wiredvanity

TED Screenings Cologne
20 July 2009

On Saturday we’ve complimented – very successfully! – the first TSC (=TED Screenings Cologne). And by we, I’m talking about Christina, Dirk, Stefan and myself.

I’m not 100% sure anymore how the idea was born, but at some point we’ve found out, that we are all great fans of the TED Talks and decided that it would be a great fun to watch them and talk about them. Dirk’s place was kind of an obvious choice, because he owns a projector and the much needed screen. With good food (=Pizza) and drinks (=Beer & Strawberry Daiquiris) and some awesome TED Talks it ended up being a great Saturday. There will be definitely a TSC #2 – ping us, if you want to join us.

Here are some of the videos we’ve watched on Saturday:

1. Adam Savage’s obsessions

At EG’08, Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. It’s an entertaining adventure through the mind of a creative obsessive.

2. Olafur Eliasson: Playing with space and light

In the spectacular large-scale projects he’s famous for (such as “Waterfalls” in New York harbor), Olafur Eliasson creates art from a palette of space, distance, color and light. This idea-packed talk begins with an experiment in the nature of perception.

3. Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.

4. Sean Gourley on the mathematics of war

By analyzing raw data on violent incidents in the Iraq war and others, Sean Gourley and his team claim to have found a surprisingly strong mathematical relationship linking the fatality and frequency of attacks.