Via TED, a new talk by statistics wizard Hans Rosling:
The world’s population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology (you’ll see).
Other entertaining TED Talks by Rosling:
Big Think put up a new interview with Dan Ariely on their site:
In his most recent Big Think interview, Ariely talks at length about the issues around dating and mating, also telling us about a recent study he did that determined that people find others attractive in part based on how they perceive of their own attractiveness. “If you’re [an unattractive] woman, you start valuing short men who are bald with bad teeth,” says Ariely. “I mean, you just say, ‘These are really wonderful features: I like hairy chests, I like bald head.’ You basically change what you like and that actually helps you adjust.”
Ariely also talked about the “Ikea effect,” whereby we tend to overvalue the things we ourselves make—and we tend to think others will value them highly as well. “You can think about kids like this,” says Ariely. “I have two wonderful kids, I love them dearly, I think they’re amazing. When we go to a party and they dance or do something, I can’t believe that any of their parents would want to do anything but look in my kids, right? And that’s the issue, right? They are my kids, I think they are wonderful, but, not only that, I think that other people should see them as wonderful as I see them. And the same thing happened with origami or with everything we make, not only do we overvalue it, we think that everybody will share our perspective.” (…)
See his older interviews at http://bigthink.com/danariely
Dan Ariely is the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
and is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, where he holds appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the department of Economics.
In addition, Dan is a visiting professor in MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences. He is currently working on a new book titled Dining Without Crumbs: The Art of Eating Over the Sink.
Radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
Animation:
The talk:
Update20120804: Longer talk held at the Penn Humanities forum:
From Wikipedia
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a 2006 documentary film about the ongoing Iraq War and the behavior of companies with no-bid contracts working in Iraq. The movie was made by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films. “Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” depicts the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Specifically, the film claims four major contractors — Blackwater, K.B.R.-Halliburton, CACI and Titan — are over-billing the U.S. government and doing substandard work while endangering the lives of American soldiers and private citizens. The documentary contends these companies are composed of ex-military and ex-government workers who unethically help their companies get and keep enormous contracts and milk the American taxpayer.
The film crew interviews military servicemen, watchdog group affiliates, and former employees of Halliburton. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) uncovers the inside lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children, whose lives have been changed forever because of companies profiting in the rebuilding of Iraq. “Iraq for Sale” uncovers the connections between private corporations and the decision makers, contends that the wars are completely commercialized by politically powered but indifferent people, and focuses also on the direct and heavy profits earned by some highly-connected corporations.
Halliburton contends the film is “yet another rehash of inaccurate, recycled information.” During filming, Greenwald had requested interviews with the contractors, but they turned him down.
This was the first film to raise substantial production funds from small donations online: $267,892 from 3,000 people in 10 days.
Via the RSA:
Animate:
This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink‘s talk (below) at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace. We’ve been conditioned to think that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is either through fear of punishment or through external rewards such as money and fame.
Talk:
Via TED:
When the dotcom bubble burst, hotelier Chip Conley went in search of a business model based on happiness. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that success comes from what you count.
From Stanford University’s Graduating Class Day, a lecture by Debra Satz, the Martha Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and Director of the Bowen H. McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society.
Professor Satz talks about themes that are also covered in her latest book: Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets
(The embedded video in this post skips the introduction to the event and to Professor Satz. She gets introduced from 3m19s onward).
Donna is the first Michael Aiken Chair, Director of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Director of the Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media (eDream) Institute. She is a recognized pioneer in Renaissance Teams and digital supercomputer visualizations called Visaphors. She and collaborators have thrilled millions with cinematic virtual tours through astrophysics, tornados, hurricanes, and other science domains to support story-telling through digital Visaphors in digital museum exhibits, high-definition television, and IMAX movies. She’s been nominated for Academy Award 1996 and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry selected Donna Cox as one of 40 modern Leonardo Da Vinci’s.
Artist and visualization expert Donna Cox talks about the power of “visiphors” — powerful renderings of complex systems which make the previously unknowable explainable.
