Experiences: Notes from Session 6 of TEDSummit

Bodacious beats. “Blinky Bill” Sellanga, frontman for the Kenyan collective Just A Band, simultaneously brought the house down and the TED audience to their feet with a lively, genre-bending musical performance. “My, oh my,” he sings: “What a wonderful feeling.”

Ione Wells sparked a social media campaign that gives assault survivors a voice. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

Sexual assault, social media and justice. One night, walking home from London’s Tube, Ione Wells was followed home, grabbed from behind, and an attacker — after smashing her head against the pavement — sexually assaulted her. As she recovered, she wrote a letter to this person, telling them just how deeply he hurt an entire community: “You did not just attack me that night. I’m a daughter, I’m a friend, I’m a sister…all the people who formed these relations to me make up my community and you assaulted every single one of them.” She later published the letter in her school’s newspaper and asked others to reply with their experiences under the #notguilty hashtag. It went viral overnight and became a campaign for empowering the voices of  survivors. But as Wells explained to the  TEDSummit audience, the attention got her thinking about how in the social media age, people leap to react on injustices, creating a spiral of negativity that blocks the voices of survivors themselves. Instead, Wells pleads, let’s take a more considered approach to social media in the wake of injustice. Let’s take the time to listen to those actually affected by it instead of simply creating noise.

How we broke the Panama Papers story. Head of the International Consortium of Journalists, Gerard Ryle, played a central role in the breaking of the Panama Papers. It was his organization that amassed the globe spanning team responsible for combing through 40 years of spread sheets, PDF’s, and emails. Sharing such a massive story went against everything Ryle knew as an investigatory journalist and unsurprisingly the experience led him to adopt a unconventional new outlook. Rather than destroy the medium, he now believes that technology may be the way to finally bring journalism into the truly global age. Read more about Gerard’s talk …

Blinky Bill Sellanga and Just A Band rocked the house and kicked off a conga line at 9:45 in the morning. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

An approach so transparent, it’s opaque. In June of 2002,  as Hasan Elahi re-entered the US at the airport in Detroit, Michigan, he was stopped at customs and taken to an interrogation room where he was asked, among many other things, if he had any explosives in his storage unit near his home in Florida, and where he was September 12.  Luckily, he was a meticulous calendar keeper and through his Palm Pilot could easily state where he was that day and every day since. Eventually — after six months of questioning back home, Elahi was cleared by the FBI. But he learned something in those months — not to put up a fight over what information to reveal. He told them everything. And then, even when he was cleared, he didn’t stop. It started with emails of travel plans so he wouldn’t get hassled again, but soon he was compiling virtually all possible data on his life and movements — including photos of meals, GPS coordinates and even photos of urinals. There was no datum too small. More than a decade later, Elahi feels that we stress out much too much about surveillance — instead of trying to withhold it, why not open the floodgates? “This is happening, this is not going way, this is the reality we have to live with,” says Elahi, an associate art professor at the University of Maryland and an American citizen. “In a world where surveillance is the norm for many governments and businesses, transparency is resistance.”  Of all the arguments in favor of more openness in the world, Elahi’s is among the cleverest and more thought-provoking.

The paradox of knowledge. Almost 30 years ago, the British-born, Indian-extracted writer Pico Iyer took a trip to Japan and fell in love. He wrote up his enthusiasm and findings about Japanese culture, fashions, customs and architecture in an essay so long no magazine could publish it  — but no matter, as he soon decided to pick up and move to Japan to live, where he has, for 28 years. But while everything he knew about Japan seemed to fill his mind back then — it seems gargantuan with what he feels he knows now. A keen observer of the human spirit and the sometimes-backwards journeys it makes going forward, Iyer professes that today he feels he knows far, far less about Japan — or indeed, about anything — than his 30-year-old self felt he knew. It’s a curious insight about knowledge gained with age: that the more we know, the more we see how little we know. “I don’t believe that ignorance is bliss,” says Iyer. “Knowledge is a priceless gift, but the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance. The one thing I have learned is that transformation comes when I am not in charge, when I don’t what’s coming next. There are certainly some things that we need to know , but there are other things that are better left unexplored.” It may sound like an ironic way to close a conference celebrating the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, but it’s also a lovely reminder that, as Iyer says, “in the end, being human is much more important than being fully in the know.”

 

Pico Iyer: “Knowledge is a priceless gift, but the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.” Photo by Bret Hartman/TED

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/experiences-notes-from-session-6-of-tedsummit/
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How we broke the Panama Papers story: Gerard Ryle at TEDSummit

Faced with an immense cache of documents from a secret Panama bank, Gerard Ryle and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists assembled a record-breaking team of global journalists to tell the world-shaking stories that might be contained therein. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

 

Imagine you’ve been handed the biggest single cache of leaked documents in recent history. Eleven and half million documents to be exact, implicating important figures from around the globe in decades of tax evasion and hidden accounts. But you only have 26 people at your disposal to go through them. What do you do?

This was reality for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), when an anonymous source known as “John Doe” leaked an astounding amount of information regarding the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, a cache widely known as the Panama Papers. These documents amounted to 2 million PDFs, 5 million emails and every spreadsheet the firm created for the past 40 years. It was clear that SZ would not be capable of combing through this data on their own, so they went to Ryle’s organization, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ). What they chose to do next went against everything any of them had ever been taught to do as an investigatory journalist: They shared it.

The Panama Papers contained evidence of offshore banking, implicating everyone from American movie stars to Argentinian soccer players to Icelandic presidents. It was clear that no single journalistic entity would have the resources to accurately report on all of the data, to know what every name meant and how to connect the stories threading through the data. Given the scope of the subject matter, Ryle thought, “Who was best to know is important in Nigerian business than a Nigerian?” So he and the ICIJ, over time, amassed a team of 356 journalists from 107 separate publications based in 80 different countries, with a philosophy of “native eyes on native names.” They operated under only two rules: 1) We share everything we find and 2) We all publish on the same day.

The temptation to publish early was strong and persistent. Many times, Ryle was called in to calm journalists desperate to share this injustice with the world. But, in the end, none of them broke the rules. They decided that the integrity and depth of the reporting was more important than glory for any single news outlet.

Beyond exposing the unfathomable amounts of money stored away in these offshore accounts, Ryle believes the Panama Papers was a purely journalistic breakthrough too. Their joint effort, spanning continents and uniting competitors, proved that the very technology that’s allegedly destroying the legacy of print could actually allow them “to reinvent journalism itself.” They communicated across oceans, built shared searchable databases and created a space where everyone could use their unique expertise, whether it be sports, politics or blood diamonds. This allowed them to report on the story in a “truly global way.” It’s a way of thinking that Ryle believes journalism has been staggeringly slow to adopt. Perhaps the success of the Panama Papers story will actually stand to redefine the crisis of our bleeding institutions of journalism. Because, as Ryle puts it, “where there crisis, there is also opportunity.”

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/how-we-broke-the-panama-papers-story-gerard-ryle-at-tedsummit/
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Amazing TEDx videos from around the world

This week at TEDSummit, we’re celebrating the creative forces flowing from TEDx events around the world. Check out these stunning video trailers, all of them custom-made for local TEDx events, that capture the regional style, the creativity and craft, the local visions … that represent the imagination of the global TEDx community.

