http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2009/01/a_design_manife.html

by Bruce Nussbaum. it is a good read.

http://www.mazneb.org/
the recs that will be presented to the governor. interesting.

i did not sign up for TED 2010. i wanted to wait and see what long beach was like. would it work for TED? would it be the 'same'? would it still be TED? i arrived at long beach with big white banners flying on all the lampposts with the big red TED on them. a very festive look. within ten minutes of arriving at the hotel i had already met another TEDster, Jim, who was working on a great publishing project entitled 2030. his focused on kids and their vision of what 2030 would look like. this totally resonated with our UrbanLife2030 project. we spent the next hour together talking about our projects. i went up to my hotel room and signed up for 2010. how could i not? TED is about half content and half being there. the talks were excellent. the networking even better. i look forward to reviewing some of the talks again and again. i look forward to tracking some of the cool stuff. and, most importantly, i look forward to keeping in touch with those folks whom i met who are trying to change the world.

10 to the 31st power of varieties of virus on the planet.

human viruses have animal origins [Rabies, Yellow Fever, Dengu ever, SARS, Ebola, Influenza, HIV...]

he talked about the transmission of the various viruses from the bush hunters thru the contact with the animals blood. he pointed out that it is not the responsibility of the hunter; rather of us all. their work is really interesting. he posits that they can actually monitor the new flow of viruses into the flow of the human population.

good talk. informative. good style.

http://faculty.jhsph.edu/default.cfm?faculty_id=763&grouped=false&searchText=&department_id=0&departmentName=Epidemiology
http://gvfi.org/

quorum sensing in bacteria. there are 10x more bacteria cells on or in humans at any time than human cells. she is interested in simply how bacteria work at all. she talked about a squid that has bioluminescent bacteria in their bodies. the squid can use the light from the bacteria to eliminate its shadow.

she has shown that bacteria do indeed communicate. she went on to talk about all sorts of bacterial communities. bacteria can differeniate between 'me' and 'you' - they can distinguish between themselves.

she has proposed a new way to fight bacteriological infections based on quorum sensing.

great presenter style. fascinating message. worth seeing again. excellent graphics. standing ovation. excellent communicator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing
http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=27

great short.

the tree canopy and research on the canopy. she talked about ants. 4000 species of ants live in the canopy alone.
epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants. 28000 species around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphyte] or [http://www.kew.org/ksheets/epiphytes.html]

her real passion is trees. she talked about the importance of the canopy. she showed a really great project - treetop barbie [http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/canopylab/outreach/barbie.html]
another project is Canopy Confluences -
[http://eco.confex.com/eco/2007/techprogram/P1039.HTM][http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/retreat-into-the-trees/]

but the best was her work with prisons and sustainability. growing moss and the oregon spotted frog.

tremendous. standing ovation. worth taking a look again. she needs work on her graphics.

http://www.nalininadkarni.com/

a talk about the intelligence of the octopus. Cephalopods. they are mollusks who have lost their shell. they deal with the loss of protection thru their camouflage.

what is intelligence? capacity to reason, learn....they have personalities, they play and the solve problems. she went on to talk about the personalities of the octopuses.

ok presentation. not a re-see.

http://www.advancededucation.gov.ab.ca/technology/wwwtechnology_asp/sciyou/career_profiles_483.asp

ME
WE

the curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. she talked thru her story of becoming a curator in Harlem and some of her shows. what does it mean to be african american in america? what does this mean for america? what does it mean for art? what should the african american artist be engaging? these were some of the question taht she brought up that she is working with at the museum.

an interesting talk. competently delivered.

http://gothamist.com/2005/04/27/thelma_golden_curator.php

Repower America by Al Gore

He stated off by showing a few advertisements that his Alliance has created. They are really great. Then he went on to talk about how there is now a fundamental imbalance on the planet between humans and the natural world. There are three factors that have impacted the most: in the past 100 years the population has quadrupled; Scientific and technology developments have allowed an enhanced impact; and our a focus on the short term rather than on longer term implications of our actions. [Evolutionary biology enhances the love of near term]

We confuse the unprecedented with the improbable. There are three crises in America - financial, national security, and climate. Repower America has its goal of getting to 100% renewable energy within the next 10 years. This is entirely possible.
The average age of the systems engineers when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon was 26. This means that when President Kennedy made his promise to put a man on the moon these crucial assets to the mission were 18.
The Anti-public health program [Fast Food etc advertising] far exceeds that spent on public health.

