A Stampede of Happiness released!

Our new short film is out and it's a fun one. If you've been around people with Williams Syndrome, you know the experience can be intoxicating. We spent last 4th of July with a few hundred of our closest friends with Williams who attended the Williams Syndrome Association's National Convention, and made a fun little film out of. It's raw. Nothing contrived or scripted. No parents, scientists or professionals. Just people with Williams taking over a downtown Columbus, OH hotel and filling it with laughter, love, and music.

vimeo.com/ondemand/astampedeofhappiness

Another cool tech tool: text analyzer

I recently shared an interesting new tech tool that evaluates photography. Here's a new research tool that does a quick text analysis to identify prominent themes and suggest relevant research papers. Just drop your document in and "presto" it does the rest. And, yes, the service is free!
Jstor Text Analyzer link

Fun and fairly accurate way to test quality of photos

Granted, it's a little bit gimmicky. And, from time to time, it's way off. But this little photo review app from Everypixel is a lot of fun and not a bad tool. Still in its beta phase, it uses algorithms that simulate our brains neural network (giant grain of salt) to judge the quality of photos. It's intended to help people who are wading through countless stock photos.

I see another potentially useful application for this tool: it could help creative people defend their choices of photos to higher ups. In a field where subjectivity reigns, it could help make the case pro or against specific photographs. I suspect business-types would overvalue its validity, but that could work to the creative person's advantage!

At any rate, it's free and its fun. So, go ahead, put some photos to the test!
Aesthetics test for photos link.

Photos from "White Nights for Research" at Cipriani NYC

We had the pleasure of attending the "White Nights for Research" gala on March 9th at the beautiful Cipriani event space on Wall Street. The space looked especially beautiful in white motif.  In addition to producing the tribute video on Dr. Ursula Bellugi, Lisa and I had the added honor of sitting next to Ursula's sister at dinner. It was a night to remember.

Jon & Lisa with Terry Monkaba, Executive Director WSA

White Nights NYC Event for Williams Syndrome Association

We had the honor of producing the tribute video on Dr. Ursula Bellugi for the Williams Syndrome Association's "White Nights for Research" fundraising gala held at the Cipriani Wall St. on March 9, 2017. Recruited to the Salk Institute by Jonas Salk himself, Dr. Bellugi is truly one of the "Grande Dame's" of neuroscience. Dr. Bellugi and I struck up a friendship during the filming of my doc on Williams, Embraceable. In fact, the always media-shy scientist, served as scientific advisor to the film.

So, here's 3 our 3 minute film on Dr. Bellugi-in her own words.

Frankl's wonderful illustration of Goethe's famous quote about treating man as he should be.

This clip needs little introduction. Viktor Frankl is one of my favorite thinkers. His books on meaning (Man's Search for Meaning, et al.)are deeply pragmatic and a must read for anyone trying to make sense of the world.