New post] A 3D printed dress for the Paralympics, biodiversity in the heart of the city, and a camera that can read a closed book

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights.

Man vs. machine? It took Danit Peleg just 100 hours to print the dress worn by fellow TEDster Amy Purdy in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Rio (if that sounds slow, consider that it took her 300 hours to print a dress a year ago). Peleg had never met Purdy before the first fitting, so she used Nettelo, an app that allows users to create a 3D scan of their body, to make sure the dress fit Purdy perfectly. Since Peleg used a soft material called Filaflex to print the dress, it moved beautifully as Purdy, a Paralympic medal-winner who lost both legs to bacterial meningitis at age 19, mesmerized audiences with a bionic samba routine. (Highlighting the fact that Purdy was also a finalist onDancing With the Stars.) The dress was perfectly in line with Purdy’s dance, a reflection on the human  relationship to technology and its ability to allow Paralympic athletes to reach their full potential -- one point, Purdy even danced with a robotic arm. (Watch Danit’s TED Talk and Amy’s TED Talk)

For the problems that affect us all, start small. Our national and international political institutions are hopelessly ill equipped to solve the complex, interdependent problems of the 21st century, says Benjamin Barber, but a solution is close at hand -- cities, and the mayors who govern them. Barber has long dreamed of building on the urban networks that already exist in specific policy domains to form a global parliament of mayors, and with the inaugural convening of the Global Parliament of Mayors in The Hague, September 9-11, that dream is now a reality. More than 60 mayors agreed on The Hague Global Mayors Call to Action and discussed future governance of the GPM. They also discussed action-oriented plans for such issues as climate change, migration and refugees. (Watch Benjamin’s TED Talk)

Taking the measure of fragile cities. Robert Muggah’s Igarapé Institute is behind a data visualization platform on fragile cities, which launched at Barber’s Global Parliament of Mayors and includes information on more than 2,100 cities with populations of 250,000 or greater. Developed along with United Nations University, World Economic Forum, and100 Resilient Cities, the cities were graded on 11 variables, including city population growth, unemployment, inequality, pollution, climate risk, homicide, and exposure to terrorism. Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that fragility is more widely distributed than previously thought. (Watch Robert’s TED Talk and read this Ideas piece co-written by Barber and Muggah)

Image permission granted by Robert Muggah.

Biodiversity in The City of Lights. Shubhendu Sharma’s project to promote biodiversity in Paris has been selected as one of 37 projects to improve the city that will be put to a public vote. The vote is part of the city’s Participatory Budget Initiative where residents submit proposals on concrete ways to improve their district or the city at large. The proposals are narrowed down before being voted on by residents (projects for the city at large and projects for specific districts are voted on separately). All residents, not just those who submitted the project, can help bring winning projects to life. Between 2014 and 2020, Paris has dedicated 5% of their capital budget to fund these projects and in 2016, that commitment totals €100-million. By 2020, the investment will total close to half a billion Euros. (Watch Shubhendu’s TED Talk)

The poetry of dissonance. “I don’t remember the last time police / sirens didn’t feel like gasping for air,” writes Clint Smith in his debut poetry collection, Counting Descent,released on September 15. Weaving between personal and political histories, Smith masterfully tells a coming-of-age story exploring the cognitive dissonance that occurs when the community you belong to and the world you live in send you two very different messages. Specifically, he renders the dissonance stemming from straddling a world that frequently depicts blackness as a caricature of fear and communities that ardently celebrate black humanity. (Watch Clint’s TED Talk and read his Ideas post)

Listen up, language lovers. Many of us lament the shifts that occur in language over time, maintaining that language is steadily deteriorating as it succumbs to a steady onslaught of acronyms from our text messaging habits or a misuse of words that grows to be common and accepted over time, like the use of “literally” to mean “figuratively.” But linguist John McWhorter thinks you should think twice before complaining. His new book, Words on the Move, published September 6, explains why the evolution of language is not only natural, but good. (Watch John’s TED Talk and watch for a new talk from John this fall.)

