-this commercial was shown, which I hadn't seen before. Weird source for the content, but great message
-Dave Eggers talked about his 826 Valencia model which is being replicated all over the place these days. It's a bunch of literature or english teachers pitching in to tutor kids after school and a one on one environment, and the facility is fronted by a theme store, i.e. 826 Valencia is a pirate supply store. Very inspiring.
-Irwin Redlener talked about disaster scenarios and how to prepare or what to do. Someone at TED took the photo so here were some key take aways:
-Phil Zimbardo is an expert of evil, and talked about the Lucifer Effect - "a celebration of the human mind's infinite capacity to make us behave kind or cruel, nice or bad, etc." He talked about how the abuse in Abu Ghraib weren't the result of "a few bad apples" as it was characterized, but rather something that was more systemic. People, when put into a particular environment will do things as a product of that environment and their role or authority. (Over a drink last night, a friend of mine paralleled this with his experience with venture capitalists).
-E.O. Wilson was one of last year's TED prize winners for this wish for an encyclopedia of life that came to fruition just hours ago
-Neil Turok is the founder of AIMS, a math educational program and facility in Capetown. It's a place where students can live and study. Turok believes that Africa can only be put on its own two feet by Africans, so his mission is to spread AIMS throughout Africa and yield the next Einstein.
-I stayed out too late and have a fat headache
Technorati Tags: TED 2008, 826 Valencia, Irwin Redlener, EO Wilson, Phil Zimbardo, Neil Turok, AIMS
Zimbaro is brilliant -- took a class from that guy and promptly realized I didn't want to be a psychologist. Still, the best prof at Stanford in the 1990s.
Posted by: Aaron Burcell | February 29, 2008 at 05:05 PM