Calls vs. balls: An evolutionary trade-off

source: Cambridge University     2015年10月22日
Howler monkeys are about the size of a small dog, weighing around seven kilos, yet they are among the loudest terrestrial animals on the planet, and can roar at a similar acoustic frequency to tigers.
Evolution has given these otherwise lethargic creatures a complex and powerful vocal system. For males, a critical function of the roar is for mating: to attract females and scare off rival males.
But not all male howler monkeys have been equally endowed. The bigger a male howler’s vocal organ, and the deeper and more imposing roar they possess, the smaller their testes and the less sperm they can produce.
Dr Jacob Dunn from Cambridge's Division of Biological Anthropology describes this evolutionary 'trade-off' and how it relates to Darwin's work on sexual selection.

RSA Replay: Commerce With a Conscience

source: The RSA      2015年10月20日
James Timpson OBE is taking his family business to new heights with an innovative recruitment and staff development approach which achieves commercial and social goals.
Visionary business leader James Timpson operates an “upside down management” structure, with a high level of autonomy given to front line teams; everyone else is there to help them provide excellent service.
The success of the long-running family retail company springs from robust and democratic business principles and an innovative and philanthropic approach to recruitment.
Working closely with prisons across the UK, James has built a training and employment model which offers opportunities to ex-offenders wanting to change their lives for the better.
James Timpson visits the RSA to receive the 2015 Albert Medal for innovation in enterprise management, and to show how empowering individuals creates business value.

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William Thorndike: "The Outsiders" | Talks at Google

source: Talks at Google      2015年10月22日
What makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: “a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise.” Others might point to the qualities of today’s so-called celebrity CEOs—charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance? Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term.

In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms’ average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty—in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. In The Outsiders, you’ll learn the traits and methods—striking for their consistency and relentless rationality—that helped these unique leaders achieve such exceptional performance.

Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these “outsiders” shunned Wall Street and the press, and shied away from the hottest new management trends. Instead, they shared specific traits that put them and the companies they led on winning trajectories: a laser-sharp focus on per share value as opposed to earnings or sales growth; an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources; and the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a company’s long-term value.

Drawing on years of research and experience, Thorndike tells eye-opening stories, extracting lessons and revealing a compelling alternative model for anyone interested in leading a company or investing in one—and reaping extraordinary returns.

About the Author
William N. Thorndike, Jr. of Westwood/Boston. Founded Housatonic Partners, a private equity firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco, in 1994. Mr. Thorndike is a graduate of Harvard College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a Director of Alta Colleges; Carillon Assisted Living, LLC; CONSOL Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNX); Lincoln Peak Holdings, LLC; The London Company, LLC; OASIS Group Ltd.; QMC International, LLC; White Flower Farm, Inc., and a Trustee of The Stanford Business School Trust; WGBH; the College of the Atlantic (Chair); and a founding partner at FARM, a social impact investing collaborative. He is the author of The Outsiders.

DNA | Mammoths, Neanderthals, and Your Ancestors || Radcliffe Institute

source: Harvard University       2015年10月22日
WELCOME
Lizabeth Cohen, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Department of History, Harvard University

INTRODUCTION
Janet Rich-Edwards (9:17), Codirector of the Science Program, Radcliffe Institute; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

MAMMOTHS, NEANDERTHALS, AND YOUR ANCESTORS
Moderator: George Church (24:37), Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
John Hawks (29:29), Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Beth Shapiro (54:36), Associate Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Spencer Wells (1:20:16), scientist, author, entrepreneur, and former explorer-in-residence and director of the Genographic Project at National Geographic

PANEL DISCUSSION (1:46:05)

AUDIENCE Q&A (1:57:43)

Alain Badiou. Toward A Positive Definition of The Infinite. 2011

source: European Graduate School      2011年12月16日
http://www.egs.edu Alain Badiou, French philosopher, mathematician and author, talking about a positive form of the dialectical relation between the finite and infinite. In this lecture, Alain Badiou discusses the distinction between finite and infinite possibilities, immanent infinity as life potency, different types of infinity, and the complete separation between the infinite and the One in relationship to Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Alexandre Koyré, Auguste Comte, Georg Cantor, Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze focusing on being, existence, the One, immortality, physics, capitalism, humanity, equality, God, Christianity, affirmation and virtuality. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe. 2011. Alain Badiou.

Alain Badiou. The Ontology of Multiplicity: Omega As Event. 2011

source: European Graduate School       2012年1月3日
http://www.egs.edu Alain Badiou, French philosopher, mathematician and author, talking about the finite and infinite in an ontology of multiplicity. In this lecture, Alain Badiou discusses set theory, the formulas of existence and obligation, the reactionary vision in politics, and omega as a limit point and event in relationship to Plato, Georg Cantor, René Descartes, Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida focusing on truth, God, the One, affirmation, void, extensionality, globality, locality, difference, succession, repetition, new worlds, memory and life. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe. 2011. Alain Badiou.

Alain Badiou. Infinity and Set Theory: How To Begin With The Void. 2011

source: European Graduate School       2012年1月2日
http://www.egs.edu Alain Badiou, French philosopher, mathematician and author, talking about the relationship between the finite and infinite in the context of set theory. In this lecture, Alain Badiou recapitulates the struggle between reactive classicism and reactive romanticism, new humanism, grace and immanent life and goes on to discuss set theory and the paradox of beginning with nothing in relationship to Plato, René Descartes, Georg Cantor, Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze focusing on being, existence, the One, affirmation, subjectivity, the trace, the void, absolute beginning, the empty set, indeterminacy and omega. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe. 2011. Alain Badiou.

