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About Me

T1PB | Toni’s One Paragraph Bio
(written in 3rd person, so it sounds more professional)

Toni was into geography even before he was born. His mother being a teacher for geography and sport from 1981 on, he was well educated even before his day of birth in November the following year in a town in the south-central German Democratic Republic, the westernmost country of the former Eastern Bloc. Being born in a country that doesn’t exist anymore, he none the less grew up and spent his first 20 odd years living where the earth’s axis pierces through the earth’s surface, interestingly located just about seven miles from his place of birth in the present-day free state of Saxony. With all this geographical heritage, and having traveled much of Western Europe, North America and Australia, in 2004 he went on to study the one and only subject in question. Finishing in 2011 with two more continents explored and a master’s degree in Geography from Dresden University of Technology, he decided to stick with the crazy science world for a while to step up the ladder of Wow a bit further. He is currently preparing his Ph.D. in how-to-save-the-world-from-climate-skeptics at the University of Oklahoma.

And now: the boring version, just in case …

Toni Klemm joined the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, in August 2012 and serves there as a Ph.D. student in Applied Climatology at the South Central Climate Science Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Toni holds a Master’s degree in Geography from Dresden University of Technology in Germany. He was previously involved in research on regional climate change adaptation in urban areas and has conducted statistical research on the effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on precipitation in Morocco to obtain his degree.

Location:
United States Minor Outlying Islands, Norman, Ok
Gender:
Male
Areas of expertise:
Climate Change, Photography - Sport | Wedding | Portrait | Outdoor | Reportage, Journalism - print
I am:
Christian, Environmentalist, Journalist, Photographer, Scientist, World traveler
Associations:
BUND, Johanniter, DKMS
Languages:
English, French, German
My website links:
Toni's webpage
Universities:
Dresden University of Technology, University of Oklahoma - Norman
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More About Me

Talk to me about

Climate change, climate research, Advertising, Sport (especially amateur wrestling), psychology (especially social behaviour), Christian religion

People don't know that I'm good at

driving car, tractor, lorry, motorcycle, and ...of course... forklift.

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +8.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • +1

    A comment on Talk: David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips

    Apr 26 2013: I knew about half of them. So I learned 5 things in 5 minutes. How cool is that :-)

  • A comment on Talk: Jennifer Healey: If cars could talk, accidents might be avoidable

    Apr 25 2013: Her argument about road safety makes a lot of sense to me, but I wonder what happens with the "gossip" data the cars exchange (velocity, position, direction) after they exchanged it? Will we rely on the car to react on its own? Because if we don't, then the driver has to. And regardless of the way this is communicated to him/her, I think it will be just one more distraction from what's going on on the road.

  • A comment on Talk: Robert Gordon: The death of innovation, the end of growth

    Apr 24 2013: In my opinion he had too many examples (which made me lose track of his story) and didn't answer the basic question you get (I at least) when you read this talk title: Why does the western world need improvements (innovation) to keep the standard it has today (e.g. counteracting inflation)?
  • +1

    A comment on Talk: How much does a video weigh?

    Apr 24 2013: I sort of get his point (segueing from interesting questions to hard-to-digest material), but I'd be curious what sort of people his videos are focused on. I'm a 30 year old Ph.D. student, and I wasn't really lifted off my chair by his explanations.
  • +12

    A comment on Talk: Keller Rinaudo: A mini robot -- powered by your phone

    Apr 9 2013: Another TED infomercial. I'm sorry, but in my point of view there's no "idea worth sharing" in this talk.

    It's a nice idea, but honestly, what is the background and the bigger picture here? This guy doesn't say a word about how they came up with the idea, how it works (probably for a reason) or what the next step is. He even said he doesn't know what the future of robotics will look like. So what do we learn here (apart from that it costs "only" 150 bucks)? Nothing. Watch the video on their website and get more information than here. http://romotive.com/meet-romo

  • A reply on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

    Mar 28 2013: Hi Mark, thank you for the additional remarks and your clarifications on this. That makes the whole thing indeed look a little different to me and I am sorry for pointing fingers at you.

    Watching your youtube videos (search for the Ultra-Tech International Inc. channel) I see a lot of similarities to your TED talk (as you pointed out). And that's what I have trouble with, because while your Youtube videos are meant to advertise your product, I think the presentation at TED should have been more focussed on the technology behind these cool effects. Of course, you probably don't want to reveal too much of that. But only re-showing what is already out there (on Youtube) in my opinion is not the purpose of TED.

    Maybe this time the criticism should be more pointed towards the TED organizers.

    Those things aside, I wonder what the differences (especially the improvements) are between your product and other products that have been or are being invented that make use of the "Lotus effect". I am not an engineer, I only know a bit more of that through a chat to a bionics Ph.D. student who told me, one difficulty of applying the lotus effect is to make the surface durable. This seems to be a problem with your coating as well (judging from your Youtube intructional video). I would appreciate if you shared a few thoughts on that.
  • +1

    A reply on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

    Mar 28 2013: This is a reply to Tao P's second reply.

    It would bother me if he patented this fence and tried to marked it large-scale using TED as a vehicle for that. In my opinion that's what Mark Shaw's intention is.

    The line between these two talks is pretty obvious: a schoolkid telling us everything he did, even revealing his "circuit diagram" plus giving a lot of background information on the general circumstances and the problem itself, and an engineer giving an incomplete tour of a product he invented, owns and sells. At least to me, the difference is quite obvious.
  • +1

    A reply on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

    Mar 27 2013: Color me idealistic, but having people not keeping their word doesn't make it better following them down that path, does it? Who is the beacon now?

  • A reply on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

    Mar 27 2013: I don't mind infomercials either, but is should be clearly marked as one. The problem is that viewers expect TEDtalks to be objective, and showing the pros and cons equally. But if you're the guy trying to sell your own product you're unlikely to provide this objectivity. And some people will believe you indicating that this is something tremendous, having no downsides.

    I'd be interested how this material behaves in different temperatures (e.g. coated on a frying pan, a stove top, the inside of a fridge, or the protective glass shield in front of your living room fireplace). Also, he didn't address how damaging the coating affects the repelling effect. Would it work there, that would be revolutionary I think. But since he didn't address these conditions I assume it doesn't.
  • +2

    A comment on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

    Mar 27 2013: I would be curious to know how this coating behaves after the material it had been applied to is deformed. The glove for example works well the first time in the water, but the second time, with the mud not quite so well.

    This aside, this talk is 40 seconds of information and some 4:40 min of product demonstration. I'm not sure if that's what Chris Anderson envisioned in his 2002 "inaugural" talk, when he announced "no selling, no corporate bu****it" (http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_shares_his_vision_for_ted.html, at 9:40min) being the core values of TED.

    It is sad to see "infomercials" like this one here popping up every once in a while (e.g. Nathan Myhrvold http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_cut_your_food_in_half.html or Steve Truglia http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_truglia_a_leap_from_the_edge_of_space.html). These talks sure have educational value, but the main reason clearly is some financial interest. I hope this changes back, or I see the values of TED disintegrating sooner or later.
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