Art that mixes oil and water. Fabian Oefner is on a quest to unite art and science. As he told audiences at TEDGlobal 2013, “On one hand, science is a very rational approach to its surroundings, whereas art on the other hand is usually an emotional approach to its surroundings. I'm trying to bring those two views into one so that my images both speak to the viewer's heart but also to the viewer's brain.” His latest work, Oil Spill, is no exception. The photographs show the captivating result of mixing oil and water. The bright colors result from the refraction and reflection of light as it travels through the lens of the camera. (Watch Fabian’s TED Talk)

Do judge a book by its cover. How do you read a closed book? It sounds like a trick question, but Ramesh Raskar and colleagues have developed a camera that can do just that. In order to test the prototype, the researchers used a stack of papers, each sheet with one letter printed on it, and the camera was able to correctly identify the letters on the first 9 sheets. The camera uses a type of electromagnetic radiation called terahertz radiation and could eventually allow academics and researchers to access ancient books and documents too fragile to open. The system could also be applied for analysis of other materials that occur in thin layers, such as the coatings on machine parts or pharmaceuticals. On September 13, Raskar was awarded the Lemelson-MIT prize for his co-invention of many breakthrough imaging solutions including this camera, a camera that can see around corners, and low-cost eye care solutions. (Watch Ramesh’s TED Talk, and read more about the technology behind the camera in this Ideas piece.)

The real meaning of conspiracies. In The New York Times, Zeynep Tufekci explains how the prevalence of conspiracy theories in America’s current election cycle -- think Hillary Clinton’s body double or the head of her Secret Service who’s really her hypnotist -- is not an anomaly, but a symptom of problems that run much deeper. Conspiracy theories are nothing new, she says, but the growth of technology and declining trust in public institutions means that their number is only growing. “Conspiracy theories are like mosquitoes that thrive in swamps of low-trust societies, weak institutions, secretive elites and technology that allows theories unanchored from truth to spread rapidly. Swatting them one at a time is mostly futile: The real answer is draining the swamps.” (Watch Zeynep’s TED Talk and watch for a new talk from her this fall.)

Forecasting crime in Rio de Janeiro, a new Marvel comic, and an Airbnb to rejuvenate a rural community

The TED community has been very busy over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights.

Crime forecasting in Rio. Before the 2016 Olympic Games, worries ran high that crime in Rio might affect the mega-event; one reported attack at the Games (which actually might not have happened) grabbed headlines around the world during the Games. But the longer-running news story is the way crime affects Rio’s locals every single day. How can residents stay safe? Together with Via Science and Mosaico Internet, Robert Muggah’s Igarapé Institute just launched CrimeRadar, a publicly available crime-prediction platform. CrimeRadar uses advanced machine learning to forecast future crime risk and track historical crime tends. The launch is focused on Rio de Janeiro, with plans to take the platform global. (Watch Robert’s TED Talk)

CrimeRadar, developed by Robert Muggah's Igarapé Institute along with Via Science and Mosaico Internet, uses machine learning to forecast crime in Rio de Janeiro. The software runs on both mobile phones and desktops. Above, an example of the desktop version. Photo: courtesy of Robert Muggah

World of microbes. We’ve all heard some of the implications that microbes have for our health --from pandemic-level bad to the life-changing magic they perform in our guts-- but Ed Yong is determined to show us how they influence everything in the world around us. Released August 9, his debut book I Contain Multitudes takes a “microbe’s-eye view of the world” to reveal their role in everything from deep oceans to forests, squid to worms. (Watch Ed’s TED Talk)

