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November 2013

A non-cheesy guide to gratefulness: What to read and watch

Culture

A non-cheesy guide to gratefulness: What to read and watch

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Gratefulness isn’t always something that comes easily. Below, some reading and watching to get you into a thankful headspace. Watch: “Want to be happy? Be thankful.” This TED Talk from David Steindl-Rast is the perfect Thanksgiving appetizer. In it, the Benedictine monk and interfaith scholar talks about what, exactly, it means to be grateful and offers a simple process for living []

Everything You Are Looking For: TED Fellows Ryan Holladay and Alicia Eggert have a conversation about their new exhibit

Art

Everything You Are Looking For: TED Fellows Ryan Holladay and Alicia Eggert have a conversation about their new exhibit

on

Alicia Eggert makes kinetic sculptures that investigate the nature of language and time. Meanwhile, Ryan Holladay is a musical artist who creates sound-specific installations and GPS compositions as part of the duo BLUEBRAIN. Just a week before TED2013, Eggert and Holladay made contact for the very first time. See, Holloday is a curator of new media at Artisphere. And he was []

Dhaka in pictures: a city of culture, opportunity and deprivation

Gallery

Dhaka in pictures: a city of culture, opportunity and deprivation

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Nurur Rahman Khan was born and bred in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A practicing architect and university lecturer, Khan alternately marvels at the city’s convivial culture and bemoans its economic and structural deficiencies. He’ll brook no debate over the quality of Dhaka’s food, though: It’s miraculously good. Here’s a taste of Khan’s Dhaka, photographed by Mohammad Tauheed, a []

What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world

Culture

What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world

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The world’s population is getting older. Across the globe, people are living longer thanks to improvements in healthcare, nutrition and technology. This population shift brings with it incredible possibilities, but also a new set of challenges. How do we care for our elderly? In today’s talk, Jared Diamond examines the vast differences in how societies []

Take a flying drone for a walk

Ideas

Take a flying drone for a walk

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“When I started working in this field, the word ‘drone’ wasn’t used at all!” Sergei Lupashin says a little plaintively. “We called them UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, and they were clearly flying robots. Nowadays it’s all a bit more mixed up; you have to take extra steps to convince people that what you’re doing is []

7 TED Talks about memory

Playlist

7 TED Talks about memory

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Experiences we have all had: walking into a room with a tremendous sense of purpose, only to realize that you have completely forgotten what the purpose was. Talking to someone in a restaurant and losing the thread of your conversation because you’re distracted by the juicier one at the table next door. Slowing down as []

A littleBit rock ‘n’ roll: Reggie Watts rocks the newly launched SynthKit, and electronic music goes mini-modular

Music

A littleBit rock ‘n’ roll: Reggie Watts rocks the newly launched SynthKit, and electronic music goes mini-modular

on

Above: Reggie Watts demonstrates the littleBits SynthKit For the last week, the internet has been grooving to the video above of Reggie Watts making some funky noise with the newly launched SynthKit — the latest offering from littleBits electronic building block company, and the product of a three-way partnership between littleBits, Watts and world-renowned synthmasters KORG. The []

Christchurch in pictures: Life after a devastating earthquake

Gallery

Christchurch in pictures: Life after a devastating earthquake

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Christchurch-based Danny Squires is director of Space Craft Systems and co-founder of WikiHouse/NZ, a global  project aiming to make it possible for anyone to design, download and “print” houses. Squires was going about his daily business in Christchurch on February 22, 2011, when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake ripped through the city, causing horrific damage and killing []