7min 18sec clip - The Award for Best Comedy Wildlife Photo Goes to… | Tom Sullam | TED

found via laughing squid

4min 15sec clip - ‘Thought Leader’ gives talk that will #inspire your #thoughts

Found via a digg email

9min 54 sec #TED clip by @JulianTreasure - from June 2013 - how to #speak so that people want to #listen - well worth a watch

found via a retweet by @Livingstone_S

7 habits to avoid

and 4 powerful cornerstones to stand on

which as a memonic stands for

He then goes onto give some voice toolbox tips about techniques like timbre, volume and other ways of varying the voice

and ge finishes with some demonstrations of vocal exercises to do before speaking

a core part of #addiction: not being able to bear to be present in your life ....

http://bit.ly/2a562yo

the root cause of #addiction

source http://bit.ly/29TL2JA

4min 15sec clip - every #TED talk you've ever seen

found via sploid

where did #english come from?

found via free technology for teachers

Clint Smith: The danger of #silence - a brill 4 and a bit TED talk

found via upworthy

Want to help somebody - shut up and #listen - ermesto sirolli

a summary of the key points i heard from this talk on the subject of aid (but possibly the ideas can be applied to other fields) 

 - if people do not wish to be helped leave them alone 

- 1st principle of aid - respect - so never initiate anything - never motivate anybody 

- instead you become a servant of the local passion - of local people who have a dream to become a better person 

- so you shut up - you never arrive in a community with any ideas - you sit with the local people and become friends and find out what that person wants to do 

- find the passion they have - then help them to go find the knowledge 

- offer confidentiality and privacy - but not in community meetings - entrepreneurs never come to community meetings - so you don't know the smartest people in the community thru community meetings 

- so work 1 on 1 - but to do so you need to create a social infrastructure that doesn't exist 

- you have to become a new profession - the family doctor of enterprise/business - who helps you find the resources to transform your passion into a way of making a living 

- remember - planning is the kiss of death to entrepreneurship 

- the secrets to work with entrepreneurs - you need to offer confidentiality, privacy, absolute dedicated passionate service to them 

- then tell them the truth about entrepreneurship - the biggest or smallest company needs to be capable of doing 3 things beautifully - 1) the product you want to sell has to be fantastic, 2) your marketing has to be fantastic and 3) you have to have tremendous financial management 

 - so .... can you make it, can you sell it, can you look after the money

- and there has never being one human who can do all those 3 things 

- none of the most successful companies were started by 1 person 

- so have facilitators and networks that can help people find others good at the things they are not that cover the other 3 key points

compost fueled cars

via the atlantic

cyber magic card trick

TEDpad - to create good or bad talks

found here http://get-tedpad.com/ (via Sebastian Wernicke's talk)

do schools kill creativity - sir ken robinson - TED talk

in summary ....

by way of introduction

- the themes running through the conference have been variety and range of human creativity and that that means we don't know how the future may play out

- everybody has an interest in education partly because its meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp.  and how do we educate people who are at school now who will retire in 60 or so years (especially given we can barely successfully predict what the world will look like in 5 years)

- all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly - so lets talk about education and creativity and how creativity is now as important in education as literacy and should be treated with the same status. 

so .....

 - kids will take a chance, if they don't know they will have a go because they are not frightened of being wrong.  if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. 

- yet that is how we run our companies, and national education systems like this - we stigmatize mistakes - and so the result is we're educating people out of their creative capacities.  

- we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or rather we get educated out of it. 

- every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects - at the top is mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Within the arts normally art and music have a higher status than drama and dance.   So nobody on the plant teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. 

- why not? Of course maths is important but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they’re allowed to, we all do. As children grow up we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. 

- looking at education as an alien you'd conclude from the output that the whole purpose of public education is to produce university professors - our education systems are predicated on the idea of academic ability - because public systems of education came into being to meet the needs of industrialism.

