TED and Reddit are teaming up to give you the opportunity to ask creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson absolutely anything! Sir Ken, whose 2006 talk on rethinking education remains one of the most-watched in the TEDTalks series, has agreed to answer the TED and Reddit communities’ questions on any topic. If you have a burning […]
Emmanuel Jal at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 8: July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson Emmanuel Jal, a tall, dreadlocked young man takes the stage and introduces himself as a rapper. It’s unusual to have a rapper at TED, but as Jal tells his story it’s obvious that he’s not your […]
William Kamkwamba at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 7: July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson William Kamkwamba took the stage this morning to tell the story of his young and remarkable life. He explains that two years ago he stood on the TED stage in Arusha, Tanzania and spoke about a […]
Unedited running notes from TEDGlobal 2009. Rebecca Saxe talked about “the problem of other minds.” One of the most complicated things the mind does is try to comprehend what other people are thinking. But the problem she researches is not what you might think — not “why is it so hard to know other minds?” […]
Josh Silver shared his ambition to supply the billion people worldwide in need of glasses with his innovative, low-cost adjustable lenses by 2020. On stage, Silver demonstrated the effectiveness of his glasses and also provided insight into the economic and educational repercussions on impoverished populations that result from the dearth of vision correction options. The […]
Josh Silver makes affordable, adjustable eyeglasses with a dream to solve the vision problems of the world. He begins by asking the audience to raise their hands if they wear glasses or contact lenses, or if they’ve had laser refractive surgery. “It’s too many of you to count,” he says, “but the general statistic is […]
As of today, TEDTalks have been translated over 1,000 times, with more than twice that many translations in progress. The TED Open Translation Project has seen great success since its launch in May, recruiting almost 1,500 new volunteer translators and constantly adding new languages. Thanks to the efforts of translators around the world, TEDTalks can […]
This week featured strong talks and we’ve found some equally strong comments to go with them. From touching reactions on Sophal Ear’s escape with his family from the Khmer Rouge to amazement at Kary Mullis’ strikingly deft cure for killer infections and appreciation for Eames Demetrios’ sentimental portrait of his legendary designer grandparents. Here they […]
Today, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School and the man behind today’s TEDTalk, agreed to answer any question that our TED Facebook fans proposed. Here are his answers, accompanied by a personal note: I thank you all for your excellent and thought-provoking questions. Since Tinkering School is itself being tinkered with, it is always […]
Image source: Laptop.org (OLPC) An article in MIT’s Technology Review reports on a surprising new use for One Laptop Per Child’s user interface, Sugar. From the article: The open-source education software developed for the “$100 laptop” can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to run aging PCs and Macs with a new interface […]
Today, eminent psychologist and TEDTalks star Philip Zimbardo (see his talks on evil and the paradox of time) agreed to answer TED’s Facebook fans’ questions on Absolutely Anything — and he did! Read on: Does time orientation influence which children become bullies? — Kathy Hermanv Interesting question, but there’s no research on this relationship. Bullies […]
Last week, we posted Jonathan Drori’s fascinating short talk about the Millennium Seed Bank — a massive effort to preserve the world’s threatened plant life within a global network of seed archives. It’s a big topic to cover in 3 minutes, so the TED Blog asked Drori if he had time to answer a few […]
Today’s TEDTalk is unusual. It wasn’t recorded at a conference, but at a public event. And it features America’s first lady, Michelle Obama, who’s never been to a TED conference. What happened here? Well, first of all, TED is strictly nonpartisan. In fact, we tend to stay away from politics altogether. But our mission is […]
We here at TED are thrilled to announce this news! NEW YORK, May 13, 2009 — The acclaimed 18-minute talks available free on the TED website will now be accessible beyond the English-speaking world, through the TED Open Translation Project (www.ted.com/translation), which launches today, generously sponsored by Nokia. A year in the making, the project […]
Three months ago, the visionary Venezuelan musician Dr. José Antonio Abreu made his TED Prize wish — to create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries. Today we […]
In his TEDTalk, blogger and statistics whiz Nate Silver explained how race may have affected the 2008 election. In this interview with the TEDBlog he further explores the relationships between urban spaces, race and President Obama. Here’s an excerpt: I see Obama as being our first urban president in a long time. His racial heritage […]