Eric Machmer

Comment Threads

• MissySchmidt commented on TEDxNASA: Details Revealed
  Agreed, NASA and NIA should be commended for bringing the TED experience to Hampton Roads. Tickets to a national or international TED event are impossible to get and VERY expensive, if you can access one. If you check out the TEDTalks videos on iTunes or the TED.com website, you can see what an enormous opportunity we have for Hampton Roads to be noticed on a global stage. Who better to pull off this regional event than NASA and NIA. Also, if you're a fan of TED as I am, then you know that not all of the talks are of...

• mjkmkk commented on TEDxNASA: Details Revealed
  Gotta chime in here again. I teach, among other things, science courses for non-science majors .... in many cases it's the only science class that a student will have in college, and I spend a lot of time on what distinguishes science from pseudo-science. It drives me nuts that an event that is at least by appearance NASA-sponsored has participants with such questionable pseudo-scientific backgrounds. This one particularly bugs me. It is classic: throw in a bunch of scientific jargon to prove your ideas have some cred by analogy. This at the same time that NASA is working hard to...

• Wouarnud commented on TEDxNASA: Right Message, Wrong Audience?
  I have to say I have doubted the whole TED thing for some time now. It's a bit like mainstream journalism: If you don't know about a particular topic, any given presentation may look good, but if you're familiar with it they're usually the same trivia all over again. I think Keith you're deluding yourself (or being cynical): TED, Davos etc... are basically gatherings of so-called rich and powerful people for other rich and powerfule people. Sometimes they invite what they think of as a maverick to pretend it's all edgy. But really, it isn't, it's mostly about delusions of...

• Ray commented on TEDxNASA: Right Message, Wrong Audience?
  The ideas of these gatherings are good in principle, but like mainstream politics, they've been mostly emptied of substance. A-freaking-men! Some of us are tired of an endless parade of buzzwords and (alleged) "innovative ideas" which amount to exactly nothing more than another attempt to get people to "look at me! I am important!" Powerpoint, and the ability for any idiot to "put on a show" has cheapened innovation by making it seem like a big PR campaign. Our society and culture used to be all about creating real products, real value, and real benefits. All around us it is...

• albertoconti commented on TEDxNASA: Details Revealed
  I was a TEDx NASA today. I posted my comments on a discussion board on the TEDx NASA facebook group. Inviting Sue Morter and giving her credibility in such a forum was big mistake. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=10926&uid=94340099518...