TEDBlog June, 2009 Archive
08 June 2009
Pete Alcorn on the world in 2200
In this short, optimistic talk from TED2009, Pete Alcorn shares a vision of the world of two centuries from now — when declining populations and growing opportunity prove Malthus was wrong. (Recorded at TED2004, February 2004, in Monterey, California. Duration: 17:24)
Watch Pete Alcorn’s talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 450+ TEDTalks.
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05 June 2009
The World Science Festival is next week in New York City
We are excited to report that the World Science Festival is returning for its second year next week in New York City. The five-day program of events is jam-packed with amazing sessions that explore intriguing subjects such as nothingness, the science of traffic, perception of the human face, the neural basis for our enjoyment of music and the nature of time.
The TED Blog covered the World Science Festival in 2008, and this year we’ll be dispatching more of our staffers to the sure-to-be fascinating events. Many TEDsters will be participating in the programming: Hod Lipson, Emily Levine, Sylvia Earle and others. TEDster Brian Greene was a co-founder of the festival.
The events run from Wednesday, June 10th to Sunday, June 14th.
05 June 2009
Q&A with Yann Arthus-Bertrand: The environmentalist behind the camera
Today, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand launched his movie Home, an environmentally conscious tour of our planet through panoramic vistas that focuses on human impact — our mistakes and possibilities for improvement. Yann took some time out of this busy day to answer a few questions for the TEDBlog by email, going beyond his recent TEDTalk to give us insight on his attempts to document and save our home and humanity.
How was your experience at TED? Did you enjoy giving a TEDTalk?
Wonderful experience, especially the audience and the people I met during the sessions. It would be great if we did something similar to TED in France.
As you can see and hear, even with a lot of rehearsals, I’m not a great speaker. I guess that’s why I take pictures and made a movie.
Have you seen your TEDTalk online? What did you think of it?
Not yet. The last few days have been hectic.
Today is Home’s world premiere. It’s happening in more than 100 countries, in 33 languages and on 65 TV channels from Nepal to Burkina Faso, from Russia to Argentina, and of course in the United States.
Is there anything you would have liked to say in your TEDTalk, but didn’t have time to?
Don’t tempt me. I never lose an opportunity to speak about my obsession: humankind and the environment.
Why the aerial photography? How did you come to decide that this was the perspective for you? Not scared of heights, we take it?
I learned to be a hot-air balloon pilot to take tourists over the Masaï Mara Reserve, in order to earn some money and finance the work I was doing with my wife Anne. We were studying the life of a family of lions for more than two years. Taking pictures was a way to capture information we could not put in words.
What are the mechanics behind getting your aerial shots? Your website says that helicopters are best, but what do use when one isn’t available? Do you use harnesses for safety?
I have the impression that I’m photographing life, not landscapes. For me an aerial picture is no different than a close-up portrait. It’s a question of framing and angle. Helicopters are great for that. But I’ve also used planes. Of course, I always have a harness.
Any close calls when leaning out of an aircraft to capture an amazing shot? Would you like to share the story?
After Hurricane Katrina, over New Orleans, my helicopter crashed and the pilot and I were only saved because we fell on the roof of a flooded house that absorbed the shock. When the helicopter was spiraling downward out of control, I didn’t expect to survive at all.
You’re a photographer, but also an environmentalist in many ways. Was there a particular experience or time in your life, maybe in your childhood, that sparked your commitment to building awareness of our environment and your fascination with nature?
My fondness for nature goes back to childhood, but it was as an adult that I became an advocate. Like a lot of people, it was in 1992, during the Earth Summit in Rio, that for the first time I heard expressions like climate change, biodiversity, sustainable development. I felt like an urgency to act — or to put it in another way, to use my work for this cause.
READ MORE: Yann talks about more about Home and “6 billion Others,” moving from photographs to film and projects still to come. (more…)
05 June 2009
Odes to vice and consequences: Felix Dennis on TED.com
Media big shot Felix Dennis roars his fiery, funny, sometimes racy original poetry, revisiting haunting memories and hard-won battle scars from a madcap — yet not too repentant — life. Best enjoyed with a glass of wine. (Recorded at TED2004, February 2004, in Monterey, California. Duration: 17:24)
Watch Felix Dennis’ talk from TED2004 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks.
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04 June 2009
James Nachtwey honored at the US Capitol tonight
TEDsters in the Washington, DC, area may wish to attend a congressional reception tonight honoring photographer James Nachtwey, on Thursday, June 4, at the US Capitol. James Nachtwey’s TED Prize wish, in 2007, asked the world to help him share images of XDR-TB, a scary and underreported new strain of tuberculosis. The reception tonight is from 6-8pm at the US Capitol, in the Mansfield Room. To attend, you must RSVP to this email: SeeingChangeTB@gmail.com
03 June 2009
TED@State: Hans Rosling asks if your mindset corresponds with his dataset
Hans Rosling is a data rock star. Pulling health and social data from worldwide collections, he uses his brilliant bubble-making software, Gapminder, to stand our preconceived notions on their heads. Watch one of his three TEDTalks (in 2006, 2007 and 2009) and get ready to re-examine everything you think you know about the developing world.
Live at TED@State, Hans mixed up some classic data shows and some new analysis — focusing on the State Department folks and other government people who made up a good chunk of the audience. He says: “Does your mindset correspond with my data set? If not, one of them needs upgrading.” And he made the clever point that, for most of us, our basic view of the world is determined by the year our teachers were born. His software (and his “solidified laser pointer,” in the photo above — Hans tends to point with anything that he’s got handy) helped to refresh our view of the first world versus the third world.
