Technology
TED Weekends: Gaming for life
The old and tired stereotype: a 20-something man sits on the couch in his parent’s basement, his shirt untucked and chin unshaven, as he excitedly pounds the buttons on a video game controller rather than getting a job. The obvious truth: video game enthusiasts are men and women, of all ages, and the grand majority […]
News
Your weekend reading: Our mysterious Internet
A look at what’s been going on in this mysterious web of ours the past few weeks: What…the…is this crazy-looking cocoon? Help the Internet figure it out! [New Scientist] Bruce Schneier‘s call to engineers and technologists to stand up and take back the Internet from the inside. [The Guardian] What can go wrong when secondary […]
News
TED Radio Hour: The Next Greatest Generation?
This week’s TED Radio Hour tries to pinpoint what exactly makes a millennial a millennial. Growing up in a world marked by a new set of challenges and opportunities — the Internet, longer lifespans, an economic crisis — today’s twentysomethings have a vastly different perspective on and approach to life from previous generations. What makes […]
News
X Marks the Spot: A wristband that detects seizures, plus this week’s TEDx Talks
18-year-old Rick Housley is developing a wristband for people with epilepsy that is capable of detecting seizures and alerting a list of contacts. In this talk from TEDxHoboken, he shares the innocuous moment that sparked his interest in this subject — on a stalled train in 2010. Housley was annoyed when his train suddenly jerked […]
Fellows Friday
A TED Fellow confesses to having only $5 to their name …
At the recent TED Fellows Retreat in Whistler, Canada, artist Candy Chang set up an interactive art piece called Confessions that invited the 185 Fellows at the event to share. The installation asked each Fellow to write down a confession on a slip of paper and pin it up on a bulletin board, creating a public wall of admissions […]
News
TED photo challenge: Show us your city’s skyline
Cities are a hot topic at the moment. As more and more of the world’s population gravitates toward living in them, people from all professions are coming together to figure out how to create infrastructures and environments to suit human needs and desires in the 21st century. These are huge issues, and you can be […]
Art
Gallery: Stunning images from Alexa Meade that blur the line between paint and photograph
Alexa Meade doesn’t paint on canvas. No, as she explains in today’s talk, she paints on something very different — human skin. “If I want to paint your portrait, I’m painting it on you — physically on you. That also means you’re probably going to end up with an ear full of paint because I […]
Playlist
8 talks with ideas for healthier cities
Cities, traditionally, have not been the healthiest of places. The spread of diseases, sanitation issues, pollution — these things accelerate with large masses of people living in close quarters. But is that the way it needs to be? Could the cities of the future also be places where all people get top-notch healthcare, and where […]
News
TED News in Brief: Bill Nye joins the cast of “Dancing with the Stars,” Isaac Mizrahi moves on from fashion
Bill Nye the Science Guy (watch his TED-Ed lesson) will be joining the cast of “Dancing with the Stars.” New York Magazine says of Nye’s inclusion in the lineup — alongside Snooki, Valerie Harper and Jack Osbourne — that he is “the big get.” How long do we think it will be before he and […]
Education
Finding Mr. Broderick: How a TED Talk launched my search for the teacher who changed my life
By Miguel Fernandez We all have an origin story, a moment that forever changes our life for the better. Reflecting on those moments in later days, you well up with gratitude, and with a desire to commemorate, to reach out, to reconnect. The idea is as far as most people go, and a quick Facebook […]
Global Issues
How to keep the plutocracy from becoming an aristocracy: A Q&A with Chrystia Freeland
Chrystia Freeland writes about the power of money. As a journalist, she examines how money shapes society, impacts politics and essentially makes the world go ‘round. In today’s talk, given at TEDGlobal 2013, Freeland tackles the growing global plutocracy, looking at how 21st century democratic capitalism is making the rich richer while pulling up the […]
Ideas
Aaron Huey on a new way to honor the Native American treaties
When he set out to create a photo essay on “poverty in America” in 2005, photographer Aaron Huey had no idea what was in store for him. But what started as one story soon consumed his life as he became a committed activist devoted to raising awareness about Native American treaty rights. Just last month, […]