Luke Fretwell » Videos

‘God is just what happens when humanity is connected’

Luke Fretwell — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Had dinner with some friends tonight, including Jim Gilliam. When I got home, I re-watched his PdF 2011 “The Internet is My Religion” talk. You should, too.

“Today, we are the creators. We each have our own unique skills and talents to contribute to creating the kingdom of god. We serve god best when we do what we love for the greatest cause we can imagine. What the people in this room do is spiritual. It is profound. We are the leaders of this new religion. We have faith that people connected can create a new world. Each one of use is a creator, but together, we are the Creator.”

Inside North Korea

Luke Fretwell — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:00:31 +0000

Inside North Korea is an excellent National Geographic documentary that highlights Kim Jong-il’s impact on every day lives of North Koreans, the DMZ, how badly its youth are affected by malnultrition and the workings of its prison camps.

The documentary’s premise is based on a Nepali surgeon who is visiting to provide cataract surgery to 1,000 North Koreans. At the end, the praise each patient gives to Kim Jong-il after they realize they can now see is heartbreaking.

Go to the places that scare you in 2012

Luke Fretwell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:00:42 +0000

Came across this excellent hour-long interview Bill Moyers did with Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. The segment is broken into six videos and includes an overview of the Tibetan concept of shenpa, or attachment.

Chodron has written a number of books, including ones I recommend:

Happy New Year!

Part 1:

‘I can’t do everything, but I am one. I can do something, and I will do the one thing I can do.’

Luke Fretwell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:29:27 +0000

Love the anecdote at the end about a four year-old boy born in a Cambodian prison.

I.O.U.S.A.

Luke Fretwell — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:51:42 +0000

I.O.U.S.A. is a must-watch documentary explaining in simple terms the United States government’s financial woes. Seeing the fiscal incompetence of our political leaders will end up depressing or angering you. There’s a great clip of Congressman Ron Paul calling Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to the carpet. The visuals and graphics do an excellent job highlighting the future crisis we face (ex: ‘Thriftville vs. Squanderville’ with Warren Buffet. Every American should see this.

Popping the filter bubble

Luke Fretwell — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:08:52 +0000

Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, Beware online “filter bubbles”, is an overview of his new book, The Filter Bubble. The comments from his KQED interview highlight much of his and others’ concerns about the way companies like Google and Facebook are personalizing our Web activity.

“We really need the Internet to be that thing that we all dreamed of it being. We need it to connect us all together. We need it to introduce us to new ideas and new people and different perspectives, and it’s not going to do that if it leaves us isolated in a Web of one.”

The feeling of security and the reality of security

Luke Fretwell — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:14:51 +0000

Great TED Talk from security expert Bruce Schneier.

“We estimate the probability of something by how easy it is to bring instances of it to mind. So you can imagine how that works. You hear a lot of tiger attacks. There must be a lot of tigers around. You don’t hear about lion attacks. There aren’t a lot of lions around. This works until you invent newspapers, because what newspapers do is repeat, again and again, rare risks. I tell people if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it, because by definition news is something that almost never happens. When something is common, it’s no longer news.”

Smile more

Luke Fretwell — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:03:17 +0000

“Smiling is one of the most basic, biological, uniform expressions of all humans.”

‘Spontaneous compassion’ and how 4th-graders are solving world problems

Luke Fretwell — Fri, 06 May 2011 15:40:05 +0000

Favorite quote from this TED Talk with teacher John Hunter:

“Spontaneous compassion.”

From TED:

John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4′x5′ plywood board — and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches — spontaneous, and always surprising — go further than classroom lectures can.

9/11, healing and the power of forgiving

Luke Fretwell — Thu, 05 May 2011 02:47:40 +0000

If they can, so can we.

From TED:

Phyllis Rodriguez and Aicha el-Wafi have a powerful friendship born of unthinkable loss. Rodriguez’ son was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001; el-Wafi’s son Zacarias Moussaoui was convicted of a role in those attacks and is serving a life sentence. In hoping to find peace, these two moms have come to understand and respect one another.