TEDBlog July, 2010 Archive
15 July 2010
Listening to global voices: Ethan Zuckerman on TED.com
Sure, the web connects the whole world, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to let the whole wide world share their stories. Listen for some strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the world news in languages you don’t even speak. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 19:45)
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Watch Ethan Zuckerman’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
15 July 2010
Reporting from ED: Impromptu show during power outage
As Session 9 was due to start at 2pm, everyone in their seats — boom: power outage! We had house lights but no stage lights, no sound, no mics, no slides. While the crew from the Oxford Playhouse and PSP found the source of the trouble and started everything back up, host Bruno Giussani curated an a cappella salon. Above, opera singer Genevieve Thiers fills the room, no microphone required, with a glorious “Sound of Music.” (The TED Blog was watching from the far back balcony, getting goosebumps.)
Next up, Maz Jobrani hopped back up onstage with a portable amp to do a short set. Looking around him at the dark stage, he said, “Whoa. For a minute, we didn’t have any technology here. We were just … ED.”
As he wrapped his set (riffing on the brain, baldness and multicultural babies), the lights started popping back on onstage; it was clear the problem was minutes from being solved. To close this session of ED, TED Fellow Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo came up to share one beautiful poem, her mother’s favorite. It was a chill-inducing moment that brought this impromptu mini-session to a close:
Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson
15 July 2010
TEDGlobal snapshot: Laurie Santos' monkey money
TEDGlobal speaker Laurie Santos holds up a monkey token — the first unit of nonhuman currency — in the ancient coin room at the Ashmolean Museum.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED
15 July 2010
Report from TEDGlobal Session 8: Adventures in Fairness
According to Tim Jackson, many of us are caught in a cycle of “spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that don’t last on people we don’t care about.” He’s proposing that we build a new kind of economic system, one that nurtures humanity’s altruistic qualities and the ecological assets of our world.
Founder of Kiva, Jessica Jackley, wants us to help others in a way that validates their ambitions and promotes respect, hope and optimism. She’s launching Profounder so that small businesses can raise money from unaccredited investors (also known as ordinary people). She thinks that believing in each other is what will make tomorrow better than today.
Labor-rights activist Auret Van Heerden didn’t come to depress us about the state of the global supply chain, but wants to know who takes responsibility when human rights are abused? The consumer, the company, the country? He says we can all make the decision to pick up the ball.
Sanjayan Muttulingam was always led to believe that saving nature was a province for the rich. Now he knows it’s really up to the local people to decide what they want for their environment.
Peter Eigen of Transparency International says that corruption lies at the root of many major global issues, and that it leaves world leaders helpless in the face of great disasters. His organization is currently working with 31 different countries to end the cycle.
15 July 2010
Announcing TEDWomen!
From stage at TEDGlobal 2010, Pat Mitchell announces the next TED conference: TEDWomen, this December in Washington DC.
TEDWomen will reveal: Who are the women leading change? What ideas are they championing? And how are they shaping the future?
Over the past several years, our ideas on women have changed. A new lens reveals women and girls as powerful change agents in the area of economic growth, public health, political stability and beyond. The first-ever TEDWomen will bring them into focus.
Read more about TEDWomen here >>
15 July 2010
Report from TEDGlobal Session 7: All Creatures Great and Small
Founder of Barrington Park Estate Farms Adrian Dolby asks “Can organic farming feed the world?” He knows we’re failing to feed it today and thinks organic farming may be an opportunity.
Dutch artist and designer Christien Meindertsma wanted to see how all the parts of a pig are used in our modern industrial society, so she tracked pig number 05049 to see where it ended up and essentially created a product catalog of this little pig. The pig was an ingredient in 185 products, from low-fat butter to train brakes to a heart valve.
Thomas Dolby turns cowboy, playing selections off his new album Amerikana. See our special feature on his amazing band at TEDGlobal here >>
Wildlife biologist Toni Frohoff thinks we could learn a lot from the wisdom and humanity of whales and dolphins. She suggests that these animals are specially wired for intelligence, social complexity and empathy.
Marcel Dicke wants us to eat insects — they’re great sources of protein and better for the environment. And, we’ve been eating them for years anyway in all our processed foods. He also claims they can taste great!
15 July 2010
Thomas Dolby’s band at TEDGlobal
This year at TEDGlobal, Thomas Dolby has assembled his own group of musicians to perform with him on stage:
Matthew Seligman
Bass
In the late ’70s, bassist Matthew Seligman set the groove for British psychedelic guitar-pop group The Soft Boys. Then he rode the crest of the New Wave movement with the Thompson Twins in the early ’80s. He joined Thomas Dolby’s first touring band, and his bass work features on Dolby’s landmark album The Flat Earth. He’s played gigs and recorded with heavy hitters like David Bowie, Morrissey and Sinead O’Conner. Seligman swapped the world of music for law school in the ’90s and became a practicing civil lawyer in London. Not long ago he made his return to music with the temporary reunion of The Soft Boys, and other side projects like his band Snail.