Kids don't know that things cannot be done. Focus on them. Get them to work on this.
Look up the ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION and consider joining it.
Focus on measurable actions.

now this was the read deal. bringing music to kids of all ages. no matter the financial level. taking music to the people.

El sistema is what he brought in. it is a program of social rescue and social transformation.

He wishes to extend his program to the US. This is an EXCELLENT wish.

we then had a concert from Venezuela by the kids themselves. it was pretty awesome. what a man to take these people from the hands of abject poverty and no hope. to then show then a lifeline that they then grabbed with alacrity. it was beautiful. i cried. goosebumps and tears.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Antonio_Abreu

http://www.ericlewisgroove.com/

a short interlude during the TED Prize presentations by this young musician.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/sylvia-earle.html

a rambling presentation of a vital issue. saving the oceans.

SETI [http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=1241]
TED Prize 2009 is to search for intelligent life. a billion year wandering of celestial sawdust. SETI started 50 years ago. our sun is one of 400 billion in our galaxy alone. she went on to talk about the importance of our world and the development of SETI.

her wish is to empower people everywhere to join in the project.

actress.
did a short piece. talked thru her view of self invention. to play thru the spaces of self invention. she went on to do a FANTASTIC performance piece.

A MUST SEE AGAIN!

http://www.sarahjonesonline.com/

second generation pilot. shared his experience with a short, but powerful three minute presentation.

http://www.richardinspace.com/
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,483/
garriottspacechallenge.com

on biomutualism and biomimetics.
he talked about gecko toes. there are over 2 billion hairs on each hair. a colleague at stanford has made a material based on this. this is really cool. sticky bot
gecko's peel off their toes at high rate. he went on to show more about the gecko.

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/09/rfull/robots.html

great, but a bit too geeko on gecko.

great talk on his bone marrow mining.

on surgical robots.
she gave a history of surgery. it was quite interesting. simple. from traveling barbers to washing up. the two big moves were anesthesia and sterilization. surgeons went from being a last resort to being very highly respected. they then went to big cuts opening the human body without pain and without guaranteed death from infection. she showed the newest
robotic driven surgery elements. incredible. really incredible.
her goal is to get all of the instruments into one incision in our body. this is really really amazing. they are now able to inject a dye into the bloodstream so that the special camera can see if the repair, or removal has been successful.

AWESOME.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Surgery/GeneralSurgery/1543
http://davincisurgery.com

He stated with a quote from Emily Dickenson
'Wonder is not precisely knowing; and not precisely knowing not.

He talked about his issues and what he believes are the issues of Architecture:
Optimism is the driver for optimism. Architecture must be full of optimism.
Expressive. Architecture cannot be neutral. It has been an expression of our feelings.
Radical. Not conservative. Radical is rooted deep in traditions. It is a living connection. Radical is then the confrontations between tradition.
Emotion no cool.
Inexplicable not understood.
Hand not just the computer. The hand should be the driver of computation.
Complex not simple.
Political not evasive
Real not simulation
Unexpected not habitual
Raw not refined
Memorable not
Communicative not mute
Risky not safe
Space not fashion
Democratic not authoritarian

Very good talk.

How would you run a whole company without oil?

electric vehicles are the only answer. they have to be more convenient and more affordable than today's cars. the answer to the challenge. seperate the car and the battery. network before the devices. own the car, subscribe to the miles. the idea is to put power at every parking place. we can get about 120 miles on a battery in general.

eMile - the new commodity. he anticipates a reverse 5 year Moore curve.

Renault -
Israel, Denmark, Australia, Hawaii, San Francisco

standing ovation.
well deserved
great talk.

worth seeing again.

Gucci is across the hall.
Massive growth up thru 2002 with the moto low prices always. They were totally focused on price. Now they are focusing on quality. They have a new motto.... 'Walmart; Save Money. Live Better.' They are now looking at sustainability as the way forward. Packaging is now a focus. P&G is their largest single supplier. He talked about a program in which they looked at saving packaging by forcing them to create compact detergents. They created a scorecard to evaluate each supplier. Another example was shrink-wrapping rather than boxing car seats. It is about iteration, not instant perfection. 200 million customers, 65000 suppliers, 2 million employees, 10% of US retail is the firm. He pointed out that awareness is then pushed out to lots of folks.
What if the customer would/could know everything that is in the store? If they know everything about the ingredients? If there was a product index on every product?

Discussion. They just held an sustainability conference in Beijing in which they were helping their suppliers improve.

Sustainability Milestone Meeting July 16th in NW Arkansas.
Help us help our customers.

