TED Talks Markov Explorer Here is a list of 50 TED talks. Each has its own Markov chain built from the speaker's talk. Select a talk and explore the Markov chain- can you notice any interesting patterns? Any words with a transition probability = 1, such that they only occur together- why could that be? What about common words that appear in the introduction between talks? Do any different patterns occur between longer and shorter talks? Investigate, and you tell me!
Choose a talk! The loathsome lethal mosquito (2m 25s) How to start a movement (3m 09s) Try something new for 30 days (3m 27s) 8 secrets of success (3m 30s) Can you solve the bridge riddle? (3m 34s) Can you solve the locker riddle? (3m 42s) What are those floaty things in your eye? (3m 50s) Can you solve the temple riddle? (4m 03s) What makes muscles grow? (4m 04s) Can you solve the prisoner hat riddle? (4m 19s) What would happen if you didn't sleep? (4m 19s) The unexpected math behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night" (4m 23s) Can you solve the famously difficult green-eyed logic puzzle? (4m 27s) How playing an instrument benefits your brain (4m 29s) Can you solve the prisoner boxes riddle? (4m 32s) What would happen if you didn't drink water? (4m 37s) How the food you eat affects your brain (4m 37s) How Thor got his hammer (4m 39s) A 12-year-old app developer (4m 40s) Can you solve the three gods riddle? (4m 40s) Why do cats act so weird? (4m 42s) How sugar affects the brain (4m 48s) The benefits of a bilingual brain (4m 48s) Can you solve the virus riddle? (4m 52s) Can you solve "Einstein's Riddle"? (4m 57s) 3 things I learned while my plane crashed (5m 02s) Why don't perpetual motion machines ever work? (5m 10s) The language of lying (5m 26s) Underwater astonishments (5m 27s) The Infinite Hotel Paradox (5m 46s) How to control someone else's arm with your brain (5m 52s) Grit: The power of passion and perseverance (6m 12s) A glimpse of teenage life in ancient Rome (6m 15s) A robot that flies like a bird (6m 19s) The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed (6m 40s) A Saudi, an Indian and an Iranian walk into a Qatari bar ... (7m 11s) Hidden miracles of the natural world (7m 24s) The agony of trying to unsubscribe (7m 40s) Every kid needs a champion (7m 48s) 5 ways to listen better (7m 50s) Four sisters in Ancient Rome (8m 23s) The next outbreak? We're not ready (8m 32s) Meet the SixthSense interaction (8m 42s) The art of misdirection (8m 47s) A simple way to break a bad habit (9m 24s) All it takes is 10 mindful minutes (9m 24s) Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model. (9m 37s) Beats that defy boxes (9m 43s) This is what happens when you reply to spam email (9m 48s) How to speak so that people want to listen (9m 58s) 235 unique words,
416 transitions
Talk Transcript what's the worst bug on the planet you might vote for the horsefly or perhaps the wasp but for many people the worst offender is by far the mosquito the buzzing the biting the itching the mosquito is one of the most commonly detested pests in the world in alaska swarms of mosquitos can get so thick that they actually asphyxiate caribou and mosquito-borne diseases kill millions of people every year the scourge that is the mosquito isn't new mosquitoes have been around for over a hundred million years and over that time have coevolved with all sorts of species including our own there are actually thousands of species of mosquitos in the world but they all share one insidious quality they suck blood and they're really really good at sucking blood here's how they do it after landing a mosquito will slather some saliva onto the victim's skin which works like an antiseptic numbing the spot so we don't notice their attack this is what causes the itchy red bumps by the way then the bug will use its serrated mandibles to carve a little hole in your skin allowing it to probe around with its proboscis searching for a blood vessel when it hits one the lucky parasite can suck two to three times its weight in blood turns out we don't really like that too much in fact humans hate mosquitos so much that we spend billions of dollars worldwide to keep them away from us from citronella candles to bug sprays to heavy-duty agricultural pesticides but it's not just that mosquitos are annoying they're also deadly mosquitos can transmit everything from malaria to yellow fever to west nile virus to dengue over a million people worldwide die every year from mosquito-borne diseases and that's just people horses dogs cats they can all get diseases from mosquitoes too so if these bugs are so dastardly why don't we just get rid of them we are humans after all and we're pretty good at getting rid of species well it's not quite so simple getting rid of the mosquito removes a food source for lots of organisms like frogs and fish and birds without them plants would lose a pollinator but some scientists say that mosquitos aren't actually all that important if we got rid of them they argue another species would simply take their place and we'd probably have far fewer deaths from malaria the problem is that nobody knows what would happen if we killed off all the mosquitos something better might take their spot or perhaps something even worse the question is are we willing to take that risk