TED Community » russell lester

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The possibilities for new ways of doing everything in this century.

An idea worth spreading

The very basic building blocks of our technology must be re evaluated and no project should be undertaken without looking at its impact not in years or decades but centuries.

Talk to me about

politics climate food transportation actually anything

People don't know that I'm good at

Hand making toys

My TED Story

I saw a TED documentary on Netflix, I found this web site, I have always had ideas and sought a place to shsre them with people who might be able to do something with them.

Comments

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

• A comment on Conversation: Prison labor to sort our trash!

  May 8 2013: Why not?
  
  it would be a fine thing to provide the inmates with access to unknown quantities of any number of possible resource
  
  . The lives and safety of the inmates and the guards not being of any concern to us,
  
  and there being no moral ambiguity about prison labor and slave labor.
  
  Perhaps people could work off taxes instead? or we could down grade crimes like drug offenses to something requiring only community service,
  
  of course why stop there?
  
  lets put the people on welfare to work in the dumpsters,
  
  and the mentally ill
  
  and the school children as well as the elderly
  
  they are all portions of society that are dependent on support by the society as a whole
  
  , at the very least lets have the mentally handicapped
  
  and the chronic debtors doing it.
  NOT
  
  Maybe this idea would accomplish the same thing but in a better more free market system: sell claims in old land fills and create the industry to reclaim the materials recovered without further harm to the environment. Federal processing plants to shred the plastic and heavy metals from each other while preventing poisonous contamination. Good steady federal jobs in the plants recycled materials available to the private industry, and grassroots environmental cleaning. You can't beat self interest as motivation for people to do something.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Colonization

  May 8 2013: Yes we can colonize the poles but it would be in my opinion a better idea to colonize the ocean floor and continental shelf's. We know that there are large deposits of frozen Methane that can be used as fuel, and that as it exists poses a risk of catastrophic out gassing The skills needed to master the environments of space and those to master underwater living are similar, artificial environments to maintain, pressure, cold waste heat disposal and many others. Earth colonies are easier to rescue and resupply as well, plus the deep sea environments around the volcanic vents give us an opportunity to practice skills needed in exobiology.
  In response to the last part of your question, yes the sooner we can begin to transplant human and terrestrial biota to other worlds the better. as of yet we know of no other life than that on earth. It would be a tragic loss for us to allow it to perish if we have the ability to spread it, as soon as we begin to accept the cost in time and lives that true exploration of the space we live in we will not blink at 5 or 10 year voyages to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter to the asteroids to the mountains of perpetual light on the lunar south pole to the solar systems grandest canyon or most incredible volcano, to the point where we don't fear any random collision because we have the technology to move any dangerous rock, someday we might be the advanced aliens that another desperate planet scans the heavens for and we owe it to them to still be around.

• A comment on Conversation: Why do we bother with spelling?

  May 3 2013: good qeutsoin as it truns out the lttres in the mddile of the wrod not matetr mcuh.

• A comment on Conversation: Governments have a Department of War Prevention.

  May 1 2013: Step one : The UN. The UN needs to be made into a powerful organization, the member nations should be taxed of technology and this technology used to establish a UN satalite system to watch the world for information without reliance on member nations, it should include search rescue and law enforcement rights such as held by the us coast guard on the entire world oceans and in cislunar space,
  Also they need to control a space based and land based anti missile systems.
  An international force of UN peace keepers, that is military riot police, needs to be created and maintained as a standing force not reliant on the militaries of member nations.
  The UN needs to recognize and establish "Free cities" that is Cities that are UN sovigern territorries so that the (I hope) growing number of people who see them selves as Global citizens have a place to go.
  
  In a book I have which was printed in the tiny window for time after WWI and before the failure of the Leage of nations, the cause of war is identified as the lawlessness an Anarchy that exists between nations. There needs to be an internationall body with international law and one law needs to be It is a Criminal act to invade or aid in the overthrow by force another nation.

• A comment on Conversation: If africa was not colonised,would we(africans) have this technology?

  May 1 2013: In your imagined what if did slavers come? If you are asking what would have happened if the entire continent was avoided for some reason, then I think yes you would have the same things , I think that the continent of Africa has a great number of powerful nations historically and that trade and innovation as well a scientific thought and human progress in general occur where humans exist, not humans exposed to missionaries, not humans colonized by Europeans, humans.I was reading last night about the 100 most important scientific discoveries of all time and the first was counting, its existence as supported by an artifact came from Africa, as did the earliest "calculator" Stop asking yourself questions that demean yourself,

• A comment on Conversation: Should schools be required to report absent children to their parents as soon as possible, rather than waiting until late in the afternoon?

  Apr 30 2013: its a shame we did not have more responses to this topic.
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  A reply on Conversation: Would having a "Fact Check Accurate" seal on a political ad help you in deciding what to vote for?

  Apr 30 2013: A fine against any form of speech is a dangerous idea as it would directly threaten free speech. Existing laws about slander and lible are in place and can be applied, perhaps applying the wire fraud laws to things like false statements in ads or (my pet peeve) those ads that masquerade as news or emergency broadcasts.

• A reply on Conversation: Would having a "Fact Check Accurate" seal on a political ad help you in deciding what to vote for?

  Apr 30 2013: If at least the facts were required to be facts that would be a start, in more involved fact checker schemes the interpretation of the facts relevance or at least its source

• A comment on Conversation: Would having a "Fact Check Accurate" seal on a political ad help you in deciding what to vote for?

  Apr 30 2013: I would gladly volunteer to be a part time editor of fact one of several assigned to a list of facts from assorted sites, the organization would send ou ta list to say a half dozen volunteers the list might be 100 facts and the deadline could be 7 to 10 days, citations t o sources such as encyclopedia or other reference books, or newspaper print media, at least 3 sources per fact I am fortunate that I have enough time to contribute to such a project, but there would be many others I am sure. The facts sent to fact checkers could be from many different topics or sites.
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  A comment on Conversation: What is the best way to prevent rape in war zones?

  Apr 29 2013: In a situation where you have put men (and women) with the order to kill, and the reality that they will be killed. This is an environment where fear and hate and what is being called Moral Injuries flourish.I think you must work to stop war, End the use of violence to convert others to your ideas.