TED on Tuesday: OK? Go!

OK Go: How to Find a Wonderful Idea

If you are a popular music fan that has been paying any sort of attention to the music scene over the past 10 or 12 years, you must surely have heard of the American rock group, OK Go. If you haven’t you are in for a delightful surprise. OK Go came to prominence after the 2006 video for their song Here It Goes Again, in which the band performed a complex routine on motorised treadmills, went viral with the help of YouTube, and other video sharing sites. 

Seemingly defying all odds and bets that the band could would not be able to top the hype generated by that video, OK Go have in fact gone on make many more innovative and genre defying videos that have set the benchmark so high that other bands have simply given up trying to match them. The only exception I can think of to that statement is the always innovative Icelandic artist, Björk.

Where does OK Go come up with ideas like dancing in zero gravity, performing in ultra slow motion or constructing a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machine for their music videos? In between live performances of "This Too Shall Pass" and "The One Moment," lead singer and director Damian Kulash takes us inside the band's creative process, showing us how to look for wonder and surprise.

The above talk, begins with OK Go performing This Too Shall Pass on stage while the video for the song plays in the background. But how, you may be asking, was this massive Rube Goldberg machine built and engineered? The answer my friend, is … in the video below. Adam Sadowsky takes us through the process, after his team at Syyn Labs were given the task of building it. He tells the story of the effort and engineering behind their labyrinthine creation that quickly became another YouTube sensation for the band.

The team spent months setting up the set in a 10,000-square-foot warehouse. The Rube Goldberg machine involved 89 distinct interactions, and required 85 takes (of which only three were completely successful). Two pianos and 10 television sets were destroyed during the shoot—and some of these trashed items can be seen lining a wall in the warehouse.

Having watched the video numerous times before watching this TED talk, I could never understand why it was that the band members wore clothing covered in paint. After listening to Adam’s presentation, the penny dropped so to speak, and I realised that this was as a result of previous unsuccessful attempts to film a flawless video. Anyway, the president of Syyn Labs, Adam Sadowsky explains all. Oh, and the finished video for the song is included at the end of Adam’s all too brief presentation.

About OK Go

Singer and video director Damian Kulash, Jr. and bassist Tim Nordwind met at summer camp in 1987, and a decade later they formed OK Go. With Dan Konopka as drummer and Andy Ross as guitarist and resident computer programmer, they've built a unique career at the intersection of music, visual art, technology, and science. They're among an emerging class of artists whose 21st-century brand of experimental creativity dissolves the traditional boundaries between disciplines.

"When our band started, music and art were actually different things," says Kulash. "Musicians made plastic discs and artists made objects for galleries. Now we all make ones and zeros, so the categorical distinctions don’t make much sense anymore."

Here is the video for The One Moment, the second song OK Go performed on stage during their TED presentation. 

And finally, in case you are not among the millions of people who have seen Here It Goes Again, the video that started it all for OK Go, why not take a look at it now? Enjoy.

Online: okgo.net | Twitter: @okgo | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okgo/ 

TED on Tuesday: Curiosity, Cinema, and a Trek to the South Pole

Last week in my regular TED on Tuesday post, Ben Saunders -  Trek to The North Pole or Stay at Home? I featured two inspiring talks by Ben Saunders, an English adventurer who has pushed his body to the limits while trekking to both the North and South Poles. In that post I only included his TED Talk recounting his trek on skis to the North Pole. In todays post I have decided to include his talk recounting the extreme challenges he and his companion faced trekking to the South Pole

To the South Pole and Back [17.00]

This year, explorer Ben Saunders attempted his most ambitious trek yet. He set out to complete Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s failed 1912 polar expedition — a four-month, 1,800-mile round trip journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. In the first talk given after his adventure, just five weeks after his return, Saunders offers a raw, honest look at this “hubris”-tinged mission that brought him to the most difficult decision of his life.

More Information

At TED: To The South Pole and Back... 

Online: Home: bensaunders.com  Wikipedia: Ben Saunders  Twitter: @polarben

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TED on Tuesday: Curiosity and Cinema: The Story of “The Eagle Huntress”

The second talk is by Otto Bell, the film maker behind the highly successful documentary, The Eagle Huntress. My review of this film, At The Movies: The Eagle Huntress, has been quite popular since I first posted it, and I thought readers would be interested to learn the story behind the film from the director himself.

