In Short: Gotye crowdsources a remix, scientists near a blood test for cancer
Kate Torgovnick May
Musician Gotye posted this video over the weekend, titled “Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra.” It’s a remix of his song “Somebody That I Used To Know” crafted by bringing together the many individuals who’ve posted themselves playing the song. [YouTube] Perhaps Gotye took a note from Erik Whitacre, who gave the amazing TEDTalk “A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong” at TED2011. .
UCLA scientists report that they are a step closer to creating a blood test for cancer. How would it work? Ultra-fast cameras would snap images of the blood sample, looking for CTCs — cells that have broken away from cancerous tumors. The test would allow for early detection of the devastating disease. [Popular Science] And if that has you excited, you will want to check out our playlist “8 diagnostic tests we could have at our disposal in the near future.” [TED Blog] .
In this video “An unruly look at the English language,” writer Mark Forsyth gives a fun take-down of English grammar myths. [Vimeo] Over the weekend, he explained what a “snollygoster” is in the brilliant talk, “A short lesson on political speak.” .
Flutter lets you start and stop music — and videos — on your computer with a simple wave of your hand. It’s one step closer to the “Minority Report” interface that John Underkoffler brought to the TED stage in 2010. [Flutter] .
TED is passionate about sharing ideas with you, no matter what language you speak — thus we are so thankful for our 8,006 translators who volunteer their time to translate TEDTalks into 89 languages. And we were also thrilled to read that Google, Mozilla and Wikimedia brought together 20 native speakers of Yucatec — Mexico’s most widely spoken Mayan tongue — last week for a one day Translathon, part of Google’s Endangered Languages Project. [Engadget] .
According to this website, the new trailer for the video game “Assassin’s Creed III” sounds like a TEDTalk. Thoughts? [Venture Beat]