Alain Badiou. Infinity and Set Theory: Repetition and Succession. 2011

source: European Graduate School     2012年1月2日
http://www.egs.edu Alain Badiou, French philosopher, mathematician and author, talking about the operation of succession and naming in set theory. In this lecture, Alain Badiou discusses nothingness and infinity as two forms of being, the materiality of names, creative repetition and the matheme of the infinite in relationship to Plato, René Descartes, Georg Cantor, Jacques Lacan, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze focusing on being, existence, negation, affirmation, the indefinite, the encore, creative repetition, subjectivity, weak and strong infinity, omega, Faust, jouissance and woman. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe. 2011. Alain Badiou.

Air Pollution and Global Environments (Fall 2013)--Saewung Kim / UC Irvine

# automatic playing for the 27 videos (click the up-left corner for the list)

source: UCIrvineOCW    上次更新日期：2015年1月26日
Earth System Science 23: Air Pollution and Global Environments (Fall 2013)
View the complete course: http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/ess_23_air...
License: Creative Commons CC-BY-SA
Terms of Use: http://ocw.uci.edu/info.
More courses at http://ocw.uci.edu
Description: We will discuss sciences and societal consequences of air pollution problems such as: photochemical smog, atmospheric particle pollution, indoor pollution, acid rain, and human triggered climate change. Essential concepts of chemistry, physics, meteorology and mathematics will be introduced. The consequences of air pollution will be discussed in historical and international perspectives. The main educational goal is raising critical thinking skills for the students to develop their own opinions future environmental issues.

UC Irvine OpenCourseWare 0:22
Lecture 1. Logistics/Definition of Air Pollution 1:14:20
Lecture 2. Air Composition-Before Human Interferences 1:16:24
Lecture 3. Understanding of Temperature and Pressure 1:16:44
Lecture 4. Steam Engine vs Internal Combustion Engines 1:08:36
Lecture 5. Photochemical Ozone Part I. 1:14:06
Lecture 6. Photochemical Ozone Part II. 1:02:17
Lecture 7. Atmospheric Particles-Regional and Global Scale 59:38
Lecture 8. Dynamic Atmosphere, Part I. 1:12:44
Lecture 9. Review 1:02:58
Lecture 10. Dynamic Atmosphere, Part II. 1:14:24
Lecture 11. Interactions between Sun Light and Atmosphere 1:13:50
Lecture 12. Indoor Air Pollution and Acid Rain 1:13:36
Lecture 13. Ozone Chemistry 1:17:50
Lecture 14. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Part I 1:07:11
Lecture 15. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Part II 1:19:30
Lecture 16. Air Pollution and Global Climate, Part I. 1:16:41
Lecture 17. Air Pollution and Global Climate, Part II. 1:16:27
Lecture 18. Air Pollution and Global Climate, Part III. 1:04:35
Lecture 19. Final Review 1:17:42

On Thin Ice: Climate Change and the Cryosphere (Winter 2014)--Julie Ferguson / UC Irvine

# automatic playing for the 27 videos (click the up-left corner for the list)

source: UCIrvineOCW    上次更新日期：2015年1月26日
Earth System Science 21: On Thin Ice: Climate Change and the Cryosphere (Winter 2014)
View the complete course: http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/ess_21_on_...
License: Creative Commons CC-BY-SA
Terms of Use: http://ocw.uci.edu/info.
More courses at http://ocw.uci.edu
Description: In recent decades we have observed a significant reduction of the cryosphere due to anthropogenic climate change. The observed and predicted changes in the extent and amount of snow and ice will have major impacts on climate, ecosystems and human populations both at a local and global scale. This course will introduce students to the science behind climate change as well as the physical and chemical processes that govern components of the cryosphere, including snow, permafrost, sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. Particular emphasis will be placed on the important role that each component plays in the larger climate system and potential feedbacks. We will also examine some of the social, economic and political impacts that the melting cryosphere will have on countries around the Arctic and also worldwide, such as access to new petroleum reserves, infrastructure damage due to melting permafrost, sea level rise and decreases in freshwater availability.

UC Irvine OpenCourseWare 0:22
Lecture 01. Introduction 46:42
Lecture 02. Tools for Studying Earth System 44:28
Lecture 03. What Controls Earth's Global Temperature? 42:56
Lecture 04. Earth's climates 45:24
Lecture 05. Anthropogenic Climate Change 47:08
Lecture 06. Future Climate Change 47:15
Lecture 07. Snow 49:39
Lecture 08. Outlook for Snow 41:58
Lecture 09. Permafrost 41:19
Lecture 10. Permafrost and the Carbon Cycle 45:37
Lecture 11. Sea Ice, Part I. 46:32
Lecture 12. Sea Ice, Part II. 41:13
Lecture 13. Implications of Summer Sea-ice Free Arctic 44:27
Lecture 14. Formation of Glaciers, Ice Caps and Ice Sheets 43:26
Lecture 15. Glacier Mass Balance 46:07
Lecture 16. Measuring Glacier Mass Balance and Ice Dynamics 44:46
Lecture 17. Glacier Dynamics 48:25
Lecture 18. Surges, Tidewater Glaciers and Ice Shelves 45:11
Lecture 19. Glacial Landscapes 40:10
Lecture 20. Climate Records from Ice Sheets/Mountain Glaciers 45:34
Lecture 21. Ice Age World and Past Impact of Ice on Humans 40:30
Lecture 22. Melting Glaciers: Glacial Outburst Floods 43:29
Lecture 23. Melting Glaciers: Future of Water Supplies 39:34
Lecture 24. Sea Level Change 48:37
Lecture 25. Measuring Sea Level Change 44:34
Lecture 26. Consequences of Sea Level Change 41:06