TEDBlog December, 2009 Archive
23 December 2009
New TED.com feature: The Best of the Web
Just in time for TED’s holiday break, we’re excited to announce a feature we’re launching, today, on TED.com. It’s called Best of the Web, and just like the rest of TED.com, it involves riveting talks by remarkable people. But unlike TEDTalks, these talks don’t come from TED or any of our partner conferences. These talks come from all over the Web. We’ll draw from any source — from lectures at little-known forums to famous speeches that made history — so long as the video is available for free, and so long as the talk meets our most important benchmark: that it’s an Idea Worth Spreading.
Over the next weeks and months, you’ll see the Best of the Web collection grow to include a large variety of great talks on technology, entertainment, design and all the other topics you can find on TED.com. We’ll actively seek out great talks and performances, but we also want your help! We hope you’ll forward us any gem you think we should include in the collection — no matter how obscure or well-known it is. Simply email contact@ted.com with “Best of the Web suggestion” in the subject line, and a link to where the talk can be seen.
You might be wondering why we’re featuring video from outside TED. Here are a few of our reasons:
- To highlight all ideas worth spreading — whatever their source, wherever they emerge.
- To bring exposure to great talks that might not otherwise have found a wide audience.
- To create a more comprehensive network of ideas, linked and tagged in a way that allows cross-referencing.
- To show how big ideas from the past are still relevant today.
- To give our online TED community the chance to participate together in the conversation about these talks.
Every Best of the Web talk will get its own page on TED.com, complete with all the tools that accompany TEDTalks: recommendations for similar or relevant talks, information about the speakers, and ways to quickly share the talk with your social network. Most importantly, each will have its own commenting section, so you can discuss these talks within the TED community.
Note: The Best of the Web talks will not interrupt or diminish the daily flow of TEDTalks.
We hope you’ll explore our (for the moment, tiny) collection of the very Best of the Web. And we hope you’ll bookmark the page and check back soon, as we’ll be adding more. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
The Best of the Web collection (so far):
Steve Jobs: How to live before you die >>
Michael Sandel: What’s the right thing to do? >>
Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all >>
23 December 2009
A message of peace from Pakistan: Asher Hasan on TED.com
One of a dozen Pakistanis who came to TEDIndia despite security hassles entering the country, TED Fellow Asher Hasan shows photos of ordinary Pakistanis that drive home a profound message for citizens of all nations: look beyond disputes, and see the humanity we share. (Recorded at TEDIndia, November 2009, Mysore, India. Duration: 4:29)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/402F
Watch Asher Hasan’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.
22 December 2009
Fusion is energy's future: Steven Cowley on TED.com
Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. He explains why fusion will work — and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy. (Recorded at TEDGlobal, July 2009, Oxford, England. Duration: 9:55)
Watch Steven Cowley’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.
21 December 2009
TED Prize winner announced!
We’re delighted to announce the TED Prize winner for 2010: the chef who’s transforming the way we feed our children …
JAMIE OLIVER
The prize grants him $100,000 — and something much bigger: “a wish to change the world.” He’ll unveil the wish on February 10 at TED2010 and we, the TED community, will make it come true.
Some key achievements:
- 12 television series, seen in 130 countries
- 10 cookbooks, translated into 29 languages, and sold almost 24 million copies in 56 countries
- His School Dinners/Feed Me Better campaign pressured the UK government to invest $1 billion to overhaul school lunches
- Founded the Fifteen Foundation, a social enterprise and chef apprenticeship for 18-24 yr olds. Based in London, it has been replicated through franchising in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne
- A new TV series, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution USA, is to air on ABC in 2010, bringing Jamie’s unique vision to America
At the heart of Oliver’s work is an assault on the obesity epidemic:
The CDC states that one in four Americans are considered obese. It is estimated that 43 percent of Americans, or 103 million people, will be obese by 2018. The cost of this epidemic is anticipated to reach $344 billion per year. It currently accounts for almost 10 percent of the yearly US health care costs, and that rate will rise to 21 percent by 2018. WHO’s latest projections indicate that, globally in 2005, approximately 1.6 billion adults were overweight and projects that by 2015, that figure will rise to 2.3 billion.
