The Floating City is a rich multiplayer transmedia game within a living world based around Thomas Dolby’s latest musical endeavors. “The Floating City is set against a dystopian vision of the 1940s that might have existed had WWII turned out a lot differently,” says Dolby. A global energy experiment went haywire, the Earth’s magnetic fields […]
Sean Gourley analyzed real-time data from the Iraq war and discovered a precise mathematical model underlying it. Now he’s expanding on that research at Quid, his startup that maps trends in technology. Having unearthed such powerful information, Sean takes time to help kids understand the importance of math, even while he grapples with the eternal […]
[ted id=1167] JD Schramm came by the TED offices this week to discuss posting his important — but very personal — TEDTalk. The TED Blog sat down with him to talk about healing. Because it all starts with talking … If a friend of yours has survived a suicide attempt, it can be hard to […]
Jessica Green wants people to understand the important role microbes play in every facet of our lives: climate change, building ecosystems, human health — even roller derby. This University of Oregon professor (also known by her derby name “Thumper Biscuit”) is using non-traditional tools — like art, animation, and film -– to help people visualize […]
Today at 5pm Eastern, join a live Q&A with Damon Horowitz about our “moral operating system.” He asks: “I am curious to hear what prompts people to moral reflection and reconsideration: When have you realized that you were wrong about what you once thought was right?” Jump in at 5pm, Wednesday, Eastern time: on.ted.com/HorowitzQA >>
While Janet Echelman was at TED in March, she got word that she was being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. (And in fact, Echelman wasn’t the only new Guggenheim winner speaking at TED — her fellow Session 9 speaker Fiorenzo Omenetto also won the award). The award offers her a year of time off to think […]
Rose Shuman designed Question Box to spread the benefits of the Internet in the developing world. At the push of a button, villagers could get answers to any query — from banana plant viruses to HIV/AIDS — in their local language. Now Rose is building software to scale the model and track callers’ question trends […]
On stage at TED2011, Aaron O’Connell talked about building the largest object ever put into a quantum mechanical state, a vibrating piece of metal (called a mechanical resonator) — work he completed in the lab of professors John Martinis and Andrew Cleland, and working closely with Max Hofheinz and many others. Now he’s interested in […]
The Green School is hiring science and physics teachers. To learn more, visit the Green School website. And watch John Hardy’s TEDTalk from TEDGlobal last summer. In the shade of the open-air bamboo warung (the Balinese equivalent of a small cafe), I listened to the buzz of the cicadas rather than the buzz of fluorescent […]
Last week, TED’s curator, Chris Anderson, addressed the 2011 graduating class of architects from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His advice to them? Don’t pursue your passion directly. At least not yet. Instead … pursue the things that will empower you. Pursue knowledge. Be relentlessly curious. Listen, learn. Read the text of Chris’ commencement […]
Onyx Ashanti. Photo: James Duncan Davidson Two more in our continuing series of Q&As with Full Spectrum speakers: The astonishing Onyx Ashanti took the stage with an iPhone strapped to his arm, a brick-size controller in each hand and with a tube extending from his mouth like scuba gear — and proceded to improvise beats […]
Keeping with the spirit of the Full Spectrum Auditions earlier this week, TED photo editor Mike Femia and myself—photographer Duncan Davidson—decided to add something a bit new and different to our photo coverage of the event. The result is a set of speaker portraits that we made in the break between the afternoon rehearsals and […]
Perry Chen used to spend his time working on art and music, but now he helps others realize their creative dreams. His current inspired endeavor is Kickstarter, a platform that helps fund creativity through the power of crowdsourcing funding. Check out the new TED Fellows’ Curated Kickstarter page here! Interactive Fellows Friday Feature! Join the […]
TED’s curator, Chris Anderson, gave a thoughtful interview via Skype to Tim Dick of the Sydney Morning Herald, just posted today, talking about the growing power of web video. From the story: Anderson thinks web video represents a fundamental shift … the potential of which is unimaginable. ”There is something mysterious, magical and incredibly powerful […]
Yesterday, Juliana Machado Ferreira shared this awful news on the TED Fellows blog: On feb 8th 2011 I wrote a post at this blog about Zé Cláudio, a Brazil nut collector in Pará, Brazil, who was fighting the illegal timber industry. The people who Zé Cláudio was denouncing and fighting against are big time criminals, […]
Kevin Carroll was one of 17 presenters at Tuesday evening’s Full Spectrum Auditions in New York. He brought along beatboxer Shamik Dynamic (you can just see Shamik’s head at left in the photo above, or see the gorgeous double portrait below) to help him tell the story of how his life had been saved by […]