TEDBlog July, 2009 Archive
24 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Bjarke Ingels thinks big
Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, principal of BIG charmed the crowd at TED Global 2009 with his talk on his optimistic and innovative projects. He also showed his “Yes Is More” manifesto, a 130 meter long cartoon strip designed to encourage big thinking. Those on Twitter were super complementary of Ingels’ talk:
Ingels: Denish architect with a GREAT sense of humor – rare phenomenon! — Idit
… Some of his talk is untweetably funny, kinda a “you had to be there” moment. — ruthannharnisch
… Ingels features building designs that will WOW you! Thinking why can’t architects in UPD do something similar? –rom
Ingels is the FIRST architect who creates sustainable green architecture fun and desireable to live in.. the next Gehry !!! — Idit
I want to be an architect. Bjarke Ingels is a rock star. No wait better: he’s an architect. — nauiokaspark
24 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Carolyn Steel asks how to feed a city
Carolyn Steel is a food urbanist, meaning she can explain what we all take for granted- our food and how it gets to us. In her talk today at TED Global 2009, she presented frightening stats about where food demand is headed in addition to gripping historical context about how the food chain has evolved. Here’s how TEDsters on Twitter grappled with this question:
… How do you feed a city? One of the great questions of our time, yet rarely asked. We assume food will be there, magic. — ruthannharnisch
Steel disagrees with Romer from yesterday – we have to stop building, we can’t feed megacities. — brainpicker
… The world is desperate to embrace the Western Diet. SO True. I see this all the time; it makes me sad. So unsustainable — pragzter
OH – Carolyn Steel could have given this talk every ten years for the last 400 years. — ruthannharnisch
… Half the food currently made in the US is thrown away. Anyone know if the figures for the UK are similar? — id
Carolyn Steel: “Sitopia” = “food place” (from Greek sitos, food + topos, place) or simply a better word for utopia :-) — TEDIndia
24 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Constanza Ceruti explores above and beyond
TED Fellow Constanza Ceruti provided a captivating look at her work as a high-altitude archaeologist. Her talk included breathtaking pictures of the Andean mountains and details of what she’s learned from mummies. The Twitter feedback proved fascinated:
Ceruti lived inside the crater of an open volcano for over 3 weeks. WOW. — brainpicker
Constanza Cerruti, dedicating her talk to mentor who died suddenly while she was enroute 2 TEDGlobal. God Bless him. what a protege! — pragzter
… for peace she just climbs to remote high elevation mountains! — Gabelapagos
Constanza Cerruti is AMAZING. Found 3 incan children mummies on the world’s highest archeological site. Research showed Incan diets. — pragzter
Ceruti – Peruvian archaeological adventures at 19,000 feet . Hard to believe this unassuming, sweet person is Superwoman. — ruthannharnisch
You can find out more about the TED Fellows program here.
24 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Eric Sanderson rediscovers "Mannahatta"
The last day of TEDGlobal 2009 kicked off with landscape biologist Eric Sanderson, who gave a thrilling look at the Mannahatta Project- a re-envisioning of Manhattan in its original, 17th-century glory. This Google Earth of ancient New York definitely wowed the TEDsters on Twitter:
Eric Sanderson: Amazing how many water sources have disappeared from NYC since Revolutionary Days. He looks for lost features of NYC. — ruthannharnisch
Eric Sanderson doing a marvelous job of historical mapping. Great use of GIS, anthropology, history and ecology. A world that once was — pragzter
Sanderson should get funding to map the world before we destroy it! We owe it to our kids! Cmon TED give him support! — rom
Eric Sanderson opens Session 11, “Cities Past and Present,” with fascinating maps on optimal citibility — brainpicker
Amazing talk by Eric Sanderson: Manhattan as you’ve never seen it. Beautiful. — nauiokaspark
If you’ve got something to say about one of the speakers and you have a Twitter account, please make sure you’re using the #TED hashtag or replying to @TEDGlobal.
24 July 2009
Running notes: Thursday night bonus session
From last night: Felix Thorn talks about his instrument, Felix’s Machines — a bank of analog instruments wired to two Mac laptops to play a haunting music. It sounds like the singing voice of a lonely robot.
More notes from the bonus session on our Twitter feed, @TEDGlobal >>
Photo: Felix Thorn and Felix’s Machines at TEDGlobal 2009, during the Bonus session at the Sheldonian theater, July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
23 July 2009
The future beckons. Meet it at TEDIndia.
Photo: Lakshmi Pratury speaks about the upcoming TEDIndia conference at TEDGlobal in 2009. Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
TEDIndia director Lakshmi Pratury took the TEDGlobal 2009 stage to give a glimpse of what is on offer for the TEDIndia conference, which is only months away.
The conference, whose theme is “The Future Beckons,” comes at a time when, increasingly, India, China and the rest of Asia are making their presence felt globally in new technologies, design brilliance and countless instances of cultural and economic innovation.
As an attendee, you’ll enjoy a delicious cultural experience as the context of four days of jaw-dropping TED magic.
Registration for the one-of-a-kind TEDIndia Conference this November 4-7 in Mysore, India is now open.
23 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Karen Armstrong and the charter for compassion
Minutes ago, religious scholar Karen Armstrong, winner of a 2008 TED Prize, spoke about her wish, The Charter for Compassion, to the audience at TEDGlobal 2009. The Charter aims to bring the golden rule back into a global focus. Currently, religious leaders of many faiths are working together in crafting this document for peace, which launches in September here on TED. The crowd documenting the conference over on Twitter appeared very supportive of Armstrong and her wish.
