In an interest of having something more interesting to talk about here than God vs Darwin, I am claiming a little topic space here to share some new topics and new ideas I just recently found a wonderful source of.
There is an annual event held in California by a group named TED(Technology, Entertainment, Design). In the fashion of a Henry Ford 'Master Mind' we have a large group of some of the smartest and most creative people on the planet sharing their ideas with each other.
Youtube very nicely has a channel dedicated to just these talks. I will list the more interesting talks I find here.
Watch them or not. They are just new things to think about (fascinating to me). You decide. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 19:47
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Quote: Eva Vertes is a Princeton student recognized as a teenager for her research on Alzheimer's, and now embarking on a career focused on new ways of thinking about cancer. In this talk, she explains her theory that stem cells - seeking to initiate repairs in the body - may actually be the root of cancer. So cancer may, in fact, be the body's own repair system gone awry. (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 19:34)
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 19:54
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Quote: A must-see for every parent and teacher. Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. Sir Ken Robinson is author of "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative," and a leading expert on innovation in education and business. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.) More TEDTalks at www.TED.com
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 19:55 Last Edited By: pakratmak
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Quote: Richard Baraniuk is a Rice University professor with a giant vision: to create a free, global online education system. In this presentation, he introduces Connexions, the open-access publishing system that's changing the landscape of education by providing free coursework and educational materials to everyone in the world. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 19:18
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 20:59
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Quote: Jeff Han demonstrates — for the first time publicly — his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure. It bears a striking resemblance to Apple's new iPhone ... Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32)
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 21:46
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Quote: David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for The New York Times, an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News, and one of the world's bestselling how-to authors. In this unconventional talk, he offers a sweeping (and unusual) view on the state of software, partially set to music. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 03 Jul 2008 22:12
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Quote: Tony Robbins talks about how to unlock your true potential -- and high-fives Al Gore in the front row! A fast-paced, mind-expanding, motivating TEDTalk for high achievers and those who wish to be. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.)
....WoW....
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 01:10
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Quote: Singer/songwriter Eddi Reader performs "What You Do With What You've Got," a meditation on a very TED theme: how to use your gifts and talents to make a difference. "What's the use of strength and muscle // if you only push and shove?" She's accompanied on guitar by her songwriting partner Boo Hewerdine, and on piano by TED Music Director Thomas Dolby
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 01:23
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Quote: It's a classic problem in theology: How can the existence of evil be reconciled with a God who is supposed to be all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful? Many Christian thinkers have attempted answers to this question. In the days following the thousands of personal tragedies recorded during the South Asian tsunami of 2004, Tom Honey pondered those answers and found them wanting. Instead, he penned his own, personal, and sometimes dramatic response to the tsunami. This is a courageous talk for a Church of England vicar to have given. It concludes that certain traditional concepts of God just won't do ... and calls for believers and nonbelievers alike to dig deeper in their quest for truth.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 02:51
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Thanks for posting something interesting. Speaking of potential game-changers, have you read anything about the Volt? __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 03:12
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I'm not sure what the Volt is. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 04:18
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Quote: In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software -- which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Ten days later, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 04 Jul 2008 04:35
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Quote: Here's one of those talks that can change your view of the world forever. Starting with the deceptively simple story of an ant, Dan Dennett unleashes a dazzling sequence of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of "memes" -- a term coined by Richard Dawkins for mental concepts that are literally alive and capable of spreading from brain to brain. On the way, look out for:
+ a powerful one-sentence secret of happiness
+ a compelling insight into terrorists' motivation
+ a chilling view of Islam
And just when you think you know where the talk's heading, it dramatically shifts direction and questions some of western culture's fundamental assumptions.
This. Is. Unmissable.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 06 Jul 2008 20:08 Last Edited By: preacher man
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I really enjoyed the first video. The Dan Bennett video simply shows that all the bats are not in the belfry and all the boobies are not in the hatches. Nonsense like that is part of what turned me away from philosophy. __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 06 Jul 2008 22:12
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It seems strange to me that a street preacher has no use for philosophy when that is exactly what I view religion as. I'm kinda confused preach.
Mr Dennett actually presented a pretty compelling talk. It was about ideas doing something almost counter-Darwinian which would be acting against their own personal best interests in survival. I wouldn't call any of that nonsense. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 13:05 Last Edited By: preacher man
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I have a strange background I'll admit. I studied a great deal of philosophy, both Western and Eastern prior to my conversion. This included a certain amount of mysticism and what would now be called New Age although there's nothing new about it. There are New Age concepts (that are sloppily borrowed from a lot of Hindu stuff) that mankind has evolved as far as he can physically and the next great leap of mankind is a spiritual evolution. Tied into this (and yes, I am oversimplifying, there's a lot of various theories and thoughts on this) is a belief that there is some sort of 'community mind' or community consciousness that individuals tap into without realizing it. Within this community mind is available all the wisdom of the ancients, yada yada yada. All great leaps in human development have supposedly had some influence from enough individuals accessing this great cosmic consciousness and allowing these great ideas to flourish into the 'real world'. So while Mr Dawkins may have coined the phrase, the underlying concept is nothing new, and in my humble opinion, is sheer nonesense.
I am not a philosospher, I am a Bible-believing street preacher. I preach hard, I preach direct, and I preach the truth as best I can. I have very little patience for people who ask questions they really don't want the answer to. In my experience most philosophers became philososphers because it didn't involve any heavy lifting.
