It’s a classic problem in theology: How can the existence of evil be reconciled with a God who is supposed to be all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful? Reverend Tom Honey attempts to answer this question in the wake of the tsunami. NEW: Read the transcript >>
Last week, the list of potential successors to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan – he will step down at the end of his second five-year term, on December 31st – seemed to have narrowed down to two names: South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and the current Undersecretary-General Shashi Tharoor, from India – a TEDster: he […]
Helen Fisher is an anthropologist with Rutgers University, specializing in gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. Her most recent book is Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. In this wide-ranging talk, she outlines the bio-chemical foundations of love (and lust), and discusses the natural talents of women, and their […]
Nicholas Negroponte is former Director of the MIT Media Lab, and founder of the non-profit, One Laptop Per Child, dedicated to making the famed “$100 laptop” a reality. In this talk, he outlines some of the challenges of getting the laptop produced, and explains why he stepped down as Media Lab director to focus on […]
At TED2006, former MIT Media Lab Director Nicholas Negroponte outlined the challenges of producing the $100 laptop, which will be designed for — and only available to — children in the developing world. The key, he suggested, is scale. The economics will work when countries begin ordering them by the millions. Well, according to the […]
It’s a great month for TED music in New York. It seems all our favorites will be coming through… Starting this Saturday June 10 with multi-faceted singer-songwriter Stew (TED2006), who’ll perform at Joe’s Pub. We’re hoping for a preview of his new musical, Passing Strange, which premieres next season at the Berkeley Rep and NY’s […]
TEDsters spotted at the An Inconvenient Truth Screening: (from left to right Truth Producer Lawrence Bender, V.C. Vinod Kholsa, now investing in alternative energy, and the lovely Gwen Campbell; TED Curator Chris Anderson; TEDPrize 2006 winner Cameron Sinclair; former American India Foundation exec Lakshmi Pratury, who is starting a new conference about the best of […]
“One of the tragic aspects of human-right abuses is that they’re too easily forgotten or denied; but it appears that if there are cameras around, they tend to happen less.” —Peter Gabriel [Session write up | Photo] “If newts can regenerate a lost limb, why can’t we?” —Dr. Alan Russell explaining advances in regenerative medicine. […]
An interesting combination of factors is driving an astonishing construction boom in Dubai, including:– $70 oil– a ruler with extraordinary (or extraordinarily insane) vision– geographical serendipity (shipping routes to China, India)– avaialbility (and exploitability) of cheap labour from AsiaResult: palm-tree islands like this one being constructed at massive scale, not to mention what is planned […]
To continue on the movie-themed posts, I have always been enthralled by the powerful impact of sound and music in film. While a student at Stanford I took a great class entitled "The Physics of Music" which would have more appropriately been entitled "Really Cool Field Trips in Music." We visited Dolby Labs, Meyer Sound, […]
Some of the most memorable moments at any given TED come from the hand-picked performers, who often make us feel we’ve unearthed a rare gem. We had that rush of discovery all over again when we learned three powerful chanteuses of TEDs past will appear next week at New York’s Joe’s Pub. On Monday, Susheela […]
Our trio of cross-country TED salons wrapped up this week with a screening at the gorgeous vintage Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood. TED has always celebrated creativity, innovation, and the passionate pursuit of a vision that others might have written of as … crazy. So when we heard that three teenagers in Mississippi had re-created […]
Boy, what a magical night. Here’s Thomas Dolby’s review…—————–Joe’s Pub was the perfect venue to meet TED friends and enjoy three excellent bands. It’s been a while since I enjoyed an evening of music so much. Joe’s booker Bill Bragin is known as one of New York’s greatest champions of new talent, and it was […]
Big discovery for me this year is that the key enabling digital technology in the developing world is probably NOT the computer, but the cell-phone.– TEDster Tom Standage wrote a brilliant cover story in The Economist to this effect.– Iqbal Quadir‘s talk at TEDGLOBAL offered further powerful evidence via the astonishing story of Grameen Phone– […]
It’s difficult to resist making a pun around the name Larry Brilliant. Board-certified in preventive medicine and public health, Larry lived in India for 10 years — first at a Himalayan monastery, and later as a diplomat working for the UN. He helped lead the successful WHO smallpox-eradication program and later founded the Seva Foundation, […]
Apparently Katrina was God’s punishment on a sinful New Orleans. I guess that would explain all those tsunami deaths among those sinful people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India too…