Edward Burtynsky finds the eerie beauty in the man-made landscapes that dot our Earth’s surface. As a photographer who focuses on the relationship between humans and nature, he travels to the hidden corners of the Earth to document the way people are ravaging our planet. Below, 13 of his haunting images of altered nature. All […]
The 2007 TEDPrize winners were announced last night in San Francisco. We’re thrilled to introduce these three iconic individuals: James Nachtwey an award-winning photojournalist, E.O. Wilson a ground-breaking biologist, and Bill Clinton former US president and current humanitarian activist …
Rock star and activist Bono accepts the 2005 TEDPrize with a riveting talk about our moral obligation (and economic incentive) to help lift Africa out of poverty. He unveils his TEDPrize wishes by challenging the TED community to help build a social movement of more than one million American activists for Africa; to tell people […]
Photographer Ed Burtynsky accepts the 2005 TEDPrize, and presents a stunning slideshow of his work, which explores human impact on the natural world in eerily beautiful large-scale landscapes. He also unveils his three wishes: To use his artwork to encourage a worldwide conversation about the planet; to launch a ground-breaking competition that motivates kids to […]
Medical inventor Robert Fischell accepts the 2005 TEDPrize, and unveils his three wishes: To finalize the design on an invention to treat migraine headaches without drugs; to discover new cures for brain disorders; and to create a Brain Trust to rethink our approach to medical liability. (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 27:35) […]
Courtesy of TEDster Bill Bragin, I had the good fortune to attend the premier of Stew’s show Passing Strange at Berkeley Rep earlier this week. Bill is the Director of Joe’s Pub, the influential music venue associated with The Public Theater in New York. Not only is Bill credited with building Joe’s Pub into the […]
Arctic explorer Ben Saunders recounts his harrowing solo journey to the North Pole, complete with gorgeous images, amusing anecdotes and previously unseen video footage from the Pole. At 26, Saunders became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole, updating his blog daily during the trek. He’s now planning the next journey, […]
In this passionate talk, legendary spacecraft designer Burt Rutan lambasts the U.S government-funded space program for stagnating (“Houston, we have a problem.”), and calls for space entrepreneurs to pick up where NASA left off. Rutan won the $10M Ansari X-Prize for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded craft to enter space twice in a 2-week period. […]
After disrupting music distribution with file-sharing system Kazaa, and upsetting telecommunications with Voice-over-IP service Skype, TEDGLOBAL speaker Niklas Zennström and his accomplice Janus Friis have now set their sights on television. Their project is code-named "Venice". Little is known so far, but given their history, it’s likely to be based on peer-to-peer distribution technology. Their […]
Sasa Vucinic, a former editor for Belgrade radio station B92, founded the Prague-based Media Development Loan Fund, which applies venture-capital principles to finance sustainable media companies in nations emerging from repressive regimes. In this quietly persuasive talk, Vucinic explores the power of a free press to reinvigorate struggling democracies, and proposes his vision (since realized) […]
Ashraf Ghani is the former Finance Minister of Afghanistan, and a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. He’s an expert on the economics of developing nations and post-conflict reconstruction. This passionate presentation includes a 10-minute talk, emphasizing the necessity of both economic investment and design ingenuity to rebuild broken […]
British author and TEDGLOBAL speaker Charles Leadbeater has just released a first draft of his upcoming book for anyone to read and comment on. It’s called "We Think: Why mass creativity is the next big thing". I’m generally skeptical of "next big thing-isms", but Charles is an insightful analyst of the socioeconomic evolution. He has […]
Our warmest congratulations go out to Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammed Yunus, honored today with the Nobel Peace Prize. “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,” wrote Nobel Committee director Ole Danbolt Mjoes, recognizing the importance of micro-finance pioneer Grameen Bank. “Microcredit is […]
Fifteen months after disseminating hints at TEDGLOBAL in Oxford, XPrize‘s Peter Diamandis and his posse are getting ready to annouce their plans for the first Rocket Racing League (RRL) races. The RRL is a racing competition akin to Nascar, with cars replaced by rocket-powered aircrafts called X-Racers that will zip around a virtual track in […]
Jacqueline Novogratz is the charismatic founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit that takes a business-like approach to improving the lives of the poor. In this talk, she applauds the world’s heightened interest in Africa, but argues persuasively for a new approach to foreign aid: “The question isn’t ‘how do we fix this?’ The […]
Iqbal Quadir is co-founder of GrameenPhone, an innovative wireless company offering services to poor rural villages in Bangladesh. In this talk, he explains the triple impact of cell phone service in rural areas (connecting the village to the world, creating business opportunities, and generating over time a culture of entrepreneurship.) He also relates his personal […]