George Monbiot begins today’s talk by recalling a time he was “ecologically bored.” “We evolved in rather more challenging times than these, in the world of horns and tusks and fangs and claws,” explains Monbiot, an investigative journalist who found himself deeply dissatisfied returning to the United Kingdom after years reporting in the tropics. “We […]
A look at what’s been going on in this mysterious web of ours the past few weeks: What…the…is this crazy-looking cocoon? Help the Internet figure it out! [New Scientist] Bruce Schneier‘s call to engineers and technologists to stand up and take back the Internet from the inside. [The Guardian] What can go wrong when secondary […]
Alexa Meade doesn’t paint on canvas. No, as she explains in today’s talk, she paints on something very different — human skin. “If I want to paint your portrait, I’m painting it on you — physically on you. That also means you’re probably going to end up with an ear full of paint because I […]
Cities, traditionally, have not been the healthiest of places. The spread of diseases, sanitation issues, pollution — these things accelerate with large masses of people living in close quarters. But is that the way it needs to be? Could the cities of the future also be places where all people get top-notch healthcare, and where […]
Chrystia Freeland writes about the power of money. As a journalist, she examines how money shapes society, impacts politics and essentially makes the world go ‘round. In today’s talk, given at TEDGlobal 2013, Freeland tackles the growing global plutocracy, looking at how 21st century democratic capitalism is making the rich richer while pulling up the […]
When he set out to create a photo essay on “poverty in America” in 2005, photographer Aaron Huey had no idea what was in store for him. But what started as one story soon consumed his life as he became a committed activist devoted to raising awareness about Native American treaty rights. Just last month, […]
Aerialist Nik Wallenda looks down and sees the 1,500-foot drop to the bottom of the Grand Canyon below him. All that stands between him and a lethal landing is the 2-inch tightrope that he has decided to traverse on camera, the moment being broadcast around the world on live television. If most people were to […]
While the TED Blog chills for the next two weeks, take a break to read some of our favorite pieces from around the Internet over the past seven days: A fascinating, at times hilarious, look at business management practices in high-threat terrorist organizations. [Foreign Affairs] A profile of Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who helped […]
Yes, a marathon is about running 26.2 miles. But as May El-Khalil describes in today’s talk, a marathon can also be about so much more — a chance for people to come together and celebrate the human spirit. El-Khalil is the founder of the Beirut Marathon and, in this talk, she describes how a personal […]
Engineer and health entrepreneur Zubaida Bai is passionate about improving women’s lives. Through her company AYZH, she develops health products — such as the $2 Clean Birth Kit — designed to reduce maternal and infant mortality in underprivileged communities around the world. AYZH is about to launch an Indiegogo funding campaign to produce an impact […]
Planting a vegetable garden beside a road is no longer a fineable action in Los Angeles. In a major victory for TED speaker Ron Finley, otherwise known as the renegade gardener of South Central, the Los Angeles City Council voted 15-0 on Tuesday to allow the planting of vegetable gardens in unused strips of city […]
Here at TED, we are big fans of innovative interfaces — from back in 2006, when Jeff Han demoed the multi-touch screen on the TED stage, to 2010 when Tan Le debuted an interface manipulated by brainwaves, to most recently when Jinha Lee showed us how to reach inside our computer screen. Which is why […]
Total Recall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inception. In today’s talk, MIT neuroscientists Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu admit that their latest study — in which they located a specific memory in a mouse’s brain and designed a system to activate and deactivate it at will — might remind people of these movies. And there […]
We spend about a third of our lives asleep — a figure that may make all that time spent in bed seem like a waste. But according to neuroscientist Russell Foster, it is quite the opposite. In today’s talk, given at TEDGlobal 2013, Foster explores why we sleep, a question which no one has been […]
With more and more regular Joes snapping photos in the street, live tweeting breaking news from the ground, and acting as free sources of political, economic and cultural analysis, not everyone is confident about the future of professional journalism. But according to TED speaker Paul Lewis, who shared two dramatic examples of citizen journalism at […]
“I was disappointed in my profession,” says architect Shigeru Ban in today’s talk, which he gave at TEDxTokyo in May. As far as he’s concerned, architecture has lost its way. “We are working for privileged people, for rich people, for government and developers. They have money and power, and those are invisible, so they hire […]