Silk Slides

Sharing a presentation simplified!

Upload a slide show, share the link via email, website, wiki, etc., and the “show” begins! SilkSlides provides a space for attendees to make comments on each slide.

Engaging the audience with live conversation makes this platform a dynamic tool for discussion, sharing, communicating, and collaborating. For teachers and students, managers and employees, organizers and participants, SilkSlides just might be the easiest tool for sharing.

No login required or password to remember! Just enter your screen name and email (which remains private) to contribute to the discussion.

SilkSlides.

.

Pumpkin Carving

Need a good template for carving pumpkins this year? 

How about a carving lesson?

*Try Pumpkin Masters for PDF templates to create that awesome Jack-O-Lantern that will be the envy of your neighbors!  And don’t forget the proper “technology” tools:  Pumpkin Masters also offers the Safety Saw, Super Poker, Pounce Wheel, and other tools for safe carving.  

*Better Homes and Gardens not only has stencils and stencil kits, but also offers great decorating ideas and carving basics, tips and tricks. 

*Pumpkin Pile has hundreds of free carving patterns:  sports, celebrities, animals, cartoons, super heros, movies, and more!  

*Martha Stewart has templates and also offers how-tos, carving tools, pumpkin projects. and pet costumes!

*If Micky Mouse or Tinker Bell is more your style, Disney has templates for carving your favorite characters.

Spotlight: Per. 2 Accounting

The Psychology of Money is a relatively new and dynamic field. Many researchers, economists, psychologists, and financial advisers conduct studies to determine just why we behave as we do with our money. This complex field provides insight into our income-earning power, our budgeting philosophies, our shopping strategies, our retirement incentives, our coupon or rebate motives, and our tendency toward gambling.

Accounting students talk a bit about MONEY: “Does having more money really make us happy?”

Human behavior in relation to money – how we earn it, how we spend it, how it motivates us – is of interest to many organizations. Retailers, restaurants, casinos, fitness organizations, counseling groups, government agencies, schools, banking institutions, insurance companies, etc. – they all pay close attention to valid research on the psychology of money to provide services and sell products.

Resource: Whistlestop Tour

Scary Technology

Did you know that Haunted Houses generate over $500 million in revenue nationwide every year!? (Source: Fast Facts @ Haunted House Association)  The larger houses in Austin, St. Louis, New York, and Atlanta charge each guest between $30-40 a visit.  That’s big business!

• Haunted Houses often take months of planning and preparation, operating almost daily for the full month of October.  As consumers become jaded to the old routine fake blood effects and low-quality screamer tapes, community organizations have had to up the “fright ante” and make use of current technology to provide Hollywood-type special effects.
• High-tech lighting and state-of-the-art sound systems are the norm in most haunted houses, most being computer-generated and controlled.
• In larger houses, the walk-through experience becomes individually-tweaked as several technicians sit in computer control rooms and trigger sounds, lights, wind, and other effects as they watch guests, via planted video cameras, move through the house.
• Mummies and monsters are animatronic, operated by computer chips or with remote controls.  Motion sensors planted in floors, walls, and ceilings trigger frightening sounds and movements.
• DMX equipment, LED lighting, iPhone apps, 3-D wall-size monitors, and even 4-D experiences in amusement-park-type chairs all come together to scare use, frighten us, make us scream!

Some local haunted houses, and other seasonal events, this year:

• Nightmare Under Chestnut Street in Meadville
• Ghost Lake at Conneaut Lake Park
• Ghoul Mansion in Sharon
• Cool Spring Corn Maze in Mercer
• Halloween Parade in Meadville
• Pumpkin Fest in Conneaut Lake
• Halloween Spooktacular at Pymatuning in Jamestown, PA
• Wooden Nickel Corn Maze in Edinboro
• Port Farms in Waterford

By Mildred and Patty

A simple song, “Happy Birthday” brings in over $2 million in annual royalties!

Written by sisters Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill in 1853 to greet students to class, the tune was originally titled “Good Morning to All”…

Good morning to you
Good morning to you
Good morning, dear children
Good morning to all

The song caught on, the lyrics changed, and “Happy Birthday” was born. How, when, and by who is a bit fuzzy. A third sister, however, proved similarities in tune with the original song and successfully secured copyright in 1935. While these rights should have expired 1991, ownership has changed hands many times and now lie with Time Warner.

Copyright law forbids public performance of copyrighted works without author permission. So…singing “Happy Birthday” at home is not an infringement. But performing in public? Yes! For a public performance, permission (and royalties) would be required!

The song has become a tradition – it’s been sung in space, sung to presidents, sung in schools, and sung in churches. The tune comes in greeting cards, watches, music boxes, toys, and ringtones. We don’t think twice when we burst into song in a public setting.

But be warned! Courts have found camps, restaurants, and other venues guilty of copyright infringement!

Read more: Unhappy Birthday, Snopes

Young Beiber

Millions of ordinary people record themselves singing their favorite songs then posting to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But is that legal? Or is it copyright infringement?

Consider this: After performing other artists’ songs (as an unknown) then posting to YouTube, Justin Beiber rocketed to stardom…improving his financial situation. Notice that this young Beiber video is restricted with playback on this site and can only be viewed on YouTube…

Copyright law states that only an author retains exclusive rights to (1) distribute (2) display (3) perform (4) reproduce and (5) create derivatives. Any use of copyrighted work by others must obtain permission to perform and possibly pay royalties or purchase a license.

Current copyright law could find Justin Beiber guilty of copyright infringement. After all, it’s a public performance of a copyrighted work without the author’s permission.

If infringement is claimed, courts would look at (1) the purpose of the performance (2) the nature of the performance (3) the substantiality of the performance and (4) the effect of the performance on the financial market.

Is Justin guilty of copyright infringement? If you record yourself singing a fav song and post it online, are you guilty of copyright infringement?

What say you, Tigers?

• Fight for the Future, an advocacy group, created a website in the fall of 2011 in response to a Bill, Free Beiber.

Got Paint?

Tired of the limitations using MS Paint that comes with your computer? Try Paint.NET for an intuitive, user-friendly (and free!) alternative.

Transparent backgrounds, layers, and special effects in this application make it a useful tool for the novice, or the expert, image editor.

Paint.net offers tutorials for beginners as well as tutorials on text effects, distortions, textures, and more.

Caution, however: the download comes with some partner applications that will install with Paint.NET – You may want to run through the install, then uninstall unwanted applications through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Some are plugins – disable these through your browser.