From TEDxThessaloniki

From TEDxBuenosAires

From TEDxAthens

From TEDxSydney

From TEDxKoeln

From TEDxMogadishu

From TEDxKids@Chiyoda

From the 2013 TEDxSummit

From TEDxAmsterdam

From TEDxJardimdasPalmeiras

From TEDxDiliman

From TEDxRioDeLaPlata

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/amazing-tedx-videos-from-around-the-world/
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Iced Turmeric Lemonade Recipe

How a US rule you haven’t heard of could lead to sweeping global change

An oil platform visible just off the coast of Nigeria. Global Witness estimates that more than $400 billion in oil resources have been lost to corruption in Nigeria alone. Photo: Flickr user jbdodane (CC)

Chances are, you probably haven’t heard of Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. But this rule, adopted on Monday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), brings with it the potential for big global change.

Section 1504 requires that all oil, gas and mining companies listed in the US disclose the details of any payments of $100,000 or more made to governments for the commercial development of natural resources. They will have to publish information on all taxes, royalties, fees, bonuses, dividends and payments for infrastructure improvements, for each and every project they undertake.

Global Witness, the organization of corruption crusaders co-founded by 2014 TED Prize winner Charmian Gooch, calls the rule a “turning point for transparency.” Deals over natural resources have typically taken place behind closed doors, and as a result, hundreds of billions of dollars have disappeared from countries that are rich in natural resources. This system has enabled dictators to line their bank accounts with money made in oil, gas and mining deals — rather than that money going to the people of their country. Section 1504 will allow citizens to follow the money and see what kinds of deals are being made, and will serve as a deterrent for leaders who would ransack resources.

Charmian Gooch accepted the TED Prize in 2014, and launched a campaign to end anonymous shell companies. Her organization Global Witness has been working to make natural resource deals public since 1999. Photo: James Duncan Davidson/TED

Section 1504 joins similar rules already made by the UK, EU, Norway and Canada. But the US is key, says Mark Hays of Global Witness. “Many of the largest oil, gas and mining companies in the world are either headquartered in the US or seek listing on US stock exchanges,” he says. “Without the participation of US markets, a big piece of the pie was missing.” Global Witness estimates that 75% of the world’s top 200 oil and mining companies will be required to report under this rule.

Global Witness has been campaigning for a rule like this for more than 16 years, and in the meantime, has published many case studies on the effects of corruption and fraud in the oil, gas and mining industries. So … why haven’t you heard about Section 1504? Hays believes it’s because this rule was technically passed in 2012, but has been under legal challenge by the American Petroleum Industry until its adoption this week.  

“It’s big news when something is passed, but people’s attention wanders after that,” he says. “Even when implementation and enforcement of a new standard is often the most important part of the effort.”

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/how-a-us-rule-you-havent-heard-of-could-lead-to-sweeping-global-change/
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Best Meal Prep Recipes: SNACKS

There is nothing better than having healthy snacks on hand for those extra busy weeks. Here are some of the best meal prep SNACK recipes that you will absolutely LOVE. Oh it’s just me, sitting at a coffee shop in Milwaukee. YES, I am here again and it is WONDERFUL. I got in a couple nights ago...

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The post Best Meal Prep Recipes: SNACKS appeared first on Fit Foodie Finds.

from Fit Foodie Finds http://fitfoodiefinds.com/2016/06/best-meal-prep-recipes-snacks/
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Organizing principles: Notes from Session 5 of TEDSummit

Do we have the vision and the energy to confront seemingly impossible problems — like predatory corporations, political deadlock, the wasted potential of millions of refugees? Session 5 rounded up people who are jumping right in.

A call to action on fossil fuels. Costa Rica, climate advocate Monica Araya’s native country,  gets almost 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydropower, geothermal and solar. It started with the country’s bold decision to abolish its military in 1948. Investing that money in social spending created stability, which gave Costa Rica the freedom to explore alternative energy options. But it’s no utopia, Aaraya explains, because fossil fuels are still used for the country’s transportation systems — systems that are gridlocked and crumbling. Going forward, she urges the next generation to form coalitions of citizens, corporations and clean energy champions to get Costa Rica off fossil fuels completely and commit clean energy in all sectors.

Monica Araya suggests that the future of alternative energy is in places like her home, Costa Rica. Photo by Ryan Lash/TED.

There are reasons to hope. Across the world, there are true signs of progress, despite the media’s constant drone of doom and gloom in their headlines. Global affairs thinker Jonathan Tepperman has seen it with his own eyes in three countries: Canada, Indonesia and Mexico. In each country, Tepperman examines their historical trajectory and transformation into places of societal advancement and inclusivity — drawing a common thread that connects them all. Within their borders, these nations have embraced the extreme in times of existential peril, found power in promiscuous, open-minded thinking and exercised compromise to its fullest extent. “The real obstacle is not ability and it’s not circumstances,” says Tepperman. “It’s much simpler: Making big changes involves taking big risks, and taking big risks is scary. Overcoming that fear requires guts.”

Online education for all. Imagine a world where every refugee has access to a free higher education, anywhere, at anytime. Although this may seem unbelievable, this is Shai Reshef‘s dream, and so far he has already made progress towards achieving it. Soon, the University of the People, founded by Reshef, will admit 500 Syrian refugees at no cost to them. University of the People is an online education platform that he believes will make this goal not only accessible and affordable but also replicable and scalable across the world. Despite the return on investment for education being incredibly high, currently refugees are 10% likely to receive higher education in their host countries. Beyond increasing this dismal statistic, Reshef hopes his institution will be able to help refugees with the lack of legal identification often holding them back, and eventually facilitate their transfer into local universities. Right now, 250 additional students are slated to be enrolled in the coming months and eventually they hope to sustain 12,000. Reshef wants to create an entire program ran by refugees for other refugees, proving that higher education need not exclude anyone, because as Reshef says “online, everyone gets a front row seat.”

Pavan Sukhdev says: While the backbone of our global economy is the corporation, we’ve evolved corporate systems that ruthlessly drain public benefits for private gain.  Photo by Ryan Lash/TED.

A new company for a new economy. “The last two and a half decades have seen scientists, economists, and politicians say again and again and more and more often that we need to change economic direction. we need a green economy, a circular economy. Despite all that agreement, we are still hurtling towards planetary boundaries.” To understand why, we need to ask an important question: can the corporations of today deliver the economy of tomorrow? According to environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev, the answer is no. That’s because today’s business as usual creates huge public costs to generate private profits — “this is the biggest free lunch in the history of mankind.” The good news? There are micro-solutions and if we follow them, we can evolve a new type of corporation whose goals are aligned with society rather than at its expense.

