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Post-TEDGlobal: Roundups and reminiscences UPDATED

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However you experienced TEDGlobal 2009 — live, on the web feed, or via Twitter and the TED Blog updates — this week is about reviewing, reliving and moving forward. As Arturo Ania tweeted earlier today:

First thought this morning: How can I inject my team with the inspiration and energy from #TED in Oxford?

We’re collecting roundups and reminiscences right here. Check out the posts below, and comment below or email the TED Blog if you’d like to add your work to the list.

Jessica Griggs blogged TEDGlobal for the New Scientist:

So four days of TED — what have I learnt? What a card flourisher is, that Stephen Fry thinks it’s absurd when people ask where he watched the moon landing (either on his TV set or from the lunar lander, surely?), that even TED speakers like to drop a bit of dubious life-affirming psychology into their talks, and that the best theremin player lives in Oxford (Lydia Kavina, granddaughter of the instrument’s inventor. …

Carole Cadwalladr reports for the Observer:

It’s true, it’s addictive learning new things at TED. There’s Garik Israelian, a spectroscopist who explains why he believes that we will find signs of extraterrestrial life within 10 years. Then there’s Rebecca Saxe’s remarkable talk on the RPTJ region of the brain which, if targeted with a magnetic pulse, can actually change people’s moral judgments.

“Don’t you have the Pentagon calling?” Anderson asks her.

“I do,” she replies. “I just don’t take their calls.” …

The astonishing Maria Popova tweeted, blogged and photographed from the audience. (I sat next to her for one session and just watched the flow — wow.) Check out her gavel-to-gavel coverage on her blog, brainpickings.org, and her Twitter feed, @brainpicker:

In a surprising impromptu performance, crowd favorite Emmanuel Jal kicked up the afterparty with an electrifying act that transformed TEDsters into a mosh pit of dancers doing Jal’s signature dance in sync and singing his chorus for a phenomenal collective experience. …

Sound engineer (and TED U professor) Julian Treasure blogged all 4 days on his site, Sound Business:

Session 8 – In the Shadows A dark and scary session. Taryn Simon showed her superb but unsettling photographs of forbidden or hidden places and of wrongly-convicted people; Misha Glenny gave a tour (de force) of his amazing McMafia book, scaring the pants off me (organised crime is 18% of global GDP!!); Ed Burtynsky showed photographs of man’s effect on land; Loretta Napoleoni suggested that terrorism had indirectly caused the credit crunch (US flooded the market with bonds to fund the $7bn war on terror, so interest rates were artificially reduced to increase yields, leading to the sub-prime market); and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal rapped for peace and had the whole house dancing and in tears at the same time. …

Chikwe Ihekweazu has started the blog Multiple Stories to collect his thoughts about TEDGlobal 2009. The name of his blog is inspired by Chimamanda Adichie’s talk on Thursday night, where she talked about “the vital importance of multiple stories in making sense of our shared humanity”:

Okay..I’ll confess…I struggled with some sessions – Astronomer Garik Israelian’s talk on Wednesday about spectroscopy – the art of examining the spectral signature of a distant object in the universe, and inferring its qualities and behaviours – must have been excellent. But with my simple brain trying to figure out how to solve the apparently simple problems of the continent I call home….it was challenging.

Julie Lasky at Design Observer writes:

… Even better were presentations solicited with a view to the topic that might never have otherwise seen the light of TED: The astronomer Andrea Ghez positing the existence of a black hole at the center of our galaxy — and every other galaxy in the universe. The photographer Taryn Simon presenting images of off-limit facilities — a place where white tigers are bred, the rooms at JFK airport where contraband is stashed — then proceeding even deeper into the heart of darkness with a portrait series of men who were imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. …

And Elaine Morgan recaps her standing-ovation TED appearance for WalesOnline:

The talks were delivered in the Oxford Playhouse, and I kept thinking “This is my last attempt to get anyone to listen. If I can’t put my ideas across to this lively, open-minded young audience, I may as well throw in the sponge and take up flower arranging.”

Comment below or email the TED Blog (subject: “TEDGlobal Roundup”) to add your work to this list — and we’ll add more as we find them.

Photo: TED volunteer Karen Eng (left) watching TEDGlobal 2009 at the Oxford Playhouse. Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson