Archives > Monthly

November 2009

The best of times, the worst of times

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Historically, American happiness nose-dives in tandem with economic downturns. But despite the recession, current indicators paradoxically show that Americans are, right now, quite happy indeed. Although happiness spiked downward with last fall’s market drop, by this summer, it was at an all-time high. Americans are more optimistic about their health, well-being, and finances than a []

Transition to a world without oil: Rob Hopkins on TED.com

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Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, []

Science

LHC back in action

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Tonight scientists at CERN are rebooting the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in an attempt to recreate conditions fractions of a second after the Big Bang by crashing opposing proton beams, traveling at nearly the speed of light, into one another. Shortly after the LHC’s debut last September, a manufacturing glitch in wiring led to a []

Language

Meet Anwar Dafa-Alla, TED volunteer translator

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In the next weeks, the TED Blog will shine the spotlight on the fantastic TED volunteer translators — offering a glimpse of the people whose efforts continue to enrich the Open Translation Project. Today, we’d like you to meet Anwar Dafa-Alla. Tell us about yourself. My full name is Anwar Fatihelrahman Ahmed Dafa-Alla. I was []

TEDxNASA and TEDxAmsterdam stream live tomorrow!

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Tomorrow, Friday November 20th, two of our most exciting TEDx events so far will be streamed live. TEDxNASA was organized by NASA’s Langley Research Center and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA). It’s a full day of talks on science, technology, entertainment and the arts. Speakers include author Mitch Albom, experimental artist Chakaia Booker innovation []

Jim Fallon on CBS' Criminal Minds tonight!

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Via the TEDActive Blog: At last year’s Palm Springs experience, neuroscientist Jim Fallon gave a chilling talk on the biology of psychopathic killers. Tonight he will appear in an episode of the popular CBS series Criminal Minds, playing himself and addressing the potential for genetic tragedy in chronically war-torn areas of the world. The episode, []

TEDTalks: New ways to share!

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Today, we’ve added some great new ways to share TEDTalks you love. Above is our new share bar, to be found just below the player window on every Talk page. It puts all the ways to share TEDTalks in one spot — social media buttons (via AddThis), download options, embed code and an improved way []

TEDxSF streaming live today!

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The exciting TEDxSF event is happening today, and they’ll be providing a free, live webstream of all their talks. The program promises to be interesting, with talks on neuroscience and willpower, the rise of Silicon Valley, fashion design and the new entrepreneurs of film, as well as an appearance by TED Fellow Meklit Hadero and []

Language

Wanted: Translators

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The goal of TED’s Open Translation Project is to bring ideas worth spreading to the wider world by offering TEDTalks with subtitles in as many languages as possible. Still, many of the world’s languages aren’t yet represented in the project, and we want to fill those gaps. Today, we’re putting out a call to translators []

Design

Science-inspired design: Mathieu Lehanneur on TED.com

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Naming science as his chief inspiration, Mathieu Lehanneur shows a selection of his ingenious designs — an interactive noise-neutralizing ball, an antibiotic course in one layered pill, asthma treatment that reminds kids to take it, a living air filter, a living-room fish farm and more. (Recorded at TEDGlobal University 2009, July 2009, Oxford, UK. Duration: []

TEDIndia

The first 5 TEDTalks from TEDIndia

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Here’s the schedule for the first five TEDTalks to be released from TEDIndia. They’re premiering here on TED.com as well as on ted.indiatimes.com — and on mobile phones at http://indiatimes.vuclip.com. Live now: Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense demo — and an amazing announcement. Premiering Thursday, Nov. 19: Devdutt Pattanaik contrasts the mythology of India and the West []

News

Ueli Gegenschatz has died

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After an accident during a BASE jump on Nov. 11, aerialist Ueli Gegenschatz has died in a Swiss hospital. This spring at TED, Gegenschatz spoke movingly of his desire “to come as close as possible to the human dream of being able to fly.” Our thoughts are with his friends and family.