Video Friday: Polar Life

So I'm sitting here, and I'm looking out my office window, and there are a bunch of snowflakes coming down, and I went searching for a video that related to the snow. Today's video is about Paul Nicklen, a photographer who has been specialising in photographing the polar regions since 1995.

Here, he shares a number of gorgeous photos, but also talks about the power and necessity of the ice and the related ecosystem. (A few of the photos are disturbing - the cycle of life and climate change is not always pretty.)

Also, a really wonderful story about a leopard seal. (Totally worth watching and amazingly funny: it starts about 13 minutes in.)

Video Friday: Thinking in pictures

Today's video is a classic topic - this is Temple Grandin, famous for her work with animals and her writing about her own autism. She talks about the importance of engaging different kinds of thinking, what kinds of thinking we need to encourage creativity and solutions. She touches on visual thinking, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and the importance for different kinds of minds to work more productively together.

Video Friday: What is the Internet?

So, related to our Tuesday post: what is the Internet, anyway? Journalist Andrew Blum takes on that question, exploring the physical reality of what makes the Internet work in a TED video. In the process, he discusses the problem of squirrels, interocean cable, and building redundant connection points in Africa.

Looking up

Tomorrow is the fall equinox, which always gets me (at least) thinking more about the stars.

Let me pause here for a moment: I moved to Farmington just over a year ago, after living all my previous life in either suburbs or cities. I still can't get over looking up at the night sky, and seeing so many more stars, and how fascinating they are.

So, today's video is a talk from TEDxPhoenix, from Lucianne Watson, talking about light pollution, citizen-science (and how various projects are crowd-sourcing it - want to help discover a galaxy or a planetary system? You can!), and why we should care about how many stars we see in the wild, as it were. (11 minutes.)

Video Fridays: Changing Education Paradigms

Back to our series of TED and other short-video talks. This is from 2010, but it's one of my favourites, not just for the content (not all of which I agree with, but which all makes me think about how I learn best and why), but for a totally fascinating method of presenting information.

Take a look at Sir Ken Robinson's Changing Education Paradigms, as animated by RSA Animate. 12 minutes.