Cartoons

Patrick Chappatte is a very talented cartoonist. His idea of bringing people on both sides of a conflict together to draw cartoons is noble. But aren’t political cartoons supposed to be, at least to some extent, opinionated and provocative? His notion that the internet exercises a higher degree of censorship than newspapers is, to say the least, debatable. So keep drawing Patrick, and go easy on the lecturing.  With the exception of a couple of cute cartoons, this one isn’t worth the paper it isn’t written on.

 http://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_chappatte_the_power_of_cartoons.html

Potential

Listening to Richard Feynman explain the world is phenomenal. TED has done us the courtesy of adding amazing non-ted talks and interviews, so that you can get even more laterally bewildered. This happened to me this morning, after listening to Dimitar Sasselov (below).  After hearing Sasselov’s talk, there was this link to Feynman on BBC, and hey, it just doesn’t stop. So if you want to invest even more of your time to check out one of the greatest connected and connecting minds of the past century, stay tuned. Your atoms will jiggle, guaranteed.

I read on Wikipedia that Feynman was denied acceptance to Columbia because he was Jewish. We think of Europeans as being the great anti-semites of the western world, but if you were a Jewish student in North America in the 1920s to 1940s it was almost impossible to get accepted to some of the famous ivy-league universities.

I remember reading once that Feynman at one stage shunned music because it kept his mind off thinking, but there is a great segment on youtube of him playing bongos during the period of his terminal illness. So right I now have both of the segments running simultaneously: Feynman explaining how atoms bang into each other, and Feynman banging on the bongos.  Some musical geek (or Person, perhaps) should do a segment.

As I mentioned, I connected with Feynman after watching Dimitar Sasselov  describe the likelihood that somewhere, sometime, somehow, there is a solar system like ours with a planet like ours, with some alien being, perhaps typing out a similar blog. Check it out.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dimitar_sasselov_how_we_found_hundreds_of_potential_earth_like_planets.html

As an undergraduate student, I wrote (1973)  a term paper on the theory of how life began as a sac of chemicals in a bilayer membrane, citing Alec Bangham’s research

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20430797

and thus subsequently started out my graduate research on bacterial membranes as a result.

 http://www.ted.com/speakers/richard_feynman.html

Outlets

John La Grou has a terrific idea for communication between electrical plugs and outlets that will prevent house fires, save lives and electricity.  They have applied for over 400 patents (one wasn’t enough?).  This won’t fly until someone (governments?) forces manufacturers (China?) and housebuilders (everywhere) to make it standard.  That may take a while, considering how much trouble it is plugging an American electrical device into a European outlet (or verse vica). All this in four minutes. Makes you wonder whether all TED talks should have a short four minute version. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_la_grou_plugs_smart_power_outlets_1.html

Where good ideas come?- Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson – Where good ideas come from (2010) and

Steven Johnson tours the ghost map (2010)

The more recent of the two talks is a top notch TED presentation, so feel free to skip straight to the clip itself. Oh well, if you insist, I’ll elaborate. Steven Johnson is an extremely talented thinker and writer who has been wondering where new ideas come from. Or to paraphrase Jeff Pulver, where do we get our ‘shower moments’?  Johnson thinks he has found the answer: the coffee shop. The coffee shop, according to Johnson, dates back to around 1650 and encouraged the Brits to drink stimulants (coffee and tea) that arouse the more intelligent neurons rather than booze (beer and wine) that tend to depress innovative thinking. According to Johnson, the coffee shop creates a creative space where good ideas can interconnect, conjugate and ‘have sex’ (as opposed to pubs I guess, where people themselves can get drunk, interconnect and then have real sex).  In some cases, he says, the coffee shop ideas take years to ‘fade into focus’. That’s a pretty long shower, Jeff. And loads of lattes.

Indeed a lot of good and stimulating projects come from sitting in coffee shops and sharing half-baked ideas with close friends (who will not finish the baking and eat the cake).  In Israel, the tens of thousands of coffee houses (there seem to be one per capita) are indeed a breeding ground for ideas. I took a look at “Start-up Nation” by Dan Senor and Paul Singer http://www.startupnationbook.com/

and found that they don’t mention the coffee house as a source of  Israeli innovation. Guys,  in your second edition please correct this slip.

In my opinion many new ideas come from moments spent alone, rather than in company, often doing something routine (like washing the dishes) which frees the mind to wonder and wander. Then of course when you look back, you say to yourself “however did I think up that one”. If we had the answer, we would all be Edison.

Steve has another excellent 2006 TED talk, this time closer to my area of expertise – smells and bacteria.  

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_tours_the_ghost_map.html

Turns out in mid 19^th century London the smell of sewage, garbage and decay was so offal that people thought that the odors themselves were contagious and spreading the cholera epidemics. It took two clever Brits to figure out that it was coming from contaminated drinking water wells.  You must infer that they spent most of their free time in coffee houses, rather than having pints with the boys.
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.ht

Snooze .....

