimately sell:
• Understand your readers. Know their fears, dreams, and desires. How can you engage with someone you don’t understand?
• Don’t write for a large audience. Choose one person, picture him, and write to him as if he’s a friend.
• Use a conversational tone of voice. Nobody wants to chat with a company.
• Be engaging. Using the word you is the most powerful way to be more engaging.
• Be remarkable. So much content is out there, how can you stand out? Disclose your point of view, tell your personal story, and develop your own writing voice. If your readers feel they know you, they will connect with you.
• Use familiar language. Check Twitter, Facebook or Google’s Keyword Tool — and find the wording your readers use. 
• Avoid jargon. Always choose the simplest possible expression of your idea. Avoid obscure words.
• Don’t insult your readers. Being clear doesn’t mean you have to tell your readers things they already know.

Be likeable. Do great things for your readers, help them out, and be generous. It’s obvious isn’t it?

Some OpenEducation Resources on the Web

Open Education Resources, K-12

• CK-12: flexbooks, FlexMath, and more (see story about El Paso partnership)
• Curriki: big community around big library
• Gooru: search engine for education
• OpenEd Institute: biggest Core-aligned catalog
• Khan Academy: 6000 videos on math & more
• OER Commons: dedicated to innovation in open education content & practices
• PowerMyLearning: grade level collections
• NROC: high school science & math
• iCivics: open resources for learning civics
• Literacy Design Collaborative: tools & prompts for writing across the curriculum #
• Edmodo: free learning platform with tons of open content
• Learning.com: Curriculum Foundry helps organize OER #

Postsecondary OER

• Academic Earth: free online courses from the world’s top universities
• iTunes U: view a course, make a course
• Saylor: 250 college courses across 13 subject areas
• Writing Commons: Freshman English from USF
• Connexions: open library from Rice
• MIT OpenCourseWare
• Wikipedia & WikiEducator
• PhET Interactive Simulations
• Washington State’s Open Course Library Project: resources for 42 courses

Anytime Learning

• Coursera: the world’s best courses for free *

• General Assembly: learn from experts on business, tech & design *
• Udemy: online courses from expert teachers *
• LearnZillion: great instructional resources for teachers *
• edX: non-profit created by Harvard and MIT
• Udacity: IT and coding nanodegrees
• Canvas: open online courses #
• MentorMob: education search engine
• TED-Ed: create customized lessons around TED videos

Some High Caliber resources

• National Science Digital Library
• The Learning Regestry
• Lumen Learning
• OERCommons OERCommons - where My lesson are

How to write content your readers will remember

You’ve made so much effort.

You write, and write, and write. People are reading your content, but your message doesn’t stick. Your readers are forgetting it, and fast.

Don’t worry.

The following nine simple tactics will make your message unforgettable:

1. Use sound bites. These are easy-to-remember, easy-to-quote nuggets of wisdom, just like proverbs. And haven’t generations of people remembered proverbs?
2. Avoid routine common sense. You won’t win reader loyalty with your breathtaking grasp of the obvious.

Content Creation -- The Daily Way

Are you forever chopping at and changing your text?

Use the following tips to structure your writing up front, so your message isn’t buried deep in your post:

1. Write your headline first. Include a compelling reason why anyone should read your content.
2. Then write your subheads. These will help structure your post.
3. Don’t forget captions. People are more likely to read your captions than your copy, so don’t miss this opportunity to communicate!
4. Delight with your opening paragraph. Remember, your opening paragraph has to draw your readers into your story. Each sentence has to make them want to read the next.
5. Energize with your closing paragraph. Make sure you write a few kick-ass lines that inspire your readers to take action or change their beliefs.
6. Create fascinating bullet points. Most people won’t read every word of your content. They’ll scan the headlines and the bullet points.
7. Don’t disappoint. Remember the compelling reason in your headline? Make sure you deliver on it.

The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium, #4)

by David Lagercrantz

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 2,247 ratings — published 2015

This fall, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return in the highly anticipated follow-up to Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. In this adrenaline-charged thriller, genius-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist face a dangerous new threat and must again join forces. Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a trusted source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female super hacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Lisbeth for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. In The Girl in the Spider's Web, the duo who thrilled 80 million readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest meet again in an extraordinary and uniquely of-the-moment thriller.

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief Believe

I grew up in writing under the impression that the Willing Suspension of Disbelief was a fact. I never questioned it, as it fit my personal experience with books and stories -- even movies -- perfectly.  The way it was explained to me by one of my first mentors said, "You can get away with anything. The reader is 'willing to believe' -- just don't remind them they are reading a book. Don't break the spell." What that meant was -- the sky can be purple, the planet square and the ice on the poles burning -- no problem. However, if you have your character put some ice into her glass and it doesn't explode, or you give a lame reason for how the gravity works on a square planet, you break the spell. The reader will toss your novel aside and never return. You broke a trust, a trust that is sacred between author and reader.

There are so few Sacred Trusts left in the world, so you can imagine my state when a Neuropsychologist showed that this wasn't true. The Suspension of Disbelief wasn't how we did things at all. 

Kurt Vonnegut - The Short Story

I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.



"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is doing

Ray Bradbury 12 Tips and How to Save the World

Ray Bradbury was a hero of mine. His attitude toward life and his art centered my misgivings and neuroses more times than I can remember. When he died in 2012  the world was a little darker and it hasn't recaptured that light.

Steven King on Writing

1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience.“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”


2. Don’t use passive voice. “Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe.”


3. Avoid adverbs. “The adverb is not your friend.”


4. Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said.”

Solar Summer 2015

Solar flares are bursts of high-energy radiation that cannot get through Earth's atmosphere to affect people on the ground. However, extremely powerful flares can have impacts higher up, triggering temporary radio blackouts and radiation storms that could endanger orbiting astronauts.