Who is making the decisions that increasingly govern our lives? What we see and then think? What we think and then do? The questions isn’t who — it’s what. And the answer is the increasingly powerful algorithms employed by entities  from Facebook to human resources departments to prison sentencing boards. It’s a problem that troubles sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, who explains that the complex way that algorithms grow and improve — through  a semi-autonomous form of computing called machine learning, which evolved from pattern recognition and prediction software — makes them hard to see through and hard to steer effectively. “What safeguards do you have that your black box isn’t doing something shady?” wonders Tufekci. Making things worse, companies are very protective of their secret recipes for algorithms, so it’s almost impossible to gauge how objective they really are — but given that they’re only as unbiased as the data they are fed, that doesn’t sound like a recipe for fairness.

As AIs learn to learn, there’s a point where, says Sam Harris, they might outstrip our own intelligence. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

Scared of AI? You should be. Regardless of whether or not you’re afraid of Artificial Intelligence, Sam Harris wants you to be more afraid. He believes that we are culturally “unable to marshall an appropriate emotional response to the dangers that lay ahead.” Although it may seem alarming, Harris is not imagining a dystopian terminator future straight out of science fiction. Rather, his fear is based on three rational assumptions: 1. Intelligence is a matter of information processing information through physical systems, 2. We will continue to improve our intelligent machines, and 3. We as humans do not rank anywhere close to the possible apex of intelligent life. The eventual existence of a hyper intelligent machine is undeniable and when our goals and the machine’s inevitably differ, these superior machines will waste no time disposing of any thing standing between them and their objective. Due to the immense havoc these innovations are capable of wreaking, Harris urges that the time to begin tackling the ethics of AI is now, regardless of how far away it may seem. Because we only have one shot at getting the initial conditions right and we better make sure they’re conditions we can live with.  

Humility in the face of fear. In a vulnerable, striking and meditative move, author Anand Giridharadas read “A letter to the other half” to the TEDSummit audience. Penned just days before the conference, it reflected Giridharadas’ regret over ignoring the legitimate struggles and instability of a people enraged over a changing globalized world — echoing events such as Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump.

Unsubscribe. Comedian James Veitch wrapped up session 5, turning his frustrations into whimsy and amusement when his local supermarket refused to take him off their email list, despite numerous attempts on his end. The hijinks that ensues is an entertaining and priceless venture into the world of online customer care.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/organizing-principles-notes-from-session-5-of-tedsummit/
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Letter to the other half: Anand Giridharadas at TEDSummit

Photo by Ryan Lash/TED.

Writer Anand Giridharadas has come to TEDSummit to share an open letter to his fellow citizens. Invited by curator Bruno Giussani to address the dismay and confusion many have felt in the week after the Brexit vote result in the UK, the American writer and journalist lays out a vision that is as honest as it is poetic.

“I write to you because at present this quaking world we share scares me. I gather it scares you too,” he said, as he stood stock still in the center of TED’s red circle, as the audience listened, spellbound. “Some of what we fear, I suspect, we fear in common. But much of what we fear seems to be each other. You fear the world I want to live in, and I fear your visions in turn.”

With that, Giridharadas was off and running, describing the malaise and worry that so many feel, acknowledging that so many, in fact, have not enjoyed the benefits of increasingly global societies. Be that in Texas or South Dakota, in Greece or Japan, the quality of life for many has changed dramatically and for the worse … and yet too often the privileged elites such as Giridharadas and his ilk have failed to acknowledge this reality. “I heard that the fabric of your life was tearing. You used to be able to count on work and now you couldn’t. You used to be able to nourish your children and guarantee they would climb a little bit further in life than you had, and now you couldn’t. You used to be made to feel dignity in your work and now you didn’t. It used to be normal for people like you to own a home, and now it wasn’t,” he says, adding, “I heard all these things but I didn’t listen. I looked but didn’t see. I read but didn’t understand. I paid attention only when you began to vote and shout.”

And Giridharadas has a confession to make. Because here’s the thing. Not only was attention not paid until votes and the shouts made their presence felt, but in a way, attention was not granted because it was not deemed deserved. And while he will not accept that old privileges should remain, he does allow that empathy is key and has been missing. “I will admit, fellow citizen, that I have discounted the burden of coping with the loss of status. I had forgotten that what is socially necessary can be personally grueling.”

Globalism has been an inexorable force, and it has simply not been beneficial for all. What some dubbed “flexibility and freedom” was another person’s volatile pay, erratic hours and vanishing opportunities. But by using the terminology of increased interdependence, through the profligate use of terms such as “sharing economy,” “disruption,” or “global resource,” he admits that “I see what I was really doing at times was buying your pain on the cheap, sprucing it up and trying to sell it back to you as freedom.”

So. What’s the solution? Is there one? Sure. It won’t be pretty, it certainly won’t be easy, but the only way is through. “What we are doing, me with my marketplace, you with democracy, me with a fixation on disruption, you with a yearning for stability, is trying to survive by going around each other. If this goes on, there may be blood.” There’s still time for redemption, but it won’t come cheap. “This will take more. This will take accepting we both made choices to be here.”

But perhaps with this joint acknowledgement, both sides can help each other — and approach one another again. “You can help me to remember the vitality of belonging. I can help you to cope with change,” says Giridharadas. “If there is hope to summon in this ominous hour, it is this. We have for too long chased various shimmering dreams at the cost of attention to the foundational dream of each other.” It is time to tend to each other’s dreams once more, to unleash each others’ wonders and move through history together. “Let us start there,” he concludes.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/letter-to-the-other-half-anand-giridharadas-at-tedsummit/
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The deciders: Zeynep Tufekci at TEDSummit

Zeynep Tufekci looks at our growing use of machine learning in everyday tasks — and asks us to examine the hidden bias (and even artificial stupidity) that AI may bring in its wake. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

Who would have thought when you left those high school math problems behind that you would one day be encountering algorithms on a daily basis? Zeynep Tufekci might have guessed; now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information, Tufekci’s first job as a teenager was as a computer programmer. So it’s no surprise that she is way more adept at decrypting the confusing and often misleading worlds of social media than most of us.

And while she’s perfectly comfortable to hold forth on exactly Facebook’s algorithm does, what troubles her more are the next generation of algorithms even more powerful and ominous. “There are computational systems that can suss out emotional states — even lying — from processing human faces, “ she says. “They are developing cars that could decide who to run over.”

If that sounds a bit dramatic, Tufekci is quick to caution that most machine learning systems won’t crash through walls like killer cars, but be invited in, like friends who can solve problems.

“We are now asking questions of computation that have no single right answers, like, ‘Who should our company hire?’ or ‘Which convict is more likely to re-offend?’ But we have no benchmarks for how to make decisions about messy human affairs.”

Still, that hasn’t stopped software companies from trying, fine-tuning and turbo-charging algorithms to take more and more data into account to deliver more and more answers. In traditional programming, a system is given a series of static commands and computes the answer. Modern algorithms are driven by so-called machine learning, an approach to computing that evolved from pattern recognition and prediction software. With machine learning, a system calculates its results by churning through and “learning from” loads of data — but how those results are arrived at could well be a mystery even to those who defined the task parameters.

“In the past decade, complex algorithms have made great strides,” says Tufekci. “They can recognize human faces. they can decipher handwriting. The downside is we don’t really understand what the system learned. In fact, that’s its power.”

