Like so many people in the United States, we were shocked by George Zimmerman’s acquittal this weekend in the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, above. And, like so many others, we can’t stop reading about it, to try to understand the complexities of this verdict — wrapped around issues of race, gender, gun ownership and […]
“Let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism. Let us pick up our books and our pens, and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.” These were the words spoken by 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, above, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for […]
There are thousands of faces in the skyscraper windows in this anime-inspired 3D music video. Each face is a webcam capture of a singer — 5,905 of them to be exact, from 101 countries across the globe. Their voices have been blended together into a virtual choir by composer Eric Whitacre for his latest composition, […]
When recording music, it can take days or weeks to get the perfect performances for an album. But when it comes to recording the symphony of nature, the process can take even longer. According to Bernie Krause, a legend in the field of natural soundscapes, it can take 1,000 hours of recording to get just […]
Today’s talk, which posits a fascinating metaphor for sex beyond baseball, comes from a passionate and dedicated sexuality educator. Al Vernacchio teaches his students that it’s not just getting the facts right that counts, but understanding the nuances of human sexuality and its place in society. Inspired by the teaching philosophy that Vernacchio brings to […]
Editor’s note: In today’s talk, Al Vernacchio offers a new metaphor for thinking about sex — ordering a pizza. Outside of his Philadelphia-area classroom, where he works as a sexuality educator for high-school students, Vernacchio also serves as a marriage officiant. With weddings on our minds this summer, we asked him to share his thoughts on […]
Today, July 11, is World Population Day. Established by the Governing Council of the United Nation Development Program in 1989, to commemorate the day global population reached five billion two years earlier, World Population Day strives to raise awareness about the issues created by the growing number of people in the world. Twenty-four years later, […]
Colorblind artist Neil Harbisson is an intrepid “eyeborg” wearer. That’s a device that converts color into audible frequencies, meaning that Harbisson gets to hear a symphony of color, instead of seeing a world only in grayscale. Below, Harbisson’s talk from TEDGlobal 2012 gets the graphic treatment in a beautiful chart that shows precisely which colors sound which musical notes for him. This is […]
[ted id=1482] Nikola Tesla, named by The Oatmeal the “greatest geek who ever lived,” was born on this day in 1856. And on the occasion of his 157th birthday, we’d like to share this great talk about the inventor who held more than 700 patents, including ones for alternating current, the radio, the remote control, the […]
Michael Pritchard is very likely the only person to have stood on the TED stage and uttered the immortal phrase, “Let’s get a bit of that poo in there.” At TEDGlobal 2009 in Oxford, he demonstrated his then-new product, the Lifesaver bottle, which can be used to turn filthy, rabbit-dropping-infested water into sparklingly clean liquid […]
“I make noises for a living, and on a good day it’s music,” says Peter Gabriel in today’s talk. “I work with a lot of musicians from around the world. Often, we don’t have any common language at all. But we sit behind our instruments and suddenly there’s a way to connect and emote.” This […]
Charmian Gooch, co-founder of anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, tracks money to expose deep-rooted global corruption. In yesterday’s talk, Gooch demonstrates that dirty money goes all the way to the top, and more sinister is that these cases of corruption are well-known to leaders and corporate elites. Nobody — banks, big oil, government leaders — is […]
“Like snowflakes, no two pieces of wood can be the same anywhere on earth,” says architect Michael Green in today’s lyrical TED talk, “Why we should build wooden skyscrapers,” in which he lays out his thesis for designing and engineering the world’s tallest buildings from one of its oldest materials. “Mother Nature has fingerprints in […]
In the most recent issue of Scientific American, Pawan Sinha shares the eye-opening experience that shook his worldview. When riding through the streets of New Delhi one night in 2002, Sinha’s cab slowed for a red light by a struggling family sitting on the side of the road. Both of the children, emaciated and barefoot, […]
Gamers, unite! Today, July 8, is officially known as Video Games Day. Whether you lose hours to your Xbox or stay glued to your smart phone to play, today is dedicated to all those games that rile you up and drive you crazy. These days, the most riveting video games use motion sensors, animation and […]
In 2005, Bjorn Lomborg bounced onto the TED stage in Monterey to challenge the assembled audience to think about “the biggest problems in the world.” Author of the book The Skeptical Environmentalist and the director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, Lomborg promptly advised the somewhat startled audience to forget about global warming. If we really want to make an impact on the serious […]