TED Community » Robert Diehl

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Cities worth living in.

An idea worth spreading

Art is revolutionary. Each of us is born an artist. Who will rediscover that and what will we do with it?

Comments

• TEDCred score: +10250.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

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  A comment on Conversation: Pepsi's TED talk: Progressive corporate transformation, or TEDwashing (like greenwashing for intellectuals)?

  Mar 7 2011: This will forever be a conumdrum - how pure is pure, or what shade of gray should be the boundary? TED needs to maintain a light enough shade of gray to preserve an air of authenticity, honest-brokery etc.
  
  Pepsi has its own version of this with its Refresh program - for instance could it possibly support a Refresh initiative in school systems that replaces its products with locally grown foods and beverages [eg- milks and juices]?
  
  The TED solution seems to be evolving one trial Talk at a time - if its community feedback is one of its evaluation tools then we should all maintain a high level of mindful conversation in these fora. Programs funded by Refresh are wonderful - but I for one couldn't help being disturbed at Ms Nooyi's references to Pepsi products as "fun". That felt like washing to me.
  
  The Refresh progran equates to $0.04/ $100 in sales; $0.40/ $100 in revenue. This compares with domestic carbonated beverage and snack foods generating $39/$100 in sales, $54/$100 in revenue. That's a lot of unhealthy "fun" for every penny "refresh"ing. [sources: TEDTalk, wikinvest]

• A reply on Conversation: How do we capture the collective wisdom and engage the global TEDx communities?

  Feb 17 2011: Data visualization as an idea hit me as soon as I read Lara's question.
  
  For instance - a cloud of word bubbles - the word being a keyword self-generated by the TEDx Organizer, bubble size being the sum of incidents of the word. Clicking a bubble gives you the list of TEDx events that used it. Perhaps a second-level cloud showing frequency of cross-TEDx Origanizer communications flowing from the initial worb bubble.

• A comment on Conversation: Make Food gardening a curriculum in all schools.

  Feb 16 2011: Composting the traditional "3 R"s with the newfangled "3 R"s in a bed of actual foodmaking for today's meal ... one of those ideas that, to me, just screams out to become the new pedagogic paradigm!
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 16 2011: As a teenager, "Ecce Homo" by Friedrich Nietzsche - it opened my eyes to living a life as the liver sees fit to and accepting the consequences good and bad.
  
  As a 20-something, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - which opened my eyes to living a human life in inhuman circumstances, the power of the spirit.
  
  As a 50-something, "The Invisible Dragon, Essays on Beauty" by Dave Hickey - for reminding me that art is revolutionary, and this is why the instituion of art has become so boring during my lifetime.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 16 2011: I recently attended a talk given by the president, Michael Crow of our local state university, Arizona State University. The take away I want to share here is that ASU intends to split science along different lines than the present:
  - that about which we are ignorant, and need to learn, and
  - that about which we know enough to design new stuff.
  
  He proposes to call the second "design science".
  
  As an example, ASU intends, I'm told, to place healthcare into their design school.
  
  Whether that's the actual future it's certainly a bold move.