The idea of a company or college using an advanced algorithm to sort through mountains of job or school applicants is exactly the kind of thing that worries the Turkish-born technosociologist. “Hiring in a gender- and race-blind way certainly sounds good to me,” she says. “But these computational systems can infer all sorts of things about you from your digital crumbs, even if you did not disclose these things.”

Among the inferences computers can make even without an explicit mention: sexual preference, political leaning, ethnic background, social class and more. “What safeguards do you have that your black box isn’t doing something shady? What if [your hiring algorithm] is weeding out women most likely to be pregnant in the next year? With machine learning, there is no variable labeled ‘higher risk of pregnancy.’ So not only do you not know what your system is selecting on, you don’t even know where to look to find out.”

Tufekci is not a Luddite, though — far from it. “Such a system may even be less biased than human managers,” she points out. “And it could well make good monetary sense as well.  But is this the kind of society we want to build without even knowing we’ve done it? Because we’ve turned decision making over to machines we don’t totally understand?”

Machine learning doesn’t begin from a place of purposeful intention like traditional programming — it’s driven by data, which in and of itself can have a bias. One system that’s used by American courts in parole and sentencing decisions was scrutinized by ProPublica, which audited the algorithm. “They found it was wrongly labeling black defendants at twice the rate as white defendants.”

As another data point: When the story of the civil rights protests in Ferguson, Missouri, exploded in 2014, she saw it on her Twitter feed — which was not filtered algorithmically. But on the filtered Facebook? Not so much. “The story of Ferguson wasn’t algorithm friendly — it’s not Like-able,” she says. “Instead, that week Facebook’s algorithms highlighted the ALS ice-bucket challenge.” A wet t-shirt parade in the name of charity? Who wouldn’t click on that?

The decision is ours –but only if we can decide we want to make it. The more we surrender that choice, the more knowledge and power we surrender of the world around us.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/the-deciders-zeynep-tufekci-at-tedsummit/
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I am British: Alexander Betts at TEDSummit

“I am British.” Alexander Betts says this, and pauses. “Never before has the phrase ‘I am British’ elicited so much pity.”

Betts is here to talk about the June 24 Brexit vote — in which 52% of UK voters expressed their wish that their country leave the European Union. It’s a move that seemed to be driven by xenophobia, hatred and “post-factualism” — and it divided the country along almost every fault line, Betts says: “Everybody was blaming everybody else. People blamed the prime minister for calling the referendum in the first place. The young accused the old, the educated blamed the less well educated.” Worse, he reports seeing “levels of xenophobia and racist abuse in the streets of Britain at a level that I have never seen before in my lifetime.”

Now, one week past the shock and the meltdown, Betts asks the big question:  Should we actually have been shocked by this?

The map of the UK, on the screen behind Alexander Betts, shows how the Brexit vote went down — blue to stay, and red to leave. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

The vote split along lines of age, education, class and geography. And Betts, speaking on behalf of people like him, the global souls who voted Stay: “We seem embarrassingly unaware of how divided our society is.”

And he contends that, at bottom, the vote is about an unexamined divide: “those that embrace globalization and those that fear globalization.” He suggests that the Leave vote is evidence of a big clue that globalization — the vision of an interconnected, tolerant world, where trade, money and people are free to move — is not working for many people, and baffling to many others. This, in turn, produces fear, alienation, a sense that the country’s leadership isn’t actually speaking for them. And when globalization’s rhetoric of growth and possibility doesn’t resonate, what does, Betts says, is a populist rhetoric of nationalism and separatism, a politics of fear and hatred.

“The challenge that comes from that,” Betts says, “is that we need to find a new way to narrate globalization.” As a case in point, some of the people who voted most strongly against the EU were paradoxically those who were most dependent on EU trade (see chart below). Governments, media and elites are simply not telling the story of how they benefit.

Chart by John Burn-Murdoch.

Globalization has many positives, says Betts, but “globalization also has redistributive effects; it creates winners and losers. To take the example of migration, we know that immigration is a net positive as a whole, but that low-skilled immigration can lead to a reduction of wages for the most impoverished in our society.” Balancing these effects, for instance by raising the level of social services for locals, is an important part of making globalization and immigration look less like a zero-sum game that alienates UK citizens.

So, Betts asks: “How do we address alienation while vehemently refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism?” He offers four steps forward:

1. “How can we rebuild respect for truth and evidence into our liberal democracies? It has to start with education,” Betts says. Civic education can address the gap between perception and reality, and rebuild the space for conversation between the extremes.
2. Encourage more interaction among diverse communities, addressing the “huge public misunderstandings about the levels of immigration,” he says. “Ironically, the regions of my country that are the most tolerant of immigrants have the largest stock of immigrants.”
3. “We have to ensure that everybody shares in the benefits of globalization,” and that where a free trade policy creates an imbalance at the local level, it’s addressed at the local level.
4. We need more responsible politics. “What we see around the world today is a tragic polarization, a failure to have dialogue between the extremes in politics,” says Betts. We might not achieve that dialogue today, but at the very least we have to call on our media and politicians to drop the language of fear and be far more tolerant of one another.”

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/i-am-british-alexander-betts-at-tedsummit/
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Forest for the trees: Suzanne Simard at TEDSummit

Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard examines the unseen relationship between trees in a forest. Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

Have you ever stood among the trees — those tall, stoic, magnificent plants — listening to their leaves rustle in the wind and imagined quietly to yourself that they’re communicating in some way? Perhaps in whispers, or hushed voices?

It turns out that your imagination isn’t at wild as you might believe; Trees do, in fact, talk.

However, as forest ecologist Suzanne Simard discovered through her research, this communication happens not in the air but deep below our feet in an incredibly dense, complex network of roots and chemical signals.

“Trees are the foundation of a forest, but a forest is much more than what you see,” says Simard. “Underground, there is this “other” other world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate.”

Using 80 replicas of trees (birch, Douglas firs and other species), Simard observed the amazing interactions between different clusters of trees, noting that their relationships were dependent on factors such as proximity and how much shade they received on a given day. She found that trees were not competing but collaborating, sending things like carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorus and even distress signals throughout their group as needed.

“The great thing about forests,” says Simard, “is that as complex systems, they have an enormous capacity to self-heal.”

One of the most incredible, visceral facts that Simard unearthed was the role of “mother” trees in these ecological communities. These more mature trees acts as hubs or anchors for tree groupings, and look after their families, nurturing seedlings and even sharing wisdom when they are injured or dying.

“In a single forest a mother tree may be connected to hundreds of other trees,” she says.

On the TEDSummit stage, Simard shared her life’s work, this monumental evidence that may hopefully change some decision-making behind our terrible forest-clearing habits and instill in us the idea that, like humans and most living things, trees build families, form relationships and thrive best when surrounded by a diverse community of species and genotypes.

“You can take out one or two hub trees, but there’s a tipping point,” says Simard. “You take out one too many and the whole system collapses.”

To protect of forests, their livelihoods, and ultimately ours, we must reconnect with nature and save our old-growth forests, to regenerate and reinforce their strength as they deal with ever-looming threat of climate change.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/forest-for-the-trees-suzanne-simard-at-tedsummit/
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A Meditating Teddy Bear Is Instagram’s Newest Yoga Star

He’s furry, he’s cuddly, and he loves to meditate. His name is Meddy Teddy, the meditation Teddy Bear, and he’s Instagram’s next yoga star. Like a Teddy Ruxpin for the modern age, this little closed-eyed yoga poser is intended to help parents and teachers talk to kids about heady stuff like mindfulness, self-trust, and confidence. Meddy […]

from YogaDork http://yogadork.com/2016/06/29/a-meditating-teddy-bear-is-instagrams-newest-yoga-star/
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Deliciously Ella Products Are Coming!

I am SO excited to be able to finally share this news with you alwe’re bringing out our own range of products!!!! It’s been so hard not to tell you all about this and I can’t wait for you all to be able to try what we’ve been working so hard on for the last few months! Have a watch of the video below to find out more…

The post Deliciously Ella Products Are Coming! appeared first on Deliciously Ella.

from Deliciously Ella http://deliciouslyella.com/deliciously-ella-products-are-coming/
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From Groovy To Geek: Becoming A Groovy Yoga Geek!

by Terry Littlefield I was recently listening to J. Brown’s podcast with guest Ann Votaw. Ann was talking about the time she got to go to NYU and get an actual tour of their cadaver lab.She was interested in going there because she had been really sick and the possibility of death hit close to home. She […]

from YogaDork http://yogadork.com/2016/06/29/from-groovy-to-geekand-now-a-groovy-yoga-geek/
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Pathways: Notes from Session 4 of TEDSummit

This morning’s Session 4 explored the ways we connect — the pathways our money takes, our communication, our trust, even our intelligence(s). Read on:

Trust in your neighbor, but maybe not in your bank. Why is it that, despite being told “don’t get into a car with a stranger” for as long as we can remember, five million of us opt to do this every day when we call an Uber? Rachel Botsman believes the popularity of these services, including Uber, AirBnB and the like, represents a fundamental shift in our societies away from an institutional model of trust and towards a distributive model. In recent history, a handful of major events have severely weakened the public’s trust in our banks, our government and even the church. As this form of institutional trust collapses, we have witnesses a simultaneous rise in what’s known as the “sharing economy.” This new bottom-up model for trust is empowered by technology, including systems like the blockchain, which may someday remove the need for third-party trust systems entirely. As trust becomes more and more local and accountability-based, technology will continue to shift power away from these economic institutions and distribute itself into the hands of all of us.

Photo by Bret Hartman/TED.

Benedict Android: how your phone can be hacked to betray you. The good news about smartphone surveillance is really good: In the past few years, many ordinary citizens have been able to capture shocking and irrefutable evidence of violent civil-rights abuses by police, soldiers and others, starting huge and important conversations. But the bad news is also really bad. Apple may have made news by refusing to bend or break the high-security encryption on its iPhones even for a FBI terrorism investigation. However, as the noted surveillance researcher Christopher Soghoian explains, Apple is the exception, and its products are affordable only to an upper-income tier of the world’s population. The security encryptions on most smartphones — the Android-style phones used by most of the world —  are far easier to hack by law enforcement or government officials, putting Android users at a much greater risk for having their phones (and the contents of them)) used against them. Soghoian calls this problem “the digital security divide,” and, having extensively studied how governments use malware and other underhanded surveillance measures to hack into computers and smartphones, he offers a very compelling case that, whatever new cool apps, trendy games and photo filters are in the pipeline for the next generation of smartphones, Apple-strength security measures are desperately needed first. “If the only people who can protect themselves from the gaze of the government are the elite, that’s a problem,” says Soghoian. “It’s not a technology problem — it’s a civil rights problem.”

Photo by Marla Aufmuth/TED.

The awe of the puzzle. The Rubik’s cube is one of the most recognizable puzzles the world over, but as techno-illusionist Marco Tempest points out, it’s still as challenging today as when it first appeared in the 1970s. As he handed audience members cubes to jumble up, he explained their tugging pull: “Puzzles are mysteries that promise a solution, we just have to find it.” He then collected the cubes and brought an audience member onstage, where she challenged him to solve a cube — which he did in under 10 seconds. Holding up another cube, she showed him each of its six sides and he, almost effortlessly, matched a separate cube to reflect its same disorder. Without blinking, Tempest arranged the cubes into a square sculpture, while illustrating the universal appeal of the puzzle, “The Rubik’s cube is not an easy puzzle, but its design is elegant and it taps into that universal desire to solve problems, to bring meaning from chaos. It’s one of the traits that makes us human and has taken us to where we are now.” 

Photo by Marla Aufmuth/TED.

Censorship and the fight against terror. If there is one thing Rebecca MacKinnon believes, it’s that the fight against terrorism cannot be won without the strict preservation of human rights. Human rights, in her opinion, along with freedom of the press and an open internet, are integral tools to stop the spread of radical extremist ideologies in democratic societies. Yet, the unfortunate reality is that the people on the forefront of exercising these liberties, such as independent journalists and bloggers, are often persecuted by the same government forces as the extremists. This persecution can take the form of actual jail time, as it has in Morocco, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but may also occur in less direct ways. In the US, Washington DC and Silicon Valley have teamed up to stop the spread of ISIS’s online communities. However, their censorship has inadvertently silenced the voices of some who simply happen to share a name with a suspected terrorist or terrorist group, like the scores of women named Isis who have found their Twitter accounts deleted. As democratic governments across the world continue to crack down on whistleblowers and dissenters, 2015 marked the 10th consecutive year that freedom had been on a decline worldwide. This is why MacKinnon believes we need to fight for transparency and accountability from our governments and for the right to encryption for all citizens. She believes that privacy is essential to the survival of investigative journalism and public discourse, thus we must make choices to reflect our support lest we stifle the very people on the frontline of the fight against extremism.

The inevitable tendencies of artificial intelligence. “The actual path of a raindrop as it goes down the valley is unpredictable, but the general direction is inevitable,” says digital visionary Kevin Kelly, and technology is much the same, driven by patterns that may surprise us but that are driven by inevitable tendencies. One tendency in particular stands out because it will have a profound impact on the next 20 years: our tendency to make things smarter and smarter — the process of cognification — that we identify as artificial intelligence. Kelly explores three trends of AI that we need to understand in order to embrace it, because it’s only by embracing artificial intelligence that we can steer it. But the big takeaway? We’re in very, very beginning of artificial intelligence. “The most popular AI product 20 years from now that everyone uses has not been invented yet — that means that you’re not late.”

Scientific proof that trees talk. Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard researches the quiet and cohesive ways of the woods. In her research, she’s discovered monumental evidence that will change the way you look at these stoic plants — because trees, like humans and most living things, communicate and develop communities.  Using their roots to deliver information, forests and similar collections of trees build a resilient, self-healing family; there are even “mother” trees who look after seedlings and share wisdom when injured or dying. As Simard says: “A forest is much more than what you see.” 

I am a Brit. Two days ago, Alexander Betts agreed to give a talk here at TEDSummit on an issue close to his heart: how Brexit happened, and what it means for his home country and his global vision. In a powerful talk, he asks why the UK seemed to split apart on June 24 … and whether or not this should have come (as it did to many) as a shock. 