- the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas: 1) that the most useful subjects for work are at the top (don’t do art, you’re not going to be an artist); 2) academic ability - because education is a protracted process of university entrance. 

 - the consequence of all this? - many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. 

- and as more and more people get degrees suddenly now you need an MA or a PHD to get a job - academic inflation

what do we know about intelligence?

1) it’s diverse, we think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. 

2) it's dynamic, creativity, (the process of having original ideas that have value) often comes through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things

3) it’s distinct. 

it comes to this ....

- our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. 

- we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children. 

- we have to see our creative capacities for the richness they are, and see our children for the hope that they are. 

- our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face the future we may not see but they will - and our job is to help them make something of it.

pamela meyer: how to spot a liar

in summary - we are all liars

lying is a cooperative act – its power emerges when somebody else believes it

henry oberlander said “everyone is willing to give you something for whatever it is they are hungry for” - so if you don’t want to be deceived know what it is you are hungry for

lying tries to connect our wishes about who we are to the reality of who we are

studies show:

-        we are lied to 10 to 200 times a day

-        that within the 1^st 10 minutes of meeting a stranger they lie to us 3 times

-       we lie more to strangers than co-workers

-       extroverts lie more than introverts

-       men lie 8x more about themselves than they do others

-       women lie more to protect people

-       if you’re married you’ll lie to your spouse in 1 of 10 every interactions

-       if you’re unmarried that drops to 1 in 3

lying is old as breathing – it’s part of our culture, it has evolutionary value, the gorilla who was taught sign language – Koko – lied

babies will fake a cry, 2 years olds bluff, 5 year olds lie outright and manipulate by flattery, 9 year olds are masters of the cover up - by the time we enter college we lie to out mums in 1 out of 5 interactions

what can we do – most of us get to the truth 54% of the time - trained liespotters get to it 90%

verbal language of liars – formal and distancing language “that women”, qualifying language “to tell you the truth” or “in all candour”,  repeating the question, or too much detail

body language of liars – freeze upper bodies, looking in your eyes too much, smiling too much, (real smile is with mouth and eyes – crows feet not just mouth), duping delight (smile at deception they think they are getting away with)

hot spots – discrepancies between words and actions – so an honest person is going to be cooperative, enthusiastic, helpful in getting to the truth, willing to brainstorm, name suspects, provide details, infuriated throughout session (not just in flashes) if they sense they are wrongly accused

and if you ask them what should happen to those doing wrong they will be much more strict rather than lenient in the punishment they suggest

same conversation with someone deceptive – withdrawn, lower voice, look down, too much irrelevant detail, story in strict chronological order.  trained investigators – in subtle ways – ask for the story backwards – and watch which questions produce most deceptive tells (e.g. verbally say yes but imperceptible head shake no).  Murderers are known to leak sadness.  Contempt – you’ve been dismissed (marked by one lip corner pulled up)

Science also teaches us – liars shift their blink rate, point their feet toward the exit, use barrier objects between them and the interviewer, alter vocal tone – often lower.  

Remember these are behaviours and aren’t proof of deception – so when you see a number of these red flags …..then ask more questions with rapport rather than aggression

8 questions to help you innovate

found here via rob jacobs , in summary .....


great innovations come from great questions - and here are 8 questions of innovation


these questions will help you innovate


1) termination Q - what do i 1st need to stop?  (when the horse is dead dismount)


2) collaboration/coordination Q - how do we do it faster/larger/cheaper - with a team?  


3) combination Q - what could we mix together to make something new? (often the exact opposite)


4) elimination Q - what part could we take it out to make it simpler? (so e.g. how eliminate language barriers)


5) reincarnation Q - what has died that we can bring back to life in a new format?


6) rejuvination Q - how could we change the purpose or motivation for what we are doing?


7) illumination Q - how look at this in a new light?  (so fresh eyes)


8) fascination Q - how could we make it more interesting/appealing/attractive/mesmirising?


in summary - never stop learning

how algorithms shape our world

this kevin slavin talk basically says:


- maths has changed form something we extract from the world to something that is shaping it.


