TEDBlog June, 2010 Archive
17 June 2010
TEDxOilSpill Expedition documents effects of oil spill on Gulf Coast communities
The following is a cross-post from the TEDxOilSpill Expedition blog.
The recent Oil Spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has been on everyone’s mind and media outlets for the past month. Between horrifying photos, misleading information and many failed attempts at stopping the gushing oil well, a growing national frustration has mounted into a direct collective responsibility that something has to be done.
A group of environmentally passionate geeks gathered together to organize a TEDxOilSpill that is scheduled to happen in Washington, DC on June 28th. This TED inspired event will bring together the powerful voices that have responded in a call to action over the various facets that amounted to our current oil crisis, including our dependency to fossil fuels, our irresponsibility to our environment and the unregulated parade that is environmental policy.
As a precursor to the June 28th event, an TEDxOilSpill Expedition team of photographers, writers and videographers has been sent to the Gulf to capture footage and media. The team consists of Static Photography photographer Kris Krüg, TED photographer Duncan Davidson, videographer Pinar Ozger and WWF writer Darron Collins.
The team is scheduled to be covering the coastal areas for a full week, witnessing and documenting the local response to the oil spill, the effect it has on the local coastal communities and the general hold that BP has on the Gulf itself since April 20th. The team has been on the ground for just two and half days yet has covered over 600 miles of the coastal Gulf between Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The next few days on the Gulf will prove to be trying and crucial for the TEDxOilSpill Expedition team. They are scheduled to take to the air and to the deep waters covering remote areas of the Louisiana marsh. One of the tested areas that the team will be visiting is the original location of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, known to the Gulf coastal communities as merely ‘the Source’.
The Expedition team is carrying the responsibility of bearing witness to the effects that the size of this disaster has caused while reporting back a responsive catalog of media that includes comprehensive footage of what is sensationally neglected by various controlled news filters.
Here is the first collection of photos from photographer Kris Krüg from his journey on the TEDxOilSpill Expedition:
A motivational quote in a bait n’ tackle shop on Dauphin Island, Alabama.
The entire gulf coast is peppered with oil rigs surprisingly very close to the shoreline. Here two oil rigs sit side by side just off the coast of Alabama.
Many wildlife, including various types of seabirds, have felt horrific effects from the Gulf oil disaster. A team of EPA workers checks on some various seabirds, including the recently removed from the endangered species list Brown Pelican on Dauphin Island, Alabama.
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Large fisherfolk communities have been displaced from their livelihood of fishing as an effect of the oil spill. Pictured here are various boats, having been docked for weeks in Biloxi, Mississippi.
The initial first line of defense for the coastlines is excessive miles of protective boom that acts as a superficial means of stopping the approaching crude oil. Every body of water in the Gulf area has boom laid within it.
The TEDxOilSpill Expedition team holds an evening meeting to discuss the day’s findings as well as the upcoming schedule for the next few days.
A most distressing apparent fact is that many of the seabirds photographed are not actually diving into the water, with good reason. Here a flock of Brown Pelicans catch some rest on some rocks in Alabama.
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An environmental cleanup boat is docked in Alabama, awaiting departure; massive storm clouds torment the crisis ridden Gulf; a very brave Brown Pelican attempts a dive along side an oil rig.
Whatever oil touches it stains a deep rust color. In the areas where massive collections of crude oil are not present, the effects of the oil saturation in the Gulf of Mexico can plainly be witnessed.
A 3-State Fisherfolk Press Rally gathered in Biloxi, Mississippi and was largely organized by the displaced Vietnamese fisherfolk communities. Youth leaders and activists created signs with major concerns that need to be addressed by the communities that are being affected.
Local celebrity Billy the Exterminator came out and supported the 3-State Fisherfolk Press Rally in Biloxi, Mississippi. Billy, alongside his Louisiana based exterminator company Vex Con, has a reality television show on A&E called the Billy the Exterminator.
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Brown Pelicans perch upon random signs and posts throughout harbors and bays in the Gulf; a sky view of a New Orleans bridge.
An American Pollution Control boat carries what appears to be hundreds of feet of boom in a small harbor in Biloxi, Mississippi. Often faulty the boom is the first line of defense for targeted coastlines.
Road signs in Alabama. In just over two days the TEDxOilSpill Expedition team covered over 600 miles of the Gulf coast.
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Boats in Mississippi supervise boom laying; photographer Duncan Davidson carries the tools of the trade; beaches in Alabama are stained with the effects of the oil spill.
