Parkour goes ‘x’ - TEDxYouth@Alexandria

Too short a video, but this example of parkour is very cool.

Parkour goes ‘x’

13 December 2012

Kind of like skateboarding without the skateboard, parkour is a physical art form in which practitioners, run, jump, twist and flip off the landscapes around them. In this video trailer for TEDxYouth@Alexandria, several adventurous young TEDx’ers backflip their way through the Egyptian city, spreading the power of “x” as they show off their parkour maneuvers.

This video originally appeared on the TEDx Blog. Head there to see many more great info from TEDx events »

Warren Karlenzig - Collective Intelligence: Cities as Global Sustainability Platform - TEDxMission

His delivery is stilted and controlled, but his ideas are important. We are entering a period of amazing and rapid urbanization, a move that dwarfs urbanization at the beginning of the 20th century. Karlenzig argues against low-density urban sprawl in favor of high-density approaches, which increases resilience and reduces resource needs.

I would like to hear Karlenzig in conversation with Marilyn Hamilton, author of Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive.

Karlenzig is founder of Common Current, and author of How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane U.S. City Rankings. 

Warren Karlenzig - Collective Intelligence: Cities as Global Sustainability Platform

TEDxMission - Social media and collaborative technologies--layered with smart systems combining geo-location data with human experience--will make cities the driving sustainability force in a dawning planetary era. Cities will anticipate new risks with rapid urban systems innovation based upon crowd-sourcing, virtual and physical communities, and transparent markets sensitive to full carbon and resource costs. Creatively leveraging collective intelligence for clean energy, low carbon mobility and sustainable food and water, the new urban grid will enable high local quality of life, lifelong learning and vibrant green economies.

Biodiversity in Our Cities: The Case for Urban Nature | The New School

Cool panel discussion on the need for and importance of urban nature - we need green spaces in our cities, from The New School in New York City and their environmental studies department. There is substantial evidence that people are healthier both physically and psychologically the more they are exposed to nature and green spaces.

Biodiversity in Our Cities: The Case for Urban Nature

Did you know that there is nature in New York City? The five boroughs are rich with forests, marshes, and meadows -- more nature than any other city in North America. Yet these natural resources are threatened by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation - the same factors that threaten biodiversity everywhere. In fact, about one-third of the native flora and fauna in the United States faces extinction. In our urbanized world, the idea of cities as "concrete jungles" is inaccurate and only further alienates people from the natural world. Conserving and maintaining the ecosystems on which cities depend is essential to the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of their citizens.

Tishman Environment and Design Center
This panel will discuss the status of urban ecology in regional policies and national trends and will examine how cities can develop comprehensive, collaborative, and proactive strategies for biodiversity conservation, management and restoration through government policies, public education, grassroots initiatives, business strategies and living systems design.

Part One:


Part Two:

Tags: Biodiversity in Our Cities, The Case for Urban Nature, The New School, Urban Center, City, Cities, Ecology, nature, environment, urban space, biodiversity, Environmentalism, New York City, Habitat Loss, ecosystem, policy, restoration, government policies, public education, grassroots, garden, green, flowers, gardens, gardening analysis inspirational health politics environment commentary educational college discussion