on October 3
in Science
James Nachtwey’s TED Wish? To inform the world about a potential pandemic.
You can also read about XDRTB on Wikipedia.
I, for one, was not aware that XDRTB was the direct result of the improper administration of the drugs that treat the currable strains of TB. This makes sense in the same way super bugs could be created through the flushing of all that antibacterial soap into our sewers and waterways: kill the weaker strains, and the bad bugs will flourish.
Through the XDRTB Web site, you can send a form letter to the 2008 candidates for President of the United States. This approach to exercising our right to the ears of our leaders does work. Please consider taking a moment to reach out and touch your candidate, whomever he (or she!) may be.
Incidentally, of the words pandemic and epidemic, pandemic is the more serious of the two.
on September 28
in Science
I’m a big fan of TED. TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design,” and is an organized effort to unite thinkers and doers with an audience for their ideas. Some of the ideas are merely interesting, but a few are revolutionary. And all are staged for the advancement of our species and the improvement of our world.
Once per year, the TED conference awards three “TED Prizes:” $100,000 given to three extraordinary individuals towards the advancement of their revolutionary ideas or TED wishes. The TED prize also symbolizes the full weight of the TED community, uniting behind the goals of the prize winners.
In 2007, James Nachtwey was one of the three recipients. A distinguished photojournalist, Nachtwey’s wish was to to receive help from the TED community to gain access to and report on an as of yet untold story with broad implications. The video at the bottom of this page is Nachtwey’s presentation at the 2007 TED conference in which he exhibits many of his breathtaking (in the horror they convey) photos and makes his “wish.”
The results of his prize are to be announced on Oct. 3, and will be revealed through a series of dramatic venues (like bilboards in Union Square, New York City). If I had to guess, the subject of his reporting will be the horrors of war, particularly as they relate to our (the United States’) recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But only time will tell.