Breaking the silence. “We have in this country this dynamic where we really don't like to talk about our problems. We don't like to talk about our history. And because of that, we really haven't understood what it's meant to do the things we've done historically,” Bryan Stevenson said at TED2012. A desire to change that dynamic is behind his passionate and tireless work to create the first national memorial to victims of lynching. Designed by fellow TED speaker Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group, the memorial was officially announced on August 16. The memorial will be accompanied by a museum at Equal Justice Initiative’s headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama, and both plan to open in 2017. (Watch Bryan’s TED Talk)

A global warning. Close to 3.3 billion people tuned in to watch the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games, but along with the usual celebration and dazzle, viewers were warned about the dangers of climate change. Many performances in the multi-hour spectacle highlighted the crucial role forests have in absorbing greenhouse gases -- along with a video describing how rising CO2 levels lead to climate change.  TED speaker, forester and sustainability activist Tasso Azevedo served as a consultant during development of the film, joining the elite club of TED speakers who’ve also appeared in Olympics opening ceremonies. (Watch Tasso’s TED Talk)

VR tech for paraplegics. Miguel Nicolelis is one of twenty scientists who published a paper in Scientific Reports detailing a new brain training approach that can induce partial neurological recovery in paraplegic patients. The sample size is small, eight patients, but all of them report being able to use their legs and feel sensation after sessions using an artificial exoskeleton, VR technology, and a brain-machine interface. Originally hoping to use the technique to help the patients regain a sense of control in their lives, the researchers stumbled upon its potential as a recovery tool. (Watch Miguel’s TED Talk)

Design for shared spaces. On August 2, Joe Gebbia announced the official launch of Samara, Airbnb’s own internal design studio, but the startup’s newest branch had already been hard at work designing a prototype home for the Japanese exhibition House Vision. The result, Yoshino Cedar House, houses a community center on its ground floor and accommodations beneath a gabled roof, exploring “how architectural features can engender a deeper relationship between hosts and guests.” But the idea doesn’t end there. Once the exhibition is over, the house will be moved to the rural town of Yoshino and become a bookable Airbnb rental. It will be maintained by the Yoshino community and proceeds will be used to benefit the area, which has been struggling since younger residents moved away. If Yoshino Cedar House is successful, the model may be used to rejuvenate rural communities elsewhere. However, Samara won’t just be involved in architecture; the design studio will work on service design and software engineering projects as well. (Watch Joe Gebbia’s TED Talk)

Women in the World of Wakanda. TED speaker and writer Roxane Gay and poet Yona Harvey, both first time comic writers, will pen a spinoff of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ popular Marvel Comic series Black Panther. The comic will also be set in the fictional African country of Wakanda and will follow Ayo and Aneka, two lovers and former members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther’s female security force. In an industry historically dominated by white male voices and characters, “the opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe, there’s no saying no to that,” Gay toldThe New York Times. (Watch Roxane’s TED Talk)

Right To Form A Company. CAMA

Right To Form A Company. CAMA
As from the commencement of this Acts, any two or more persons may form and incorporate a company by complying with the requirements of this Act in respect of registration of such company.

'Chelsea knew what they were getting into when Mourinho returned'

Jose Mourinho’s former mentor and close ally Augusto Inacio insists Chelsea were fully aware of the Portuguese manager's temperament when he rejoined Stamford Bridge and believes Roman Abramovich would be wrong to sack him.

Despite winning the Premier League and Capital One Cup last season, Chelsea have made their worst start to a campaign in 37 years. Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at home to Liverpool was their sixth league loss so far. Mourinho, meanwhile, has been forced to deny that members of his squad have turned against him.

But Inacio, who was a coach at Porto when Mourinho was compiling scout reports on opposing teams for Sir Bobby Robson, maintains the Chelsea boss should not alter the way he is handling his players and the media.

“The English know what Mourinho’s personality is like,” Inacio told Goal.

“He’s a forward, direct coach. It’s not new, he’s always been like that and I’m sure he won’t change. If there are confrontations, he responds because he has to respond.