The first world is traditionally viewed as a place of small families and long lives, while the third world means large families and short lives. But as he shows, this is changing. “Life expectancy,” he says, “is about the bathroom and the kitchen. If you have soap, water & food, you can live long.” And life-expectancy data is changing in the third world. His moving data bubbles show hopeful trends in many African countries (five of which, he points out, have low Western-level rates of child mortality, an indicator of overall health). Rosling pits country against country in child health data — with surprising results for his own country, Sweden.
Rosling concludes by addressing the government employees in the audience: “Thanks to the US for taking such wonderful health data! This is US government at its best.” USAID has funded 25 continuous years of demographic research that lets us understand how the world has changed. As he puts it: “This is not the State Department, this is the World Department, and we have very high hopes for you!”
Discuss this talk and more in the comments section:
03 June 2009
TED@State: Jacqueline Novogratz on patient capital in Pakistan
Jacqueline Novogratz founded and leads Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that takes a businesslike approach to improving the lives of the poor, by investing in entrepreneurs who bring necessary goods and services — water, bread, healthcare — to communities that need it, and who would otherwise depend on traditional charity. In her new book, The Blue Sweater, she tells stories from the new philanthropy, which emphasizes sustainable bottom-up solutions over traditional top-down aid.
At TED@State, Jacqueline talks about a project in Pakistan that encapsulates what her work is about. Drip irrigation is a proven farming technology, but it’s only been available for large farms; Novogratz tells a story of how, with help from grants and then from “patient capital,” this vital tool was made available to smaller farmers.
Investments like this — which are typically unattractive to large investors because the target customers make less than a dollar a day — are the heart and soul of patient capital, allowing an entrepreneur to make something that improves people’s lives and helps them live with dignity and independence.
Discuss this idea and more in the comments …
03 June 2009
TED@State: Paul Collier on the steps to rescuing a failed state
Economist Paul Collier studies the political and economic problems of the very poorest countries: 50 societies, many in sub-Saharan Africa, that are stagnating or in decline, and taking a billion people down with them. His book The Bottom Billion identifies the four traps that keep such countries mired in poverty, and outlines ways to help them escape — a thesis he outlines in his TEDTalk from 2008.
Onstage at TED@State, Collier describes the 3 traditional principles for intervening in a failed state:
1. It’s the politics that matters — first, try to fulfill the political expectations
2. It’s a bad situation but it’s short-term
3. The exit strategy for peacekeepers: an election and a return to prosperity
And, he says, this approach denies reality. Doing good politics is infinitely easier in a climate of prosperity. An agenda of inclusion is key to rebuilding a failed state. But if the object of repairing a state is to hold elections, you create a group of outsiders — the people who lost.
What are the 3 keys to rebuilding a failed state? Jobs, health, clean government.
Most important: jobs, and especially jobs for young men. Because young men need something to do or they create more conflict. How to employ them? Focus on the construction industry -– an industry not subject to foreign competition, and employing lots of young men.
Rebuilding basic services: Too often, in a postconflict nation, all resources for health services go directly to NGOs –- which doesn’t help rebuild the nation from the inside. Instead, help the country develop independent service authorities with standards of accountability for NGOs, to “co-brand” services with gorvernment and NGOs together.
Clean government: A typical postconflict government is out of money. It needs money just to exist. It’s vital to have accountancy and openness to remove the temptation to steal and cheat.
Discuss these ideas and more in the comments below:
03 June 2009
TED@State: Loving Zap Mama!
Zap Mama — a musical entity centered around the gorgeous voice of Marie Daulne — walked regally onstage, just three women and three microphones (and three exercise balls). Looping their voices, they wove their vocal lines into a web of mysteriously cool sound. Echoing and repeating, these three voices contained multitudes.
Zap Mama’s new album, ReCreation, came out just last week. It’s the sixth album for Zap Mama, and the third in its current incarnation as a project for Marie Daulne and an array of collaborators. Watch the video below for the new single, “Hello to Mama” — filmed in Mali, and released in support of mothers around the world. (If you download the single from iTunes, a portion of the cost will be donated to CARE, an organization that fights against maternal mortality.)
Or download the bonus single from iTunes, “ReCreation.”
03 June 2009
TED@State: Stewart Brand says, Squatters are building the urban world
We depend on Stewart Brand to take the long view — his most recent TEDTalk, in fact, is about the Clock of the Long Now, a timepiece that marks off a period of 10,000 years. He’s a rabid thinker and collector of ideas; among his many fascinations, he is especially enamored of cities, and of the new ways they form and grow and function. His short talk from TED2006 made a somewhat shocking assertion: that squatter cities, those ramshackle slums surrounding many major cities, are actually a good thing.
At TED@State, he continues his thinking on cities. “I used to have a very romantic idea of villages,” he says. “That’s because I never lived in one.”
The following are running notes from Brand’s eminently quotable talk:
Subsistence farming is drying up, he says, and people are heading into town. In the bustling squatter cities, they see action, they see opportunity, they see a cash economy that they didn’t have access too. Squatters are building the urban world. They start flimsy and they get substantial as time goes by. In a town like Mumbai which is half slums – that’s 1/6 the GDP. Slums represent social capital. Family is mostly a rural event now.
These are not people crushed by the economy. These are people getting out of poverty as fast as they can, while taking part in an outlaw prank: the informal economy. it’s like dark energy in physics –- we don’t understand it and it’s huge.
Cities are places where things slam up against each other. (Brand shows the amazing footage of a train that runs through a Bangkok street market.) That’s the value of cities.
We’re going to keep being surprised by climate – which means an increase in urban climate refugees and resources wars. We need to look carefully at geoengineering, and acknowledge the challenge of getting any two countries to agree on how to do it. And we need to think about nuclear power. Did you know 10% of the power coming to this room is nuclear, coming from spent warheads, mainly Russian?
Discuss these and other ideas in the comments area below:
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