From the New York Times:
“… this British celebrity chef has made it his mission in recent years to break people’s dependence on fast food, believing that if they can learn to cook just a handful of dishes, they’ll get hooked on eating healthfully. The joy of a home-cooked meal, rudimentary as it sounds, has been at the core of his career from the start, and as he has matured, it has turned into a platform.”
Just one winner?
Those who’ve followed the TED Prize in recent years will know that in prior years we’ve announced three winners, not one. For 2010, the fifth-year anniversary of the launch of the prize, we’re doing things differently.
When we first created the TED Prize, we envisioned supporting projects that could be completed in 12 months. But our winners have dreamed up wishes more powerful, more wonderful than we ever could have imagined, and we’ve found that we simply don’t want to stop that quickly! Members of the community are getting passionately engaged in these projects, and they’re not shy to tell us that changing the world can take more than a year … To effect real impact, it’s right to stay involved and sustain the effort.
We agree. And that means it would be a mistake to add three brand-new wishes every year. There are already 15 TED Prize projects, and at least half of them still require our engagement. Adding too many more risks dilution of effort.
Therefore, after discussion with various wise souls in the community, we are moving to a new format of ONE new winner every year. At the same time, we’re increasing our capacity to facilitate your amazing efforts on the existing wishes:
- Like the Charter for Compassion, which launched last month, but which can create a ripple effect for years to come
- Like Sylvia Earle‘s campaign for marine protected areas, for which we have exciting news to announce shortly
- Like Jill Tarter‘s plan to make SETI data publicly available so that millions can join the search for extra-terrestial intelligence
- Like Jose Antonio Abreu’s dream to see his visionary El Sistema music program flourish in America via a fellows program
- Like Neil Turok’s Next Einstein project, Cameron Sinclair’s Open Architecture Network, Dave Eggers’ Once Upon A School and E.O. Wilson’s Encyclopedia of Life
There has been exciting progress on all these projects and we can see that there’s much more to come.
It’s incredibly exciting to welcome Jamie Oliver to join our line-up of change catalysts. And exciting, too, to know that our existing winners are going to stay at the heart of the TED community, as we continue working to realize their inspirational visions for a better future.
21 December 2009
The Abreu Fellows finish their first semester
At TED2009, Maestro Jose Abreu revealed his TED Prize wish, asking that a special program be created to train gifted young musicians so that they could recreate the highly successful El Sistema program around the world. Those young musicians, the Abreu Fellows, have just finished the first semester of their program at New England Conservatory, and are preparing for the second when they will spend two months at the original El Sistema in Venezuela. This amazing video conveys their journey so far, and the Q&A that follows was completed as an exclusive bonus for the TED Blog at the end of their semester.
How has this semester affected you? Has it changed or solidified any of your ideas, thoughts, plans and why?
Rebecca Levi: This semester has made my nebulous definition of a movement concrete: We are the movement! The relationships that the ten of us are forming will strengthen the web that El Sistema USA needs to thrive. In addition, I have been thrilled to indulge in some of the “deep thinking” I did during my literature degree — we’ve been searching for themes, making connections, seeing patterns, and it’s all for a cause that we deeply believe in!
Stanford Thompson: The semester has been full of hope and possibilities for the future of the music education in the United States and beyond. The fellowship has solidified my passion for bringing music education to children (especially those in need), helped to focus my thoughts about what an ideal music program could look like, and directed those thoughts into theories of action that I am working to implement in Reading and Philadelphia, PA, Atlanta, GA and Meru, Kenya.
Who has been your favorite professor/ guest lecturer over the semester? Why?
Jonathan Govias: We had a fantastic session with Elizabeth Baback of the Crittenton Women’s Union. She’s an amazing model of someone who’s both passionate and extremely well informed — rare qualities in combination.
David Malek: This is an impossible question to answer considering all the amazing people that have been put before us. That being said, one of my favorite presenters has been Larry Scripp. Larry addressed the issue of musical literacy, but within the larger context of redefining the role of the artist from that of a performer or teacher to that of a citizen/artist/teacher/scholar — it is really a complete paradigm shift.