“Jose previously told me he’s happy at Chelsea and living in London. I’m sure that hasn’t changed. I’m sure he wants to continue there and be happy and successful.





“He’s done a fantastic job at Chelsea. This year has not gone well so far, but it’s not a reason for him to leave Chelsea, as from one moment to another Jose can get Chelsea out of the situation.

“He’s a winner, with a winning mentality. He believes in his players and in his own technical ability. If they get two wins in a row they will get confidence. It’s a delicate moment, but I believe in Jose’s ability to get out of the situation.”

Despite several reports of unrest in the Chelsea dressing room, Inacio believes Mourinho is the right man to instil confidence in his players and deserves until the end of the season to turn things around.

“I know people like to win a lot. When you lose confidence it’s not the same, that’s football. That’s England, everyone’s like that,” said Sporting’s director of football.

“Jose is good for confidence and for stability. That’s why Chelsea should have some patience and only analyse at the end of the situation. They should let him continue until the end of the season, then analyse the situation.

Republican candidates’ new “rules for debates” are an attack on press freedom

For a bunch of self-proclaimed American exceptionalists, there’s nothing American or exceptional about the list of demands written by Ben Ginsberg, the attorney acting as chief negotiator for GOP candidates irritated by televised-debate conditions. In fact, they’re certifiably un-American.

“The campaigns’ [sic] will use the manner in which your debate(s) are run (and changes you say will you make from your past debates), the quality and fairness of your moderators’ questions, their enforcement of the rules, and their ability to achieve parity in distribution and quality of questions and time among the candidates to evaluate whether the candidates wish to participate in your future debates,” it reads. Apart from being comically convoluted, it’s a direct affront to US constitutional values.

The document goes on to detail a number of questions and rules broadcasters must satisfy in order to secure the participation of Republican candidates. They range from the harmless: “Where and when will the debate take place?”; to the paranoid: “[Do not] use behind shots of candidates showing their notes ... Who is the moderator? Will there be any additional questioners? Are they seated?”; to the downright censorial: “Will you commit that you will not ... allow candidate-to-candidate questioning ... have reaction shots of members of the audience or moderators during debates?”

It’s a ridiculous and embarrassing document, to be sure—but also more than a little alarming. It surely indicates a deep, ingrained rot plaguing the Republican party; a political outfit that has become so image-conscious, so infested with paranoid narcissists that it is willing to tear the first page off the Constitution.

A country that proclaims itself as the global example for the protection of free speech cannot seriously entertain this kind of behavior. If the media allows candidates to essentially dictate the content of the debates by agreeing to their draconian restrictions on format, could Americans still claim to have a fairer politics then those that elected Silvio Berlusconi in Italy or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey?

Surely, something major has shifted in the nature of mainstream political coverage over the past few decades to allow for this. Undeniably, it is the advent the internet and social media.

Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and targeted email lists, candidates have made significant inroads on the turf that used to belong to mainstream media outlets. Candidates no longer rely solely on air time to disseminate their messages. When they aren’t feeling sufficiently heard, they can go around CNN, Fox, and the various NBCs, as Donald Trump’s colorful tweets have most notably demonstrated.

And as was clear from the most recent Republican debate, broadcast by CNBC on Oct. 30, the candidates are unafraid to stand up to the media, creating yet another layer of public spectacle. The relationship between major media and all political candidates in the United States has historically been an adversarial one—but the animosity was veiled. There was, to an extent, reciprocal if reluctant respect. The new ability for Trump, Ben Carson, and company to reach hundreds of thousands, even millions of supporters and prospective supporters by way of Twitter and Facebook, independent of any third-party editorial guidelines, means they need not be first and foremost deferential to journalists. They can be outright derisive, and at the same time, cash in on (generally conservative) frustrations with the “lamestream media” and “gotcha journalism.”