 

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/pathways-notes-from-session-4-of-tedsummit/
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Creamy Broccoli, Chicken, and Bacon Pasta

Crispy Baked Curried Tofu (Oil-Free)

Baked curried tofu has been a weekly staple of mine lately. It’s a great item for weekly food prep and works as a convenient source of protein in my daily salads. It also tastes great, has a great texture and is really easy to make! If you’re new to cooking with tofu you’ll see a... Read More » The post Crispy Baked Curried Tofu (Oil-Free) appeared first on Running on Real Food.

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from Running on Real Food http://runningonrealfood.com/baked-curried-tofu/
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How to Make Aloe Vera Gel from Fresh Aloe

We recently got a new grocery store in a town near me. I was checking it out one day and came across an array of fun and unusual foods uncommon to most average grocery stores. While there I saw several long beautiful aloe vera leaves and decided to purchase some.

As I continued shopping, a woman stopped me and said, “Excuse me for asking, but what IS that?” I smiled and briefly explained to her that it is the leaves from the aloe plant and how to use it for burns and cuts. She left with a smile on her face and I was happy to teach her something new.

I know sometimes I sound like a broken record but aloe vera gel is one of those things I grew up believing could only be bought in a store, processed, and in a fancy package. But just like so many other things, it is incredibly easy and inexpensive to make at home.

What Is Aloe Vera Good For

Most people are aware of the benefits of aloe vera gel on sunburns. It is wonderful for soothing pain and reducing inflammation caused by minor burns, but in addition to that, it has a wide application of uses.

• Natural Sunburn Relief

Several other over-the-counter first aid products can easily be replaced with homemade, natural versions. Aloe vera is anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and has antioxidant properties that aid in healing.

• Homemade Hand Sanitizer
• Post-Partum Relief Spray
• Homemade Anti-Itch Spray

I use aloe vera gel in several of my beauty care recipes. It is very hydrating to the skin but does not leave an oily feel so it is good for most skin types. These qualities also make it great for the hair and scalp, especially if you struggle with dry, itchy scalp and dandruff.

• DIY Hair Growth Serum
• Homemade Baby Wipes
• Natural Liquid Foundation
• Natural Creme Blush
• Natural Homemade Mascara
• Essential Oil Cooling Spray
• DIY Beach Waves Spray
• Foaming Shave Soap

Many people also take aloe vera internally to aid in digestion and to help relieve stomach ulcers. Aloe vera gel contains numerous vitamins and minerals that help replenish the body. These remedies should be practiced under the advice of your health care provider.

Where Can You Get It

Aloe vera makes a wonderful houseplant. Not only will it help filter the air in your home, but you will always have it on hand for all of its wonderful uses. A small aloe vera plant shouldn’t be too hard to find at a nursery.

The aloe plant is similar to a cactus in care requirements. It requires well draining, sandy soil and does not tolerate frost, but will do very well indoors. Water it thoroughly but then allow the soil to dry about 2 inches down before watering again. (Be sure to check the care instructions for your particular plant.)

As I mentioned, I was able to get cut aloe vera leaves locally in the produce section at a grocery store, but they are probably going to be more readily available at organic stores or markets that cater to healthful living. You could also try a smaller grocery store that specializes in Indian food if you have one in your area.

How To Harvest The Gel from Aloe Vera

Aloe vera leaves are long and slightly curved with serrated edges. The gel is the thick fleshy part that is between the skin of the leaf.

Supplies:

• aloe vera leaf
• sharp knife
• clean airtight container for storing
• blender or immersion blender
• clean bowl (if you are using an immersion blender)

Directions:

1. Cut the leaf into sections about 8″ long. This makes it a little more manageable.
2. Cut off the serrated edge. Try to get just the edge because it is difficult to get the gel out of those pieces.
3. Cut the 8″ lengths into 2 or 3 long strips.
4. Turn your blade to its side and slide it in just under the skin on the end of one of the strips.
5. Carefully slide the knife along the bottom edge of the skin down the whole length of the leaf. Try to stay close to the skin so you get as much gel as you can.
6. Once you get the whole piece of skin off, flip the section over and repeat with the other side.
7. Cut the flesh into 2 or 3 pieces and place in a clean bowl (if you are using an immersion blender) or your blender pitcher.
8. Repeat steps 4-7 until all sections have been skinned and gathered into your blender pitcher.
9. Blend until smooth. It will almost immediately froth when you start your blender. This is normal. If you are using an immersion blender just blend it in the bowl until smooth.
10. The froth will eventually go down. You can wait or you can just go ahead and pour the gel into the clean storage container and refrigerate.
11. It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.

Preserving The Gel

Fresh aloe vera gel will only be good for about a week in the refrigerator. This may not be a problem if you are using a smaller leaf from your own houseplant, but if you buy a large leaf you will likely end up with more gel than you can use in a week. There are other ways you can preserve it so that none of it goes to waste.

Freeze It

After you store the aloe vera gel you will use in the coming week, pour the extra gel into ice cube trays and freeze until solid. Then transfer the aloe cubes into a freezer safe container or bag. Pull out an aloe cube as needed for burns or to use in one of the above recipes. This is a great way to keep it on hand if having your own plant is not an option.

Alternately, before you blend the flesh, cut it into cubes and lay it on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. Once the pieces are solid, transfer to a freezer safe container or bag. Pull a piece out as needed.

Add Natural Preservatives

When I get one of the large leaves I usually end up with about 1.5 cups. I place 1 cup into a clean pint mason jar. The remaining gel gets frozen as I instructed above. I waited for the froth to go down before I did this so I knew exactly how much I had.

To the 1 cup I add 2000 mg of Vitamin C and 1600 IU (1 tablespoon or 4 400 IU capsules) of Vitamin E. Powdered Vitamin C works well or you can crush the appropriate amount of tablets. Stir well until the vitamins are well incorporated. I stirred for a bit and then let it sit. When I came back to stir it again the Vitamin C was much easier to stir in.

You could also blend this with your immersion blender. This should increase the life of your gel to about 8 months if it is stored in the refrigerator.

Do you have an aloe vera plant? How do you use the gel?

Continue Reading...How to Make Aloe Vera Gel from Fresh Aloe

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4 Tips for Happy and Healthy Summer Travels

Who doesn’t love summer vacation? The chance to sit back and relax on the beach, with a cold drink in hand, is something many of us look forward to all year. Done right, traveling is the perfect way to detach and de-stress from our busy lives–but done wrong, it can leave you needing a vacation after your vacation!

As a doctor, I’ve seen the damage over-indulgence can do to our minds and bodies. You don’t have to throw away all of those good habits you’ve spent so long building in the name of R&R. There is a way to enjoy yourself responsibly without feeling guilty or needing to hit the reset button on your health when you return – you can have your cake and eat [a reasonable-sized portion as an occasional treat] too.

Here are my top four tried & true tips to ensure you return from this year’s trip happier and healthier than ever:

1. Get up and move 

“Sitting is the new smoking” is one of the hottest new catchphrases in health–leading office workers everywhere to embrace standing desks and walking meetings. The benefits of staying active aren’t constrained to work hours, however. Studies show that any extended sitting, such as on a plane, behind the wheel on a road trip, or even relaxing on that beach, can greatly increase one’s risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

So, if you’re on a long flight, be sure to get up every hour or so to walk down the aisle. Same goes for road trips – pull over at a rest stop to take in some new scenery and get your muscles moving. Enjoy a few of your favorite yoga poses. You might even discover some new places or meet some interesting people in the process.

