A terrific lecture with a very positive message

August 19, 2007
Sunday

A terrific lecture with a very positive message

Johnathan Pearce (London)

As a counterweight to the doomongers out there, this is a spendid talk on global economic and population trends that one hopes reaches a wide audience. Something pleasant for a Sunday. The video runs for about 20 minutes or so, if my memory serves. It is always refreshing to come across an academic who is not only thought-provoking but also very funny.

Comments

Funny you should mention the TED lectures... I was watching Richard Dawkins' lecture on our interpretation of our surroundings (something described using a 'Middle World' analogy of sorts) Google Video this afternoon. It prompted me to look in to the TED series a bit more...

Posted by James at August 19, 2007 05:16 PM

Great video on the whole, and the software is quite remarkable, but I noticed a few things that made me suspect his figures: First of all, when hes talking about child mortality rates per 100 he meantions cuba as bieng high in Latin America. As far as this goes, I've heard that any statistics on health and living standards that come out of that country are deeply flawed. And I really wonder where He, or the U.N got the cuba statistics. Furthermore, an even sharper rock to swallow, In the same section on child mortality rates, she shows a fast forward from the 1960´s to today and mentions how chinas rise is due to Mao tse tung and how he "brought health to china".... Ive read a fair bit about Tse tungs rule, and very little of that I have heard corresponds with the idea of him bringing health to his country. Once again I hold the statistics on that suspect as well. Any opinions..

Posted by stephan at August 20, 2007 06:16 AM

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