- specifically algorithms (how computers decide stuff).


- they become like truth because they repeat again and again.


- used a lot in financial trading - algorithms used to hide large trades by splitting them up into lots of small trades - and algorithms used to find algorithms doing that and put all the small trades together to see what is going on.


- but these algorithms have caused a 9% flash reduction in the usa stock market - and nobody can explain how it happened.


- so we are writing things we can no longer read.


- also happens on amazon where items get crazy prices without any buying or selling - what we see here is algorithms locked in loops with each other with no human control.


- or are used by netflix to work out what movies to recommend you watch next.


- or there is one that analyses a movie script to determine how big a grossing movie it will make - so affecting culture.


- and if any of these algorithms went wrong how would we know?


 - or to go back to the stock market - speed is of the essence for these algorithms.


 - "it takes you 500,000 microseconds just to click a mouse, but if you’re a wall street algorithm and you’re five microseconds behind, you’re a loser".


- so people are building facilities for servers near the nodes where the internet is distributed from so these algorithms can get nearer to the internet in microseconds.


- and they are digging trenches for optic fibre cables between cities to allow thee algorithms to get faster.


- so the virtual world is affecting the real world.

great presentations are stories

via larryferlazzo


in summary


- we all have ideas and they are the most powerful device known to man
- they can change the world
- but an idea is powerless if it stays within us, so how best to communicate it?


- the way to do that is through stories
- in films etc. we have heroes - likeable, in an ordinary world, called to adventure, resistant to call, encounters roadblocks, meet with mentor who helps them emerge transformed


- from various ideas she came up with a shape that represents a great presentation
- this is the shape

- start with what is - status quo, compare with what could be
- and make gap between two as big as possible
- and in middle of the presentation  - keep going between the two again and again
(a bit like tacking when sailing against the wind)
- call to action at end - the new bliss, the new norm

positive psychology (jfb, g+)

a great 12 minute or so talk on positive psychology and which in summary says


we teach people how to eliminate weird/outlying data in a statistically valid way so we can find a line of best fit.  which is fantastic if we're trying to find out about the the average but less useful if we're interested in potential

we're creating the cult of the average with science. if we study what is merely average we will remain merely average

instead of deleting that weird/outlying data we should study it to understand why, and maybe from that we can glean info on how we can move the entire average up

or take the news on tv - the majority of the information is not positive it's negative. Very quickly our brains start to think that's an accurate ratio of negative to positive in the world.

so it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which our brain views the world that shapes our reality. And if we can change the lens ......

90 percent of our long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world but by the way our brain processes the world.  only 255 of job successes are predicted by intelligence.   75% of job successes are predicted by our optimism levels, our social support and our ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.

most companies and schools follow this formula for success - if I work harder then i'll be more successful and if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier.  but the trouble with this approach is that every time your brain has a success, you just change the goalposts of what success looks like (e.g. you got good grades, now you have to get better grades).  so what we have done is push happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. and that's because we think we have to be successful and then we'll be happier.

but the real problem is that our brains actually work in the opposite order. if you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences a happiness advantage because our brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. our intelligence rises, our creativity rises, our energy levels rise.  our brain at positive is 31% more productive than our brain at negative, neutral or stressed. you're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19% faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. 

which means we can reverse the formula. 

if we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains cam work even more successfully as we're able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.

there are ways you can train your brain to be able to become more positive over 21 days

3 gratitudes - write down 3 new things you're grateful for for 21 days in a row (at the end of that 21 days your brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first) 

journaling  - daily about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to re-live it.

exercise - teaches your brain that your behaviour matters

meditation  - allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. 

random acts of kindness  - are conscious acts of kindness - when you open up your facebook or twitter or email - write one positive thing praising or thanking somebody in your social support network.

