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X marks the spot: This week’s TEDx Talks

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Photo courtesy of: TEDxBend

Photo courtesy of: TEDxBend

Each week, TEDx chooses four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Below, give this week’s talks a listen.

Using big data to save lives: Joel Selanikio at TEDxAustin
While big data is revolutionizing modern business, the global public health industry is lagging. From using text messages to track birth rates in Sierra Leone to monitoring vaccination needs across the world, Joel Selanikio explains how collecting medical data in new ways is key to making healthcare more efficient. (Filmed at TEDxAustin)

When would you jump off a train?: Margarita Barrientos at TEDxRiodelaPlata
Growing up in poverty in small-town Argentina, Margarita Barrientos lost both her parents by age 11. After a harrowing cross-country trip to Buenos Aires to reunite with her brother, Barrientos started a shelter to provide her neighbors with work and basic services to ensure that fewer people would have to face the struggles she faced. (Filmed at TEDxRiodelaPlata)

Global warming’s biggest losers: Matteo Mantovani at TEDxBaghdad
While nations in Africa and the Middle East are among the lowest contributors to climate change, they stand to lose more than most from its effects. At TEDxBaghdad, Matteo Mantovani outlines the risks facing these areas of the world — from loss of water for irrigation to the threat of crippling dust storms — and advocates for local citizens to do what they can to stem warming. (Filmed at TEDxBaghdad)

The myth of a new world order: Ian Bremmer at TEDxOxford
As problems grow more global in scope, the world’s institutions are regularly failing to find amenable solutions. The answer lies not in gathering nations together and hoping they get along, says Ian Bremmer. Rather, like-minded coalitions should work together to achieve common goals — with or without the rest of the world in tow. (Filmed at TEDxOxford)

And here, some of the week’s highlights from the TEDx blog this week: