TED Talk: Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Jane McGonical: Gaming can make a better world is a TED talk by this lady wants you to save the world by playing games. She takes a while to ground her far-fetched ideas (20 minutes), but in the end makes her point. Gamers, unite.

(From my iPod Subscription)

TED Talk: Cindy Gallop: Make love, not porn [NSFW]

Cindy Gallop: Make love, not porn is a TED talk by entrepreneur Cindy Gallop on the detrimental effects of hard core porn on heterosexual interpersonal relationships. In it, she launches her site, Make Love Not Porn, a site that redefines normal.

The commentary on the Ted talk includes a lot of annoyingly mis-informed and un-enlightened internet trolling, but don't let that detract from the experience: skip it altogether. Enjoy!


(From yesterday's TOTI)

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy? is a Ted Talk by Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness", who accordign to TED, challenges the idea that well be miserable if we dont get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things dont go as planned.

Basically, when we are given a choice between two paintings or photos, we can be unhappy with our decisions, but when one is foisted upon us, we manufacture happiness out of it. Seems surprising but plausible--at least for small decisions. I really still have a hard time believing in making a case for arranged marriages. Althought dating makes me miserable.

Bonus: The 2005 talk by Dan here.

(From EK)

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

Happy TED SUNDAY!Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm is a TED talk where author Mary Roach talks about all those dirty things: masturbation, sex, and orgasms.

According to TED,

" 'Bonk' author Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious. (This talk is aimed at adults. Viewer discretion advised.)"

(From my love of TED)

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Happy return of the TED Sundays!Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success is a TED talk about the downsides of meritocracy and a nicer view of success.

I like it, but maybe I just have a thing for the accents. Bonus: 3 funny literary jokes in there. Enjoy!

(From my ipod)

Aimee Mullins: How my legs give me super-powers

Aimee Mullins: How my legs give me super-powers is a TED talk by athlete, model, actor and activist Aimee Mullins.  She talks about perceptions of ability vs. disability with respect to her prosthetic legs. Her TED bio explains: 

"Aimee Mullins was born without fibular bones, and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run -- competing at the national and international level as a champion sprinter, and setting world records at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. At Georgetown, where she double-majored in history and diplomacy, she became the first double amputee to compete in NCAA Division 1 track and field."

As you can imagine, over the years Aimee has had a lot of time to ponder statements people would make to her such as, "You know Aimee, you're very attractive. You don't look disabled."

It opened her eyes to a conversation about beauty, body, and from an identity standpoint, what it means to be disabled. She points out, "Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled." 

Aimee worked with some fashion designers to make art-prosthetic legs, freeing her from the need to replicate human-ness. She had legs of different heights made, which gave her a new-found relationship with door jambs. When she tested the first one out, a friend who was used to seeing her at a certain height, commented off-the-cuff that it wasn't fair that she could change her height. Aimee states that that's when she knew the conversation with society had changed profoundly in the last decade, moving beyond overcoming deficiency and limitations, and moving instead into potential. 

She's an advocate of making people that society once considered disabled architects of their own identities, which they can change at will, by designing their own bodies from a place of empowerment. Great talk.

I won't ruin the whole thing.  It's not just the words, it's the images plus the delivery. You have to see the 10 minutes of poetry. Enjoy!

Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now

Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now is a TED talk by Bill Gates and what he plans to do with his massive amount of money. 

Right off the bat, Bill Gates states that he does not believe the market naturally drives scientists, communicators, governments to do the right things. There are important problems that don't get worked on, that can only get solved when enough brilliant people who care hop on the band-wagon. 

I don't know why, but it makes me feel much better that a man with Bill Gates' wealth shares the same opinions as I do about how the world and its markets operate, even if it's only on this small point.  I mean, I suppose he could have been a hands-off libertarian and kept all of his 'puter money to himself. But instead, he wants to take his money and cure malaria and improve education in America. HEAR HEAR! 

Bednets and books for everyone, Bill. You go. 

Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise

Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise is a TED talk by American psychologist and author Barry Schwartz.  According to TED he makes "a passionate call for 'practical wisdom' as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world."

This talk took my breath away.  I've always felt bureaucracy and rules can be suffocating, which doesn't mean that we should abandon civility and world order altogether, but rather, that they are never enough and you must have a clearer light from within to guide you. 

Barry quotes from Aristotle, who said  practical wisdom was having the moral will to do right by other people, and the moral skill to figure out what that means. Barry argues a wise person knows when and how to make the exception to every rule.  A wise person knows how to improvise, as real world problems are ambiguous and ill-defined. The context is always changing.  A wise person knows how to use these moral skills in pursuit of the right aims. To serve other people, not to manipulate other people.  Finally he argues a wise person is made, not born. Wisdom comes from experience.  You need time to get to know the people you are serving, the permission to improvise and occasionally fail, and mentorship from wise teachers.

Barry says that the good news is that you do not need to be brilliant to be wise, but the bad news is that without wisdom brilliance, wisdom is not enough. It can get you in trouble. It's a mad, mad world, and we need practical wisdom to fix it. 

I've always love improv, and I love this guy. A+.  

Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics

Peter Donnelly: How juries are fooled by statistics is a TED talk by by Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly, and thought it was an interesting take on sensitivity/specificity and legal medicine. Further, I thought none of my friends would think this was interesting, but I thought TOTI readers might hear me out. It's a good example of why medical students should care about such things. (I would skip ahead to the relevant bit that starts at 11:03 minutes.)

Peter recounts the SIDS case ( = "cot death" in British), where lawyer Sally Clark was accused of murdering two of her children. In court, a pediatrician stated that the chance of both of them dying of SIDS in a family like hers was 1/73 million. The two deaths are, of course, likely not independent as they shared both environmental and genetic factors, and bad statistics were used to arrive at the figure. Sally was convicted.

Sally's sentence was eventually reversed on her second appeal, but she died in 2007. The Guardian stated "Her family said she had not recovered from the miscarriage of justice." The pediatrician, Sir Roy Meadow, faced a disrepute charge by Britain's General Medical Council, and was struck from the medical register. He was recently re-instated on appeal (stating he had not set himself up as a statistical expert). 

I think this is a nice illustration of why sensitivity and specificity matter more than just something to memorize for medical boards. 

Jeff Skoll: Making movies that make change

Jeff Skoll: Making movies that make change is a TED talk by entrepreneur and former eBay president Jeff Skoll.  Basically, he is the guy who funded An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night and Good Luck, The Kite Runner, Fast Food Nation, and Charlie Wilson's War. First of all, I had no idea someone was actively funding all of these movies I liked and was interested in. On purpose. I mean, on a purpose besides making money... Like consciously orchestrating it. Second of all, it's the eBay guy!? Alright, awesome. 

He's on to something.  This is a powerful way to change social opinions and debate. I thought this talk was totally going to bore me, and it didn't.  Perhaps that sounds like less of an enthusiastic endorsement than I had in mind, but you get the idea. He got a few chuckles out of me. 

According to TED,

"His production company, Participant Productions, is what Skoll calls a 'pro-social media company,' making features and documentaries that address social and political issues and drive real change. His film North Country, for example, is credited with influencing the signing of the 2005 Violence Against Women Act. Participant's blockbuster doc, An Inconvenient Truth, is required viewing in classrooms around the world, and has unquestionably changed the debate around climate change. Upcoming for Participant are two films about Afghanistan, and a documentary about Jimmy Carter's controversial 2006-7 book tour."

 Enjoy!

Dan Ariely: Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)

Dan Ariely: Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes) is a TED talk by Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely.  He speaks broadly about irrationality, but I found the most interesting part of the talk to be the introduction about pain.  

Dan was badly burned and spent a lot of time in burn wards. Much like band-aids, except wrapped all over your body, body bandages can be ripped slowly or quickly, starting from various parts of the body. There is no consensus on how to do it best. 

Dan's nurses thought faster was better. Dan felt otherwise, but could not convince them from their gut feelings, and had no research to back it up.  Once he got well, he embarked on some semi-sadistic scientific study about pain.  He found that since the mind doesn't really take duration into account, ripping slower is actually better. Taking breaks to recuperate is best. Also, starting from high-nerve density areas such as the face, and moving on to less innervated parts such as the back, lead to a sense of improvement. 

He went back to tell his former nurses and they related how hard it is to go back on their gut feelings. But now you know, there is research. So feel free to tell all your health-field friends to rip it slow. (That's what she said, pada-chk!) 

Oh yeah, then Dan moves on to tell us that we are predictably irrational, and we all tend to cheat by a little bit, or something like that. Enjoy!

Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air

Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air is a TED talk by Kamal Meattle, an environmental activist in India.  Kamal became allergic to the incredibly polluted air in New Delhi. Which is a problem, since he lives there. With the help of some researcher friends, Kamal found that with 3 species of plants, you can grow all the fresh air you need. In fact, he claims you could live in a stoppped bottle with these plants and not die from lack of air. 

Kamal's speech is very short for TED talk standards, and it is totally worth your 4 minutes and 4 seconds.  He doesn't seem comfortable talking in front of the audience, and his speech ends abruptly without much warning or segue (to the point of unintentional comedy: be the change you want to see in the world!). Nevertheless, the speech is very tightly organized, progressing linearly and logically, with beautiful pictures. The topic is incredible.

This was exactly the kind of information I was looking for 3 years ago, when I (rather paranoid) thought that the air in my apartment was too stale. My mother insisted that plants would kill me, because they release CO2. Which is true, and also proof that a little bit of knowledge can lead to massive misinterpretation about what is good or bad for you.  I wonder if this could combat sick building syndrome. My mind won't stop moving--I digress. Fantastic talk. 

Philip Zimbardo: How ordinary people become monsters ... or heroes

Philip Zimbardo: How ordinary people become monsters ... or heroes is a TED talk by Philip Zimbardo,  American psychologist and professor emeritus at Stanford University.  He's a much better speaker than I'd imagined, and I had no idea he grew up poor in New York.

Zimbardo is  of course, famous for his Stanford prison experiment, where he took 24 normal college students, assigned them randomly to be prisoners or guards--which elicited sadistic behavior to such an extent that the experiment had to end early.  The key is that there is neither pure good or evil, only personality traits that can be elicited depending on circumstance.

In this talk, Zimbardo talks about how he was shocked but not surprised at the prisoner abuse that went on in Abu Ghraib, and shows [GRAPHIC, NOT SAFE FOR WORK] images that were not as widely circulated in the media.  Zimbardo states that the administration pushed the blame down on the soldiers (citing a few rotten apples), and that the soldiers stated they were just following orders. But the blame is not to be individualized, it is systemic.

Zimbardo states that if you give people power without oversight, it's a prescription for abuse. The Bush administration, via documents he presented, knew that, and let that happen. He says the abuses were going on for 3 months. Who was watching the store? Nobody. And he thinks nobody on purpose. The guards were given permission to do those things, and they knew nobody was going to come down into that dungeon.  These pictures were examples of situational and systemic vectors of disease. 

He finishes on a positive note, proposing heroism as the antidote to evil. He proposes activating the heroic imagination in all of us and celebrating ordinary heroes. This especially for children. He proposes thinking of ourselves as heroes waiting: each one of us may only have one chance in a lifetime to act heroically, so we must prepare ourselves for when the time comes. 

(From my iPod)

David Pogue: Cool new things you can do with your mobile phone

Cool new things you can do with your mobile phone is a TED talk by David Pogue, the New York Times Tech Columnist.  David is a sometimes funny, and always awkward. I'm not sure if it's the timing, but I feel like 2/3 of his jokes are recognized as jokes, but fall flat. The rest go well.  It's kind of uncomfortable but worth it. 

In these talks, he tends to always sing a parody song he composed himself, accompanied on the piano, and this talk ends no differently.  You can tell he really really loves Weird Al. 

Anyway this is his latest talk, and David speaks about all the neat things phones + the interwebs can do together. It was filmed in December, 2008, and just posted March 2009.  So it's still fresh, and I still found some things I didn't know about.  Enjoy!

(From my iPod)

A.J. Jacobs: My year of living biblically

Welcome to TED Sundays. I think I'll make this a regular thing for a bit. //

A.J. Jacobs: My year of living biblically is a TED talk by A. J. Jacobs, a writer for Esquire magazine. He approaches his articles in a sort of method-actor manner, but for writers. He likes to dive right into the research. 

So A. J. spent a year trying to take the Bible literally, and following over 700 rules from all the Bibles he could gather.  Mainly the catalyst for this was that A. J. was concerned about the rise of religious fundamentalism in America.  

It's a charming tale of him being fruitful and multiplying, not shaving and getting stuck at airport security, and failing to properly stone people. 

I knew this topic would be a win when he introduced himself as such: "I'm Jewish in the same way The Olive Garden is Italian: not very." Win. 

(From my iPod)

Isabel Allende: Tales of passion

Isabel Allende: Tales of passion is a TED talk by Isabel Allende.  I had never seen her talk prior to this, and she is very funny.  I did not expect this.   Isabel reminds me of my Aunt Godmother. 

Between funny stories about flag-bearing, the Olympics, and Sophia Loren, Isabel tells tales of extraordinary strength and makes a very strong case for feminism today. She introduces herself as such: 

"I was born in ancient times, at the end of the world, in a patriarchal, Catholic, and conservative family.  No wonder that by age 5 I was a raging feminist. Although, the term had not reached Chile yet -- so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me. I would soon find out that there was a high price to pay for my freedom and for questioning the patriarchy, but I was happy to pay it because for every blow that I received I was able to deliver two."

Isabel's daughter Paula insisted once that feminism is dated.  They had a fight. Isabel rebutted that feminism is dated for privileged women like her daughter, but not for most of our sisters in the rest of the world:

"Who are still forced into early marriage, into prostitution, into forced labor.  They have children that they don't want or that they cannot feed.  They have no control over their bodies or their lives.  They have no education and no freedom. They are raped, beaten up, and sometimes killed with impunity.  For most western young women of today, being called a feminist is an insult. Feminism has never been sexy. But let me assure you, it never stopped me from flirting. And I have seldom suffered from lack of men. 

...

Feminism is not dead, by no means. It has evolved. If you don't like the term, change it... the name doesn't matter, as long as we understand what it is about, and we support it.

...

Although women do 2/3 of the world's labor, they own less than 1% of the world's assets. They are paid less than men for the same work, if they are paid at all, and they remain vulnerable because they have no economic independence and they are constantly threatened by exploitation, violence, and abuse. It is a fact that giving women education; work; the ability to control their own income, inherit, and own property benefits the society.  If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off.  If the family prospers, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.

The poorest and most backwards societies are always those that put women down. Yet this obvious truth is ignored by governments and also by philanthropy. For every dollar given to women's programs, $20 are given to men's programs.

...

In this case, the trickle down effect which does not work in economics, works perfectly. Abuse trickles down from the top of the ladder to the bottom. Women and children, especially the poor, are at the bottom. Even the most destitute of men have someone they can abuse: a woman, or a child.  

I'm fed up with the power that a few exert over the many through  gender, income, race, or class... We need a critical number of women in positions of power, and we need to nurture the feminine energy in men. I'm talking about men with young minds, of course. Old guys are hopeless, we have to wait for them to die off."

Those are the weighty, hefty bits with statistics and fighting words. Isabel sprinkles those amongst human stories which are much more interesting, but which I'll leave up to the video. This is one of my new favorite talks. 

(From my iPod)