In this TEDx talk at Wake Forest University, Otto Bell explains just how curious he was about the Kazakh culture and why he felt the need to document the Kazakh way of life.

Bell is the director of more than 15 documentary films, which have taken him all over the world. Most recently, he directed “The Eagle Huntress,” a documentary about a 13-year-old Mongolian girl who challenges the male-dominated Kazakh tradition of male eagle hunters. This film, which won eight awards and 18 nominations, is being remade as an animated feature at 20th Century Fox, and was recently named to the Oscar documentary feature shortlist. Bell holds and maintains a Green Card for “Outstanding Contribution to American Arts and Media.” 

This talk was given at a TEDx event at Wake Forest University using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

TED on Tuesday: Ben Saunders - Trek to The North Pole or Stay at Home?

Ben Saunders is one of those all too rare individuals who has taken life ‘by the horns’, to use a well-known phrase, and pushed his mind, body and spirit to what the rest of us would consider to be the limits of human endurance. To Ben Saunders, his monumental treks to both the North and South Poles were about testing himself and his ability to live his life to its fullest.

The two TED talks below complement each other well. The first talk, Why did I ski to the North Pole?, was filmed in 2005, the year following this successful venture. In the second TED talk, Why bother leaving the house?, recorded in 2012, Saunders explains the reasons for embarking on his epic Arctic and Antarctic treks.

There are lessons in both these talks for everyone, and maybe the most important one of all is that we are all capable of far more than we have ever allowed ourselves to image. It is certainly true that the vast majority of the human race uses just a fraction of the huge potential inherent in each of us—and yes, I am including myself in this assessment.

Ben Saunders urges audiences to consider carefully how to spend the “tiny amount of time we each have on this planet.” And while we may never aspire to push ourselves to the same limits that Saunders has tested his own abilities, I hope these talks will inspire you (as they have me), to challenge yourself to do, and be more than you ever thought you could possibly be.

Ben Saunders is an explorer of limits, whether it's how far a human can be pushed physically and psychologically, or how technology works hundreds of miles from civilization, his message is one of inspiration, empowerment and boundless potential.

“Humbly framed as the ambitious undertakings of an ardent athlete, [Ben's treks offer] visceral first-hand accounts of just how much things are changing in the Arctic -- the 'barometer of global climate change.'” — Worldchanging.com

At TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_saunders_skis_to_the_north_pole

At TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_saunders_why_bother_leaving_the_house

Home: bensaunders.com  Wikipedia: Ben Saunders  Twitter: @polarben

TED on Tuesday: The World of Caves

Screen shot from the Jill Heinerth TED video

Cave diver Jill Heinerth explores the hidden underground waterways coursing through our planet. Working with biologists, climatologists and archaeologists, Heinerth unravels the mysteries of the life-forms that inhabit some of the earth's most remote places and helps researchers unlock the history of climate change. In this short talk, take a dive below the waves and explore the wonders of inner space.

More people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the places that Jill's exploration has taken her right here on the earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Antarctic icebergs, to the lawless desert border area between Egypt and Libya while a civil war raged around her, Jill's curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life.

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Screen shot from the Eddy Cartaya TED video

A ranger at Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, Eddy Cartaya not only solves cave crimes — he also explores the ever-changing system of caves within Mount Hood's Sandy Glacier.

Much of Eddy Cartaya's life takes place in caves. A ranger at Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, in charge of law enforcement and investigations, he solves crimes that happen in caves. This can range from investigating the theft of lava formations that date back 6,000 years to tracking down a group of people who covered over ancient cave art with spray paint. 

Cartaya and his climbing partner, Brent McGregor, also explore the frozen, icy caves created in the Sandy Glacier as it slowly slides down Oregon's Mount Hood. In 2011, the pair identified and explored three caves which they named Snow Dragon, Pure Imagination and Frozen Minotaur. Together, the caves create 7,000 feet of passageway through the glacier. Experts think this may be the longest glacial cave system in the United States outside of Alaska.

TED on Tuesday: Paul Nicklen's Animal Tales From Antarctica

Screen shot only. Watch the full video below.

Paul Nicklen: Animal tales from icy wonderlands

Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.

TED On Tuesday: Turning War Into Peace Through Travel

Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism.

When Aziz Abu Sarah was a boy, his older brother was arrested on charges of throwing stones. He was taken to prison and beaten — and died of his injuries. Sarah grew up angry, bitter and wanting revenge. But when later in life he met, for the first time, Jews who were not soldiers, Sarah had an epiphany: Not only did they share his love of small things, namely country music, but coming face to face with the “enemy” compelled him to find ways to overcome hatred, anger and fear.