Once you’ve arrived, plan some activities that will force you to get up and move. Hotel gym not your scene? No problem. If you’re around water, try stand-up paddle-boarding, snorkeling, or check in with locals for the best hikes. See if there’s a good yoga studio nearby. If you’re traveling to a city, avoid defaulting to taking a cab or public transit and try walking to your destination, when it’s safe. Walking is a low-impact way to get some exercise and find the cute boutiques and hidden gems that guide books may miss. Wherever you’re headed, make sure to always pack comfortable footwear to prevent injury and encourage activity.

2. Stay hydrated

As little as 1-2% dehydration can cause anything from headaches to fatigue to anxiety, and put a damper on your vacation. Dry, recycled air in jet cabins and alcohol consumed to celebrate (or cope) all contribute to dehydration and can leave you looking and feeling horrible upon arrival. To prevent this, drink plenty of fluids before your flight and be sure to have at least one cup of water per hour on the plane. It’s best to bring an empty reusable water bottle and fill it up after going through security, since the glasses provided by the airlines offer only a few ounces of water.

At your destination, be aware of climate changes. Altitude, humidity and high temperatures can all cause dehydration–and quickly. To prevent the potentially trip-ruining effects of dehydration in a new climate, be sure to carry water with you at all times, especially in remote areas, and drink early and often to keep up with your needs.

3. Mind your appetite

Eating on vacation can be a battlefield – there are dietary assassins everywhere. All-you-can-eat buffets in Las Vegas, airport Cinnabons, and pina coladas on command in Cabo can be near-impossible to resist. To stay on track with your healthy eating habits, plan ahead. Know where to find healthy options at your destination and try to avoid tourist trap restaurants with deep fried, over sauced, enormous portions. Instead, embrace local cuisine, especially when it relies heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables.

To discourage buying high caloric airport or gas station food, bring snacks for the plane or car like sliced fruit and vegetables, nuts, or bars with 5 or fewer ingredients. But don’t forget, snacks have calories too – a few hours of mindless snacking can result in the consumption of more than a meal’s worth of calories.

When you do indulge, and we all must sometimes, think holistically – how does that sugar-filled drink or dessert fit in with what else you are consuming that day or that week? How much do you actually need to feel satiated? It’s much easier to “save room” for dessert if you’re staying active and eating a healthy, balanced diet.

4. Unplug!

The number one tip to improve summer travel is to just relax. Easier said than done right? Start by “unplugging.” This can look different depending on who you are, how you work, and the job you have (please don’t unplug the bat phone, Bruce!), but the key is to identify those stress triggers that get your heart and mind racing and filter them out, even if it’s just for short periods of time.

If you can’t go a week without checking in, try confining work to a set amount of time at a specific time of day and leaving your phone behind. If that’s not an option, consider rearranging your apps temporarily so those that may tempt you to fall into work mode are hidden on a page or in a folder that requires a few extra swipes or taps. Also consider modifying your notification settings so you can experience those few fleeting moments of relaxation to their fullest, without frequent interruptions. Remember, your mind needs the break as much as your body, so make sure both are present for the vacation.

Lastly, be sure to leave ample time in your plans for sleep and relaxation. It can be tempting to overschedule every minute, especially when there are so many exciting things to do and see, but this can quickly lead to burnout. Sleep in, take naps as needed, and take a moment to be thankful.

The benefits of taking a vacation are myriad, including improved physical health, mental health and cognitive function – but not taking care of yourself during travel can cause more harm than good. If you follow these steps to stay healthy on the road, you could come back so refreshed you might even boost the mental health of those around you.

Happy travels!

——————–

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Dr. Hanson Lenyoun, an alum of Columbia Med School + former top plastic surgeon.  Dr. Lenyoun has made it his life’s mission to spread the word on how to get–and stay–hydrated. As Mark One’s Head of Health, Dr. Lenyoun has spent two years perfecting Pryme Vessyl, the world’s most personalized hydration device. Using Dr. Lenyoun’s own proprietary hydration algorithm, Pryme Vessyl determines the exact volume of water that any individual needs to consume in the moment to meet their specific needs. How cool is that?!

from Daily Cup of Yoga http://www.dailycupofyoga.com/2016/06/29/4-tips-for-happy-and-healthy-summer-travels/
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How Syria’s buildings laid the foundation for brutal war: Marwa Al-Sabouni at TEDSummit

Recorded over Skype, young architect Marwa Al-Sabouni talks about life right now in Homs, Syria — and suggests that the built environment played a role in the country’s deadly conflict. Photo: Ryan Lash

“E pluribus unem” worked in Syria once too.

The merciless six-year civil war in Syria has destroyed cities, killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. The Syria of a decade ago is but a memory. The causes have been detailed exhaustively — social, economic, religious, geopolitical. But one woman, an architect who was born, grew up and still lives today in the central Syrian town of Homs, believes that one culprit has so far gone unnamed and unblamed — architecture. “It has played a role in creating, directing and amplifying conflict between warring factions,” she says bluntly.

But does architecture have that much power? Can it exert such an influence? Marwa Al-Sabouni, who ran a small architecture studio with her husband in the old city center of Homs for several years until the war destroyed most of the historic area, believes that it does and it can — and her contention is the crux of her memoir about life during wartime, “The Battle For Home.” She has stayed in Homs for six years watching the war tear her city apart, and believes that architecture and a century of thoughtless urban planning played a crucial role in the slow unraveling of Syrian cities’ social fabric, preparing the way for once-friendly, now-fragmented groups to become enemies instead of neighbors.

“The harmony of the social environment got trampled over by elements of modernity,” says Al-Sabouni. “The brutal, unfinished concrete blocks and the divisive urbanism that zoned communities by class, creed or affluence.”

Being a virtual prisoner in her home for two years after the war started, she says, gave her only too much time to think about the incredible transformation of the city she grew up in. “This has been historically a tolerant city, accustomed to variety, accommodating a wide range of beliefs, origins and customs, where mosques and churches were built back to back. What has led to this senseless war? How did my country degenerate into civil war, violence, displacement and unprecedented sectarian hatred?” So she began writing, mapping out how 20th-century urban planning took a united society of different threads and slowly rewove them into a cityscape of difference and division.

“It started with French colonial city planners, blowing up streets and relocating monuments,” she says. Then, she says, modern buildings started going up with little or no thought, design or planning, fracturing delicate communities further: “Architecture became a way of differentiation.” By the end of the 20th century, all that remained in Homs was a city center and, around it, a ring of ghettoized communities, each housing its own ethnic or religious group, and each enemies of the others.