A biblical quote offers some religious solutions to the crisis stricken communities in the Gulf states.
The normally white sands of Perdido Beach in Alabama were stained with the rust of oil ridden waters. Each wave that broke upon the shore brought more oil and tar balls.
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Photographer Duncan Davidson takes a moment to cool off in the sweltering southern heat; a crew member from the Vex Con exterminator company; a crowd gathered for the 3-State Fisherfolk Press Rally in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Many unused, docked fishing boats are lining the harbors of Gulf coastal towns. Very large areas of the Gulf have been deemed unsafe for fishing and drastically cut into the economic livelihood of many families.
Beautiful blue Gulf coastal waters are outlined by red lines of boom. Just off the coast of Alabama a large collection of crude oil is waiting to hit the shores. Whenever a portion breaks off and travels the 3-5 miles to shore, beach cleanup crews are ready and waiting.
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One of the many oil rigs that sits in the Gulf of Mexico; a Brown Pelican soars high above the waters; rescue boats organize boom in Mississippi.
Local media interviewed participants of the 3-State Fisherfolk Press Rally in Biloxi, Mississippi.
This devastating and ominous sign hung along the wooden walkway at Perdido Beach in Alabama. Not only is the gulf being contaminated by thousands of gallons of crude oil, but the already compromised environment is being furthered polluted by harmful chemicals as a means for cleanup. Unfortunately the toxicity of the oil mixed with cleanup chemicals is worsening the state of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Expedition continues on in the Gulf. Be sure to check back to the official TEDxOilSpill Expedition website for more photos and thoughts from Pinar, Duncan, Darron, and Kris as we continue to document what’s going on with the oil disaster in the Gulf.
All photos in this essay credit: Kris Krüg.
For more information:
Help Support the TEDxOilSpill Expedition Team
Static Photography heads down to the Gulf with TEDxOilSpill Expedition
TEDxOilSpill Expedition photos by Kris Krüg
TEDxOilSpill photos by Duncan Davidson
TEDxOilSpill photos by Pinar Ozger
17 June 2010
All TEDTalks audio podcasts in one handy spreadsheet
Here’s a handy spreadsheet that lists all the TEDTalks audio podcasts (.mp3 format) currently available for download. We’ll continue to add to the collection as new talks are released.
See all currently available TEDTalks audio podcasts >>
17 June 2010
Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs: Cameron Herold on TED.com
Bored in school, failing classes, at odds with peers: This child might be an entrepreneur, says Cameron Herold. At TEDxEdmonton, he makes the case for parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish — as kids and as adults. (Recorded at TEDxEdmonton, March 2010 in Edmonton, Canada. Duration: 19:36)
Watch Cameron Herold’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
16 June 2010
Report from the TEDxOilSpill Expedition, Day 1
The TEDxOilSpill Expedition is a week-long project to document the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico and bring a first-hand report back to the TEDxOilSpill event in Washington DC on June 28th. A team comprised of photographers and videographers will be working on land, air, and maybe even on boat. Visit the expedition website for more details.
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Protest signs on the road to Grand Isle, LA. |
It’s been ten days since my last trip to Grand Isle, Louisiana and over that span of time the anger on the Island has been fermenting. The most visible signs of this anger are the homemade posters and signs telling drivers-by that BP has destroyed their way of life.
Some were straight forward: “BP Destroyed the Lives of Three Generations of Fishermen that Once Lived Happily in this House.” Others were more creative: “Sponge Bob is Missing Patrick. BP Killed Patrick.” And still others were much more practical: “We Do Catering for Spill Cleanup Crews and Wildlife Rescue Teams.”
Duncan Davidson, a photographer on the TEDxOilSpill Expedition, and I decided to quickly scope out Grand Isle and take advantage of the last hours of sunlight before joining the other members of the team back at the New Orleans airport and launching full force into this week-long expedition.
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Containment devices along a freshly cleaned section of beach at Grand Isle, LA. Tarballs were rapidly washing up on the sand again as we walked the beach. |
We pulled up to what looked like a reasonable place to access the closed beach in Grand Isle. I opened the car door and was met by a wall of wet heat permeated with the stench of oil. The cleanup crews had gone home for the day but their tents, tools and booms littered the entire seven-mile stretch of beach. An official looking vehicle approached but paid us no mind. Unlike ten days ago when President Obama had to hunt for a few specks of oil on this beach, today oil globules covered the entire high-tide line.