Sarah founded MEDJI Tours to send tourists to Jerusalem with two guides, one Jewish and one Palestinian, each offering a different history and narrative of the city. Sarah tells success stories of tourists from the US visiting a Palestinian refugee camp and listening to joint Arab and Jewish bands play music, and of a Muslim family from the UK sharing Sabbath dinner with a Jewish family and realizing that 100 years ago, their people came from the same town in Northern Africa.

MEJDI is expanding its service to Iran, Turkey, Ireland and other regions suffering from cultural conflict. If more of the world’s one billion tourists were to engage with real people living real lives, argues Sarah, it would be a powerful force for shattering stereotypes and promoting understanding, friendship and peace.

While I found Aziz Abul Sarah’s talk inspiring for the possibilities he promises, I found this video produced by MEDJI Tours even more inspiring.

If you want to see more videos, check out the organisations collection of short films on VIMEO, and also visit the MEDJI Tours website.

Back In The Blue Zone Again

Mount Atheras, the highest point on Ikaria

I have written before about the Aegean island, Ikaria, the place from which my parents and my eldest brother, Nick, immigrated to Australia just before the Second World War. I first came to the island in April 1971, escorting my late mother who was returning to her ancestral home after an absence of more than 30 years. Many changes had of course occurred during her life away from family and friends in those intervening thirty years, and many changes have occurred in the 33 years since I first returned to the island with her.

Ikaria, and many of the Ikarians who live on the island, have now joined the ranks of a very exclusive club reserved for just five regions on the planet. These have become known as Blue Zones, from Dan Buettner's book, "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from people who lived the longest."

Terraced hillsides and valleys make maximum use of the land

Blue Zone is a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives, typically well into their 90s and beyond. The five regions identified and discussed by Buettner in the book Blue Zones are:

• Sardinia, Italy.
• The islands of Okinawa, Japan.
• Loma Linda, California.
• Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.
• Ikaria, Greece.

Residents of the first three places produce a high rate of centenarians, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life.

Referring specifically to Ikaria, an April 2009 study on the island uncovered the location with the highest percentage of 90 year-olds on the planet - nearly 1 out of 3 people make it to their 90s. Furthermore, according to the study, Ikarians "have about 20 percent lower rates of cancer, 50 percent lower rates of heart disease and almost no dementia".

View across Kampos valley to St. Irene (Agia Irini) church

I can personally vouch for the above statement. On this and on previous visits to Ikaria, I have spoken to a 98 year old man who helped carry my brother (then 18 months old), to the ship my mother was preparing to board for her journey to Australia―just before the outbreak of war in 1939.

The people inhabiting Blue Zones share common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their longevity. These characteristics include:

• Family – put ahead of other concerns
• Less smoking
• Semi-vegetarianism (except for the Sardinian diet, the majority of food consumed is derived from plants)
• Constant moderate physical activity – an inseparable part of life
• Social engagement – people of all ages are socially active and integrated into their communities
• Legumes – commonly consumed
• Geographical Area: All these "blue zones" are located near volcanoes which apparently increase the mineral content of the local water supplies.

There has been some speculation and claims that drinking water high in mineral content, along with the consumption of fruits, vegetables and vegetation irrigated with water rich in minerals may play a part in increased health and life span. However, an ongoing debate as to whether or not the mineral water component is a major reason for health and longevity in these "blue areas" is yet to come up with a definitive decision.

A closer look at St. Irene (Agia Irini) church

With regard to these shared characteristics, I can again vouch for the presence of some of these on Ikaria. Family ties remain strong, as do ties to the land with most families maintaining and producing a good supply of their own fresh fruits and vegetables. Almost every family on the island has their own grove or two of olive trees from which they source their own oil and a good supply of olives for the table. Many have their own vineyards from which they produce their own table wines, and many, like my sister Irene, have several goats which provide milk for general use or which is turned into homemade yoghurt or cheese. Of course, by producing their own fruits and vegetables, wines, olive oil and olives, and milk products, the Ikarians are by necessity, engaging in quite strenuous regular activity.

General view across the island

Time will tell whether Ikaria will maintain its position in the Blue Zone ranks. Unfortunately, many younger Ikarians are spurning the hours of physical work required to maintain extensive gardens, olive groves and vineyards, and the care of animals, in favour of a quick trip to local supermarkets to buy their groceries and daily necessities.