Justin Hildreth
Drums
Justin Hildreth played drums in London Pub Rock band, Roogalator in the late ’70s. He went on to record with Lene Lovich on her second album, Flex. He drummed on Thomas Dolby’s first album, The Golden Age of Wireless, and performed on US, European and world tours with Joan Armatrading, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich, Thomas Dolby, and Thrashing Doves, to name a few. Currently Hildreth is a member of Blue Bishops, a UK rock and blues group. With the help of legends John Leckie and Stuart Epps, the band just released their first album, In the Red.
Kevin Armstrong
Guitar
Kevin Armstrong played guitar on Thomas Dolby’s early albums in the ’80s. He was David Bowie’s musical director at Live Aid and worked on Bowie’s Tin Machine album and tour. He played on Iggy Pop’s Blah Blah Blah album, directing the touring band of ’86 and ’87 as well. He also played guitar for Prefab Sprout, and co-wrote songs and performed with Morrissey. After producing two hit albums for Keziah Jones, in the ’90s Armstrong founded a studio in London concentrating on composition and production for TV and films. He still regularly performs in Europe and the US, including as guitarist for Sinead O’Connor.
Rachelle Garniez
Accordian/Vocals
Mischievous and deeply original, accordionist Rachelle Garniez plays her own witty songs and gives a beautiful swing to the classics. Rachelle Garniez inhabits a skewed musical universe of accordions, ocarinas and women who growl like Tom Waits. Her brilliant playing has landed her gigs with musicians such as Rufus Wainwright and Dan Zanes, and she prowls around the neo-cabaret scene with her band the Fortunate Few. She’s also a musical co-director of the theatrical troupe The Citizens Band. Her latest album with the Fortunate Few is 2008′s The Melusine Years, and she recently recorded a single My House of Peace produced by Jack White and released on vinyl.
Aaron Jonah Lewis
Fiddle
Aaron Jonah Lewis started playing classical violin at a young age. Today he’s a multi-instrumentalist playing traditional and folk styles, especially bluegrass and old time. He’s taken first place in the Bluegrass Fiddle competition at the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention. He also plays banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass. Lewis’ interest in music is not limited to string instruments, however. On his album Sounds of Mount Desert Island, Lewis simply used a microphone to record nature’s rhythmic sounds at 32 different sites on Mount Desert Island, Maine, composing a “portrait-in-sound” of the landscape. Recently he recorded the album Phil’s Patio with Matt Ball.
14 July 2010
Report from TEDGlobal Session 6: Different by Design
Miwa Matreyek travels from waterscape to starscape to cityscape and back again, magically interacting with visually striking animations.
Neil Gershenfeld is trying to re-implement biology with semiconductors, conductors, insulators — to literally grow technology. He says “If a program is a structure, it can become a thing.”
Tan Le shows a next-gen gaming interface: the Emotiv headset, which reads your brainwaves. The headset also has real-world applications like opening and closing blinds, turning on lights — and steering a wheelchair.
Eben Bayer wants to use mushrooms that act a lot like plastics as materials for products. Advantage: they’re made from crop waste, and totally disposable.
Voting system designer David Bismark: Our democracies rely on elections. Unfortunately people will do bad things for power. Voters should be able to check that their vote is counted, without breaking secrecy.
Emily Pilloton shares the story of Bertie County, North Carolina — prime example of the demise of rural America.
Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson
14 July 2010
When ideas have sex: Matt Ridley on TED.com
At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2010, July 2010 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 16:27)
Watch Matt Ridley’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.
14 July 2010
Report from TEDGlobal Session 5: Healthier Together
Inge Missmahl wants to bring psychotherapy into war-torn regions. Example: Afghanistan. The family is central in the Afghan society — but sometimes people cannot share their trauma with their family.
Mitchell Besser: HIV is a medical story, but more a social story. (And meds don’t equal medical care.) 33 million people living with HIV in the world today. He looks for ways to prevent new infections.
Karsu Donmez — a.k.a. the “Dutch Nora Jones” — plays blue melodies.
Arthur Potts Dawson is making the most sustainable supermarket in the world (zero waste) and connecting communities to rural growers.
John Hardy decided to give back locally in Bali, and created the Green School. Classrooms at the Green School have no walls, natural sunlight, bamboo desks. The Green School is going off the grid — getting solar power, compost toilets.
Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson
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