TED@Wal-mart.com

author of Eat, Pray, Love she talked about her book and the results on the international stage since. she is now engaging in the issue of genius. she questioned why are such creative minds so prone to self destruction? why is it that it is accepted that creativity and suffering linked?

'it is very likely that my greatest work is behind me. now what?' do i start drinking gin at 0900? ' no. but now she is looking at what other cultures did with success and dealing with it. the greeks and romans believed in deamons who helped them thru, or into, genius. the real genius lived in the walls of the studio and came out to help the artist or brilliant. so therefore, if the work was great, it was not all your fault. the daemon always got credit.

the the renaissance it all got focused on the self. for the first time, references were now called genius rather than referring to the genius that is in the wall. she feels that this is wrong. it simply puts too much credit/pressure on a person.

why not have fairies who rub their juice on us? is it any more rational than to believe that the genius only comes from within?

she told the story of interviewing the US poet laureate. she told her that when she was young and working in the fields of the south she would feel a poem coming to her like a storm. she would feel the poem coming and would set off runing for her house hoping to get there before teh poem came thru. when she mae it, the poem would come out of her fingers onto the paper more or less finished. if she did not, it poem woul dkeep going to find another poet.

perhaps our talents are all on loan.

entertaining and insightful.

http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/

She talked about bread. and the myth of the agricultural past. the myth of the beauty of this past. she then went on to talk about the advances and gains of the industrialization of the production of food commensurate with the supermarket. bread and food have now become plentiful and this has changed the world. bread was originally a main staple, but has become a means to transmit calories.

so so presentation

http://www.english.uva.nl/research/object.cfm/33537069-2B36-48EB-8A6C4F0954465265/BA2526BA-A041-4C72-8C8FF2FAD54A924B

back on stage.
on Aids from 1983 on. it seems that we are now at a steady state with the Aids epidemic. it seems that it is at 1% of the population. he took the example of some countries in which the tratment of AIDS is able to be given. this means that the population can then live for another 20 years with AIDS. the poorer countries still have lots of deaths so the percentage can seem to fall. he pointed out that it is fundamental that we need to focus on prevention.

http://www.gapminder.org/

she talked about the evolution of skin. anthropologist. opened with a discussion about darwin and his writings. there was only one note on the evolution of man in his first writings. but his did talk about the colour of skin. she went on to talk about the NASA satellite data on UV radiation. it is interesting to note that all humans began in the UV intense areas. UVA, UVB and UVC all hit the earth. UVC is precluded by the Ozone layer. UVB is important for bone development. Melanin protected us against UV damage and has probably been in the earth for billions of years. it was a natural sunscreen for the protection of DNA and folate.

then we moved north. All of the UVA still gets thru, but no UVB gets thru. this is interesting because UVA does not have the potential to make vitamin D. thus, the northerners lost their pigmentation. lightly pigmented skin evolved three times.

these movements between our inherently natural environment and our intentional has had tremendous health and social consequence.

it was a good talk. but not great

http://www.anthro.psu.edu/faculty_staff/Jablonski.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/science/09conv.html

presented their work on interactive art made with the computer. they use full body input and voice. this was a bit boring at first as he did the standard academic thing of showing the development. then he got to the cool stuff.....really wonderful finale. a project which brought together an artificial arm with interactivity.[http://www.flong.com/projects/snout/]
http://www.flong.com/projects/eyecode/

http://www.flong.com/bio/en/
http://www.flong.com/

watch it again.

talked about his trip to the south pole. he was a smoker and then decided to change his life. 33 days to make the trip. connected with a website to lots of kids in canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Zahab

ok talk

culture of availability - a short talk. on phone use and sharing

i share, therefore i am.

a sign 'for the love of Christ please hang up your f*cking phone and drive'

Alright. I have to confess that of all the people on the planet that I would have loved to have met at WEF, Kofi Annan and Desmond Tutu are pretty much tickling the top of the list. I attended a private dinner at which he was in attendance. then the next day, I was waiting for a shuttle bus to take me and my PopTech backpack to my hotel. I see Kofi standing waiting at the car line with the ever present minder and a Swiss guy that I met at an earlier year. We nodded at each other and continued to wait. My van pulled up and their car was nowhere in sight. My Swiss friend asked if I would mind if we took them to the Public hall where Kofi was to speak imminently. I asked the driver, as sometimes they are quite the rule followers and this would take him off his route. The driver said sure [I mean really, how can you say no?????]. Soon I found myself sitting next to Kofi Annan. It is not often that I am speechless, but I felt like I was back in high school going on my first date and not knowing what to talk about. This did not last long as fortunately my Swiss friend introduced me to Kofi...."This is Chris, whose firm designs most of the most wonderful buildings and other projects in the world" I turned to Kofi and said "I work with Arup and our motto is 'we shape a better world'. I think that the scale of our aspirations pale in comparison to what you have achieved.' OK. It was cheesey, but it broke the ice and I had my fifteen minutes with him. I pitched UrbanLife2030 and he loved it. I am convinced that belief is the most powerful force on the planet and that we need to harness it. we need to focus it on both the climate crisis and on how our cities will need to be if our societies are going to thrive.