Jessa Gamble

If you snooze, you lose. This intriguing talk last just four minutes, making you wonder why (if you know, tell me). Further, it is given by a fellow Canuck who lives somewhere near the Arctic. On the other hand Jessa Gamble is a journalist, rather than a scientist (disclosure next time, please!!),  and you can’t find anything about her on Google Scholar (at least I couldn’t).  

So what is going on? Couldn’t TED find a scientist who has been doing cool research on sleep to keep us awake with a fuller (and perhaps more documented ) eighteen minute version?

The above notwithstanding, I do think that electric lighting during evening hours has been mucking around with our biological clocks for over a century. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html

mel-ted response to Dr. Ian Pearson

Dr Ian Pearson, Futurizon Futurologist, talks about the next 

 wave of convergence between the digital and human.

 

This is from TEDxWarwick and it looks exactly like a university lecture, which it is. I have been at a university for 37 years and trust me, they aren’t TED quality.  University lectures have poorly prepared PowerPoint, and this one does too. They are often distant and the lecturer talks down to his audience, from a position of higher authority. They are often bereft of personal resonance on the part of the lecturer.  Ian Pearson is a smart cookie, even if he doesn’t know that bacteria do not contain mitochondria (perhaps mitochondria were once bacteria, as a matter of fact).  I am not sure that androids/robohumans will exceed his intelligence any time soon, even if they can beat him easily in chess.  The point of his lecture is that computers will become smarter and smarter over the short term and we don’t. They are also sensorial, sensing what is going on all over the world (Facebook, Twitter and Google have been doing this for months). Evenutally, there will be moral issues involved in their mortality and ours. Will it be okay to kill (terminate?) an android with ‘feelings’.  Will our computer clones make us (actually only the younger people, us over-thirties will not live long enough) immortal on the web?  Will computers be able to mish our DNA and create virtual kids when we are ninety? These are all worthy thoughts, but I am watching his talk and thinking about William Shakespeare, who lived four hundred years ago and is immortal, and I wonder what Ian Pearson (or any of us) will be other than dust four hundred years from now.  But if there are still people around, some of them will still be quoting Hamlet. 

 

mel-ted response to TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor - Both sides of the cortex

The timber of her voice may be off putting at first, but stay with it. This is one of the most riveting of the TED talks. Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist who lost brain function because of a massive stroke, and after eight years of recovery, began to share her personal revelations of this experience with the world, with particular reference to the yin and yang of selflessness and universalness. Her explanation of the differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain may be over simplistic or otherwise controversial, so don’t take a college exam based on what she has to say. On the other hand, if you go with her flow, you realize just how wondrous yet tenuous our consciousness is. Food for thought for both sides of the cortex.

 Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com
  

mel-ted response to TEDxUSC - Peter Erskine - The Role of Rhythm in Popular Music

Peter Erskine - TEDxUSC 

Skip the lecture and watch him strut his stuff playing with the likes of Diana Kra

 
What a letdown! Peter Erskine, phenomenal jazz drummer, at TEDxUSC, spends almost twelve minutes talking about next to nothing . Could those jokes about drummers be true? 
 

Don’t waste your time watching this one, go straight to Youtube and watch him strut his stuff playing with the likes of Diana Krall. Has she been on TED? Now, that would be something.

A mel-ted response to TED Lecture - Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam

Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam

There is no doubt in my mind that Naif Al-Mutawah  is trying to do the right thing in creating 99 supercharacters based on the positive attributes of Islam. His talk is erudite and well worth watching, although there is something troubling in his tale. He talks about the similarity between the Bible and the North American superheroes, batman, superman and spiderman (I grew up on the first two), and how Jews were involved in dreaming them up in the first place (did I miss something?). But here’s the point. Regardless of the similarity between the tales of  ancient Egypt and Krypton, you don’t need to invoke religion to bond with Superman.   Superman is religionless, he’s there for everyone.  So, if we now have 99 Islamic superheroes, maybe all the religions should have their own. I for example would favor Moishe, who flies except on Shabbes and never shmooses in the synagogue, and Peter, who encourages rogues, bandits and ousted CEOs to turn the other cheek.  So definitely watch this one and ponder its implications. Will the real super hero please stand up?

mel-ted reviews Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

In the Pink

I suppose that TED invited Dan Pink to speak because he is so erudite both with the written word , and so entertaining with the spoken one.  I think he also finds himself entertaining, because it takes him thirteen minutes to get to the point (future speakers take note, make your point early on) which is that people are motivated primarily by ideas, sense of belonging, and sense of purpose and humanity rather than money. Even Americans (although perhaps less so).  Hey, Dan. Anyone who has raised a family, who has religion, who has volunteered for their church, synagogue or mosque knows that.  His point is that many companies don’t get it.  Should we be surprised?  Just consider what cutthroat personal traits you usually need to get ahead in the business world.

 He wisely cites Wikipedia as an example of how people compete to share their knowledge and expertise without remuneration. This model has beat the pants off any professional (and remunerating) encyclopedias, online or off.   Rock on, Jimmy Wales.

Not one of my favorite TED presentations, and I haven't seen all too many (yet). 

