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Hans Rosling es profesor de salud internacional en el muy reconocido Karolinska Institute, en Suecia. Su trayectoria y su compromiso con los países pobres es notable. Además de su labor docente, de su trabajo con organismos internacionales y de dirigir Gapminder, uno de sus últimos logros ha sido negociar con Naciones Unidas la liberación de todos los datos estadísticos que poseen. De este modo, cualquiera puede acceder a ellos y al conocimiento que aflora cuando se los trata como lo hace él mismo.

She went out for milk and came home $15 million richer. Overnight, they had private jets, expensive trips...then what? What you need to know if a windfall comes your way.

(See More Amazing Videos @ http://www.ted.com)

Architect Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free."

I'm not going to do much with this post other than stand aside and let the content get straight to you. It's a very 'chewy' piece. You deserve it, and I'm glad to have found this for you. But before I say 'SShhhhh' and pull back the curtains on this presentation, a word from Norman Foster himself:

"Green is cool."

The Hunting Dynasty salutes.

TED (Technology Entertainment Design) è una conferenza internazionale nata con l'obiettivo di diffondere le idee. Qualunque idea. TED crede appassionatemente nel potere che le idee hanno di cambiare le abitudini, la vita e alla fine anche il mondo. Un'idea non è nulla se non provi a realizzarla.
Personaggi illustri partecipano ogni anno alla conferenza, esprimendo le loro idee degne di essere diffuse. Dal 2007 è nato un sito web dove sono raccolti tutti gli interventi. Circa 200 conferenze TED si possono ascoltare online.

Per puro caso sono venuta a conoscenza di questo progetto, che mi ha conquistata per la sua ambizione. Nel nostro piccolo anche noi CreActive Four crediamo nel potere delle idee e siamo qui per realizzarle.

The Guardian only scratches the surface of the brave new world of DNA or 'wet' coding.  The question of whether genes can replace silicon is a symptom of the fact that biology and computing are converging at a surprising rate.  Code is the key.  Computers work in binary, 1s and 0s.  DNA works in codes built of four letters, GATC.  (Remember the film Gattaca ?  Turns out that's a clever title.)  If we can learn and harness that code we can reprogram DNA, which is at once brilliant and absolutely terrifying.

One man leading the way in genetic coding is Craig Venter.  You may not know the name now, but I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet will in 20 years or less.  He's going to be richer than Bill Gates.  His company is currently working on a synthetic life-form that will feed on CO2 and excrete fuel.  His response to a man who asked if he was playing God?

'My dear sir, I'm not playing.'

The mighty TED will explain all this better than me.  Forgive me if I fall back to TED several times in my posts.  I urge everyone to go and have look around their video archive.  It's more informative and inspirational than anything on TV.  Except David Attenborough (all hail).

Juan Enriquez knows about the future of code:

Craig Venter is already digitising DNA:

and Alan Russell wants to regenerate our bodies:

Absolutely amazing. Make sure you watch the whole thing.

Link via TED.com

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Ted was laid right in the way of one jumps so we kept having to go round him to jump the jump again but it was good practise on my voice commands! lol

Here are a few pics from today:

[gallery]

Sometimes I feel it's time this comic as a whole wound up in the discard pile...

But THEN I remember that without this comic, millions, if not BILLIONS, of people worldwide would become so sad from its absence that their hearts would explode into a black hole of pure sadness.

So it's my duty to keep making these things for the fate of the world!

Yeah...that's it...

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Yesterdays TED blog was put on the international teacher blog because it was specifically about education. There are over 200 talks on TED, and the one that I’m going to briefly comment on today is very much related to one of the projects that I’ve undertaken here which is to write a book about Islam for non-Muslims and examine, as part of that book, how Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists co-exist peacefully in Bali.

Almost ten years ago, just after the time when I converted to Islam, one of my Pakistani students came to me with a book titled, Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong. My student said that I needed to read this book because it was a sympathetic account of Islam by a Westerner and that it was important that books like this were written and read by non-Muslims so that they could better understand what Islam is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. This was all pre-9/11.