Al-Sabouni does have hope for the future, she says — partly because she has a wildly optimistic husband, and partly because she feels there is now both room and reason to learn from the past and rebuild it better. That means not building giant tower blocks which isolate and alienate people — it means lower, mixed use buildings that can accommodate all kinds of people, races, ages, beliefs and more. When a rope breaks, the strongest way to mend it is to weave all the ends together. That is what Al-Sabouni wants — and what Homs, Syria and the whole world need.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/how-syrias-buildings-laid-the-foundation-for-brutal-war-marwa-al-sabouni-at-tedsummit/
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Building blocks: Notes from Session 3 at TEDSummit

Michael Shellenberger suggests that the future of clean energy should involve nuclear energy — despite our deep-seated worries about the technology. Photo: Bret Hartman

What are the tools we’re using to build the future? Session 3 speakers go deep on what’s next in finance, energy, business and the structures we live in.

The next generation of trust on the Internet. For many online transactions, we rely on middlemen like banks and government to establish trust — but these systems face growing issues like hacking, exclusion and data privacy. Blockchain, “a vast distributed ledger run on millions of computers,” promises to upend all that, establishing trust not through big institutions but through “cryptography and clever code,” says technology communicator Don Tapscott. When blockchain technology matures, Tapscott believes, “For the first time in human history, people can trust each other and interact peer-to-peer,” and the power of that changing interaction could help us address the social inequality that’s at the heart of today’s anger, extremism and protectionism, not by redistributing wealth but by predistributing it.

Don Tapscott imagines a future of relationships powered by blockchain. Photo: Bret Hartman

 

The digital continuation of an old story. “There is a new technological institution that will fundamentally change how we exchange value, and it’s called the blockchain,” says researcher Bettina Warburg. But while blockchain technology is new, its intention is actually quite old, building on the ancient human search to lower uncertainty about each other so that we can exchange value. Blockchain helps us lower uncertainty in three important ways, by helping us: 1. know who we are transacting with, 2. have transparency in our transactions, and 3. have recourse when our transactions go wrong. There’s still a long road ahead of us before blockchain can become a reality, Warburg cautions, but “we need to start preparing ourselves, because we’re about to face a world where distributed, autonomous institutions are going to have quite a significant role.”

The new nuclear choice: Joseph Lassiter challenges us in the audience to view the energy crisis from a new point of view beyond the privileged choices available to the developed world. While developed nations like the US and many in Western Europe can afford cleaner energy sources, much of the developing world, China and India in particular, will use whatever energy sources are available that can improve the quality of life for as many of their citizens as possible, and do it quickly and cheaply. For these booming countries to adopt a renewable energy source, it’s going to have to pass what Vinod Khosla has called the “Chindia Test”:  it must be viable, scalable and effective without subsidy or mandate. Right now, wind and solar power do not pass that test, but Lassiter believes “new nuclear” power can, if people are willing to get past their historical apprehensions. We now have the ability to make and regulate nuclear power sources such that they are safer and cheaper than they have been in the past; now we have to make the choice to pursue it.

Going nuclear for clean energy. We’re in a clean energy revolution, some would think. Actually, it may be the opposite. According to Michael Shellenberger, a climate policy expert, the percentage of electricity from clean energy is declining, with nuclear taking the biggest hit  across the board. Nuclear is very low-carbon and can provide a lot of power, but three pervasive fears surround it that stand in the way of wide-scale generation: safety, waste and weapons. Turns out that nuclear is one of the safest renewable energies, doesn’t produce much waste — and the correlation between countries that invest in nuclear energy and in nuclear weapons isn’t strong. With many of the world’s richest nations taking down nuclear reactors instead of building them, we’re at risk of losing four times more clean energy than was lost over the past 10 years. In other words, “We’re not in a clean energy revolution, we’re in a clean energy crisis.”

The Beautiful Business Bureau? Any numbers of better-business bestsellers will tell you how to do things right. But writer Tim Leberecht does not tell you how to do things right — he wants to tell you how to do things wrong. The argument that he lays out in his 2015 book The Business Romantic is that businesspeople focus too much on our computerized rivals and their growing ability to complete tasks correctly. Instead, he argues that as human beings we have an ethical, philosophical and even fiduciary duty to not waste time trying to one-up our computers and, instead, do what we who are “only human” do best — be gloriously fallible. Not that he actually wants you to screw up. Leberecht would prefer that we focus on what he calls “creating beauty” — creating situations and environments that help balance out the obsession with bottom-line success, an obsession that can damage or even destroy a company’s culture. And of course, he has a list. (You knew he had a list.) 1. Do the unnecessary. Don’t just go the extra mile — do a 10K run, too. Companies need to cultivate the idea that they are more than a spreadsheet. (Key quote: “When you cut the unnecessary, you cut everything.”)  2. Create intimacy. Even in temporary settings, tear down barriers that keep workers apart. (Key quote: “Never underestimage the power of a ridiculous wig.”) 3. Stay incomplete. Single-minded focus on one goal has its plusses, but allows no room for deviation, flexibility, introspection and more. (Key quote:”Beautiful companies keep asking questions.”) 4. Embrace ugliness. As an old saying goes, good judgment comes from experience — and experience comes from bad judgment. By openly acknowledging our flaws, they have less power to harm us. (Key quote: “The first step towards beauty is a huge risk — the risk to be ugly.”)

How bad architecture added fuel to the fire in Syria. Marwa Al-Sabouni is a young architect in Homs, in Syria. Speaking to us over Skype, she talks about her ruined home city … and looks at how Syria’s once tolerant and multicultural society gradually was separated by colonialist powers into single-identity enclaves divided by class, race and religion. This separation, she believes, is one root cause of the terrible and destructive war in Syria.   

How women win wars: Twelve years ago Julia Bacha observed the valiant actions of young women in the village of Budrus, who stepped up to help save their community from become the site of an Israeli-Palestine separation barrier. This inspired her to investigate the role of women in nonviolent and violent conflicts worldwide. Bacha found that nonviolent campaigns were 100% more likely to succeed than their violent counterparts — and that the greatest indication of whether or not a group would chose to adopt a policy of nonviolence was their ideology toward women in public life. Organizations with women in leadership positions were much more likely to succeed. Our perception of the number of women involved in Middle Eastern conflicts is likely skewed, Bacha says, because the western media underrepresents their extent and importance. The first Palestinian Intifada, she reminds us, featured many women in prominent organizing positions. (The U.S. also erases the women of its own history, like Septima Poinsette Clark of the Civil Rights movement.) Bacha asks us to investigate how our own attitudes towards women will influence the conflicts of the future, their casualties and whether or not they are won.

Filmmaker Julia Bacha explores the hidden role of women in modern conflict. Photo: Bret Hartman

Jazz turned upside down. An impassioned jazz performance to close out Session 3 starts with “Upside Down,” in which pianist Laila Biali plays an upbeat, walk-in-the-park-on-a-sunny-afternoon melody on the piano while singing, “You turn me upside down / when daylight comes / the dreams leave me spellbound.” As drum and a standing bass accompanied, Biali played a faster and faster tempo, exuding joy with each note, building to a time-shifting crescendo. She then transitioned to a slower, more reflective tune, “Joy,” muting the strings and then releasing the power of this rhythmic anthem.

from TED Blog http://blog.ted.com/building-blocks-notes-from-session-3-at-tedsummit/
via Sol Danmeri