On Friday, March 27, just as a surge of new deployments was being announced for Afghanistan, the TED Blog talked with military analyst P.W. Singer. Posted today, his TEDTalk discusses the use of robots in modern combat zones. In this interview, he applies his intensive knowledge of robotics and war to the situations the U.S. […]
From the LA Times’ “Culture Monster” blog, this item by Mark Swed: “Linda Ronstadt hails Gustavo Dudamel in testimony on Capitol Hill”: In a remarkable testimony by Linda Ronstadt to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies Tuesday, the pop singer made an impassioned plea for government support of the arts. And […]
Watch Karen Armstrong make her audacious wish during the TED Prize session at TED2008:
Three weeks ago, while Evan Williams was onstage at TED2009 talking about Twitter, his audience became an army of #TED tweeters, hunched over their mobile devices, simultaneously listening and creating a written narrative of @Ev’s 8 minutes onstage. Chris Anderson and Evan talked about this in their Q&A: the idea that while a speaker is […]
Ethan Zuckerman is liveblogging TED2009, and has a whole new roundup of posts from this afternoon’s first session, “Grow.” Here’s an excerpt from his post on Dickson Despommier, vertical farmer: “What if we built cities around sustainable, vertical agriculture? We’d build sustainable eco-cities, recycling water from urine, making power from solid waste. Despommier argues that […]
Erik Hersman is still going strong, through the longest day of TED2009 liveblogging the details, so that Ethan Zuckerman can accept an award in Denver and we still don’t miss a moment. Most recently, he’s been documenting two of the most momentous talks from the last session, Invent. Here’s a bit of his take on […]
Edge.org’s annual question for 2009 is: “What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?” With thoughtful answers from 151 thinkers and doers, including TED’s Chris Anderson and an array of TEDTalks stars, this is a document to savor as we start the new year. Helen Fisher writes: Hidden Persuaders ’09: […]
Over the weekend, we tweaked the typeface used on TED.com to make our Talk and Speaker pages more readable. It’s a small change, but we hope it makes the experience of watching a TEDTalk and learning about a speaker more pleasant. Thanks to the TED.com members and fans who suggested this improvement! If you notice […]
Via Slashdot, blogger Andrew Keen writes that economic troubles will trigger the decline of the “free” economy, collaboration, and open-source — including communities such as Wikipedia — and even, perhaps, the blogosphere itself. People will be less likely to give away “their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get […]
Outside.in’s Steven Johnson says the Web is like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected and yet functioning as many independent parts. While disaster strikes in one place, elsewhere, life goes on. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:36.) Watch Steven Johnson’s 2003 talk on TED.com, where you […]
Looking at vast political trends through the lens of a single story, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Listen for stories of decision, doubt and resolve, from people of great power and great character. To sum up, she shares a moving memory […]
Pleo the robot dinosaur acts like a living pet — exploring, cuddling, playing, reacting and learning. Inventor Caleb Chung (he’s the mind behind the Furby) talks about Pleo and his wild career in toys at EG07, on the week that Pleo shipped to stores for the first time. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: […]
Casson at the TEDPrize.org blog (get the RSS feed) points us toward this cover story in the May/June Boston Review: “Is It Africa’s Turn?” Reacting to recent economic data from Africa — showing some growth and progress across the continent — economist Edward Miguel writes: “Economic growth rates are at historic highs and democratization appears […]
One Laptop per Child designer Yves Behar (watch his TEDTalk) shares exciting news about the top-to-bottom redesign of the XO laptop — sometimes called the “$100 laptop.” He writes: With the XO (1.0), we pushed the boundaries of what a laptop could be by lowering the cost dramatically, being green (no heavy metals, lowest energy […]
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he’s come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human. (Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 10:16.) Watch Joshua […]
Panthea Lee and Dan Shemie write from Shanghai: So after weeks of plotting, scheming and ceaseless fretting, our Friends of Pangea Day event in Shanghai has gone off without a hitch. For those unfamiliar with the situation, a brief explanation: the Chinese government has launched a serious crackdown on cultural events in the lead-up to […]