I read his copy of the book and was so impressed with the book that I went out and bought other books by Karen Armstrong. Over the years, I’ve read four of her books and have always found them to be enlightening as well as enjoyable to read.

In Ms. Armstrong’s TED talk, she notes that religion is not about belief but about behavior, about commitment, about engagement. She says that religion is about behaving differently. Religious doctrines can only be understood when put in practice. She focuses on compassion – the ability to feel with the other. She says that all major religions have compassion at the center point. First it is necessary to get rid of ego and then people are ready to see the divine. She talks about the Golden Rule. Do not do to others, as you would not have them do to you.

Ms. Armstrong notes that religion has been hijacked; Religion used to oppress others because of human greed. It is necessary not only to have compassion for our own group, but especially for people from other groups.

She argues that religion should be a force for harmony. She sees a hunger for change around the world through all the religions – people seeking a way to use religion as a source of peace in the world.

She finishes her talk by saying that it is time to move beyond toleration to appreciation of the other. This is a key thing that needs to be done. It’s only by understanding and appreciating the other that we can see God.

This is an inspiring talk by one of the world’s most popular religious scholars. I wish that I had come across this video while I was still teaching because one of the courses that I taught was on world religions. This talk would have been an excellent introduction to the course.

Go over to Ted and download the video and listen to what Karen Armstrong has to say. I’m sure that you will find it enlightening and motivating.

Trying out a new robot design. No genitals=less wind resistance

The contemporary art scene was built upon beer. The 60's art scene, as you can probably tell by now, is a bit of an obsession of mine.  In that era of artistic creation, the living was simple and there were two aspects to these artists lives.. art and alcohol.  You would paint all day in an apartment rented for $5/month and you would go and drink with all the other artists at night.  Cedar bar, Dillon's Bar and the 9th circle were the hot spots and you knew everyone in the bar.  Artists used to order 10 beers at a time so that they wouldn't have to keep bothering the bartender.

So what you may say.  Alcohol is a recreation of sorts for working America.  It is our relaxation and our socialization.  In the art world, it is a means to a beginning.  You meet people through drinking and you express your ideas through inebriated conversation. 

It is a topic often accepted by the art community but never dicussed.  I personally feel that alcohol and art deserve each other.  Artists are so passionate, articulate and utterly brilliant in their visual expression so why not give them their relaxtion.  Artists are not like Joe Everyman.  We are a special breed and we prefer not to sit on a couch after 'work' and watch Super Nanny or some other brain rotting zombie program.  Instead we talk, we read, we drink.  I feel that most artists are not alcoholics in the classic sense.  Instead, we are articulate, thought provoking drunks.  Wait, that sounds bad. However it is true.  Which ever way you spin it, alcohol is a good thing for us artists. 

I spend many many hours drinking beers and talking art, philosophy, science or anything else that comes up.  It is an intellectual stimulator since by reducing our inhibitions, it allows us to express ourselves further... including the creation of art.  So as I write this, I sip my beer and I prepare for a long night in the studio.  Cheers!

Och till sist två länktips: Martinsbröd och TED . Det ena från den lilla världen och det andra från den STORA!

When safety fails will you be optimistically active or will you collapse in pessimism?

~~~~

And in the process of browsing the TED site, I came across another optimism talk by Martin Seligman on positive psychology. Watch the above video first, but then an interesting follow-up is this video. Enjoy.

z.

Por quê/ Why? TED, que é a abreviatura para Technology, Entertainment e Design, começou em 84 como uma conferência que reunia pessoas desses três universos. Hoje, estão disponíveis de graça no site as 200 melhores palestras. / TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started out in 84 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Today, at ted.com you can find more than 200 talks.

Os vídeos têm, no máximo, 18 minutos/ The videos last no more than 18 minutes.

Watch Al Gore talking about the climate crisis, on TED 2006.

* Cheers, Carol! ;)

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See also: Encyclopedia of Life