TED with and without the x

being inspired...
I love TED talks! It is amazingly cool to see very interesting people casually talk about what they are up to. And I especially love the sciency talks, where you get instant insights into cutting edge research, without having to be emerged into that particular community and without having to deal with the technical talk. However, I also appreciate the enormous breath of different speakers. You get to hear about stuff you never even knew exited.

I can't even say what my favorite TED talks are, because there are so many I like. If I would have to pick, I would choose these talks:

• Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
• Amy Purdy: Living Beyond Limits
• Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen

The "categories" I enjoy the most are science/technology, inspiration and activism. Lately however, I find the problem to be the overwhelming number of talks. That's why I like the newly introduced playlists. Recently TED scored 1 billion views.

Adding the x

TED grants licenses to third parties to organize independent TEDx events internationally. As of October 2012, more than 19'900 talks have been given at more than 5'088 TEDx events in more than 137 countries (source). This really gets the community thing going and inspires a distributed and global effort to share "ideas worth spreading".

TEDxZurich 2012

In 2010 the first TEDx event was launched in Zurich. On the 25th of October 2012, the third edition was organized. It was a fun and eventful day and my favorite talks can be categorized as follows.

Inspiration:

• Charles Eugster, at an age of 93, on having a beach body at 94 (see also these TED talks on longevity and multiple sclerosis)

Inspiration and activism:

• Enrique Steiger on balancing a life as a plastic surgeon in Zurich and as a trauma and reconstructive surgeon in war zones
• Christoph von Toggenburg on humanity in action

Science and technology:

• Bradley Nelson on bacteria-sized medical robots
• Davide Scaramuzza on autonomous flying robots
• José del R. Millán on mind-controlled machines
• Stelian Coros on replicating locomotion

Activism:

• Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden on avoiding gender stereotypes (see also Mahzarin Banaji's talk, or test your biases yourself at Project Implicit)
• Ellen ‘t Hoen on making advanced medicines available to the world
• Mikael Colville-Andersen on modern urban bicycle culture
• Jorge Viñuales on a tax on bottled water

Aesthetics:

•  Jan Henrik Hansen on making music physically manifest

Inspiration:

•  Christian Maurer & Thomas Theurillat on winning the Red Bull X-Alps race

Finally, this is the talk I gave about complex systems, economic networks and the study, The Network of Global Corporate Control:



More information can be found here:

• The list of power-holders
• The study
• The New Scientist article that went viral, as it happened to be published in the exact week the Occupy Wall Street movement went global
• An article I wrote for the Montreal Review
• The slides can be found here
• For corrections on the things I said wrong, see the description of the video I re-uploaded to my youtube channel here
• My TEDx and ETH page

Thanks @gklain, Ronald Slabbers, @lazyhotstepper and @kompostnyc for the help:)

Sometimes TED is accused of being an elitist thing. Indeed, when I applied to attend TEDXZurich 2010 I was rejected;) Now, on the one hand, there are only so many seats to fill and of course in Zurich the demand is way too big, forcing a selection process. On the other hand, it was a real pleasure to meet the really nice TEDxZurich crew. I experienced them as being modest and highly dedicated people, who really enjoy organizing this even, without seeking the spotlight or giving the event an air of superiority...


---

Update:
The guys from TED.com picked up the talk and featured it:

• they re-edited Who controls the world? and stuck it on their page,
• wrote a blog post,
• created a profile page.

vegetarian, wtf?

choosing lifestyles

being vegetarian(*) has one serious drawback: during meals, you nearly always need to explain and/or justify why anyone would ever choose such a lifestyle.

phuket vegetarian festival (credits phuketobserver.com)

with the years, i have chosen the following two strategies.

i.) the short answer

• i can easily live without eating animals.

ii.) the long answer

• in my opinion, the factory farming of animals is grotesque and perverse; these are terrible places for the animals and the human workers alike.
• it is simply not possible to feed billions of people with meat (even if you employ factory farming). meat is a very inefficient source of calories and uses disproportionate amounts of resources.
• the seas are in a terrible state (see more).
• i am personally not prepared to kill and slaughter lambs, calves or other animals. contrary to common belief, even very "primitive" animals can display a surprising level of intelligence (see more).

