How food shapes our cities and Charter Cities

Carolyn Steel: How food shapes our cities: fascinating insight in to how food logistics from pre-industrialised cities continues to leave its stamp and, despite global supply chains, are stamped on the city’s identity. Our challenge is how we re-connect cities to food systems such that cities can be sustainable and integrated with food systems.

At the same time, another inspiring Ted Talk, from Paul Romer: Why the world needs charter cities – cities that espouse the most sustainable aspirations.

 

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Realtime, High Res, Open Data of a Changing Planet

This was another of those truly inspirational Ted talks that makes you realise that not everyone is out there to screw the world over. Fantastic stuff from Will Marshall and his colleagues to develop a floatilla of satellites to enable high-res digital photography of the earth in, virtually, real-time. Then to open that up to citizens of the world for their own exploitation and exploration. Watch the 8 min talk here:

Will Marshall: Tiny satellites show us the Earth as it changes in near-real-time | Talk Video | TED.com.

Apple Pie is 2nd Favourite in the USA or Big data is better data (TED.com)

If you’re sick of the term ‘big data’ then take a look at the excellent Ted Talk performed by Kenneth Cukier.

His talk, “Big data is better data” makes it easy to understand the potential big data can have for all of us in understanding patterns of behaviour we’re simply not smart enough to recognise. By being able to better interrogate big data through asking better questions, we can see why Americans’ actually prefer many other types of pie – they just eat more apple pie.