In this engaging talk from the EG’08 conference, New York Times tech columnist David Pogue rounds up some handy cell phone tools and services that can boost your productivity and lower your bills (and your blood pressure). (Recorded at the EG’08 conference, December 2008, in Monterey, California. Duration: 27:03.) Watch David Pogue’s talk from EG’08 […]
Jacqueline Novogratz tells a moving story of an encounter in a Nairobi slum with Jane, a former prostitute, whose dreams of escaping poverty, of becoming a doctor and of getting married were fulfilled in an unexpected way. (Recorded at TED U 2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 07:30.) Watch Jacqueline Novogratz’s talk from […]
In January, Suw Charman-Anderson declared March 24 Ada Lovelace Day — a day to celebrate female role models in technology. She asked other bloggers to help her celebrate “a woman in technology whom I admire.” Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) is best known for writing a description of the Analytical Engine, a mechanical general-purpose computer designed by […]
Unveiled at TED2009: In this brief talk, Saul Griffith debuts the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 05:25.) Watch Saul Griffith’s talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download […]
Researcher and activist Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home or office building, can result in measurably cleaner indoor air. (Recorded at TED U 2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 04:04.) Get the slide deck from this talk >> Watch Kamal Meattle’s talk […]
Bruce McCall paints a future that never happened — full of flying cars, polo-playing tanks and the RMS Tyrannic, “The Biggest Thing in All the World.” At Serious Play ’08, he narrates a brisk and funny slideshow of his faux-nostalgic art. (Recorded at Serious Play ’08, May 2008, in Pasadena, California. Duration: 13:01.) Watch Bruce […]
At EG’08, Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. It’s an entertaining adventure through the mind of a creative obsessive. (Recorded at EG’08, December 2008, in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:39.) Watch Adam Savage’s talk from EG’08 on TED.com, where you […]
Applications for Fellowships at this summer’s TEDGlobal 2009 in Oxford are open! TED is excited to build a class of Fellows to participate in the TEDGlobal Conference this summer in Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009. We are looking for an eclectic group of 25 innovators from around the world. Who should apply: Young thinkers and […]
TEDIndia’s Lakshmi Pratury will be interviewing two TED speakers next week in the Bay Area: + March 30, 2009, hear TED2009 speaker Nandan Nilekani, the founder of Infosys and the author of Imagining India, at the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto, 6:30-8pm. Tickets: $15 members, $25 nonmembers. Premium tickets (includes reception, book and priority […]
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it’s OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we’re predictably irrational — and can be influenced in ways we can’t grasp. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 16:23.) Watch […]
Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn’t expect, as he shares evolution’s counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are funny). (Recorded at TED U 2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 07:45.) Watch Dan […]
20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he’s building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: Unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009 in Long Beach, California. […]
A pioneer in research on play, Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults — and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age. (Recorded at Serious Play in May 2008, in Pasadena, California. Duration: 26:42.) Watch […]
For those keeping score, Aimee Mullins’ funny and astonishing TEDTalk this morning marks our 400th TEDTalk. I asked followers of the TEDtalks Twitter stream to name some sleeper hits from the archives — talks they didn’t think they would like but did. Here are a few replies — which may send you looking for your […]
Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs — she’s got a dozen amazing pairs — and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height … Disabled? No, the opposite. She redefines what the human body will become. (Recorded at TED U, February 2009 in Long Beach, […]
This demo, from Pattie Maes‘ lab at MIT (and spearheaded by her student Pranav Mistry), was the buzz of TED2009. Sixth Sense is a wearable device with a projection screen that paves the way for profound, data-rich interaction with our environment. Imagine Minority Report and then some. (Recorded in February 2009 in Long Beach, California. […]