My response to TED speaker - Dean Kamen on inventing and giving

Dean Kamen and Seasickness

Don’t watch this TED if you get seasick. You will see Dean Kamen driving around on his segway as he gives his TED presentation, and while following what he has to say is easy and straightforward, following him ride across the stage is rather daunting. It also detracts from concentrating on what he has to say, which is “I have invented this really cool thing which will change the way regular people move around cities.”  

Eight years and over 100 million dollars later, it hasn’t yet.  Yes, you do see the odd professional (e.g. policeman) driving one, and they are allowed here in Israel on sidewalks, so a lot of people rent one for an hour to have a real joy ride (they are great fun, if a bit scary at first).  But they have not become any kind of mass transport and I can’t remember the last time I saw a regular Joe drive one around the streets of Tel Aviv. We do have one Segway at our cool engineering college , Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, but that is because our previous CEO had a real Otaku about these machines.

That does not detract one bit from Dean’s message, because it is generic:  I want to bring positive change to the world and I have put my money (and other people’s) where my mouth is, and developed this invention which represents a true paradigm shift.  I am guessing that the segway is like the first ballpoint pen. It was clunky, dripped and had other technical issues, the company failed, but subsequent ones did work, and caught on. Nowadays, how many people do you know still use a feather and ink well? What I am saying is that thirty years from now when everyone is using a lightweight, solar-propelled safe version of this, folks will look at this and say WOW! The same way we would have if there were a TED video of the Wright brothers explaining how they flew a few meters in the air.

So, Dean Kamen, keep on rollin’ and sharin’.

Personal disclosure: I am involved in a project called the ‘redseamobile’ with Hagai Cohen, which duplicates the experience of water skiing on land.  We haven’t sold a single model J.  - Demo of Red Sea Mobile 

Seth Godin on standing out

Seth Godin’s  first talk from 2003

There are two inherent challenges in giving a TED talk about being remarkable.  First, aren’t all TED talks supposed to be remarkable? Secondly, TED talks are taped and available for all to see, so they should withstand the test of time.  I was not sure that Seth Godin’s talk from 2003 fulfilled either criterion, so I watched it twice.

I do like his definition of ‘remarkable’ as something that people remark about. And yes, the internet is all about ‘otaku’ (if you don’t know, see the presentation or learn Japanese).  But the TV industrial complex is still going strong, seven years later, and no, Procter and Gamble have not learned that you need to be special, and hey, they are still advertising and selling an ocean of products (I wish they were selling mine!!).

Finally, I have a problem with the speakers who tell us that their talk could be about anything, but they just happen to be using business as an example.  Seth and Cameron, please share with us (if only for a minute or two) how your understanding of the business and advertising world impacts on the worlds that really count – philosophy, art, science, and medicine, to name a few.  Business is all about making money now, often at any cost. TED is not business or advertising school, and it should touch our hearts and minds, not our pockets.

Bring on the learning revolution!: Sir Ken Robinson on TED.com

Sir Ken Robinson 2010

Sir Ken Robinson gave such a remarkable talk in 2006 that he was invited back for a sequel a few months ago. But, as sequels go, it doesn't live up to its predecessor. Yes, it is delightful and funny, there is the poignant story of the fireman, and the hilarity of a three year old submitting his CV to try to get into a worthy kindergarten. My suggestion is to have a look at this one first, get excited, and then go for the slam dunk presentation of 2006.

What Sir Ken does not do in his sequel is provide the blueprint for engendering the revolution in education that he dreams about. Is this because he flourished in the same arcane industrial system he seeks to overthrow (so did I for that matter, but I haven't been invited to TED). Compare Sir Ken's talk with Cameron Herold's analogous presentation at TEDx. For Cameron, and many other success stories, formal schooling is pretty irrelevant. It's what Cameron learned from his father about entrepreneurship and what he passes on to his children.

In his presentation, Sir Ken continues to talk about replacing linear thinking. However the powers that be invited him back to continue his line of thought from 2006 where he left off. Big mistake. He didn't leave off, and you can't top a perfect presentation. Sir Ken, when they invite you back in 2014, please change the subject, and be as fresh, entertaining, and provocative as you were in 2006. Eighty million people are waiting.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity - 2006

Sir Ken Robinson 2006

This is the best TED talk I've seen so far, and I'll let you know if anything tops it.  Here is a guy who not only has something to share, but shares it with humor, grace and intellect. He is almost as funny as Bill Cosby during Bill's early years (Junior Barnes comes to mind). He shines. He talks about one of my favorite topics, how schools quash creativity, how kids are innately creative, but lose their ability to be spontaneous, lateral and silly when they start conventional education.  

Sir Ken says that even if kids " don't know, they'll have a go."

When I was a youngster, I once congratulated my uncle on receiving his "commotion". These are things that are hilarious, ingenious and endearing when a four year old says them, but hugely embarrassing when you are ten.  Yossi Vardi reassures me that silliness is the uncle of innovention. This is something that schools and life like to suck out of our bone marrows as we grow up.

The talk (actually it's half talk, half stand-up) has many moments, my favorite is the story of Gillian Lynne, and how an astute professional saved her from an ignominious future at a regular school. The rest, as they say, is history.