Seeing the sun falling quickly behind us, we made a bee-line to the shrimp-shed where I had met Joseph the ex-shrimper and flat-bottomed boat Captain on my first trip down here. The shed was deserted. A small sign read “Come see the truth. I will take you there. Boat trips for photographers and journalists. Call Al at …” I called Al.
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An oil-stained boat at Grand Isle, LA. |
“I switched to the other side. I work for BP now. Sorry, I can’t take you out or talk to you.”
Apparently this isn’t an isolated incident. BP’s buying up every boat and every boat captain they can lay their hands on. It makes our jobs a lot harder.
But after poking around the homes set high on pylons and dropping into Cisco’s Hideaway, the local bar, we found Joseph. Another testament of passing time: Joseph’s skin. Joseph had gone from what you might call a good base tan to something approaching the darkest shades of burnt sienna — he’d obviously spent a lot of time shuttling folks around on the open water. I’d missed his sloppy 18 foot boat and the scraps of his life that accumulated in and among the coolers, gas cans and floor boards. It was good to be back.
In the final minutes before the sun took its final plunge through the horizon we were treated to an amazing display of lightning and a symphony of squawking pelicans, laughing gulls and black skimmers. They’d managed to boom off what the locals call Bird Island, but the booms hadn’t kept the oil from washing ashore and staining the rocks and sea grass that sinister orange. And everything was bathed in a peculiar light — reflections thrown from water covered with the finest film of oil. It was beautiful and horrible all at once.
Words by Darron Collins
Photos/captions by James Duncan Davidson
Read the TEDxOilSpill Expedition’s latest updates >>
15 June 2010
TEDx organizers tackle the Gulf oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may already be the worst environmental disaster the United States has ever faced — and with the severed riser pipe at the ocean floor still gushing tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day, it’s undoubtedly one whose effects will carry forward for many years to come.
It’s agonizing to watch from the sidelines as the crisis plays out. Organizations close to the situation point to the many opportunities to help, but urgent questions still hang in the air: What will the long-term consequences to marine life be? How will coastal communities weather the economic impact? Until practical energy alternatives to oil are developed, how can we improve our technology to prevent future disasters like this?
On June 28, the global TEDx community will try to find solutions. All around the world, TEDsters will participate in day-long events aimed at addressing the crisis. Centered around the free, live webcast of TEDxOilSpill in Washington, DC (9am-6pm EST), these satellite events will feature discussions on mitigating the effects of the spill, seeking energy alternatives to oil, and improving global policy to prevent mistakes and lay the foundation for a more stable future.
TEDxOilSpill’s speaker lineup will feature TEDsters such as Sylvia Earle, Philippe Cousteau and David Gallo, and the program will highlight exclusive images produced by a team of videographers and photographers on the scene now uncovering hidden issues faced by residents, relief workers and wildlife in the Gulf.
(TEDxOilSpill is partnering with several organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic, National Public Radio, the United States Departments of State and Energy, Mission Blue, TED and others.)
Get involved with TEDxOilSpill
Host (or attend) an event in your community
Individuals all around the world are organizing viewing events centered around the TEDxOilSpill live stream. A listing of all public events is available at Meetup.com/TEDxOilSpill. Join an event — or create your own.
Attend TEDxOilSpill in Washington, DC
TEDxOilSpill will be held on June 28, 2010 at the International Trade Center Amphitheater in Washington, DC, from 9am-6pm EST. Register now >>
Event details are here. Total seating is limited to 500 individuals — if you’d like to attend, don’t wait!
Watch the live stream
A live webcast of TEDxOilSpill will be made available, for free, to viewers all around the world who have access to a broadband Internet connection. The stream begins at 9am EST on June 28th. Share with family, friends, co-workers — and don’t forget to join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow the TEDxOilSpill expedition to the Gulf
TED’s conference photographer James Duncan Davidson is traveling to the Gulf of Mexico with a team of photographers and videographers to document what’s going on off- and on-shore. (He’ll bring the images and stories to TEDxOilSpill.) Look for updates about the expedition on the TED Blog — and on Duncan’s blog — in the next days.
Join the conversation / Spread the word
- Follow @TEDxOilSpill on Twitter
- Join Facebook.com/TEDxOilSpill
- Watch for updates on the TEDx Blog
- Learn more about TEDx
For more information, email tedxoilspill@tedxmidatlantic.com and visit TEDxOilSpill.com.
