Photo Library, Library of Congress

For fans and students of photography, the U.S. Library of Congress offers a Photo Library from which you can order real prints, at very reasonable prices, from negatives shot by photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. The photo library contains 52 collections, large portions of which have been digitized. Library of Congress. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html

The International Center of Photography is a museum, a school and a center for photographers and photography. ICP celebrates photography’s diversity in its many roles as an agent of social change, a medium of aesthetic expression, a tool for scientific or historical research, and a repository for personal experience and memory.
www.icp.org

In my opinion, economist-turned-photojournalist Sebastian Salgado (b. 1944, Brazil) is the most brilliant photojournalist of today’s generation. Widely published and exhibited, Salgado is a genius at documenting people attempting to survive in the worst of circumstances as well as exploring the eroded status of the manual worker in the age of computers and high technology.
Selgado Web. www.terra.com.br/sebastiaosalgado/

This team did some award winning editorial photography for me when I was at Canadian National in the style of Walker Evans. Reasonable rates considering the quality they offer.
www.rothandramberg.com

The Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the U.S. press, politics and public policy issues. It is best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for their polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes.
http://people-press.org/

Billed as the world’s greatest recipe collection—and it is! Check out the recipe search that you can do by typing in what ingredients you have lying on your shelves or in the depths of your refrigerator. Restaurant reviews and recommendations for virtually any city. www.epicurious.com

For those times where you need to write something, but don’t actually have anything to say, the Bullshit Generator is a perfect tool. This site will enable you to write copy such "proactively maximize our synergies," "contextualize back-end functionalities" and "regenerate mission-critical intermediaries" that sound pretty good, but are actually 100% content-free. Ideal for business plans and marketing strategies that you know won’t get read anyway.
Bullshit
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html

Friedman, in my estimation, is a sound thinker and writer on U.S. foreign policy. He specializes in covering the Middle East and in the words of the New York Observer is "the principal interpreter of the Arab world for the well-informed." His columns run in The New York Times on Thursdays and Sundays. Current editorials are free; back issues will cost you a few bucks. Friedman’s book The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) is a wonderful, clear explanation of what "globalization" really means and how each one of us has a role to play.
Tom Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/
oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.html

In his groundbreaking book, Silent Messages (1981), Mehrabian showed that 93% of human communication takes place through body language, gestures, and voice tone. Words account for a mere 7%. Think about what means for the effectiveness of e-mail, telephone and video-conferencing. 
Mehrabian research
Mehrabian’s communication research (condensed)

Dr. Albert Mehrabian's website

Monday, October 18, 2004

Useful media and journalism websites

The PEW Research Center for the People and the Press
The Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. We are best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for our polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes. 
http://people-press.org/

The Media Center (at the American Institute)
The Media Center helps individuals and organizations worldwide acquire intelligence and apply insight into the future role and use of media and enabling technology.
http://www.mediacenter.org/

The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA)
The Center for Media and Public Affairs is a nonpartisan research and educational organization which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media. MPA election studies have played a major role in the ongoing debate over improving the election process. Our continuing analysis and tabulation of late night political jokes provides a lighter look at major news makers. CMPA is one of the few groups to study the important role the media plays in communicating information about health risks and scientific issues.
http://www.cmpa.com/

MediaChannel
MediaChannel is a media issues supersite, featuring criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from hundreds of organizations worldwide. As the media watch the world, we watch the media.
http://www.mediachannel.org/

Columbia Journalism Review (CJR)
CJR was founded in 1961 to "assess the performance of journalism in all its forms; to call attention to its shortcomings and strengths; to help define and refine the standards of honest, responsible service; to help stimulate continuing improvement in the profession; and to speak out for what is right, fair and decent."
http://www.cjr.org/

Tons more resources at:
http://www.newswatch.org/

1. Stories and anecdotes. The entire speech is comprised of stories and anecdotes. Every point that Lavenson makes in the speech is brought out by a story, taken mostly from his own experience. He never just tells you stuff, there is always a story, an anecdote, a concrete example. And audiences love stories…and remember them.

2. Humour. Lavenson uses old-fashioned humour and exaggeration—not cliché jokes—in his speech. Humour about funny stuff that happened at the hotel. Of course, part of the charm is the way he tells the story.

3. A case study in solid management principles. Principles such as ensuring that all hotel staff were knowledgeable about the hotel’s products and services, remembering guests’ names, employee orientation, management by wandering around (MBWA) are all standard management repertoire today; they were radical in 1973. Further, Lavenson was one of the first CEOs to realize that employee communication would have to be done in another language because one-third of the hotel’s staff was Hispanic and spoke no English.

4. "The Chant." This is the memorable line that people remember and refer back to again and again. "Think Strawberries" is the chant of Lavenson’s speech which meant "Ask for the order"—and was used by the chambermaids, waiters, the bellmen, the captains, and the sales executives—to upsell and upgrade the hotel’s services. What started as an effort to sell dessert (strawberries sold better than pastry since everyone was on a diet) became upgrading the single room to a suite, or upgrading to a suite with a view….

5. A great ending. He doesn’t thank anyone for listening to him, for their time, or for their attention. Tied to the main theme of the speech, the ending is elegant and charming.