Ben on Adam Savage: My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions

Talk:
Adam Savage: My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions

Brief Synopsis:
Adam Savage, who seems to have worked on special effects and models in movies, talks about a couple of his personal quests: to own a skeleton of the now-exinct dodo bird, and to own a copy of the Maltese Falcon statue. When he can't obtain them, he decides to make them.


Ben on Adam:
Another talk that seemingly has no other point than to listen to this guy pat himself on the back. The only interesting question that came to my mind is, ... is this guy healthy? He seems happy, but clearly he's got some issues going on. The issues make him, in some ways, extraordinary. But .. they're weird and a little scary.

I didn't come to a solution on that. Some of the details in the talk were a little interesting, and he did a good job on his things, but ... ultimately I didn't really care. I would rate this 2.5 stars, but I gotta make a choice...


Takeaway:
Crazy and obsessed = ... ?


Rating: ** 1/2

Ben on Bruce McCall: Nostalgia for a future that never happened

Talk:
Bruce McCall: Nostalgia for a future that never happened


Brief Synopsis:
A kinda stodgy and self-congratulatory talk by an artist/cartoonist. He uses some interesting concepts in his work that he's created words for:

• retrofuturism - going into the past to revisit their (crazy) views of the future
• technoarchaeology - digging back to find ideas that never happened--and usually for a good reason
  
• faux-nostalgia - nostalgic feelings for things that never actually happened (like things that people were wishing would happen)
  

Ben on Bruce:
A kinda stodgy and self-congratulatory talk by an artist/cartoonist that I didn't know before this talk. I didn't really like his work, though the words he used (retrofuturism, tecnoarchaeology, and faux-nostalgia) were fun (but small) concepts. A couple of images made me chuckle; the three-page New Yorker cover and corresponding animation made me cringe.


Takeaway:
Absolutely none.

Rating: **

Ben on Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air

Talk:
Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air

Brief Synopsis:
Kamal says that, with proper maintenance, if you keep about 11-13 commonly available plants in a space (4 "areca palms", 6-8 "mother-of-tongue" plants, and (1?) "money plant"), you can close yourself up in an airtight container and survive indefinitely. This number of plants is per person.

Kamal talks about the statistics of health improvmenets in his office building in Dehli, India, where he implemented this. They are quite compelling.

Ben on Kamal:
The number of plants needed for say, someone in their own apartment (I rent a small studio apt) or office (I have a small office at UCSD) may seem a bit overwhelming, but for larger buildings and communities, it seems doable. It clearly sounds worthwhile.

One concern not addressed in the talk is the amount of water needed to make this happen. As discussed in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" (among other places, of course), fresh water is going to be an issue in for an increasing number of people. If we implement Kamal's plan on a large-scale basis, seems that this will only increase such pressure. Furthermore, while it is orders of magnitude more energy efficient to drink tap water over bottled water, tap water takes energy to deliver.

Takeaway:
I'll see if it's possible to do this in my apartment. I'm terrible at watering and worse at maintenance, so I'm nervous about the needs of these plants. But I can try.

Rating: ***

Hello all!

Welcome all. I think it's best to always start a blog with a "hello", regardless of the topic. Thanks for stopping by! This is the first idea for a blog that I actually think is maintainable, so I'm interested to see if any other people wind up viewing and enjoying this blog.

Blog Description:
I've written a blog description, but it is too long for this site to "accept". I will put the full version here, then put an edited version to the site template. Any questions or comments, please comment below!

I love the TED talks. They are about topics I care about, by people I care about (whether I know it or not!). They are compact but extremely full: dense, concentrated, powerful.

I watch at least two TED talks per week, but usually 4-5. Sometimes I discuss them with a friend, sometimes I write something about them, sometimes I simply file them away in my brain for later use.

I did notice something unexpected: I have begun to have a TED vocabulary. I often use TED talks as a reference point for ideas or emotions during a conversation. I pass the talks on to friends to whom they will be relevant, enjoyable, meaningful.

I hope that by creating this blog, I will be able to do the same for a larger audience.

Blog Format:
For each post, I will try to include each of the following sections:

1. Talk: A link to the talk
2. Brief Synopsis: Provide a brief synopsis of the talk.
3. Ben on TED: Discuss what the impact of the talk was on me.
4. Take-away: Conclude with how this talk has changed my actions, thoughts, and/or emotions.
5. Rating: A rating from 1-5 stars, on the following scale:

***** : One of the best, ever. Life-altering
**** : Truly enjoyable, something I'll look forward to watching again.
*** : Glad I watched it, it added value in some way. Once was enough.
** : It was OK, but I would have been just as happy if I hadn't bothered.
* : This actively irked me. Screw you too!

I hope that this will make the site easy to use for those who have not heard the talk yet, as well as those who have. It will also give me room to occasionally post follow-ups to TED talks where my take-away had to do with proposed actions.