Here is Dan Buettner speaking about Blue Zones at a TED conference some years ago:

More Information

Blue Zones… 

Blue Zones Wikipedia… 

TED… 

TED on Tuesday: Camille Seaman: Storm Chaser

Image courtesy TED and Camille Seaman

As a keen traveller, I have taken more than my share of photographs at each stop on my extended journeys. As good as some of these photographs are, I still don’t consider myself a real photographer. I am more the happy amateur who occasionally gets lucky and is able to get the lighting and the angles right to come away with some half decent images.

Camille Seaman on the other hand, has been taking photographs all over the world, and since 2003, she has focussed her eyes (and cameras) on some of the worlds most fragile environments. Seaman's photographs have been published in Newsweek, Outside, Zeit Wissen, Men's Journal and more, and she has self-published many books on themes like “My China” and “Melting Away: Polar Images” through Fastback Creative Books, a company that she co-founded. In 2008, she was honored with a one-person exhibition, The Last Iceberg, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

In today’s TED on Tuesday, I am featuring two short presentations made by Camille (who was raised as a Shinnecock Indian), at TED conferences. The first, highlights her nascent career as a storm chaser hunting down and photographing supercell clouds―some of which can be 50 miles wide, reach sixty thousand feet in the atmosphere and release grapefruit-sized hail. The second short video features stunning images of those fascinating monoliths we know as icebergs.

“Storm-chasing is a very tactile experience … The colors in the clouds, of hail forming, the green and the turquoise blues. The movement, the way they swirl … As I stand under them, I understand what I have the privilege to witness is the same forces, the same process in a small version, that created our galaxy, solar system, our sun, this very planet.” ~ Camille Seaman

Camille Seaman: Photos from a storm chaser

 “It is not a death when [icebergs] melt; it is not an end, but a continuation of their path through the cycle of life. Each iceberg has its own individual personality. Some refuse to give up and hold on to the bitter end, while others can't take it anymore and crumble in a fit of dramatic passion.” ~ Camille Seaman

Camille Seaman: Haunting photos of polar ice

More Information

TED Online…

Camille Seaman…

TED on Tuesday: Janine Shepherd: From Paraplegic to Pilot

Australian speakers seem to be few and far between on TED, so I was particularly pleased to watch this talk by the former cross-country skier, Janine Shepherd.

Janine was aiming for an Olympic medal―until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride through the Blue Mountains (60-90 minutes from Sydney). Shephard’s doctors did not expect her to survive, and when she did, they warned her that she would never walk again. But she not only learned to walk again―she learned to fly.

Janine focused intently for years on healing both her broken body and crushed morale. A turning point came watching small planes flying overhead. She decided: “If I can’t walk, I’ll fly.” While still in a full body cast, Janine was lifted into an aircraft for her first flight. Within a year she had her private pilot’s license. Later, she earned her commercial pilots license and instructor’s rating. Janine recently served on the board of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and became its youngest­―and only―female director.

Despite being a walking paraplegic, Janine Shepherd is also a pilot and aerobatics instructor, as well as a powerful motivational speaker and author. In this TED talk she shares her inspirational story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar.

Today, Janine is the patron of the Australasian Spinal Research Trust and is committed to helping find a cure for spinal cord injury in the near future. In the meantime, she seeks to inspire those coping with physical disability. She is the author of five books, including Never Tell Me Never. And while doctors told her after her accident that she would never have children, she now is a mother of three.

This 19 minute TED talk was first posted in November 2012.

“It [doesn't matter] what you look like, where you come from, or what you do for a living. All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression of who we really are.” ~ Janine Shepherd

More Information

Janine Shepherd’s Website and Blog…

TED on Tuesday: Philippe Petit, High-Wire Artist

Philippe Petit during his 1974 Twin Towers walk

Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on 7 August 1974. Petit, who was born in France, discovered magic and juggling at an early age, and at 16, he took his first steps on the wire.

"Within one year," he told a reporter, "I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, 'What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.' So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art."

World Trade Center walk

On August 7, 1974, Petit stepped onto a wire strung between the Twin Towers. Balancing 110 stories in the air, Petit played on the tightrope for 40 minutes to the wonder and amazement of the people watching on the ground. Petit was arrested as he left the wire, but as the police cuffed him, he had a huge grin across his face—for he had achieved a feat everyone, including himself at times, had thought impossible.