disclaimer

i do not believe everyone should become vegetarian. the issue is more about how often people need to eat meat. and if it is really necessary to always buy the cheapest meat available. for me, it boils down to how one behaves as a consumer in general.

i do not believe a vegetarian lifestyle is necessarily healthier. you can eat very unhealthily, also as a vegetarian. however, i do not believe in the myth, that vegetarians are generally weakly and prone to deficiency symptoms. humans have successfully been vegetarian in various cultures for millennia.

i am not going to bother with giving sources. find out yourself, if you care...


(*) of the many flavours of vegetarianism, i am at the "ovo-lacto" level: no fish, no meat, no chicken.
Edit: trying to be vegan since June 2012.

who cares?

mood: more bewilderment and head-shaking
is the human brain big enough to save one of the most intelligent creatures? greenpeace asks cynically in an add, aiming at banning whaling amongst other ocean related concerns.

when i mention i'm vegetarian in restaurants, a frequent response is to point me in the direction of the fish...


greenpeace campaign

fact i: the ocean is humanities last frontier of ignorance

• 72% of earth's surface covered by sea
• 97% of the ocean is unexplored
• with one yearly NASA budget, the exploration program of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) could be funded for 1600 years
• largest mountain range covering 23% of earth's surface area underwater (visited for the 1st time after the moon in 1973)
• coral reefs still unexplored between 60 and 150 meters
• there are better maps of mars than the 50% of total US territory which lies under the sea
• most of the southern hemisphere's underwater terrain is unexplored (more exploration ships in that region during captain cook's times than today)
• the seabed is harboring countless well preserved archaeological artifacts
• underwater hot springs are basically commercial grade heavy metals deposits
• underwater volcanoes are emitting methane

fact ii: the oceans are teeming with life

• although most of the ocean does not get exposed to photons from the sun, and hence there is no photosynthesis, it is completely erroneous to not expect life
• the antarctic sea is, unexpectedly and only recently discovered, teeming with marine life
• hydrothermal vent systems are islands of life
• bacteria replicating photosynthesis in the dark by chemosynthesis where accidental discovery as no one ever predicted their existence
• resilient bacteria living in ph 11 environments
• 7 new species found per hour of deep reef exploration
• 2000 to 2500 estimated new species in the indo-pacific ocean alone (vs. 5000-6000 known species)
  
• not only new species are still being discovered, but also new behavior and new ecology
• amazing variety of bioluminescent animals
  

fact iii: the seas are being destroyed at breakneck speed

• 90% of all big fish have disappeared in the last 100 years
• 50% of all coral reefs are destroyed
• for 1kg of fish ending up in a market, at least 10kg of bycatch was killed and thrown away
• 1.7% of the blue whale population is remaining
• 10% of the tuna fish population is remaining
• commercial trawlers are forced to access ever deeper seabed due to the depletion of fisheries; this completely destroys potential habitats which are totally unexplored and eradicates possibly unknown species
• throwaway plastic accumulating in the sea (half of the 100 billion pounds of plastic pellets a year are made into throwaway plastic produces of which a large fraction ends up in the sea)
• 100000 albatross chicks in remote habitats dying from stomachs filled with plastic trash
• some ocean water samples contain more plastic than plankton
• plastic debris concentrate pollutants and become "poison pills"
• these are been eaten by many fish at the bottom of the food chain
• gigantic garbage patches in the pacific and atlantic
  

Sylvia Earle's moving (and prizewinning) TED talk:


Robert Ballard: Exploring the ocean's hidden worlds


Captain Charles Moore on the seas of plastic


Richard Pyle: Exploring the reef's Twilight Zone


David Gallo fascinating TED talk:


update 20.04.2010:
Edith Widder: Glowing life in an underwater world


update 05.05.2010:


update 02.06.2010:
Brian Skerry reveals ocean's glory -- and horror


update june 30th 2010:


update july 12 2010:


update july 27 2010: