Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of fascinating TED-related news items. Here, some highlights. Jeff Bezos, the co-founder of Amazon (watch his TED Talk), made waves on Monday when it was announced that he will buy The Washington Post for $250 million. “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to […]
This week, during a computer security conference in Las Vegas, researchers Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller demonstrated how easily they could hack into the systems of moving cars using just a laptop computer. Illustrating that modern devices are worryingly vulnerable to hacking, Valasek and Miller showed their ability to jerk seatbelts, turn wheels and influence […]
In our three-dimensional world, all we can experience is length, width and height. Unless one of your friends is a hypercube, it’s hard to imagine just what it would look like to live beyond the 3D. Would you like it? Would you understand it? Would you even believe it was real? In this spunky TED-Ed […]
Editor’s note: In today’s talk, Al Vernacchio offers a new metaphor for thinking about sex — ordering a pizza. Outside of his Philadelphia-area classroom, where he works as a sexuality educator for high-school students, Vernacchio also serves as a marriage officiant. With weddings on our minds this summer, we asked him to share his thoughts on […]
Charmian Gooch, co-founder of anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, tracks money to expose deep-rooted global corruption. In yesterday’s talk, Gooch demonstrates that dirty money goes all the way to the top, and more sinister is that these cases of corruption are well-known to leaders and corporate elites. Nobody — banks, big oil, government leaders — is […]
Ivan Krastev’s TED book asks probing and difficult questions about democracy in societies that do not trust their leaders. For example, while Americans cling to the belief that democray represents the highest form of political organization, they also rate members of Congress amongst the least trusted professions. In his book In Mistrust We Trust, Krastev […]
By Yasheng Huang Earlier this year, economist Yasheng Huang (watch his 2011 TED Talk) sparred with Eric X. Li in the pages of Foreign Affairs on a similar topic to today’s TED Talk. The TED Blog asked Huang to expand on his argument in his ongoing conversation with Li. Imagine confusing the following two statements from […]
This short post collects messages and reflections on Rita Pierson, who passed away Friday in Texas. If Dr. Pierson’s talk or work touched your life, please share in the comments below. So very sorry to have this terrible news. I only met Dr. Pearson on the day of the recording and was deeply impressed as […]
The TED community was deeply saddened to hear that Rita Pierson, whose powerful, funny, heartfelt talk kicked off TED Talks Education just a few months ago, died today in Texas, at age 61. It was truly an honor to help share her message with the world. Hers is truly an idea worth spreading: that every child, rich […]
In the past week, vast protests sparked by a bus-fare increase have rocked Brazil, taking its leaders – and the world – by surprise. TED Fellow and conservation biologist Juliana M Ferreira offers an insider’s perspective on what led to this transformational moment. With all the eyes of the world on Brazil due to the […]
Some staff-picked food for thought from around the interwebs this week: It’s a coder’s world. But a web developer asks, is his high-paid job actually valuable? [Aeon magazine] A Chinese astronaut holds a school lesson from space. [Al Jazeera] A new report on the continuing decline of the humanities in U.S. education systems. [The New […]
The past few weeks have seen some extraordinary TED-relevant news items, both happy and sad. Below are some highlights. This year’s TEDGlobal included a new simulcast event, TEDxVilniusLive, which featured a livestream of the conference, a TEDxYouShare audience session, and a Maker Fair that showed off plenty of innovative local work. Lithuania’s youngest quadcopter constructor, […]
When we talk about corruption, certain types of individuals come to mind, says Charmian Gooch, co-founder of watchdog NGO Global Witness. She gives some familiar examples of the type. There’s the (former) Soviet megalomaniac — such as Saparmurat Niyazov, the all-powerful leader of Turkmenistan, whose indulgences included erecting a 40-foot-high gold-plated statue of himself that […]
Political philosopher Michael Sandel — the second “Michael from Harvard” this session — returns to TED in the last session of TEDGlobal, “All Together Now,” to address the marketization of our culture. These days there’s very little money can’t buy. If you ever wind up in jail in San Diego, CA, and you find your […]
Fifteen months ago, a small device called Raspberry Pi was put on the market. Despite the glut of gleaming, do-everything devices available today, this credit-card sized, £25, Linux-run computer with nothing but a microprocessor, 512MB RAM, some ports and an SD card slot has sold more than 1 mllion pieces since its launch. What’s it […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahr5TVtWt2A&w=560&h=315] Eero Johannes Pitkänen introduces session 11 of TEDGlobal 2013 with a perfect synthesis of visual and sound effects. To a tinny metal drum-beat, colored Tetris blocks bounce up and down and in and out of shapes as each chord of sound has its impact. Describing himself as a “designer/illustrator during the day, musician during […]