“The impossible — we are told — cannot be achieved,” Petit tells the TED blog in a Q&A about his new eBook. “To overcome the ‘impossible’ we need to use our wits and be fearless.”

The story of Petit’s walk was brilliantly told in the documentary film, Man On Wire, by UK director James Marsh. Petit has told the story in his own words, in his book To Reach The Clouds, also republished as Man on Wire.

In this TED talk, Philippe Petit recalls the walk, talks about finding your passion, and makes the case for confronting your fears and attempting the ‘impossible’.

Today, Petit shares his time between New York City where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and a home in the Catskills.

If you are unfamiliar with Philippe Petit and his walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, this YouTube video includes a number of images of Philippe taken during the event.

More Information

Philippe Petit on Wikipedia... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Petit]

Buy the Man On Wire DVD at Amazon.Com... Man On Wire [DVD]

Buy the Man on Wire book at Amazon.Com... Man on Wire

TED on Tuesday: Wade Davis: Wilderness Worth Saving

Two great TED talks for you today―both from National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis. The first is a short (6:35 min) talk called,

Gorgeous Photos Of A Backyard Wilderness Worth Saving, in which Davis urges us to save a stunning wilderness paradise in Northern Canada. Here, sacred headwaters are under threat because they hide rich tar sands. Apart from the tar sands, major energy corporations like Shell are targeting the area for the vast fields of oil and gas the region holds.

If the Keystone Pipeline, and other such developments go ahead, this stunning landscape is going to be changed in ways that are all too familiar. Wade Davis states in his talk that Imperial Metals, one of the largest mining companies in Canada “…has secured permits to establish an open pit copper and gold mine which will process 30,000 tons of rock a day for thirty years, generating hundreds of millions of tons of toxic waste that by the projects design, will simply be dumped in the lakes of the sacred headwaters.”

Davis goes on to say “…Shell Canada has plans to extract methane gas from coal seams that underlie a million acres, fracking the coal with hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic chemicals, establishing perhaps as many as 6000 wellheads, and eventually a network of roads and pipelines and flaring wellheads, all to generate methane gas that most likely will go east to fuel the expansion of the tar sands.”

It is a truly frightening prospect for one of the most beautiful places on the plant.

Wade Davis: Gorgeous Photos Of A Backyard Wilderness Worth Saving

In the following much longer (22 min) 2007 talk, Davis examines some of the worlds endangered cultures, and expresses his concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing. Fifty percent of the world's 7,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children. Further, he argues that indigenous cultures are not failed attempts at modernity, nor are they failed attempts to be us ― they are unique expressions of the human imagination and heart.

Wade Davis: Dreams From Endangered Cultures

In 2009 Davis received the Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his contributions to anthropology and conservation, and he is the 2011 recipient of the Explorers Medal, the highest award of the Explorers’ Club, and the 2012 recipient of the Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration.

More Information

Official Website... 

Cultures on the Edge... 

National Geographic... 

Wade Davis on Wikipedia... 

TED on Tuesday: How Bad Architecture Wrecks Cities

James Howard Kunstler is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, a history of American suburbia and urban development, and the more recent The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes. In the latter book he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society as we know it and force Americans to live in smaller-scale, localized, agrarian (or semi-agrarian) communities.

Kunstler doesn’t hold back as he unloads on both these themes in this very entertaining but important TED talk, which he delivered in 2007. Kunstler also believes that public spaces should be inspired centres of civic life, and the physical manifestation of the common good. Unfortunately, America, he argues, is in danger of becoming a nation of places not worth caring about.

James Howard Kunstler calls suburban sprawl “the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known,” and his arguments focus directly on urban development, drawing clear connections between physical spaces and cultural vitality. His confrontational approach and propensity for doomsday scenarios make Kunstler a lightning rod for controversy and critics. But his magnificent rants are underscored with logic and his books are widely read, particularly by architectural critics and urban planners.

“The upside of Kunstler's anger is that he's getting people to sit up and take notice.”

~ Outside magazine

Note: This talk contains numerous ‘F’ bombs, so if you are offended by coarse language you may want to skip this weeks TED on Tuesday.

More Information

James Howard Kunstler's website… 

James Howard Kunstler's blog... 

On Wikipedia... 

TED on Tuesday: Deep Sea Diving…in a Wheelchair

Image courtesy Sue Austin website...