presented the creation of a digital human. 155 people over a few years.
The Curios Case of Benjamin Button. a totally digital head is put on Brad Pitt's body for the first part of the movie.
he went thru the entire process of the creation of the face of the actor. the audience loved it. i was less fascinated.

The investment/venture groups of Kleiner Perkins & Generation invited me to attend their evening reception. John Doerr has been a great proponent of immediate action to mitigate greenhouse gasses and has been investing heavily in this direction. I look forward to getting together with him again soon. He welcomed the guests and introduced Al Gore [who looked much fitter than the last time we met]. Al spoke about his enthusiasm for the opportunity that the new administration is looking to embrace in battling climate change. He pointed out that President Obama is truly committed to green and that we should look forward to his personal support in this area. It was also great to see my friends John Gage and Colin LeDuc.

However, the highlight was meeting and chatting with Tom Friedman. He is a really great approachable guy who tolerated my UrbanLife2030 pitch. It would be wonderful if he would see this as a way to help implement some of his ideas.

http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doerr
http://www.kpcb.com/team/doerr
http://www.algore.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gage
http://www.generationim.com/about/team/leduc.html

Each year, many of the world's most powerful CEOs and politicians gather in the small snowy Swiss mountain village of Davos for the World Economic Forum. These past four days have been full of hours of bilateral meetings, private topical sessions, open topical sessions, receptions, dinners and parties. It is a unique opportunity to network and share views on timely issues.

This year I attended with several roles. One was the Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Design. These councils were established in 2008 to bring together individuals who are very knowledgeable in specific areas of impact who might not normally interact with the Forum. We are charged with bringing issues to the attention of the Forum that could, or should, be a part of their agenda. The Design GAC hosted a very successful dinner as well as having half of its membership in attendance in various positions.

Another role is a member of the Slim City delivery team. Arup has been working closely with this project to create a set of knowledge cards, based on our Drivers of Change work, that could be of value to Mayors and CEOs. The topics on the cards are focused on implementables to enhance efficiencies and reduce carbon footprints at many levels. There were several sessions for this project.

A third role is a representative of Arup. In this role, I work hard to not just enhance the presence of our firm, but to be a champion of the importance of the built environment in any way that I can - to anyone who would listen

This time, I also had the pleasure of sharing the UrbanLife2030 project with pretty much anyone who would listen. The incredible enthusiasm with which the proposal was received was very encouraging.

The mood of Davos was sombre. The participants really did not seem to have any idea of what needed to happen in order for us to skate or move forward. The general feel that I took away was we are in for a three to four year recession and then things might change. There was a real interest in the carbon economy. However, I do not believe that anyone has really thought about this enough. Our collective challenge will be to figure out what the new world order combined with carbon constraints will mean. i wonder if it is a challenge for which the western world is ready to accept?

digital animation at Sony. a short presentation on new lighting technics. he showed the new movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

bla

showed his work and told his story. a short three minute talk. i look forward to seeing more of his work. wondrous.

http://www.chihuly.com/

Allosphere at UC santa Barbara. http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/allosphere/
bringing arts, science and engineering. it is a sphere that allows you to be inside of data.

AlloBrain - realtime FMRI data of the visual cortex
Artificial Nature- self generation and growth
MultiCenter Hydrogen Bond. oxygen hydrogen and zinc. visual and audial
Hydrogen with electron flow
electron spin - simulating quantum flows

OK. this was cool.
she spoke a mile a minute, but then again she had so much to show. worth going to see.

imaginations. seeing with the brain. visual hallucinations will be the subject of his talk. he related a story of a 95 year old who was suddenly now having visual hallucinations. she was totally sane and not on any medications. 10% of visually impaired individuals seem to have hallucinations and a parallel occurs with the those with hearing impairments. these tend to change suddenly. the first time that this was discussed\recognized was in the eighteenth century.

as the parts of the brain which drive sight and hearing loose their external stimulation, the brain often makes up stimulae. this then drives the hallucinations.

he sat on the stage in a comfortable chair and told his story. it was interesting.