If this comes across as a bit caustic, it's because it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Philosophy, I mean. Most of it is the most pathetic song and dance ever put on for unregenerate mankind, and you can quote me on that.
By the way, those instances of species and individuals and societies acting against their own self-interest are also explained away by the Biblical worldview of a cursed creation slowly spiraling downward towards entropy and apostasy. __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 13:46
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Now Ken Robinson actually brought something tot hte table worth hearing. We are homeschoolers and one of our contentions with the public school system is that it absolutely crushes creativity. We still produce Thomas EDisons and Leonardo Da Vinci, but our 'one-size fits all' educational approach squelches that flame __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 15:42
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Richard Baraniuk's talk is particularly interesting in that it is a such a 'game changer', but I think that there are a handful of issues that will probably be hammered out as time goes forward, but have yet to really be solved. Issues like intellectual property rights(a hot button issue for me) and distribution.
Obviously I am a big fan of the free market and a big factor in a free market is the dessimination of information so that people can make the best choices and have more choices available to them. What had happened in the publishing industry is you had a handful of big players who were determined to play it safe and only put out things they knew for sure would be hits. These big players also acted as gatekeepers, doing their dead level best to squash any competititon from below. But the internet has changed a lot of that and has allowed people more access to what he calls 'the shut-outs'. We actually have more of what I would call a free market than we had before. Now where we go from here I don't think anyone knows. Interesting stuff. __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 15:48
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Quote: In my experience most philosophers became philososphers because it didn't involve any heavy lifting.
I actually 'LOL'd-that's a keeper.
Quote: These big players also acted as gatekeepers,
There is one such group suing YouTube right now for records of user's personal info.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 19:21
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So, as I looked over what Viacom was doing with it's suit against YouTube, a couple questions came to mind.
First, I have embedded countless YT vids here and on Tim's other Superman site. Am I now to be considered a pirate for embedding them here? Thought for a second maybe Tim would possibly get in trouble too but he's protected by precedent that a site owner can't be held responsible for what users/visitors add to said site. You'll be just fine Tim unless you yourself posted something.
The next thing is the intellectual property itself. I completely agree that artists and producers and musicians and everybody connected with any particular piece of intellectual property should get their fair share but where do we draw the line?
Example; I buy a new CD and I'm playing it in my car. The person in the next car hears the CD I paid for. Are they doing something wrong? (Should be a no, no explanation needed)
Ok. Let's take that single from the CD and have it play on the radio. Normal business applies here with the station having to pay to play it(if it's popular, or by a popular group or whatever-free advertising for new acts, etc-however stations handle their business) so we tune in and the station can sell advertising to their listeners. My hearing it has been paid for already so that wouldn't be an issue. If I record it for my personal use, is that wrong? Shouldn't be(could be argued that because I copied it off radio I avoid buying it elsewhere, thereby denying profits of a purchase-all I can say here is I really hope not) if I recorded it off a public airwave. If I subscribe to a satellite or HD radio service and I record something there it shouldn't be a problem either as I've basically paid for the service, taking the place of advertisers on terrestrial radio. Let's go really far out with this and say I'm just singing it while I'm walking down the street. Is that copyright infringement?
How about the difference between an 'as-is' item vs someone getting 'artsy'? Baraniuk points out that merging the property of two seperate individuals needs to be looked at with new eyes, so to speak.
I agree. Endless Love on top of news media shared with the public does not seem to be costing anyone on either side of that anything really. Does that song generate any profit anymore, anywhere? How about the media footage? Who owns that exactly? Is it property of the media company or of the individuals in it? Merged together they do become something entirely different- a form of art, regardless of the level of artistry. If the artist of that Endless Love vid is not receiving monies, does anyone else deserve remuneration?
This reminds me of the debacle over Napster a few years back. Certain artists made it clear they felt ripped off when people were 'sharing' copywrited material. Again it breaks down to possible loss of money(which really has a shaky foundation to begin with) and little else. I wonder why more publishing companies aren't suing public libraries? __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 21:37
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Definitely more interesting than another discourse on Darwinism. More later. __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 07 Jul 2008 23:08
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I wanna hear some thoughts on all of them. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 08 Jul 2008 14:46
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I have an aunt who used to date Tony Robbins, believe it or not. __________________
1 TIMOTHY 1
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 08 Jul 2008 14:49 Last Edited By: preacher man
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I'm going to pass up on the oppurtunity to comment on Tom Honey's topic. That's an inner-family discussion. I am a bit surprised that he was invited to TED. __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 08 Jul 2008 19:44
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TED is about ideas and discussion. Tom Honey's speech I considered heartfelt and honest and certainly with the amount of free thinkers in a typical TED audience, this side deserves as much of a podium as anyone else.
It is a small world. We can do the six degrees of seperation thing and I now have a connection to Tony Robbins-awesome. What did you think of his talk? __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
1 TIMOTHY 1
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 14 Jul 2008 18:47
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Quote: Physicist Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks about what such life would be like -- and how we might find it.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 14 Jul 2008 18:52
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Quote: In this prescient 2005 talk, Clay Shirky shows how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 17 Jul 2008 21:01
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Quote: Speaking at TED in 1998, Rev. Billy Graham marvels at technology's power to improve lives and change the world -- but says the end of evil, suffering and death will come only after the world accepts Christ. A legendary talk from TED's archives.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 17 Jul 2008 23:29
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Well Pak, you've come full circle... __________________
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15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