All of this means the cooperative side of interaction between candidates and the press may be dying. It may even be already dead. If televised debates devolve into scripted pageantry, perhaps it would be best to do away with them all together. But that would be the equivalent of an armistice. More likely, the war will grow hotter, and the media will ramp up its “gotcha” coverage, even if most of it takes place outside of the debates themselves, if only to meet force with force.

Two incredibly troubled economies have the world’s hottest stock markets

The currency is collapsing. Inflation is running rampant. Basic items such as milk, cooking oil and toilet paper are in such short supply that people have turned to rationing.

Sound like an ideal environment for stock market investing?

Apparently, judging by Venezuela's benchmark Caracas Stock Exchange index, which is up more than 40% since the end of June. Running a relatively close second to Venezuela is Argentina another South American economy that might charitably be described as a basket case.

What's going on here? Well, we're looking at these stock markets in local currency terms. In other words, if you were a foreign investor your return wouldn't be nearly that big, (That said, even in official US dollar terms, Venezuelan and Argentinian stocks are up 27% and 24% respectively. The real run up is probably somewhat less, however, given weaker black market exchange rates.)

Finance experts have long been at odds over what impact inflation should have on stock markets. Traditional theory long held that equities should rise in inflationary periods as people use them as an inflation hedge (the thinking being that they’re real assets representing claims on real businesses that buy and sell in current prices).

Subsequent studies, such as this one, found very little evidence that actually happens. And many studies have found that stocks actually fall during periods of inflation. Interestingly, it seems that in the heterodox economies of Argentina and Venezuela, the traditional theory of a flight to real assets is holding up pretty well.

Working All the Angles: The Park Avenue South Prism Apartments Are Rarely Square

Angles and columns are prominent at Equity Residential's Prism building.

The building at 400 Park Avenue South, a luxury condo-rental hybrid co-developed by Equity Residential and Toll Brothers City Living, occupies strange territories.

Standing between 27th and 28th Streets, in what realtors were once content to call Flatiron, the building’s developers proudly fly the flag of Nomad, that edgy moniker for the advance of the hip sallying from the Ace Hotel. The dual developer arrangement, while we’re at it, is itself unusual. And condo owners will have a separate lobby, though when the building welcomes its first tenants come December, Equity’s Prism apartments—spread between the second and 22nd floors, with studios starting at $3,400 a month and three-bedrooms at $15,900—will hardly be serviced by a “poor door.”

Entries divided, residents will share basement-level amenities, including a pool and a golf simulator, lest the developers be accused of anti-egalitarian spirit. (The most modest, one-bedroom condo listing currently asks $1.97 million.)

Kitchens are medium-luxe.

Collectively, the edifice will resemble a rocket ship, Equity vice president George Kruse told us during a recent tour of rental floors, with twin flanking structures that drop away like boosters into the shade of an upthrust central spire. Interiors, on the other hand, seemed influenced more by the industrial-to-residential conversions that have lately come into vogue than by futuristic trappings of interstellar travel.

“We priced each unit individually,” Mr. Kruse said of the apartments, which have angular, jigsaw-reminiscent floor plans that dole out light, air and scenery in disparate portions.

Finishes, generally, are light, clean, medium-luxe: stainless steel Whirlpool appliances, blonde strip wood flooring, synthetic cabinetry, spacious, glass-enclosed showers.

But imparities crop up even within units. A two-bedroom on the eighth floor had a wide, open living room with walls of angled glass that seemed to cantilever over bustling Park Avenue South, a clever effect achieved in many of the dwellings. The master suite, however, huddled dimly against an interior courtyard, as did many of the Prism’s studios.

“We don’t think having the master in the back is a downside,” Mr. Kruse reasoned. “We actually think it’s a plus.”

Standing shadowed in one apartment, a near-identical version of which had been leased on another floor, Mr. Kruse recounted a sales pitch. “It is slightly dark,” he said. “But we just kind of went with the dark. We didn’t try to make it anything that it isn’t.”

Many units seem to cantilever over Park Avenue South.