Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter

This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible! They put in a correction the next day.

To mitigate this ongoing trend of streams, communicators will need to: 1) be as ubiquitous as possible, 2) adopt multiple messages, stories and formats and 3) make sure you allow your employees to get out there - in other words, use the force, don't fight it.

In a recent ABC News story by Matt Gutman, he describes how Miami Dade Police Officer Gene Lopez opens each of his presentations on airport security. Officer Lopez interacts with a video clip to dramatically get the attention of his audience. I encourage you to read the description in the news story.

Here are a few lessons we can learn from this powerful and effective opening to a presentation.

Writing is a combination of art and craft. The art comes from lots of reading, talking, thinking, dreaming, and writing. The craft is primarily technique. Some techniques are complex, but a few are very simple and will instantly strengthen your writing. In many cases, however, strengthening writing simply means avoiding those things that weaken it.

We have identified 10 words that nearly always weaken writing. In no particular order, they are as follows.

In twelve years of running digital copywriting agency Sticky Content, there are a few words and phrases I've grown to hate with a passion. If I had my way, I'd ban them from all websites and for some sound commercial reasons, too.

You probably know that YouTube is, by far, the top video destination on the Web.

Here are some things about YouTube, though, that you probably don’t know:

Virgin America is known for fun plane rides, with the amazing electronics in your seat, the jazzy music in the bathrooms, and the calming blue aisle lighting.

But free Wi-Fi on a cross-country Virgin flight this week had me testing just about every application I could think of. I even got a live videoconferencing session going with an editor briefly . . .

Learn about nonverbal communication from the pictures shown here.

If you’re like the majority of writers out there, you’re a self-doubting bundle of neuroses, determined to believe that your writing will never be good enough.

That’s the life of the tortured, misunderstood writer, right?

What’s that? You think you’re pretty good at writing and actually like some of your own work?

When Sara Sutton Fell, CEO of FlexJobs.com, was hiring for her entry-level job site, one particular resume stood out from all the others.

The reason? The applicant claimed to be a "Pig Wrestling Champion" and included details like weight of the pig (see photo, left), number of competitors, and months of training.