Tag Archives: TED talk

Non-Violent Protests Work

The next time you are feeling helpless in the face of crooked elections and even more crooked politicians, think about employing some non-violent actions to start making the change you want.

The next time you are angry at mega corporations like Monsanto for polluting the food chain and our drinking water, but don’t think you can make a difference, think about boycotting the business.

Those are just 2 of the ways you can make a difference. One of the TED Talk presenters in this week’s newsletter offers 196 other ways to force change where it’s needed.

Those of you who know me, know I love TED Talks for all kinds of reasons. Here’s another one I love. Jamila Raqib , Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution, focuses on how non-violent protests have worked, around the world, and how they might just work for you….for us.

Raqib calls this movement a type of non-violent arms race.  She shares a document created by her mentor, Gene Sharp, that lists 198 methods of non-violent protest. Raqib also points out that a unified strategy helps boycotts to win the fight.

My biggest concern this Father’s Day morning is how to stop big money and big power from stealing the election out of the hands of the very people who really are supposed to be the ones who elect people to office.

Donald Trump may just implode on his own or be helped out the door by his fellow Republicans. It’s unlikely that Hillary Clinton and her mega-donors will as she represents many of the largest donors of political history.

Also, Clinton wants to win at any cost and has proven that by using bully tactics and what, in any other context would be considered bribery, to keep trying to silence those of us who support Bernie Sanders.

Unless we, the people, unite and engage in a unified, strategic and non-violent fight, we will watch Bernie Sanders, his ideals, his ethics and his desire to help his country be washed away in a tidal wave of political maneuvering and back room brokering.

Here’s hoping that Bernie Sander’s team is planning some non-violent protests at the nominating convention in Philadelphia. Let’s join in and make a difference.

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Nancy Kanwisher: A neural portrait of the human mind | Talk Video | TED.com

If anyone had asked me if a TED talk on neural imaging of the brain would make me cry…I probably would have laughed.

But this TED talk by Nancy Kanwisher did just that.  In the last 2 or 3 minutes of this fascinating talk, Kanwisher popped some images on the screen and I cried, instantly, spontaneously.

I won’t spoil it for anyone who wants to watch this talk but, having lost both of my brothers to brain tumors, I found the information and the imaging absolutely brilliant.

And the final images stunned me.  I hope you enjoy it, too.

Nancy Kanwisher: A neural portrait of the human mind | Talk Video | TED.com.

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How Creativity Can Be Fostered

If Larry Smith’s TED Talk on why many people fail to get the job they want depressed you, this guy should make you smile.

Smith and Jonah Lehrer, author of a new book on how creativity can be fostered, are looking at two different sides of the same coin.  Smith talks about how fear holds most of us back, makes us settle for “good” jobs instead of great ones.

Lehrer’s view is that all of us have the ability to be entrepreneurs, to have great jobs through our innate creativity.  All of us have voices that whisper answers to thorny work problems or offer up ideas for new products but most of us have forgotten how to listen.

An easy read, Imagine: How Creativity Works is like a door opening inside your mind and inviting ideas to sweep out into the world, ready for the hard work of refining, editing, shifting a bit to one side and polishing them for the marketplace.

Lehrer is also easy to listen to, offers solid information without any buttons or bows and reassures listeners that most of us really do have more than one great idea banging around in our heads; we just have to learn to stop and listen.

He suggests breaking away from the desk, playing ping pong or getting a shower. I have found that mowing the lawn and vacuuming do the same thing – disengage the rational mind that says, “No, that won’t work.” and give our imaginations a chance to come out and play.

Well worth a listen and well worth the $16.00 to buy the book!

Smith says to follow your passion. Lehrer says to listen to yourself, find your idea and start polishing. Both of these men offer insight into our lives that make it possible for us to step out, into this world and make a difference.

Thanks to Colton Perry for the Facebook post, for sharing this lovely approach to letting your creativity come out to play!

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Why you will fail to have a great career | Video on TED.com

This should be the commencement speech at every college this May.

In this funny and ultimately painful TED Talk, Larry Smith explains why most of us fail to get great jobs or even good jobs.  Most of us get what he calls blood sucking, soul destroying jobs

How many of us are looking back over our professional lives right now and know that Smith, a professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, is talking right to us?  How many of us looked our one clear passion in the eye…then looked away?

Smith says most of us.

Despite the fact that we want great jobs, we will fail.  Even those who aspire to just having good jobs will fail.   Watch it.  Laugh a little.  Cry a little, too.  Then consider trying to follow your passion.

Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career | Video on TED.com.

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Filed under Education, Inspiring People, Life & Death, World Changing Ideas