Register to attend the event in DC >>
14 June 2010
The pattern behind self-deception: Michael Shermer on TED.com
Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things — from alien abductions to dowsing rods — boils down to two of the brain’s most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble. (Recorded at TED2010, February 2010 in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 19:01)
Watch Michael Shermer’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
12 June 2010
Phillip Zimbardo on the powers of time: The animation
RSA Animate shares this neat whiteboard video illustrating an idea from TEDTalks star Philip Zimbardo: How our individual concepts of time influence us.
Watch more from Philip Zimbardo on time, on TED.com >>
Watch more video from RSA Animate >>
(Thanks for the tip, Thaniya!)
11 June 2010
Fellows Friday with Cesar Harada
From pollution-eating robots to abstract animated films, TED Fellow Cesar Harada is involved in an ocean of projects. He was able to squeeze in this interview with TED, where he talks about architecture, his love of the sea and a special cartoon cat.
What are the most important things you’re working on right now?
The project I’m working on right now is called the “Energy Animal.” I had the first iteration when I was working for the British government Renewable Energies Department at the University of Southampton in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory.
I built a prototype that makes energy from the waves, the wind, and the sun simultaneously. It’s a device that can be working in any type of weather condition, anywhere. It doesn’t necessarily produce a lot of energy, but produces it steadily.
I’m still working very much on the World Environment Action. It’s in coordination with Ushahidi [another TED Fellows project]. Three weeks ago I was in Kenya working on this environmental monitoring software that I’m going to use in the next application.
Since two weeks ago I am a researcher at MIT SENSEable City Lab and I am working on the project I mentioned before called Energy Animal. We’re trying to build devices that make energy while collecting pollution — apprehending pollution as a resource. Originally I was commissioned by MIT to collect the North Pacific Garbage Patch, but I’ve been redirected to work on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, so now I am designing a machine to collect oil. It will use oil as a combustible, as a gasoline fuel to actually move around. The idea is to make autonomous robots that would swarm around and collect garbage or different types of pollution.
I’m designing not one specific device, but a floating open source design “framework” so it can generate many other boats for different applications. It can be used for the oil spill, or the North Pacific Garbage Patch or even for fresh water to purify, for example, the Laguna Venice, where the prototype will be presented for the International Architecture Biennale to represent the MIT SENSEable City Lab.
I am now pushing the lab staff to help me make this robot self-replicating: a robot that can fabricate its own children. Since we are collecting a lot of raw material, the best use we can make of that material is fabricating more robots to accelerate the cleaning. So that means that you make a robot, and if it accumulates energy and raw material, it can build, if you want, a baby -– the same of its own. So it’s very futuristic. That is also why we are not working at solving this precise problem but more for longer-term.
We have problems that are very big, like the North Pacific Garbage Patch, and we never have the money to actually build an entire fleet. So we’d rather build a fleet that builds itself!
How will one device feed off of completely different types of pollution?
What I was saying about “framework” — it’s very much like the evolutionary process. You can’t have a robot that does everything. The idea is that we build a framework, for example from a simple kind of boat, and you can swap organs. So say that you go for the oil spill — you will have some oil combustion chamber. In Venezia you will have some anaerobic digester so it will make energy from gas — methane, propane — from organic waste digestion, and also create fertilizer. And if it’s in the case of the North Pacific Gyre, it will collect the plastic, process some of it, and some will be reused to fabricate more raw materials. So the robots themselves will be made of plastic.
Read more of this interview with Cesar Harada after the jump >>
11 June 2010
Q&A with David Byrne: Seizing opportunity and asking "Why not?"
Before David Byrne’s talk was posted to TED.com today, the TED Blog had the opportunity to chat with him about his eclectic life and times. Almost unnervingly humble, he gave all credit for his achievements to good timing and an open mind — and we think there might be a lesson there. He’s also got some fascinating insights on world music and the revival of the bike.
What does it feel like to look back on the days of CBGB and know that you were part of establishing an era, a movement?
I think I was in the right place at the right time. I was lucky. I worked very hard to write stuff and I was very determined that I was going to write something that was me — that was not a version of something else. But, I have to give credit to the club owner, Hilly, who decided, maybe in an act of desperation, to allow bands in there to play their own material — bands that were unsigned, that were unheard of. This was a really new thing at the time. There was no circuit of little clubs around the country or anything like that. There were very few places where a band that didn’t have records out, that was relatively unknown, could perform original material. It was one of those things where you hope that if you open it up, they will come. And, they did come. It opened up an opportunity for all of us. It seemed to me that by making the venue available, people started writing more. They started making more music in order to fill the spot.