What’s something specific that you’ve learned from another Fellow? Tell me what you learned, who you learned it from and the story of how you learned it.
Dantes Rameau: I learned from Stan (and his parents) the importance of having a family or people that support you when you’re growing up. I went to Atlanta with Stan to look into starting El Sistema there and got to spend some time with his family. They reminded me a lot of my parents. On Stan’s family’s basement walls, which are plastered with photos of the great jazz musicians, his father hung these wise words on a piece of paper: “Those that enter here are slated for greatness. You are in the company of the best musicians alive.” So I learned from Stan, by way of his parents, that it’s important that growing up, every kid hears things like that as much as possible. As a nucleo leader I will tell them this and the music we play will show them.
Lorrie Heagy: It’s no secret among the fellows that I am very new to Facebook. They laugh that I can create webpages, iMovies and detailed blogs, but don’t know how to add photo albums to my Facebook! Needless to say, I haven’t done much in the way of updating my Facebook page because of it. Imagine my surprise when I click on my page and find movies, photos and links related to the Abreu Fellowship added weekly, sometimes daily! How’d this happen? Dante, who has been responsible for most of the additions, had to sit me down and explain the art of “tagging.” Thank you, Dante and the other Abreu Fellows for making me look so Facebook savvy!
What do you plan to do during your break?
Katie Wyatt: I will be home in North Carolina, touching base with my board, and drinking many cups of coffee with teachers, community leaders, and supporters of KidZNotes — the El Sistema nucleo I will manage in Durham, NC. In January, I will join New England Conservatory student musicians in a string quartet presentation at the Panama City Jazz Festival, where I will give a masterclass for music students on the potential to pursue their passion through careers in music and social change.
Alvaro Rodas: I want to continue my exploration of the Corona neighborhood in Queens, New York. I became interested in this neighborhood and hope to start a couple of stand-alone choral projects. First, I want to establish a strong link with the community — leaders, parents, teachers and authorities — and have them own this initiative. I hope to organize at least one meeting with people in the community where I can talk about El Sistema in general, and El Sistema USA in particular, to measure the interest of those leaders in moving ahead with projects in the near future. At the same time, I want to use these break to engage potential allies and supporters among my network of friends and colleagues in the city.
What are you most looking forward to about your time in Venezuela? What are you hoping to experience while there?
Christine Witkowski: First, I am most excited to see how the nucleos in Venezuela function within their communities at large. How does a music school actually become the center for the community? How have they gotten so many people engaged and excited about el sistema? Second, I am SO excited to play horn with the kids in the nucleos! Music will have to be the primary form of communication for me, and I know I will learn the most about these programs and people by playing with them. Sharing music is so meaningful and sincere. And we’re brass players, so we will have a lot of fun!
Jonathan Govias: I’m very eager to witness first-hand the social change wrought by music there — this is the heart of everything we do, and much like music, I imagine it will be expressed most profoundly in ways other than words or numbers.
Dan Berkowitz: Our Venezuela trip provides an opportunity to be totally immersed in the nucleus of this movement. Two months of exploration and study will enhance each of our visions on every level.
What’s one thing you hope to accomplish by spreading the El Sistema program? What impact do you see it having on young lives and/ or communities in the US?
Katie Wyatt: I hope to change the minds of young people. I hope that after being members of an El Sistema community, they will make different decisions, better decisions, about the way they treat each other, the way interact in their communities, and the future they feel they deserve. I hope they will develop empathy for those they are touched by and those they reach through their music, and thus join a global community of tolerance and understanding.
Stanford Thompson: I want to get communities fired up about life and possibilities by spreading the El Sistema program. If music can change a person on an individual basis, I know that music can change a community. If music can change a community, I know it can change a city. If music can change a city, I know it can change a state… and you know the rest.
Christine Witkowski: In Dr. Abreu’s words, I hope to facilitate a great “affluence of spirit” in disadvantaged youth through music. The music school becomes the center for the child’s support network — it is here that the student, family, friend and teacher congregate. From this support network, a child-centered community is cultivated, creating a safe and supportive space where music nurtures the whole child. The self-esteem, creativity, responsibility, cooperative learning skills and self-expression acquired gives each child the ability to contribute fully and gracefully within the life of her community now and in the future.
