With the non-profit Chirag, VK Madhavan tackles development issues in the Himalayas by helping recharge springs, attracting IT business, setting up cooperatives, and more. True to TED’s interdisciplinary nature, this Senior Fellow integrates interests as broad as traditional weather forecasting and mobile phone technology into his perspectives and work. Interactive Fellows Friday Feature! Join the […]
The LA Weekly has exclusive access as JR (our 2011 TED Prize winner) and his crew paste up a new exhibit across Los Angeles this week. Called “The Wrinkles of the City,” the show pastes images of older LA residents across massive streetside canvases. From the LA Weekly: “The Wrinkles of the City” involves 20 […]
On February 16, 2011, TED.com hosted a live webstream of IBM experts and insiders discussing supercomputer Watson’s victory against Jeopardy!‘s top human contestants. Watch this fascinating conversation between host Stephen Baker, author of Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and Watson’s principal investigator Dr. David Ferrucci, IBM Fellow Kerrie Holley and Columbia professor Herbert Chase.
Xavier Alpasa climbed out of poverty to the top ranks of the Philippines’ premier corporation — and then realized he wanted to give it all back. As a seminarian, he helped women sewing scraps in a slum connect with top designers to create high-end fashion pieces. Now a Catholic priest, Father Xavier is working to […]
In her luminous TEDxRainier talk, Lesley Hazleton, a writer and “accidental theologist,” described herself as “a tourist” in the Koran, and shared her discovery of the musicality, ambiguity, and depth of a text known by name to billions, but read intimately by far fewer. We met Lesley by phone and asked her to share more […]
Epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu was in the inaugural TED Fellows class of TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania. Living in the UK at the time, writing articles on public health issues in his native Nigeria, Chikwe was profoundly affected by his TED experience. Now running an influential Nigerian public health blog, an alumni program for his alma mater, […]
They’ve been called the “saints of Somalia.” Doctor Hawa Abdi and her daughter Deqo Mohamed discuss their medical clinic in Somalia, where — in the face of civil war and open oppression of women — they’ve built a hospital, a school and a community of peace.(Recorded at TEDWomen, December 2010, in Washington, DC. Duration: 8:44) […]
Today TED’s Open Translation Project published the 15,000th TEDTalk translation! Last year at TEDActive, TED translators set an ambitious goal to reach 15,000 translations by TEDActive2011. Three weeks ahead of schedule, TED translators surpassed this huge number. Now with subtitles in 80 languages, our volunteer translators are helping TED reach more people worldwide. Thank you, […]
Andriankoto Ratozamanana is reforesting his native Madagascar with endemic species, helping people produce essential oils and other sustainable products. A long-time ex-pat in France blogging about the beauties of his homeland, Andriankoto was so inspired by TEDAfrica 2007 that a month later he packed his bags and moved home. He’s now growing a group of […]
With only one week to deadline, we’re making a final call for submissions to the Ads Worth Spreading challenge — TED’s initiative to find, recognize and reward the most innovative campaigns around. To date, there have been incredibly promising entries, but the search isn’t over yet. Whether you’re a well-heeled creative professional or an indie […]
The Internet may help authoritarian regimes more than it hurts them, argues Evgeny Morozov in his new book, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Born to a mining family in Belarus, Evgeny himself was once a firm believer in the power of new media to liberate oppressed people. His experience and research, […]
In the second part of our conversation with Dr. Deborah Rhodes (read Part One), we talk about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and her partnership with the Panzi Hospital, which serves victims of sexual violence there. She tells the incredibly disturbing story that got her involved, and discusses what can be done […]
Jane McGonigal is a game designer with an apparently simple idea: some of the billions of hours we spend playing games can be used to solve real world problems, and it can be done by playing games. Her new book, Reality Is Broken, explores the power of games to change people’s lives. It’s just out […]
At age 17, Ben Gulak invented an electric motorcycle that was named “Invention of the Year” by Popular Science. He’s now working on a snowmobile-ATV hybrid. Though being a full-time student and running two businesses has meant a lot of sacrifices — including his favorite TV show “Dexter” — Ben says the rewards are well […]
In his TEDTalk (watch now), Charles Limb reviews his groundbreaking work studying creativity and the brain — by putting musicians inside an fMRI and watching as they improvise. For the past decade, he’s been working with jazz piano players, revealing astonishing new data about the way the brain creates art. And his research has recently […]
Jessica Mayberry is the founder of Video Volunteers, which trains rural Indians to use filmmaking to drive social change in their communities. The films have fostered some remarkable improvements in the villages, but according to Jessica, some of the most impressive changes are in the filmmakers themselves. Interactive Fellows Friday Feature! Join the conversation by […]