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99% talks

When i first went to 99% it looked like it was going to be similar to ted.com just based on the layout and the little quotes on the side about ideas, but what interested me the most was how few of the videos were about technology at all. its seems that the internet site focuses more about learning about ourselves and what we already have rather that newly created things. the first video i watched was hosted by Aaron Dignan and his presentation was about games, and how important they are to exceling at other aspects of life.he explained that the human brain is designed to love games from simple games to complex video games, and he explained how we should embrace that type of stimulation more in our lives. the next video i watched was presented by jay O'Callahan, this presentation was a little more confusing to find a main point but i still found it very interesting. he talks about storytelling and the power and impact it has on people. he uses nasa as an example to using a childs death from cancer and explains how stories can humanize certain events in life. The third video i watched was done by Frans Johansson about executing great ideas frans talks alot about the ideas of the past compared to ideas of today and the future. he was talking about why there arent as many revolutionary ideas being made today as there were in the past, and how our new system of living creates all sorts of roadblocks for great ideas, and how technicalities in the modern world stop ideas from ever being realized.

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city pics

<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102177090776028488002/September7201102?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3ZUvDNqpEKs/TmfGU0tynSE/AAAAAAAAABA/HKKyzEDc_UU/s160-c/September7201102.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102177090776028488002/September7201102?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">September 7, 2011</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102177090776028488002/September7201102?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3ZUvDNqpEKs/TmfGU0tynSE/AAAAAAAAABA/HKKyzEDc_UU/s160-c/September7201102.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/102177090776028488002/September7201102?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">September 7, 2011</a></td></tr></table>

ted talk copyright

I thought the ted talk on the current copyright laws with multimedia was very interesting. i had seen a video with a similar argument called Rip Remix, i don't think it right that people shouldn't be able to use others artwork to create their own. all ideas come from previous ideas and as long as people are altering the original piece in some way than it should be legal. i didn't think the slideshow he used with his presentation was very exciting and i thought he could've used more examples like with music copyright laws and medicine copyright laws but i thought he got the point across well.

walk/ride/bike response

For the walk/ride/bike trip i went to the philadelphia museum of art with my girlfriend Maia. the trip started with picking Maia up around Drexel's campus which is usually pretty quick but because of all the rain took about half an hour, and then another twenty minutes to get to the museum, when Maia's roommate called her because she was locked out with a key. so we went back to the apartment to let her in and then back again to the museum. but the good thing was now there was almost nobody in the museum. at first we looked at the arms and armor especially the engraved rifle room but the majority of the trip was spent in the asian art galleries. after running around taking some pictures we decided that the japanese tee house room would be a good place to stop and sit down. we spent about 30 minutes in the tee house room and then wandered off into several asian galleries with a bunch of different sculptures and structures. the walk back to the car was more difficult than anticipated in the pouring rain and we lost our way searching for the parking garage around the building. all in all it was a fun trip and was interesting to take pictures throughout the whole trip.

response to TED.com videos

The first video on ted i watched was about dean kamen demonstrating a new prosthetic arm that he and a team of scientists were commissioned to build by a member in the united states government. the primary reason for its creation was for the number of amputees coming back from the war in iraq. the way the scientists designed the arm allows each individual finger to move and even has pressure and heat sensors built in. the finished product will also have a coating on it that simulates human flesh almost identically and can be painted to replicate the amputees other limb. i think this new arm seems like it could be the start to a whole new kind of prosthetic limb that lmost completely enables the amputee to have use of their limb back. the arm would be much more useful than current models and could even pick up a raisin off of a table.

The second video on ted that i watched was about Markus Fischer and his team of scientists that created a robot that can fly like a bird. at first i didnt think the video was going to be that impressive because i had seen mechanical flying birds before or could see how it would be done using a motor and propellors or something like that. but when he started explaining that the bird actually flew how a living bird flys and keeps itself in the air only using the motion of its wings the video became much more interesting. the bird was designed after a seagull and is called the smartbird. its made out of some grey/silver colored material which they said had to be very lightweight. during the demonstration it flew over the audience and really simulated a living bird almost exactly. i thought this video was interesting because the scientist were using modern technology to replicate something natural and living. the whole design of the robot was just based on a seagull and just how to replicate it using modern materials, even down to the aerodynamics of the shape of its body.