21 December 2009
A new way to fight corruption: Shaffi Mather on TED.com
Shaffi Mather explains why he left his first career to become a social entrepreneur, providing life-saving transportation with his company 1298 for Ambulance. Now, he has a new idea and plans to begin a company to fight the booming business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time. (Recorded at TEDIndia, November 2009, Mysore, India. Duration: 10:41)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/355I
Watch Shaffi Mather’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.
19 December 2009
10 TEDTalks to download for the holidays
Winter is sweeping into the Northern Hemisphere! For many, this will be a season for storytelling and ritual, for reconnecting with family, for taking time off work, for just staying indoors and keeping warm … and for getting stranded at airports.
Whatever your winter tradition, TED wants to wish you a heartfelt “Happy Holidays!” with this list of 10 great TEDTalks to warm your hearth — and to keep at-the-ready on your laptop or iPhone for those times when the only other options are mass-market paperbacks.
- Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy >>
- Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. west — the myths that mystify >>
- Evelyn Glennie: Learn how to listen >>
- Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors >>
- Magnus Larsson: Turning sand dunes into architecture >>
- Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see >>
- Robert Thurman: Expanding your circle of compassion >>
- James Forbes: Compassion at the dinner table >>
- Daniel Pink: The surprising science of motivation >>
- Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off >>
18 December 2009
Meet Zoltan Bencz, TED volunteer translator
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 Zoltan Bencz.
Tell us about yourself.
“Philosophy. A domain that has nothing to do with practical life, has nothing to do with business …”
As business coach, I have found that the above statement is false. Philosophy does have true value for business. Philosophical principles may even precede dreams and vision. Philosophy is an opportunity to enter new terrains, to enter blue oceans, to find breakthroughs, to do good work. I am not saying that management 1.0 tools are not sufficient most of the time — but, as Edward de Bono says, they are EBNE, Excellent but Not Enough.
I’m doing a survey on the above point, and would be pleased to talk to you about it — about exploring the use of philosophy in business. If you feel like taking part in this study, please contact me.
Some personal points: before the current chapter of my life as business coach, I did business development of an international pharmaceutical brand. Earlier I worked for a Hungarian software and chemistry company, which remains a benchmark for me in terms of vision, professionalism and success.
My passion is sailing in the heart of Europe, on Lake Balaton, with my family, every summer. Since this passion is shared with my colleagues, we decided to make Lake Balaton a venue for a TEDxBalaton event in June 2010.
What drew you to TED?
In January 2009 I was looking for approaches that are “outside the box,” related to intuition and creativity, which are ingredients of business success. Then, by mere chance, I saw the TED presentation of Elizabeth Gilbert. “Wow!” I said. “This is exceptional in terms of content and style.” Then I started to look for other presentations. This was the entry-point to the slope where there is no way to stop sliding … upwards.
Besides translating, my colleagues and I decided to organize TEDx events.
Luckily, we were not the only ones attracted by the spirit of TED in Hungary. Another team, who are organizing the TEDxDanubia event, were open to collaboration and we decided to work together. From now on, there will be two related events in Hungary every year devoted to the TED spirit, with a spotlight on Hungarian men and women, whereever they live on the globe.
Why do you translate?
The reason I started to translate for TED was a very natural consequence to keep balance between the abundance of incoming mental benefits with that of the desire to share them. So I wrote a “Dear TED” letter, and asked whether I could contribute. Translating is a simple, yet very effective way of contribution. Try it and you will feel the reward!
18 December 2009
Metaphorically speaking: James Geary on TED.com
Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, Geary says metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009, Oxford, UK. Duration: 9:30)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/364Z
Watch James Geary’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.
17 December 2009
Discovering dragonflies that cross oceans: Charles Anderson on TED.com
While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the globe skimmer, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world. (Recorded at TEDIndia, November 2009, Mysore, India. Duration: 16:39)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/355Z
Watch Charles Anderson’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.
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