Multimedia, performance and installation artist Sue Austin challenges our notions of what disability is. Sue is the founder and artistic director of Freewheeling, an initiative aiming to further the genre of Disability Arts.

Sue states: "My studio practice has, for sometime, centred around finding ways to understand and represent my embodied experience as a wheelchair user, opening up profound issues about methods of self-representation and the power of self-narration in challenging the nexus of power and control that created the ‘disabled’ as other."

When Sue got a powered wheelchair more than sixteen years ago, she felt a tremendous sense of freedom. However, others looked at her as though she had lost something precious―her ability to walk and move about freely. On the other hand, for Sue Austin, the power chair gave her precisely that ability. By adding modifications and additions to her chair, Sue is able to create art, and just as importantly, travel and explore the world in ways that almost defy the imagination.

This talk, filmed at TEDxWomen 2012 includes stunning footage of Sue as she dons an oxygen tank and breathing apparatus, and turns her powered wheelchair into an underwater vessel that propels her across vast ocean floors, and amongst schools of multi-coloured fish. In doing so, Sue Austin reshapes how we think about disability, and proves once again, that where there is a will, there is always a way.

More Information

TED Online…

Sue Austin’s website...

Sue Austin on Twitter...

Freewheeling...

TED on TUESDAY: A Guerilla Gardener In South Central L.A.

Ron Finley. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

~ Artist and designer Ron Finley could not help but notice what was going on in his backyard,  South Central Los Angeles. Describing the area as “the home of the drive-thru and the drive-by,” Finley decided that it was way past time to try and do something about just one aspect of the many issues facing the area―and that was (and is) the area’s poor health and high mortality rate, with one in two kids contracting a curable disease like Type 2 diabetes.

He started working with the organization L.A. GreenGrounds to install a vegetable garden on the 150 ft x 10 ft patch of ground in front of his house, that strip between the sidewalk and the street that the city owns but the resident has to keep up. What happened when he did this, becomes the heart of this inspiring talk, which has in turn inspired many other people in L.A. and elsewhere to take control of their health and urban environments.

"We’ve got to make this [gardening] sexy,” he proclaims. “Let’s all become renegades, gangsta gardeners. We have to flip the script on what a gangsta is. If you ain’t a gardener, you ain’t gangsta. Let that be your weapon of choice!”

Amen to that!

More Information 
TED Online...

The TED Blog… 

Ron Finley… 

L.A. Green Grounds… 

Twitter: @UrbanFoodForest

TED on Tuesday: The Dawn Of De-Extinction

Famous last words, perhaps? Click to view full size.

In a previous entry on this blog, I wrote about my visit to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Part of what I wrote concerned the destruction of the passenger pigeon. Once numbering in the billions, the last surviving member of that species died almost 100 years ago, in 1914. But what if there was a way to bring back the passenger pigeon? Or the woolly mammoth? Or any number of other extinct species?

Incredibly, utilising science, technology and advances in DNA research, scientists are now close to the point where it is possible to bring extinct species back to life. In this TED Talk, Stewart Brand (the Whole Earth Catalog, The WELL, the Global Business Network, the Long Now Foundation, etc), outlines ongoing research and long term plans to de-extinct some of the animals that have disappeared from the planet.

Granted, resurrecting the woolly mammoth using ancient DNA may sound like mad science. But Brand’s Revive and Restore project has an entirely rational goal: to learn what causes extinctions so we can protect currently endangered species, preserve genetic and biological diversity, repair depleted ecosystems, and essentially “undo harm that humans have caused in the past.”

Watch Stuart Brand’s TED Talk now...

Stewart Brand's newest book is Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. He is also the author of How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built.

Happy New Year!

I don’t know if readers are familiar with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). Each year, this organisation brings together some of the world’s leading thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and others for conferences that inspire and offer hope that the world really is a wonderful place, and that there is some hope for humanity, if we can only get over our ignorance, prejudices and arrogance.

I have been watching some of the archived videos of many of the fantastic talks delivered at TED conferences over the years, and have downloaded a bunch of my favourite speakers. One of my current favourites is the following talk and video from Louie Schwartzberg, titled: Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.

As the introduction to the video states on the TED website: Nature’s beauty can be easily missed -- but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day.

So my gift to you on this, the first day of 2013, comes to you by way of TED, Louie Schwartzberg, and the remarkable young girl and venerable monk seen in the video presentation within this video. Enjoy.