I came to New York to be a fine artist — that was my ambition. I went to art school. As with a lot of folks that age, music was a hobby or something I did for fun with friends, and at this club there was an opportunity to put it out in front of people. So, it seemed like, “Well, why not?” That might have been part of the reason it worked as well, the fact that it wasn’t a calculated move, it was just sort of a “Why not?”
You’ve done so many different things, I’d guess that “Why not?” might be a bit of a theme in your life.
Yeah. If there’s a venue or a platform where doing something seems to make itself possibly available, then it’s like “Oh! Yes! Why not?”
One of the things you went on to do was to produce a lot of music for dance, and you even worked with Twyla Tharp. What was that experience like?
She pushed me pretty hard … in a good way. But she kept wanting more, more music. The piece kept getting longer. But, that was good. She kept saying, “We don’t have an ending yet. We need a bang-up ending.” She pushed me to write something that was more energetic and exciting at the end, and the end became the part that went into repertoire and continues to get played around.
She was really ambitious. Even at that point, she believed that you could have a dance theater piece that would play on Broadway. She wanted to bridge the gap and bring theater to a more ordinary audience, which didn’t happen with that piece. Later on, of course, she did it with Billy Joel.
And then you went on to write and direct True Stories and to direct a few documentaries. How did the fascination with film begin?
Well, I did come out of an art background, not just for school, but living in the Lower East Side and Soho and that world. I guess it was in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s. And I guess that it was the early ‘80s with MTV when music videos — the very earliest versions — started to appear. And, they didn’t have any content. The situation was: If you made it, they’d play it — as long as it was something that was not objectionable. If you made a short film with your song on it, it would get on within a week. That certainly doesn’t happen now. But, there was this window where you could do that. And I thought, “Yeah, I’ll just do it myself!” My friend, the choreographer Toni Basil, she showed me how to put together a video and edit and I learned by doing. So, I cut my teeth doing some music videos and eventually felt like I could start to work with longer things and eventually got to a feature film.
You talk about all of this as though it’s so effortless for you. Is it really that way? Is the creative process that effortless for you?
Oh no! It’s the Thomas Edison thing — there’s an awful lot of perspiration that goes in and a lot of man-hours and time spent learning how to do something. But there’s also the hubris or nerve that I have to think, “Well, I can do this, and I don’t have to do it the same way everybody else does. I can find a way to work within my limited abilities,” which is how I started with music as well. It didn’t seem that odd of an idea, to be able to make a statement even though you weren’t a virtuoso in the medium.
You started the world music label Luaka Bop. How did that start? Was it through travel and touring that you started discovering new types of music?
It didn’t start from traveling. It started from me going to a record store. I think I was finishing up the sound track or sound recording or sound mixing on this historic film in San Francisco. I didn’t have to be at work until about noon, so I would go to the record store. I bought a couple of Brazilian records and brought them back — this was when we still used vinyl — and I loved them. I’d heard of all these artists before, and didn’t quite get it. This time I kind of got it, at least some of the songs. The next day I went and got a couple more, and by the end of the week, I had a whole stack of stuff. I wanted to know who these people were and what their story was. So then, I took the incentive to go these countries and find out what kind of country produces this kind of incredible music. I was able to catch the flavor of where the music was coming from and to ask people more about these artists, like who they are and what their background is. It seemed like: Whoa! There’s a wealth of material here. We can license some of it and bring it to my generation and other people who don’t know this music … maybe they might like it too. And, some of it worked. Not all of it. Some things caught people’s attention or their imagination and other things didn’t at all. It’s just funny — some of the Asian stuff we did, nobody liked, but maybe it was just the time.
READ MORE: David Byrne talks about the challenges particular to a world music label, his theory on why we should all bike and always learning more. (more…)
11 June 2010
How architecture helped music evolve: David Byrne on TED.com
As his career grew, David Byrne went from playing CBGB to Carnegie Hall — a serious (and tricky) change in venue. He explores how context has pushed musical innovation, from bird calls across savannahs to urban car stereos.(Recorded at TED2010, February 2010 in Long Beach, California. Duration: 16:00)
Watch David Byrne’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
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