building a toaster from scratch (g+)

found via brain pickings

in which thomas thwaites describes how he built a toaster from scratch.  he was inspired by a douglas adams quote from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - "left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. he could just about make a sandwich and that was it"

(this is said in a situation where the 20th century man who is the book's hero is on a planet populated only by a technologically primitive people. initially the hero assumes he'll become their emperor and transform their society with his wonderful command of technology, but quickly he realises that without the rest of human society, he can barely make a sandwich, let alone a toaster)

so thomas decided to make an electric toaster from scratch. thinking the cheapest one would be the easiest to reverse engineer he bought one (£3.94) and took it apart. he was dismayed to find this

400 or so bits made of 100 or so materials

so he started with 5 of the materials  - steel, mica, plastic, copper and nickel.

how to make steel? he asked a prof. the answer was you need iron. so he went to a mine (now a tyourist attraction) and got the iron ore from ray.  he then went back to the prof. how do I smelt this? the answer was find out in a book. eventually he found the 1st text book on metallurgy written in the west. after a day and half a night smelting iron (using a leaf blower as bellows) he got something - but it wasn't iron. so he found a patent online for industrial furnaces that use microwaves. after 30 minutes at full power, he was able to finish off the process.

how to make copper? he found a retired geology prof to take him down a closed copper mine in anglesy (wales) to get some water. (water thru the mine becomes acidic and so starts to dissolve minerals from the mine). there was enough copper in the water so he could cast the pins of his electric plug.

how to make mica? (it's a mineral which is a very good insulator and very good at insulating electricity). he got that from scotland

how to make plastic? couldn't get oil from BP so looked at other ways of making plastic,  from plant oils is one option. he did this using potatoes and mold made from a tree trunk. he had to leave it outside to dry.  unfortunately when he returned there were snails eating the unhydrolyzed bits of the potato. he decided to use waste plastic (as in future this will be part of the geology and be mined) and got some from a recycling plant in manchester (uk)

he did plug in it once but as he was never able to make insulation for the wires (kew gardens wouldn't let him hack into their runner tree). so the wires were uninsulated. there was 240 volts going through homemade copper wires and a homemade plug. for about five seconds, the toaster toasted, but then, unfortunately, the element melted itself

the antidote to apathy

found via boing boing  - a 7min 38 sec ted talk by dave meslin - from a canadian perspective - my summary is below (using some screen grabs from the filmed talk):


we think people are selfish, stupid, and lazy so that's why we can't get people to care - but what if the culture we live in actively discourages engagement by putting up obstacles and barriers to it


1) local government - notices of planning applications often look like the image on the left - imagine if commercial companies advertised their products in the same way - see image below.    they'd sell nothing - 
its like councils are intentionally trying to exclude us














         2) public space - is mistreated - there is a price tag on freedom of expression - whoever has the most money gets a voice - so advertising gets the voice - and some amazing messages that will never be profitable never get a voice


 3) media – mainly focuses on celebrities and scandals  - but even when it does talk about politics it doesn't have the same type of basic where, when, how go to info it would have for a play at a theatre, or restaurant, or movie - this sets a tone - politics is a spectator sport


4)    heroes – what do the movie heroes on the screen grab to the right have in common?- they all have heroes who were chosen - sends all the wrong messages about leadership – heroic effort is collective, imperfect, voluntary (so uninvited)


5) political parties – should be the entry point  for engagement – but as they use marketing techniques  - to determine what to say to us that we will want to hear - so they are unoriginal - the same - and their approach feeds cynicism


6)  charitable status – are banned from doing certain things (applicable to uk?) so are silenced at election time


7)  elections – how encourage us to vote when it seems our votes don’t count?


conclusion - if we redefine apathy as a complex web of cultural barriers that reinforce obstacles to engagement - then by identifying those barriers  - we can work to dismantle them


as long as we believe our neighbours are not (or have the potential to not be) selfish, stupid or lazy