About to hear Karen Armstrong’s talk. She is why I came today. Love her work. — Olasofia
Armstrong is great – she’s speaking about how the media affect peoples perceptions of others, especially the youth. Too darn right! — v_voicebox
Armstrong wants to do 2 things: Educate and stimulate compassionate thinking. An idea worth spreading! — brainpicker
Karen Armstrong is my hero, a model of truth and love. Can you help her TED Prize wish come true? armstrong@ted.com — ruthannharnisch
Karen Armstrong: People want to be “right” rather than “compassionate”. Sadly I couldn’t agree more… — pragzter
Karen Armstrong’s Charter of Compassion – I’m thinking that I might prefer it to a Pledge of Allegiance. — ruthannharnisch
For more on Karen Armstrong, here’s her previous TEDTalk. Also, remember to keep sending your responses to @TEDGlobal.
23 July 2009
Parag Khanna at TEDGlobal 2009: Running notes on Session 10
Parag Khanna asks: Do we live in a borderless world? Our world has over 200 countries. He suggests that those of us watching TED live in “TEDistan” — a world we feel is defined by cities — a world that looks like the image of the world at night from space. But for 90% of the population, that’s not true, not real. They live within borders. And often they deal with violence.
Border conflicts justify so much of the world’s military-industrial complex. This is why we need a deeper understanding of how people, money, power, religion and culture interact to change the map of the world. We need to be able to anticipate the changes that will affect where the world goes.
He starts with the world of 1945. At that time, there were about 100 nations. In the following decades, waves of de-colonization took place, adding more states. The end of the Cold War added yet more nations. The entire planet is now covered in sovereign states. But does someone’s gain have to be someone’s loss?
He shows a map featuring Russia and China. Russia is the largest country; China is the most populous. What you don’t see on a map is that most of Russia’s population is concentrated in its eastern provinces, and its population is declining by millions and millions. That population has begun to move to the west. Then there is Mongolia, what some call “Mine-golia,” sandwiched between. (China, he says, isn’t going to conquer Mongolia — it’s going to buy it, mostly in the form of mines.)
Global warming will thaw out Siberia, making it useful for farming. And in record numbers Chinese people have been “voting with their feet” by moving north, and selling the resources there back to China. But … surprise! Khanna isn’t showing a contemporary map — he’s showing a map of 700 years ago. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
How should we look at this region in Asia? No matter what the borders tell you, what you have is hubs of commerce that form a more “fluid” sociopolitical zone. What lines on the map should we then focus on? It’s our choice, but clearly the commercial lines are really what is shaping the eventual political lines.
Khanna turns to the problem of state building. He asks us to consider Iraq. In the north, the Kurds have been waging a struggle for independence for 3,000 years. The oil pipelines in the region, since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, may finally redeem them. They are now using their control of oil pipelines as a political bargaining chip. If they control the pipelines, they can control their destiny.
What about Palestine? 30 years of rose-garden diplomacy hasn’t delivered peace. So what can supply peace? Khanna suggests infrastructure: roads, commuter rails, ports. That would allow for a viable economy, and thereby peace. Infrastructure, the curvy lines on Khanna’s map, cross the “straight lines” of the national borders.
The question in the United States is no longer “How will we use their oil?” It’s “How will they use their oil?“
Europe, to shift focus, has now become a single currency bloc, rather than disjointed individual nations. This is also shaping the future of world policy. But what is the EU’s future? Europe is divided by countries that are dependent on the rest of Europe, and those that have other connections for support.
What is the lesson? Khanna says geopolitics is an “unsentimental discipline.” It’s shaping the world — like climate change. We’re searching for equilibrium, but we also fear changes — death tolls, wars. But infrastructure is slowly bringing us toward a truly borderless world.
Photo: Parag Khanna at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 10: “Worldview rethink,” July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
23 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Parag Khanna on the appearance and disappearance of borders
Geopolitical expert Parag Khanna examined the historic and present-day implications of nation-state borders. Borders may be popping up on the atlas year after year, however, in practical human interactions, borders seem to be vanishing. A critical component to guiding this trend in a benevolent direction is building infrastructure. Followers on Twitter were receptive to Khanna’s ideas:
Great presentation by Parag Khanna at #ted on the dangers of clinging to existing arbitrary national borders — nauiokaspark
Parag Khanna http://bit.ly/cHgLX gives a tour d’horizon of the world’s proximate future — TEDxCambridge
Turkey does not have to be member of EU, it is already member of Euro-Turkish superpower by pipelines said Parag Khanna @paragkhanna — nanoturkiye
Parag Khanna, geopoliticalist: 100 new countries since WW2. World fragmenting. Conflict can be overcome with crossborder infrastucture. — pangy_twit
Let us know what you think on Twitter: @TEDGlobal.
23 July 2009
Twitter Snapshot: Bertrand Piccard wants to fly sans fossil fuel
Balloonist Bertrand Piccard flew around the world in 1999. He stated today in his talk that the next time he goes he will make sure he completes the journey without consuming any fossil fuels. This determination is the reason he promotes Solar Impulse, which intends to design a one-seat, long-range solar plane. And here’s the Twitter reaction to this intrepid goal:
Bertrand Piccard – Building a plane to fly around the world on solar power. Fantastic goal to motivate people to reduce energy use. — bwdumars
Tim brown of IDEO explains that great design begins with the human not the technological. Bertand Piccard is going where no one has gone… — erwinmcmanus
Latter-day Lindbergh, Bertrand Piccard, plans to fly around the world in a solar-powered aircraft with 64 m wingspan. — DesignObserver
Bertrand Piccard – Wonder if his childhood ambition was “Professional Balloonist?” (He’s called a “solar adventurer“) — ruthannharnisch
wooooow, another great highlight: Bertrand Piccard, fan-tas-tic talk — vangeest
You can see the feedback as it roles in by searching for the #TED hashtag.
Photo: Bertrand Piccard at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 9: “Revealing energy,” July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
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