Flares are often accompanied by explosions of superheated solar plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Potent CMEs that hit Earth can spawn geomagnetic storms powerful enough to disrupt radio signals, GPS communications and power grids. CMEs also often supercharge the beautiful auroral displays known as the northern and southern lights.

http://www.space.com/28799-biggest-solar-flares-2015-sun-photos.html

Stephen Hawking believes he’s solved a huge mystery about black holes

On Tuesday, famed physicist Stephen Hawking presented new theories on black holes to a crowd of esteemed scientists and members of the media at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Hawking focused on something called the information paradox, which continues to puzzle scientists who study black holes. In a nutshell, the paradox surrounds the fact that information about the star that formed a black hole seems to be lost inside it, presumably disappearing when the black hole inevitably disappears. These things cannot be lost, according to General Relativity, and physicists generally believe that they aren't really lost. But where does the information go when the black hole that's absorbed it goes kaput?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/25/stephen-hawking-believes-hes-solved-a-huge-mystery-about-black-holes/

Emma and the Fashion Industry

It's been about a year since she founded the gender equality movement #HeforShe and Emma Watson is still talking about sexism and its impact on women's daily lives.

In a new video, Emma speaks out about issues within the fashion industry, inviting several famous designers to share their thoughts on the topic as well.

 During the video, Watson discusses her thoughts on gender equality and asks questions to heavy fashion moguls from Jonathan Saunders to Stella McCartney on what they believe are the biggest struggles in the fashion world that are faced by women today.

 Watson also calls out the fashion world and asks fashion icons point blank if they are a feminist. Watch the video to see how the stunning and poise Watson grew into a young lady who’s on a mission to make a change and bring justice for all in fashion.

Nightmare Death

Night Terror AXIS I: 307.46

The rare sleep disorder goes by many names: night terrors, sleep terrors, pavor nocturnus, or AXIS I: 307.46 (The DSM’s code). It remains a medical mystery. What medical researchers do know is that night terrors are caused by an over-arousal of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. In children, this may be the result of the CNS still maturing — it has long been believed that the CNS’s maturation process ends in early childhood (although several recent studies suggest it may continue to develop through around age 25).

Medical Experts Seek Clues to 'Nightmare Deaths' That Strike Male Asian Refugees

January 11, 1987|LARRY DOYLE | United Press International

Since April, 1983

...at least 130 Southeast Asian refugees have left this world in essentially the same way. They cried out in their sleep. And then they died.

Medical authorities call this Asian Death Syndrome. The refugees have various names for it, one of them being Night Terror.

September is Rising Marketing New Titles?

Marketing for authors is a larger job than most realize. In this post I've gathered some decent articles to get you up to speed and to offer insights you may not have considered.

How to Read like a Writer

Aspiring writers are told -- with good reason -- to read everything they can get their hands on. Reading familiarizes you with the shape of the genre you want to write in and its conventions and clichés; it gives you ideas for new stories; it sharpens your sense of what is good writing and what isn't. It's true that if you read enough, you'll naturally absorb a great deal of what you need to know. But there may come times when you despair of your ability to ever do a certain thing right, whether it's characterization or combat, and in times like those, it can be useful to study what you read more intensively.

Bernie Sanders on Racial Physical Violence in the United States

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

from his speech given in Portland OR

Crime PERPETRATED BY THE STATE

Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

Westpoint Terrorism Study: 400% rise in Rightwing Violence since 2007

POLICY CONSIDERATIONS IN COMBATING TERRORISM: DECISIONs regarding Right Wing risk and UNCERTAINTY 

Author(s): Michele L. Malvesti west point 

The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point is pleased to announce a new release as part of its Occasional Paper Series entitled “Policy Considerations in Combating Terrorism: Decision-Making Under Conditions of Risk and Uncertainty,” by CTC Senior Fellow Michele L. Malvesti.

Debate Score Card

 The top 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, for the first debate of the 2016 election cycle. (The other seven candidates debated earlier in the evening.) The Fox News moderators had a challenging job, given the number of contenders competing for camera time and the unpredictable presence of the current front-runner, Donald Trump.

This is an important event and this run for office of President for 2016 is heavy with historic meaning. Fifty years from now, our great grand kids are going to learn in school about this period, and they will not be learning about the ISIS, or the Iran Deal or even Obama. What they will be focused on for this period of ten years is how Congress was allowed to operate in the manner they have -- and hopefully the laws we have passed ensuring it can not happen again.

Let's Say You're Right

Against the Iran Deal? let's say you're right. All of your points absolutely correct. All of them.
After the United States when into Iran and took over their legal and democratic government, we put in charge a dictatorship which ruled up to the 80s by terror and torture. Tens of thousands of people were murdered by the man we put in power.
Then...
We told the world, flat out we will not adhere to the World Court, that we do not see the treaties we signed agreeing to adhere to the Court -- as valid -- and we blocked the UN from enforcing the Court's decisions. Then Reagan admitted to the world his goal was to remove the government of Nicaragua by military action. -- confessing Terrorism.
Reagan NEW YORK TIMES

The Facts of the Iran Deal

Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Nuclear Program

Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. These elements form the foundation upon which the final text of the JCPOA will be written , and reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran. Important implementation details are still subject to  negotiation, and nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

Are Christians Learning Yet?

In the 1980s and '90s, the power of the religious right was a defining feature of American politics. Ronald Reagan, a Republican, famously told a group of conservative Christians that "you can't endorse me, but I endorse you," the type of flattery that nearly gave his audience the vapors. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, ran for president making rhetorical concessions on the issue of abortion (it should be "safe, legal, and rare"), and while in office he signed the Defense of Marriage Act and made school uniforms a cause célèbre.