A heads-up, if you happen to be near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands — ornithologist Kees Moeliker (watch his TED Talk) and friends will be celebrating the annual Dead Duck Day on June 5, at 17:55, on the lawn outside the glass-enclosed wing of Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum. Attendance is free. At this year’s event, Moeliker will […]
A few fun links from this week’s Internet, so you don’t get bogged down with all that summer reading you’re about to do » [Video] A Numberphile video explains a recent breakthrough by a relatively unknown mathematician, on pairs of prime numbers that differ by two. [YouTube] A beautiful meditation on the reality of dreams […]
TEDx and TED Fellows joined forces to bring Morocco its first hackerspace — “Sahara Labs,” a place for people of all ages to play with DIY engineering. The brainchild of TEDxTarfaya organizer El Wali El Alaoui Mohamed El Mostapha. He decided to bring this enterprise to his city because of the lack of education opportunities […]
Spring has been an exciting season for TEDx. In March, the program celebrated its 4th birthday; and now — just two months later — we’re excited to announce that the TEDx YouTube channel has reached its 100 millionth video view. In 2009, the TEDx program was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” to empower individuals, […]
Books can entertain, sucking you like a tornado into incredible new worlds. Books can teach, giving you a richer understanding of time periods, people and ideas you’ve never been exposed to. But books can do so much more. In today’s talk, TED’s own Lisa Bu introduces us to the concept of “comparative reading,” the practice […]
Anita Doron’s first feature film, The Lesser Blessed, is a love story that takes place in a remote community in the Northwest Territories. This moving film is being released theatrically in Canada today, and will arrive in the U.S. on June 13th. As it opens, we asked Doron to tell us about the film, her path from poet […]
Sequencing an extinct genome is no longer a pipe dream, says evolutionary biologist and ancient DNA specialist Hendrik Poinar in today’s talk. It’s a modern reality, and we’re not too far from seeing a revived extinct species walking the Earth again — maybe even a woolly mammoth. In this talk from TEDxDeExtinction, Poinar talks about how […]
On Sunday, May 26, two rockets soared over Beirut, Lebanon, hitting a Shi’ite Muslim area in the southern part of the city. The rockets raised fears that Beirut could become embroiled in the civil war raging in nearby Syria. And yet, these bombs did not stop women throughout the city from lacing up their running […]
Across the globe, anyone can watch TED Talks through TED.com, our YouTube channel, our mobile apps or our iTunes podcasts. (Have you checked out TED Studies on iTunes U?) Most recently, our new SmartTV app showcases TED in beautiful high definition through television set manufacturers like Samsung and telephone IPTV providers like TELUS, letting you […]
In this super cool talk from TEDxTokyo, magician Kohtaro Fujiyama morphs ripped pieces of paper into butterflies, and then lets them take flight, controlling their motion by waving fans. (Fast forward to 1:43 to watch.) This fascinating display is an adaptation of tezuma, a classic form of Edo magic that fuses illusion, story and music. […]
The $1 million TED Prize is a way for a passionate, motivated dreamer to put a world-changing plan into action. With nominations for the prize open through June 16, so many great ideas are circulating around the TED community — and one of them could become the 2014 winner. We want you — yes, you […]
Why is it that, when we talk about sexual violence and domestic abuse, we talk about the women involved and erase the men from the conversation?In his TED talk, violence-prevention educator Jackson Katz explains why sentences like “Mary is a battered woman” are far more common than ones like “John beat Mary.” The takeaway of Katz’s […]
A raspberry has now gone where no raspberry has (presumably) gone before. The photo of the Earth’s curvature above was not taken with an expensive camera aboard a rocket. No, it was taken using a Raspberry Pi — the $25 single-board computer — and a Raspberry Pi camera, a new low-cost peripheral that started shipping […]
A blue whale scientist. A mobile finance entrepreneur. A DIY neuroscientist. A comedian. A sound artist. This year’s class of TED Fellows brings together trailblazers in a wide variety of fields from locations all around the globe. The TED Fellows program is getting ready to choose its new class — so they’re looking for 20 […]
Paola Antonelli is senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But despite her nearly 20-year tenure at the museum, Antonelli remains resolutely disinterested in relying on the known or the obviously popular. She is always keen to challenge preconceptions of design’s role in everyday life, even as […]
Happy Tuesday! Enjoy a bonus binge this week: a playlist about design. “Design giants” contains 13 talks by iconic modern designers. Hear from Philippe Starck, who asks, “Why design?” … Stefan Sagmeister on how design helped him find happiness … Eames Demetrios on his grandparents’ legendary work … and today’s talk, Paola Antonelli, on how […]